Dee Farrell's Blog, page 9

What 3,000 Year Old Leather Balls Have To Do With Genesis

I have a well worn basketball that is loosing its covering. The kids don't seem to care. They still dribble and dunk it and leave it under the shrubbery until they go looking for it again.

I have no idea how old this ball is. I do know it is not as old as the leather ones discovered in northern China. Those are 3,000 years old. Looking a bit like bean bags, the are stuffed with hair and  are hundreds of years older than ancient drawings of ball games. Which, by the way, surprised the experts ...

Archaeology and the Kingdom of Ararat

Six years ago, Dlshad Marf Zamua learned one man's seat is another man's ancient temple column. Zamua went to Iraqi Kurdistan to study artifacts he connected to an Urartian temple city called Ardini. This area is thought to have been a buffer region between the kingdoms of Urartu and Assyria. Zamua discovered the locals were reusing the ruins of temple column bases as seats or stairs. Talk about an antique.

 

The Kingdom of Urartu was located north of the Assyrian Empire between the Black ...

Could Daniel Have Eaten This Babylonian Stew?

It took almost seventy years and a French Assyriologist to understand the cuneiform tablets were ingredients for soup recipes and not  pharmecutical tablets. Thank you, Jean Bottéro. 

If you are studying ancient Babylon or planning a Bible study and need the flavors of Babylon to make the accounts of Daniel and Necuchadnezzar come alive, here are two recipes, one for Babylonian stew and one for Tah'u Stew.

 

Image by Calum Lewis courtesy of Unsplash

Update on the Face of God

Here is an update concerning our blogpost about the supposed face of God figurine recently found in Israel. I'd like to add that Jesus is mentioned in the book of Revelation riding a white horse. The writing of Revelation was much later, and Israel did not have the understanding that was given to John, the writer of Revelation. You can find the original blogpost here.

Image by Markus Winkler courtesy of Unsplash

How To Receive God's Wisdom

This week we are featuring a guest post from Danielle at Rechabite Ministries on how to receive wisdom from God. God is faithful; if your desire is to know what He thinks about something, He will tell you. Enjoy the post.

 

"If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him."  James 1:5 NKJV

 

"And if anyone longs to be wise, ask God for wisdom and he will give it! He won't see your lack of wisdom as an opport...

How to Answer the Question, "Is this the Tribulation?"

I'm not sure if it is comforting to know this, but it isn't the first time this world has been threatened with collapse. Archaeologists have discovered evidence pointing to the historic demise of the Byzantine Empire amid volcanic activity and plagues.

But our present day situation seems more intense doesn't it? Is it just because it is happening to us? That it's not history we are reading but our headlines?

The present crisis is pushed in front of our eyes everywhere we go. Like when we l...

Has an Archaeologist Found the Face of God?

I may have shared something about this before, but it is in the news again. I'm not sure how far this story is going to go, so here is a heads up. Prepare those young minds in your care!

An archaeologist has found a male figurine in Jerusalem he thinks may be a cultic image of God, dating to the 9th or 10th century BC. The same type of figurine has been discovered at other Judean locations too. 

Now I probably don't have to say this to you, but bear with me because it still needs to be ta...

Was Jesus Really a Carpenter?

Matthew 13: 55 tells us Joseph, the man who took care of Jesus like a father, was a carpenter. "Is not this the carpenter's son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas?"

Mark 6:3 tells us Jesus was a carpenter too. "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him."

Seems like a yes, right? Jesus was a carpenter.

But ar...

The Church: Its Path To Being Labeled Non-Essential

In 2020 the world announced the Church was not necessary for life on a daily basis. Unfortunately many people agreed. Some were believers.

How did we get here? The path began as soon as the early church was launched. It is too long a story to recap the consistent historical attack on God's word and the thoughts of men as they influenced their cultures, however. Instead, let's briefly acknowledge the erosion of faith in our day.

Believers want to love people. They value peace and desire t...

Researcher Discovers Israel and Judah May Not Have Descended From One Nation

Two papers recently published by research fellow Mitka R. Golub supports the historicity of Bible names during the time of Jeremiah and the inscriptions detailing them.

 But, and we must remember The Jerusalem Post is a liberal news source similiar to The New York Times or The Washington Post, about Golub's discoveries points out the Bible may not be telling the truth about the kingdoms of Israel and Judah.  " ...her [Golub's]  studies also shed light on cultural differences betwe...