Israeli Excavation at Gezer Confirms Historical Account of the City's Fiery Destruction

Yehezkel Laing : Aug 8, 2017
Breaking Israel News

The city is mentioned in the Book of Maccabees, which is not part of the Biblical canon but which scholars consider an important work. Centuries after the Egyptian destruction, in its last stage as an important city, Gezer became the base of the Maccabees, the Jewish rebels of the Hanukkah story who revolted against the Hellenists (Greeks) in the 2nd century BC.

(Israel)—[Breaking Israel News] Recent archaeological excavations at the site of the ancient city of Gezer have confirmed the Bible's account of the city's destruction by Egypt through fire. (Photo: Remains of an adult burnt in the destruction of Gezer/Tandy Institute for Archaeology/via BIN)

According to the Bible, Gezer, an ancient Canaanite-Jewish city located halfway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, was destroyed at the beginning of the 10th century BC, when the city was conquered and burned by an unnamed Egyptian pharaoh during his military campaign in the land of Israel. The pharaoh then gave the city to King Solomon as the dowry of his daughter. Solomon later rebuilt Gezer and fortified it.

The Gezer Excavation Project recently uncovered three torched skeletal remains in a newly discovered massive layer of fiery destruction, attesting to the city's ruin at the hands of the Egyptians 3,200 years ago. The remains were those of...

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