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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Ancient church found at Meggido - oldest in Holy Land |
| 2005-11-06 |
Israeli officials say they have discovered what may be the oldest Christian Church in the Holy Land - on the site of a maximum security prison. Israel's Antiquities Authority said the church at the Megiddo jail dated back to the third or fourth century AD and was "a once in a lifetime find". It contained a mosaic bearing the name of Jesus Christ in ancient Greek, fish murals and an altar, officials said. The dig took place near the biblical site of Armageddon in northern Israel. "This is a once in a lifetime find and the inscriptions are very rare," excavation supervisor Jotham Tefer told Israel's Channel Two television. "This is a very ancient structure, maybe the oldest in our area," he said. Mr Tefer added that the discovery could help shed new light on an important period of Christianity, which was banned by the Romans until the fourth century. "Normally we have from this period in our region historical evidence from literature, not archaeological evidence," he said. "There is no structure you can compare it to, it is a very unique find." The Vatican's ambassador to Israel, Pietro Sambi, described the find as a "great discovery". Megiddo is Hebrew for Armageddon, the site which Christian teachings say will herald the final battle before the coming of the messiah. |
| Posted by:lotp |
| #5 Megiddo Ar-Mageddo-n Same name, just a said and spelled differently over the years. |
| Posted by: RG 2005-11-06 22:06 |
| #4 It's the other way around. Megiddo is just a place name for a famous fortress with a protected water supply. Armegeddon was grafted onto it later in Christian theology. |
| Posted by: Eric Jablow 2005-11-06 18:11 |
| #3 Get some troops around it now before the goat-loving child molesters decide the prison is the 12,087th Holiest Place in Islam and try to blow up the church. |
| Posted by: dushan 2005-11-06 13:07 |
| #2 Turn it around: prison as place where evil is contained and punished, situated on a holy place where the Good was nurtured and spread .... |
| Posted by: anon2 2005-11-06 10:36 |
| #1 Full of symbolism. Oldest Church symbol of good. Found under a prison: house of evil. good meets evil on the plain of megiddo. site of fabled final battle. sends a shiver up my spine! Makes me think of those creepy Omen movies. Damien |
| Posted by: anon1 2005-11-06 10:17 |