Greetings from Atlanta, where we are in a 2 day/4 lesson series on the Life of Christ, surveying the Gospel records, and making use of photos of the locations of the events of Jesus’ ministry. It is rewarding to see folks’ understanding of scripture enhanced and illuminated by seeing where the biblical events occurred. It is good for my wife and me to be in the home of Sewell and Canita Hall, and to be with the Embry Hills church for this effort.
The discovery of a gold coin at Kadesh (northern city of refuge, see Josh. 20:7) was reported by the Israeli Antiquities Authority:
An extremely rare 2200-year old gold coin was uncovered recently in the excavations of the University of Michigan and University of Minnesota at Tell Kedesh in Israel near its Lebanese border. The coin was minted in Alexandria by Ptolemy V in 191 BCE and bears the name of the wife of Ptolemy II, Arsinoë Philadephus (II).
Ferrell Jenkins reported on this in his blog: http://ferrelljenkins.wordpress.com/2010/08/12/ptolemaic-gold-coin-found-at-tel-kedesh/
See also Todd Bolen’s informative post athttp://blog.bibleplaces.com/2010/08/hellenistic-gold-coin-found-at-kedesh.html
Reading of this fascinating find reminded me of a couple of photos I thought I’d share. As stated above, the coin was minted at Alexandria.
Alexandria, Egypt. Photo ©Leon Mauldin.
This photo shows the location of the famous lighthouse, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
Also, note that the coin bears the image of the wife of Ptolemy II. See photo below:
Ptolemy II. Brooklyn Museum. Photo ©Leon Mauldin.
Ptolemy II is the ruler who wanted the Hebrew Scriptures translated into Greek. This was done in Alexandria. Almost every OT quotation by Jesus and the NT writes is from this Greek translation, the Septuagint (LXX).
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