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Some pictures for you

PostPosted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 2:59 pm
by Marcus Lupinius Paulus
I know...nothing can be as boring as having to sit through someone elses vacation pictures! But I have selected a few that may be of interest to the good people of SVR.


The main Roman camp at Masada. General Silva's HQ was here. Sadly, we could not go into the camp itself.
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Looking down on the Roman seige ramp at Masada. Taken from the breach point where the battering ram broke through!
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Projectiles from the Masada siege. Most likely Jewish rebels ammo.
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Roman theater at Bet Shean. The Trial from Jesus Christ Superstar was filmed here. On the hill in the background Judas {Carl Anderson} hanged himself. The tree is still there. That hill is actually a 'Tel', or a series of about twenty levels of civilization going back to the Bronze Age.
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Detail of theater
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This one is for Draco. Temple of Dionysis, Bet Shean.
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Praetorium, Caesarea Maritima
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The "Pilate Inscription", Caesarea. Pilate apparently dedicated a building in Caesarea. We don't know what it was. This is a facsimile. The original inscription is in a museum.
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Small side chamber in the Praetorium. The sign says it is very possible that this was the place where Paul had his hearing before Porcius Festus. "You have appealed to Caersar. To Caesar shall you go!"
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The Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus was arrested somewhere near here. Possibly on this spot? All trees on the Mt of Olives were cut down during the Roman seige. But olive trees put out shoots and grow again. These trees are likely descendents of the trees from Jesus' day.
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These steps going up the Mt of Olives in Jerusalem were there in the first century. Jesus would have walked here, as would Roman soldiers of the 10th Legion. The 10th legion was camped on the Mt of Olives during the siege of 70. Naturally, I walked up the whole flight!
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 7:51 am
by Quintus Servilius Priscus
Awesome and outstanding photo's!!!! It looks like you had a wonderful time.

PostPosted: Thu Jun 05, 2008 2:21 pm
by Marcus Lupinius Paulus
Thanks Priscus, it was a great time!

Anyone else here have original pics from your travels? Maybe we can have an SVR Ancient Places page with all our own photographs.

Paulus

PostPosted: Thu Jun 05, 2008 7:11 pm
by Cleopatra Aelia
I do have many pics from my trips to Turkey and Rome but due to me not knowing how to handle this thing with webspace I can't upload them but have to dump them all on Marius to put them onto the SVR webspace. I think that would be too much for the poor guy, he's got enough to do with our page.

Photos

PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2008 12:05 am
by Valerius Claudius Iohanes
Salve, Cleopatra Aelia -

We must have your photos! I'm sure you could feed them to Marius or Tiberius Dionysius a few at a time without overloading either of them. I will, of course, defer to them on the particulars.

Heavens - If I can figure my way around better "backstage", perhaps Marius will let me upload them.

Vale.

PostPosted: Sat Jun 14, 2008 12:48 pm
by Tarquinius Dionysius
Why not simply use Photobucket, or some other free hosting service? Or did you mean to put them on SVR directly?

Anyway, wonderful pictures. I've always doubted the authenticity of the Pilate Stone though. I mean, how many inscriptions do we even have from random prefects of Judaea? The Pilate Stone seems like an improbably lucky find... Which is not to say Pontius Pilatus didn't exist of course. Most likely he did. But whenever "evidence" pops up that means to authenticate the Bible, I'm skeptical...

PostPosted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 1:38 am
by Marcus Lupinius Paulus
Thanks for the compliment!

I chose to post a few here so people would not have to go to another site and wade through a bunch of thumbnails.

Regarding the Pilate inscription, I have no reason to doubt it's authenticity. Pilate's existence was never in any serious doubt since Tacitus, Josephus, and Philo all mention him, and the latter two discuss his prefectship in some detail. The inscription itself, as far as the New Testament is concerned, is not very significant. It appears to be nothing more than a dedicatory for a temple to Tiberius.

I would caution against undue skepticism regarding finds that lend support to a biblical account. Such an approach is unhealthy as it suggests presuppositions which are not helpful or necessary. Why should something be deemed questionable just because it confirms something the New Testament says? Or why should we assume that because something is written in a biblical text, it must be treated as likely untrue? Instead of a "hermeneutic of suspicion", we should read the texts, see what the ground yeilds to the archeologists spade, and then see what sense we can make of it all. Archeology can at best give insight into the setting of the stories, but it can say nothing else really. Some New Testament locations are excavated, like Siloam and Bethzatha. Some are uncertain. We have two possible locations for Bethsaida-Julius, and two {perhaps three} for Emmaus. Gethsamane is pretty likely, though the original property boundries for the garden are not known. The site of Jesus birth in the grotto under the Church of the Nativity is not too probable, though not impossible. Nazareth was a real town, despite the sensationalism of certain enthusiastic atheist web sites.
But, the important points of the NT writers are not open to archeological or historical confirmation or denial. Is there a God who has a benevolent love for us, and was Jesus in some sense at least a manifestation of this God? Archeology can not help us affirm or deny such things.

Paulus

PostPosted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 9:01 pm
by Tarquinius Dionysius
All part of my kneejerk atheism I suppose... :)