https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/plants/lost-biblical-tree-resurrected-from-1-0...

"Scientists have revived a mysterious, 1,000-year-old seed discovered in the Judean Desert — and the tree that has grown from it could belong to a lost lineage mentioned in the Bible, they say.

"It has taken researchers almost 14 years to grow a tree from the ancient seed, which archaeologists excavated from a cave in the late 1980s. Dubbed "Sheba," the cryptic specimen now stands around 10 feet (3 meters) tall, meaning scientists can finally describe its fully-fledged characteristics. They were also able to perform DNA, chemical and radiocarbon analyses of the tree, revealing new clues about its origins, according to a study published Sept. 10 in the journal Communications Biology.

"The seed from which Sheba grew dates to between A.D. 993 and 1202, according to the study. It likely survived from a now-extinct population of trees that existed in the Southern Levant, a region comprising modern-day Israel, Palestine and Jordan, and is the first of its kind to be found there.

"Remarkably, researchers say the fully-grown specimen could be the source of Biblical "tsori" — a resinous extract associated with healing in Genesis, Jeremiah and Ezekiel.

"The identity of Biblical 'tsori' (translated in English as 'balm') has long been open to debate," the researchers wrote in the study. The substance is linked with the historical region of Gilead, which sits to the east of the Jordan River between the Yarmuk River and the northern end of the Dead Sea. Now, having revived Sheba, the team thinks it has finally unraveled the mystery behind Biblical tsori.

"The researchers identified Sheba as belonging to the genus Commiphora, which sits within the myrrh and frankincense family (Burseraceae) and comprises roughly 200 living plant species. Commiphora plants are mainly found across Africa, Madagascar and the Arabian Peninsula. It remains unclear what species Sheba belongs to, because the tree has not flowered, and therefore hasn't produced the reproductive material scientists need to carry out more detailed analyses."

Comment: seeds seem to last forever in their potential. This shows the Bible as containing true history as many issues do. The tree is pictured in its pot.

https://bigthink.com/the-past/earth-magnetic-field-biblical-stories-ancient-cities-dest...

"According to the Bible, Gath was one of the main Philistine cities and the home of Goliath the Giant. Its destruction is glossed over, described in less than one verse of the Bible, in the book of 2 Kings.

"Archaeologists have long worked to figure out what happened to the ancient city of Gath, and just as important, when it happened. But dating sites like this is no straightforward task. Recently, a team of scientists led by Yoav Vaknin of Tel Aviv University tried a new method to date archaeological digs like Gath: They used the Earth’s magnetic field.

***

"The history of changes in the magnetic field is recorded in rock. Perhaps the most well-known record is etched in stone at the mid-Atlantic ridge. Here, new seafloor is constantly being created as the tectonic plates spread along fault lines as long as the ocean. As these molten rocks orient themselves, cool, and solidify, they record the direction and intensity of the magnetic field. A search of the seafloor allows us to read the history of the Earth’s magnetic field itself.

"Surprisingly, this method can also be used for archaeological sites like the one at Gath. If rocks at these sites become hot enough, they too can align to show the intensity and direction of the magnetic field. Such heat can be generated during military actions, when widespread destruction is common.

"According to the Bible, Gath was one of the main Philistine cities and the home of Goliath the Giant. Its destruction is glossed over, described in less than one verse of the Bible, in the book of 2 Kings.

"Archaeologists have long worked to figure out what happened to the ancient city of Gath, and just as important, when it happened. But dating sites like this is no straightforward task. Recently, a team of scientists led by Yoav Vaknin of Tel Aviv University tried a new method to date archaeological digs like Gath: They used the Earth’s magnetic field. Their results recently appeared in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Many archaeological sites illustrate the brutality of Hazael’s campaigns. They tell the stories of how entire cities were destroyed, and Gath was one of these. Massive destruction is evident at the site, showing a long siege trench, fallen buildings, and human remains.

"Different approaches to date these sites lead to different conclusions. But one element in the destruction of these cities could help researchers. The battles were extensive and terrible, with widespread fires blazing at over 600° C. This heat baked the mud bricks in the cities, and aligned them with the Earth’s magnetic field.

"Vaknin and his team realized this, and they knew something else about the Earth during this time. While the magnetic field is continually changing, there are periods during which it fluctuates more quickly. This period was one of them, with fluctuations measuring twice as strong as their current propensity. “The dating resolution depends on the rapid fluctuations, so I am lucky to work on this period,” Vaknin told Big Think.

"In short, the scattered fragments of ruins held the information researchers needed to determine exactly when these cities were destroyed.

"To use this data, the team gathered the information the mud bricks held about the direction and intensity of the Earth’s magnetic field, and they combined it with knowledge of other events whose timing is precisely known. These events are known as chronological anchors, and unfortunately, Vaknin says, they are rare.

“'The 701 [BCE] Assyrian campaign is my favorite example,” Vaknin says. “When the historical sources and the archaeological record match (more than 1000 arrowheads found in the destruction of Lachish, for example) — Bingo! We have an anchor.

“'We then compare the magnetic results from these anchors to those from other finds whose dates that are not as well known but are roughly dated to the same periods, according to other dating methods.”

***

"Piece by piece, the destruction of other sites has come into focus — some were leveled by the Babylonians, others by the Assyrians. Their method has allowed the team to trace the contours of the region’s chronology, suggesting the timeline of the falls of various parts of Judah and Jerusalem.

"Especially in this part of the world and for this period of ancient history, geomagnetic dating is more precise than radiocarbon dating. This is thanks to the number of archaeological sites paired with the swiftness and strength shifts in the magnetic field. But the method can be used anywhere rocks were heated enough to align with the Earth’s magnetic field."

Comment: this tells us the history of material events in the Bible are true. The stories about individuals are problematic.

A question though, is when the Jews studied the Torah, was the Rabi and others able to read, or had they memorized passages. - From my readings, and I am not an expert, the Rabbi guarded the Torah and often carried it to the meetings for services. Guarded because the Torahs were handwritten on goat or sheepskin by scribes and contained the complete five books. Thus they were very valuable. It appears that the scribes were very accurate as shown by the complete scroll of Isaiah found at Qumran by the Dead Sea,age first century. It is almost 100% the same as the Masoretic Text developed from a number of scrolls a few hundred years later, the basis for Jewish Bibles now. The Rabbis could read. The 1.5-3% literacy figures suggest that only Rabbis, priests, and some government officials could read. Scrolls when worn out were ceremonally buried and replaced by another copy. This ancient Hebrew is written in shorthand, consonents only, with accent marks, and as I have mentioned in other threads contained close to 3,000 base words with about 10,000 meanings available when prefixes or suffixes were added. A very limited vocabulary, which is the language Israel started with when Hebrew was revived as the language of the State of Israel. And this is why the KJV was poorly translated. Words had to have several meanings in order to express what the writer desired to convey. Context of the sentence implied meaning to a word.
In fact the meanings are still open to interpretation. There is a recent book," In the Beginning of", by Judah Landa, 2004, which retranslates the first 11 chapter of Genesis to show that it fits current science, that is, quantum theory, cosmology, etc. His purpose was to allow fundamentalist Christians and Jews to continue to accept the Bible as the Word of God and not in conflict with current accepted science.

If you google "Hebrew word for virgin" you will find Christian apologist websites that try to justify the Greek translations of Isaiah that introduced the 'virgin birth' concept. Also there are Jewish Biblical scholars who point out that The Book of Isaiah uses the Hebrew word for 'maiden' in the prophesy that the Christian world uses as the supposed announcement of the coming of Jesus and the specific word for virgin five other times in other places in his writings. Remember that the entire Book of Isaiah was found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, and dates to a time around that of Jesus. The Jewish scholars are adament that 'virgin' is a mistranslation of 'maiden', granting that maiden can imply virginity, since there was an explicit word for virgin in the Biblical writings at that time. - I though I should add to this comment the exact way Isaiah is translated in a Jewish Bible in regard to the supposed prophesy about Jesus, granting that there is a messianic tradition in Judaism, not yet fulfilled: Isaiah 7:14, "Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign: behold, the young woman shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." - And again, consider that Isaiah uses the specific Hebrew word for virgin in several other parts of his book, but not in this verse.

I have a question for the scholars among us. How common was literacy in first century Galilee? Who among Jesus' associates would have been expected to write. - The following site estimates 1.5%-3.0% literacy. Note the author is an Israeli expert. http://faculty.biu.ac.il/~barilm/illitera.html#[29] Not a surprising finding when one considers the literacy rate in 3rd World countries today.

The virgin birth, the miracles, the resurrection, the three-day darkness ... as far as I'm concerned, they all sound like the product of the propagandists. But I'm not convinced that Christ and his contemporaries were fictional, or that the latter suffered their appalling martyrdom for what they believed to be a fictional character.
 
> We all agree that there is some colossal creative force out there. What we don't know is whether it's conscious or not. Even the main religions, despite their myths and symbols, may yet have an element of truth in them. - I'm not sure how far we should go on this website debating the truth or falseness of all the fables of Christianity. I agree with you that Jesus (real name Joshua ben Joseph, to illustrate how much of the real story got changed in the process of creating written records decades after the fact) probably lived as a charismatic opponent to the corruption going on in the Temple at that time. He was a purist who preached exactly the same message as Rabbi Hillel (who did exist) did a century earlier. That is the same Hillel for whom the Jewish college organizations in this country are named. - I am convinced that the followers of Jesus invented stories to create a religion about him.

George has referred us to an interesting atheist site called ebonmusings. 
 
> I read the (rather long) essay called 'Choking on the Camel', which sets out a stimulating thesis that Jesus never actually existed. 
>The virgin birth, the miracles, the resurrection, the three-day darkness ... as far as I'm concerned, they all sound like the product of the propagandists. But I'm not convinced that Christ and his contemporaries were fictional, or that the latter suffered their appalling martyrdom for what they believed to be a fictional character.> - I've also read "Choking on the Camel", and appreciate George pointing out the website. - If you google "Hebrew word for virgin" you will find Christian apologist websites that try to justify the Greek translations of Isaiah that introduced the 'virgin birth' concept. Also there are Jewish Biblical scholars who point out that The Book of Isaiah uses the Hebrew word for 'maiden' in the prophesy that the Christian world uses as the supposed announcement of the coming of Jesus and the specific word for virgin five other times in other places in his writings. Remember that the entire Book of Isaiah was found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, and dates to a time around that of Jesus. The Jewish scholars are adament that 'virgin' is a mistranslation of 'maiden', granting that maiden can imply virginity, since there was an explicit word for virgin in the Biblical writings at that time.

I was encouraged by dwh's describing a kinder form of Christianity in his acquaintances. The Christians I meet seem to be of the born-again variety, who's attitude is "I don't make the rules. Everyone has the same choices available." But, religion in the US is more of a private matter, so I just may not be talking to the more mellow variety of Christians. - I find that the Born-Again Christians I know in Texas are of two general types. Those who 'witness' and try to convert you, and the 'true' born-again who witnesses only by living a life that emulates Jesus. That latter group are really the true and proper born-agains and they are the vast majority in my area.