2,750 year old temple found near Jerusalem

2,750 year old temple from the time of King David found near Jerusalem.

(Phys.org)—Israel's Antiquities Authority (IAA) has announced that archeologists have unearthed a temple within walking distance of Jerusalem that appears to be approximately 2,750 years old. Artifacts found inside the temple suggest that despite the ban on idol worship at the time, those who visited the temple continued to engage in such practices.

The temple was discovered as part of a dig at a site known as Tel Motza, after the city of Mozah mentioned in the Old Testament. The site was first uncovered as construction began on what was to be a new freeway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv back in the 90's. Since that time most researchers had concluded that the ancient community was little more than a storage facility for grain used by people in Jerusalem. This new find suggests however, that the settlement was more than that.

At the time that the temple was in use, a period during the King David era, the First Temple, in Jerusalem had already been built, and worshippers had been instructed to use it instead of other facilities to discourage the worship of various idols. Artifacts found inside the temple show that the people who visited the temple had chosen to ignore the decree and instead continued to idolize their icons as they chose. What's surprising, the researchers note, is how close the temple, and hence the ongoing idol worshiping practices, were to Jerusalem – close enough to walk. Keep on reading...