Archaeologists believe they have uncovered new evidence of the ancient biblical battle of “Armageddon.”
A significant
archaeological discovery has reportedly been made at the historic site of Megiddo in northern Israel, roughly 18 miles southeast of Haifa.
‘The encounter between Josiah and Necho at Megiddo in 609 BCE was a fateful event in biblical period history and theology.’
The Megiddo excavation site is said to contain over 30 layers of various settlements, dating back from the Copper Age up until World War I, according to
Fox News.
Recent digs at the excavation site unearthed Egyptian and Greek pottery remains from the late 7th century BCE, which may be the evidence to confirm the biblical account of a battle between Judah’s King Josiah and Egyptian Pharaoh Necho II over 2,600 years ago.
According to the Hebrew Bible, King Josiah’s military force battled the Egyptian army at Megiddo in 609 BCE.
King Josiah was killed during the battle.
“There are several clues in the Bible to the participation of Lydians from western Anatolia in the killing of Josiah. One of them is the story of Gog; some scholars think that Gog refers to Gyges, the king of Lydia who, according to the Assyrians, sent mercenaries to serve in the Egyptian army in the 7th century BCE,”
said professor Israel Finkelstein, head of the School of Archaeology and Maritime Cultures at the University of Haifa and longtime director of the Megiddo Expedition.
Gog is a descendant of the prophet Joel in
1 Chronicles 5:4. However, Gog and Magog are described as allies of Satan in the battle against God, according to Revelation 20:7-9 in the New Testament.
The word “armageddon” is
allegedly derived from “Har Megiddo” — the Hebrew word for the “mound” or “mountain” (har) of Megiddo.
The
Oxford English Dictionary notes that “armageddon” in Christian eschatology means “the last battle between good and evil before the Day of Judgement, to be fought (according to Revelation 16:16) in the place of this name. Hence: any dramatic, final, or catastrophic conflict, especially one seen as likely to destroy the world or the human race; (sometimes more loosely) the end of the world.”
Megiddo is mentioned
12 times in the Bible.
The archeological discovery of a noteworthy amount of 7th-century BCE Egyptian pottery at Megiddo suggests that the infamous battle took place there, according to an academic paper published earlier this year in the
Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament.
“The encounter between Josiah and Necho at Megiddo in 609 BCE (2 Kings 23:29) was a fateful event in biblical period history and theology,” the paper states. “Yet, the archaeology of the site failed to supply information about this affair.”
The discovery of unexpected
archaeological artifacts from Egypt and East Greece in Megiddo could point to a crucial military alliance that defeated King Josiah.
“The finds in this layer include an exceptional number of Egyptian-made pottery vessels as well as a significant number of East Greek pottery, usually interpreted as representing Greek mercenaries in the service of the 26th Dynasty,” the paper explains. “These finds shed light on the population of Egyptian-governed Megiddo and hence on the background of the 609 BCE event.”
Dr. Assaf Kleiman of Ben-Gurion University — a senior lecturer at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and senior member of the Megiddo Expedition staff who led the studies — stated these archaeological findings suggest the presence of Egyptian military forces rather than traders.
“The exposure of so many Egyptian vessels, including fragments of serving bowls, cooking pots, and storage jars, is an exceptional phenomenon,” Kleiman stated. “We, therefore, understand it as representing Egyptians who settled at Megiddo in the late 7th century, maybe as part of an army force that arrived at the site following the collapse of the Assyrian Empire.”
“Service of Greeks, probably from western Anatolia, in the Egyptian army of the 26th Dynasty is referred to in both Greek [from Herodotus] and Assyrian sources,” Kleiman explained. “The possibility of the participation of such mercenaries in the killing of Josiah may be hinted in prophetic works in the Bible.”
Kleiman noted that there’s no non-biblical proof of King Josiah but asserted that his existence “has never been doubted in biblical and historical scholarship.”
Archaeologists said they plan to do more research into the site’s Bronze Age roots.
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