I am attending a small seminary class affiliated with the ministry I work with. Wed, we had a career CSI guy who was asked, years back, to use his expertise on the digs in Israel, come speak to us. I walked away with a few gold nuggets that I thought you guys might like to hear about.I also welcome any Scriptures that might correct something I was taught.-The Jews were referred to as hunters in the Scriptures, but were literally trappers. They did not kill animals in the field, but rather snared animals that were not harvested. They bled animals at the same location they prepared the meat. This is just like the apprehension of Christ. He was snared and bled at the altar, so to speak. So we say hunters, but they were more literally trappers.-Bones of lions and bears have been found in the area where David claimed to have killed both. They were indigenous to the area at one point, but were either driven off or killed as populations grew.-Though pigs were forbidden, the bones are found everywhere in ancient Israel. We often assume that they followed the 'no pork' diet for the most part, not thinking about how they were sinners just like us. He claimed that they find pig bones everywhere. That it was sort of a delicacy to them. This is why Jesus sent the demons out of the man and into the herd of pigs to be sent over the cliffs, to teach them a lesson.-Please correct this view if you are able. Jesus was referred to as a carpenter, but was more literally a 'worker with the hands.' Tekton is the Greek. Jesus, according to the teacher, may have worked with stone. At first I thought, 'no way.' But the more I thought about it, think of all the Scriptures: Mark 12:10 'The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner'1 Cor 10:4b 'they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ'...it was stones that killed the disobediant under the old covenant, now the Rock will grind unbelievers to powder. The stone was rolled away, etc, etc. The list would be way too big.This floored me, though. The man descibed how Peter was also a tekton, and that if both Peter and Jesus worked with stone, they would have both been familiar with the customs in the work.The teacher went on to explain that when a worker (tekton) was finished with his work, he would take the cloth off of his head and place it folded on the finished work. That was a signal to the customer that the work was complete, this cloth lying on the finished work. The work could then be picked up and wages could be payed.When Peter looked into the tomb to look for himself, it was at this point that he believed. Why? Could it be that he saw the cloth folded on where Jesus was laid, symbolizing that the work was complete? Very interesting.John 20:7 "And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself."Let me know if you would like more. I'm not sure how many people we are going to have that work in Israel, but this is the third.Hope you found this interesting and helpful.
