Conclusive proof of a number of Biblical narratives is seen in the discoveries by the joint expedition of the Xenis Theological Seminary and the American School of Oriental Research at Tel Beit Mirsim, thirteen miles from Hebron, on the site of the ancient Kirjath Sepher. The excavators have dug up a mound which contains ten cities that connect the arrival in Canaan of the patriarch Abraham with the era of Nebuchadnezzar who ravaged Canaan.
Dr. Melvin Grove Kyle, director of the expedition, told press representatives that the ten cities represent but five cultures. Their destruction he attributed to civil wars. He explained that the first city goes back to about 2000 B.C., or earlier, which would bring it into the period of Abraham. Social and political conditions reconstructed by a study of the ruins are said to be similar to those in the days of Lot.
Additional details concerning the discoveries at Tel Beit Mirsim are given in yesterday’s “New York Times,” in an interview with Dr. Kyle, which is quoted below:
“There was only one city in the early bronze age, but in the middle bronze age, about 1900 to 1600 B.C., there were six different cities, one above the other, the first two representing the transition from the early to the middle bronze age, the next four being typically middle bronze. These were definitely distinguished by their pottery.
“The turmoil evidenced by these six burnings in the middle bronze age approximates the turmoil of the Hyksos period in Western Asia. The Hyksos kings seemed against everybody except the Israelites, who were royally favored in Egypt.
“In the later bronze age, 1600 to 1200 B.C., there was a city destroyed by Othneil (Judges XV, 17). At the time of the Israelites and the Canaanite conquests in the early iron age there is evidence of terrific warfare, shown in a great layer of ashes.
“Naturally, the Israelites in coming to Canaan after forty years of nomadic life in the wilderness built a very poor city. This city in turn was destroyed about 900 B.C., undoubtedly by Pharoah Shishaka, who smashed Judah’s defense fortresses, according to the scripture account and according to Shishak’s inscription on the Karnak Temple in Egypt.
CITY RAZED BY NEBUCHADNEZZAR
“The last city on the mound was the city of the Kings of Judah, destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, as is conclusively testified to by the discovery of stamped jar handles which served as tax receipts from King Jehoiakim, who reigned a few years before Nebuchadnezzar’s destruction.
“In modern times, Nebuchadnezzar stands as the symbol of military ruthlessness, although in fact his destruction was less terrible than any of the others of these ten burnings. The Israelites, for example, destroyed the city at the time of the conquest of Canaan so thoroughly that they destroyed all traces of it, but Nebuchadnezzar left walls four or five feet high.”
Dr. Kyle said it was possible in the course of his excavations to establish conclusively the date of the story of Abraham and Lot and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, which never before has been done.
FOUND HOUSE LIKE LOT’S
Dr. Kyle said it was possible to confirm that the Abraham and Lot story was true, because he found a house such as that described in the scriptural narrative of Lot and the angels, with a strong door capable of resisting onslaughts of a mob.
“This disproves the contentions that the story of Lot and the angels was written in King Hezekiah’s period in the city of the Kings of Judah about 700 to 600 B.C. because the sociological and political conditions differ,” he asserted.
“In the last city on the mound there is evidence of adequate police arrangement in the fact that no doors were found, merely arches with curtains or light coverings, whereas in Lot’s time, many heavy doors were uncovered, proving the people took their own defense precautions. It is unlikely that a historian of the time of Hezekiah would appreciate such a subtle distinction in sociological conditions, proving the biblical narration that Lot actually harbored celestial visitors from the fury of an attacking Sodom mob.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
