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Israel: Archaeologists unearth jug which may have belonged to Biblical judge Gideon

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Archaeologists in Israel have unearthed a jug that dates back 3,100 years to the Biblical time of Judges, and which may have belonged to the Israelite judge Gideon, All Israel News reports. Discovered in southern Israel near Kiryat Gat, the jug has an inscription that reads “Jerubbaal,” a name found only in the Bible and by which Gideon is referred.

In a press release about the find, the Israel Antiquities Authorities (IAA) said Monday that the discovery of inscriptions from the time of judges is “extremely rare” and that the inscription “Jerubbaal” has never before been found in an archaeological context, AIN reports. The jug was found at a location around three miles from Lachish, a major Canaanite city in the time of the judges.

“The name Jerubbaal is familiar from biblical tradition in the Book of Judges as an alternative name for the judge Gideon ben Yoash,” Prof. Yosef Garfinkel and Saar Ganor said in the press release. “In view of the geographical distance between the Shephelah and the Jezreel Valley, this inscription may refer to another Jerubbaal and not the Gideon of biblical tradition, although the possibility cannot be ruled out that the jug belonged to the judge Gideon,” the archaeologists added. 

“In any event, the name Jerubbaal was evidently in common usage at the time of the Biblical Judges,” Garfinkel and Ganor said.