This is an interesting article with exciting finds, but I am bothered by
the beginning which says that the pomegranate found in the City of David
is similar in form to the 400 decorative pomegranates which are described
in Solomons Temple according to the book of Kings 7:43 (should be v. 42
and cf also v, 20!)

Now this is absolute nonsense. The pomegranates in the temple descriptions
were part of the yakhin and Boaz pillar crowns which were made of bronze
and not ivory as is the new pomegranate. Also, the new pomegranate has a
dove sitting on it. Where is this desribed in I Kings 7 which, in fact,
doesnt describe the pomegranates at all, let alone the doves on top of
them, unless we somehow take hassebakah mentioned along with weharimmonim
as a corruption of ha$$obek (dove coop). At most one can say that the
newly discovered pomegranate can be, like pomegranates mentioned in
various biblical passages, a decorative motif known also from cultic
contexts.

Victor Hurowitz

BGU





On Fri, 9 Jan 2009, eliot braun wrote:

> Haaretz in Hebrew has photos of a pomegranate and a bulla from excavations.
Both are dated to the Iron Age. This is in Hebrew; perhaps it will appear in
English later.
>
> http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/spages/1054101.html
>
> Eliot Braun, Ph D
> Sr. Fellow WF Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, Jerusalem
> Associate Researcher Centre de Recherche Français de Jérusalem
> PO Box 21, Har Adar 90836 Israel
> Tel 972-2-5345687, Cell 972-50-2231096
>
>
>
>