The Franciscan Museum of Jerusalem Shows Life in Jesus' Time

JERUSALEM – The Franciscan friars in Jerusalem opened a new museum filled with objects related to everyday life in the time of Jesus

The new wing of the museum Terra Sancta, built in the remains of ruins of crossed and Mamluk buildings along the Via Dolorosa in the Old City, exhibits artifacts found in excavations on biblical sites during the last century

The Custody of the Holy Land – The organ of the Franciscan Order in Israel, the Palestinian territories, Lebanon and Cyprus – has conducted several archaeological excavations around the region, focusing on sites with links to the Bible.

Several of the exhibits in the new exhibition, titled "The House of Herod: Life and Power of the New Testament Time" has never been shown to the public.

Coins coins, ceramic fragments, ossuaries and stone slabs bear inscriptions in Hebrew, Greek, Latin and Samaritan, illustrating the kaleidoscopic variety of cultures found in the Holy Land during the first centuries. elegant Corinthian columns from the palace of Herod to the humble objects of the Galilean houses.

Fr Eugenio Alliata, director of the museum, said that it was important to "present something of life Real people. "The teachings of Jesus" are so interspersed with the common life of people. "

Among the highlights of the show are one of two known half-shekel silver coins minted by the Jewish rebels in the first year of the revolt against Rome in 66 AD A shard with the word Herod, the famous king of the Gospels, was found during excavations at the monumental tomb of the Judean monarch to the south from Jerusalem

Shimon Gibson, an archaeologist from the University of North Carolina excavating Jerusalem in the Roman era, said that the contribution of Franciscans to the field of archeology in the Holy Land was "crucial ", and that their collections were" a treasure of information. "

"The treasures They have accumulated over time in connection with their work, their mark on the study of the Holy Land, is reflected in the posters," he said

Ordinary Objects – weights and scales, hooks, dice games, lamps and cooking utensils – Bring the New Testament verses to life. A small silver coin bearing the face of Augustus is the same kind that causes Jesus to say, "Give Caesar what is Caesar" in Matthew 22.

Like contemporary rabbis, Alliata has says: "Jesus taught daily life, how to manage in everyday life," and spoke in familiar terms to the common people.

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