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Small update: Found in Jordan many claim it to be the Oldest Church, dating to around 70 CE.

7Jun08

Well a few updates to report. If you hadn't noticed already, I finally got off of my lazy butt and re-designed my entire website. It took a while to come up with ideas but I guess it seemed to work out in the end. Second, my second book has finally been released to the general public. Although it is limited through publisher until the rest of the stores obtain copies in the next couple of weeks. Last, I also update the page of the books I am currently reading.

25May08

A few news updates: (1) Rare Display of the Dead Sea Scolls in Israel. (2) Here is a related video. (3) A Second Temple Period quarry has recently been discovered. (4) And finally, some updates to my next book. I had just completed going over the editor's edits and am excited to report that it will soon be made available.

30Apr08

I thought this would be an interesting article to post: Rabbi Reinman on the Documentary Hypothesis. As most of you may already know, I am a believer of the Documentary Hypothesis and every once in a while it is nice to understand what the opposition feels about it.

27Apr08

Not much to report: New Babylonian Town Discovered!

3Apr08

Here is a nice article of new discoveries in Old City of Jerusalem. The site served as an administration center for Assyrian rulers.

Also an additional update. My publisher currently has my second manuscript and it won't be long before it will be officially available. I will keep you all posted.

31Mar08

Small update: Clay tablet deciphered records catastrophic asteroid destruction on planet. While the article mentions a link to the biblical Sodom and Gomorrah, there isn't. It is merely used to pull the reader in and imply that an event like this may have created the later stories.

26Mar08

Small update: (1) An article in BAR regarding King Jehu of Israel and a conspiracy theory. (2) A second interesting article about the half shekel head-tax ancient Jews used to pay to the temple in Jerusalem. Also an article about an alternate theory about the Ark of the Covenant.

19Mar08

Small update: Rare coin found in excavations in Jerusalem.

18Mar08

Small update: New seal has been found in the Old City of Jerusalem.

15Mar08

I hope we all made it to the new year alive and well. I do apologize for the lack of recent updates. I am currently in the process of remodeling the author website and have been focusing on various layouts and designs. In the end, who knows, I may end up with something similar to what I currently have.

Anyways, here is a couple of updates in the Biblical world: (1) Remains of a First Temple period building has been discovered on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.(2) 8th Century BCE seals have been found at the City of David.

I know it has been a little while since my last update. Some recent historical news in the headline: (1) Excavations in the eastern Jordanian lands have unearthed evidence attesting to Herod's control over land extending further into ancient Jordan than previously assumed. (2) I am also glad to hear that evidence has proven that the Spartans of ancient Greece did not throw deformed newborns off of a cliff. I do not know if any of you are aware of this but my father is from Lakonia (his village is just outside of Sparta) and my mother is from Arcadia (her village just outside of Tripoli). Both these city-states are situated in the Peloponnesian region of Greece.

Anyways, just a quick update on my research. In the first quarter of 2008 Biblical Origins: An Adopted Legacy will be published and on sale. I will make sure to post the latest news regarding it.

Here is an article about a discovery of a tablet written in ancient Hebrew and dating to the 10th century BCE.

Here is another interesting set of news update: An article regarding an ancient seal that may have belonged to Queen Jezebel and an article of some First Temple Period finds. Here is some more pictures on that.

Some updates on the excavations at Ebla. To those individuals who are not familiar with this site, here is an excerpt summarizing Ebla. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention, if you decide to learn more about Ebla be careful with Giovanni Pettinato's early translations/ transliterations when he was appointed as epigrapher of Ebla by Paolo Matthiae early in the excavation process. I am sure Giovanni himself would agree at this point. The lead archaeologist of this site, Matthiae, also has a book coming out tomorrow. Here is a UK link.

Here is some more news regarding the Holy Land: (1) It is reported that the quarry Herod used for the renovation of the Second Temple compound has been found. Here is a second link to that. (2) Here is an article talking of a discovery of Egyptian construction on the Gaza Strip and a 7th century Philistine rural village.

Here is an interesting article on the Philistines; the most targeted enemy of the Israelites/ Judahites. And some more depressing details situated around the Temple Mount.

Small update: This link was just e-mailed to me by a friend which some of you may find kind of cool and interesting to play around with: http://www.virtualsecrets.com/. Here is an article with a perfect description to this site: University of Advancing Technology (UAT) instructor and senior web developer Joe McCormack has completed work on a web-based application that translates English words into cuneiform script from the Assyrian, Babylonian, Sumerian and the hieroglyphic script of Egyptian. The tool may be seen at his website, virtualsecrets.com.

Since the beginning of biblical study, there has been a need to understand under what circumstances the Bible came into existence. In this need for understanding the authorship of the Pentateuch was being questioned. Was it of Mosaic authorship or were sections of it written over time until finally compiled together, canonizing what we see today? Amidst all these speculations and theories concerning the authorship of the Pentateuch, the Documentary Hypothesis was formed; but it unfortunately did not answer all our questions. There is still much text waiting to be identified and dated. This article focuses on one such piece of text and that is chapter 14 in the Book of Genesis. The author relies on his knowledge of Biblical Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek to not only use comparative analysis but also the evolution in Hebrew grammar and orthography to provide a detailed conclusion on the original author of Genesis 14.

A Neo-Babylonian inscription has been translated at the British Museum speaking of an official who was present at the siege of Jerusalem side-by-side with Nebuchadnezzar.

Another brief update: The confirmed table of contents are posted for the new addition to the An Adopted Legacy series. I also added a section on the Books page where I list some great books to those interested in the study of the Hebrew language and its evolution (located at bottom of page).

Also, not too long ago I picked up the most recent copy of Biblical Archaeology Review (July/August 2007). It had some great articles but I would highly recommend to those interested in biblical archaeology to read the article pertaining to the "Lost Tombs of Israelite Kings". Details are given to the palace of Ahab when the capital of Israel moved to Samaria and the likely tombs that Ahab's dynasty shared and used.

I guess I am just a little shocked. Yesterday I got an e-mail informing me of this:

Well I was excited to check out the publisher's website today and find the following listing:

Number 5. I am impressed and the book has only been out for 2 weeks (at least to my knowledge).

I just posted an article on the Origins and Evolution of the Nephilim in the Books page. Note that you would need Adobe Acrobat Reader to read this. Now most of the paper is extracts from the second and third chapters of my book (An Adopted Legacy) reformatted appropriately.

New archaeological discoveries of an unknown city dating to the common era found at the holy land.

An Adopted Legacy: Neo-Assyrian Origin to Hebrew Lore is currently available for purchase.

I have added a chapter outline to my second book on the Books page of this site. I have also added a new link in the Links page for PC Bible tools where you are immediately taken to a free Bible software I highly recommend.

A couple of updates: I have updated and written a more proper article regarding the Orion/Cetus connection to the Enuma Elish. It can be found in the original page of the article and also the books section. Note that you would need Adobe Acrobat Reader to read this.

Also interesting piece of archaeological news. Frank Moore Cross Jr. and Lawrence E. Stager have identified old Philistine inscription proving that they may have in fact originated from the Aegean and were also literate.

Just a few updates to report, nothing really new in the biblical related news except for the most recent aired documentary pertaining to the 'tomb of Jesus Christ'. These updates just relate to some additions to the website. A few new articles have been added in the History section about the Constellations of Orion and Cetus to the Assyro-Babylonians and also some definitions to what makes a language Semitic. The reason why I put up the second article is to show the difference between a Semitic language and everything else; especially ancient Egyptian. Many have tried to parallel Hebrew and Egyptian when there are no relations whatsoever. They don't share the same roots of both nouns, adjectives, and verbs. They don't share the same grammatical structure. In fact while the Hebrew language has evolved a lot over time (reference Hebrew Orthography), it is a derivation of the Phoenician script and tongue. This is proven through orthographical studies of the region. I have also added a few extra links, including a GREAT one of a library of all the El Amarna letters.

Ancient biblical medicine holding natural properties heals ailments such as cancer.

Could this be Edenics proven in archaeology? Was the Semitic tongue one of the earliest known on the planet? Prior to this discovery it was thought the earliest came from the Akkadians.

Just a few things to report, my book An Adopted Legacy is currently being reviewed by the editors and will be released shortly. On top of that I made a few updates to the site. Added an additional link to the Mesopotamian Chronicles and even pages in the history section related to Phoenicia, Akkad, and Sumer.

Well, I wanted to start off with a news post and the only recent one which is still being debated on comes from a recent discovery at Qumran where toilet practices of the inhabitants are revealing a lot more of the lives of those who have lived during the period in which the Dead Sea Scrolls were written.

12Jun08