An exhibition of major archaeological discoveries found in Israel since the Six-Day War will be exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
During a visit to Israel last December, New York Mayor John Lindsay formally requested the exhibition at a meeting with Israeli archaeologists and government officials at the home of Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek.
Because of the difficulties in organizing and transporting an exhibition of this type, it is not expected to be on display before the spring of 1974. Mayor Lindsay asked that it be readied as soon as possible so that it can be part of New York’s celebration of Israel’s 25th Anniversary, which began in May, 1973.
The planned exhibits are:
• The crucified man found on the northern outskirts of Jerusalem in 1968.
• The six-ton stone with the inscription “To the place of the blowing of the Trumpet” which fell from the southwest corner of the Temple Mount.
• A reconstruction of a room of the “Burnt House”, excavated in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem by Professor Nahum Avigad in 1970. The house was destroyed during the Roman conquest in A.D. 70.
Inscribed stone from the Temple Mount.
BSP 2:3 (Summer 1973) p. 92
• One of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Details on the crucified man, six-ton stone, and Burnt House were reported in the Vol. 1, No. 1 (Winter 1972) issue of BIBLE AND SPADE.
Lindsay was told that his request for a Dead Sea Scroll would have to be acted on by the government. Premier Golda Meir indicated that it would be necessary to obtain the opinion of experts on whether a scroll could be transported to the U.S. and exhibited without danger of its being damaged.
This is an unusual opportunity for students of the Bible to see artifacts rich in association with our Lord and New Testament times. The skeleton of the crucified man represents the first identified remains of a man executed by crucifixion and provides grim evidence of the awfulness of that form of death.
Jesus may very well have gazed at the six-ton stone, where a priest stood each week to blow a trumpet announcing the beginning of the Sabbath. This, and other stones found at the southwest corner of the Temple Mount, confirm the fulfillment of Christ’s prophecy “…there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down” (Luke 21:6).
The Burnt House is living evidence of the fulfillment of Christ’s prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem (Luke 21).
BIBLE AND SPADE will keep readers informed as further plans for this unique exhibit develop.
(New York Times, December 7, 1972; Jerusalem Post Weekly, December 12, 1972)
Bible and Spade 2:4 (Autumn 1973)