{"id":5178,"date":"2023-01-05T16:37:40","date_gmt":"2023-01-05T21:37:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=5178"},"modified":"2023-01-05T16:37:40","modified_gmt":"2023-01-05T21:37:40","slug":"archaeologists-uncover-tomb-of-apocryphal-jesuss-midwife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2023\/01\/archaeologists-uncover-tomb-of-apocryphal-jesuss-midwife.html","title":{"rendered":"Archaeologists Uncover Tomb of Apocryphal \u201cJesus\u2019s Midwife\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Emil Aladjem \/ Israel Antiquities Authority<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Archaeologists from the\u00a0<\/span>Israel Antiquities Authority<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>revealed<\/span><\/a>\u00a0(IAA) have uncovered a site claimed to be the site of \u201cJesus\u2019s midwife\u201d and found hundreds of artifacts and lamps from the site in the Lachish region of Israel. The lamps are thought to be from the 8th or 9th century. In a\u00a0<\/span>Facebook post<\/span><\/a>, Nir Shimshon-Paran and Zvi Firer, excavation directors in the Israel Antiquities Authority Southern Region, released a joint statement saying, \u201cIn the shop, we found hundreds of complete and broken lamps dating from the 8th\u20139th centuries [A.D]. The lamps may have served to light up the cave or as part of the religious ceremonies, similarly to candles distributed today at the graves of righteous figures and in churches.\u201d Known as the \u201cSalome Cave,\u201d the site is part of the IAA\u2019s excavations along the\u00a0<\/span>Judean Kings Trail<\/span><\/a>, a government-led project that brings together 60 miles of archaeological sites.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The site is given significance due to its association with the apocryphal\u00a0<\/span>Gospel of James<\/span><\/a>, which is attributed to James, the brother of Jesus who wrote the Book of James found in the New Testament. The book\u2019s authenticity is highly doubted, which is why it falls outside the Biblical canon and was condemned by Pope Innocent I in 405 AD.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The gospel is one of the earliest sources of the \u201cperpetual virginity\u201d of Mary, claiming that Mary remained a virgin throughout her life, thus making James Joseph\u2019s son from a previous marriage rather than the half-brother of Jesus through Joseph\u2019s and Mary\u2019s union.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the text, Joseph seeks a midwife in Bethlehem while Mary goes into labor in a cave. After the midwife delivers Jesus, she is amazed to find that Mary is a virgin and goes and finds a woman named Salome, another midwife, to tell her what she has seen. Salome refuses to believe it and checks Mary herself. Her hand is injured due to her unbelief, and an angel of the Lord appears to tell her to hold baby Jesus to heal her hand. She does so and praises God after she is healed. A woman named Salome does appear in the Bible. However, she is the mother of Jesus\u2019s disciples, John and James, and is never referred to as being a midwife. The name Salome or Shlomit, according to IAA archaeologist Zvi Firer was prevalent during the Second Temple period.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The apocryphal story was known to early Christians, and the burial cave was recognized as the burial place of Salome during the Byzantine era. The cave was\u00a0<\/span>discovered<\/span><\/a>\u00a0by antiquities looters in 1982 and later excavated in 1984 by Professor Amos Kloner of the IAA. It has not been open to the public during that time. However,\u00a0<\/span>Saar Ganor<\/span><\/a>, director of the IAA, stated, \u201cOnce the restoration and development works are completed, the forecourt and the cave will be opened to the public.\u201d There is no date yet for when the public will have access to certain parts of the site.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Archaeologists from the\u00a0Israel Antiquities Authority\u00a0revealed\u00a0(IAA) have uncovered a site claimed to be the site of \u201cJesus\u2019s midwife\u201d and found hundreds of artifacts and lamps from the site in the Lachish region of Israel. The lamps are thought to be from the 8th or 9th century. In a\u00a0Facebook post, Nir Shimshon-Paran and Zvi Firer, excavation directors…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":5184,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nArchaeologists Uncover Tomb of Apocryphal \u201cJesus\u2019s Midwife\u201d<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Archaeologists from the Israel Antiques Authority revealed that they have uncovered a site that may have been one of "Jesus's midwife."\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Archaeologists Uncover Tomb of Apocryphal \u201cJesus\u2019s Midwife\u201d\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Archaeologists from the Israel Antiques Authority revealed that they have uncovered a site that may have been one of "Jesus's midwife."\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2023\/01\/archaeologists-uncover-tomb-of-apocryphal-jesuss-midwife.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Christ News Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-01-05T21:37:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2023\/01\/Salome-Cave_credit-Israel-Antiquities-Authority-Emil-Aladjem-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"576\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cecilia Buchanan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Archaeologists Uncover Tomb of Apocryphal \u201cJesus\u2019s Midwife\u201d","description":"Archaeologists from the Israel Antiques Authority revealed that they have uncovered a site that may have been one of \"Jesus's midwife.\"","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Archaeologists Uncover Tomb of Apocryphal \u201cJesus\u2019s Midwife\u201d","og_description":"Archaeologists from the Israel Antiques Authority revealed that they have uncovered a site that may have been one of \"Jesus's midwife.\"","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2023\/01\/archaeologists-uncover-tomb-of-apocryphal-jesuss-midwife.html","og_site_name":"Christ News Today","article_published_time":"2023-01-05T21:37:40+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":576,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2023\/01\/Salome-Cave_credit-Israel-Antiquities-Authority-Emil-Aladjem-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cecilia Buchanan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2023\/01\/archaeologists-uncover-tomb-of-apocryphal-jesuss-midwife.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2023\/01\/archaeologists-uncover-tomb-of-apocryphal-jesuss-midwife.html","name":"Archaeologists Uncover Tomb of Apocryphal \u201cJesus\u2019s Midwife\u201d","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2023\/01\/archaeologists-uncover-tomb-of-apocryphal-jesuss-midwife.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2023\/01\/archaeologists-uncover-tomb-of-apocryphal-jesuss-midwife.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2023\/01\/Salome-Cave_credit-Israel-Antiquities-Authority-Emil-Aladjem-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2023-01-05T21:37:40+00:00","dateModified":"2023-01-05T21:37:40+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/#\/schema\/person\/77cb6eeb5c74ee0eb8c77ea1ebc43c6a"},"description":"Archaeologists from the Israel Antiques Authority revealed that they have uncovered a site that may have been one of \"Jesus's midwife.\"","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2023\/01\/archaeologists-uncover-tomb-of-apocryphal-jesuss-midwife.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2023\/01\/archaeologists-uncover-tomb-of-apocryphal-jesuss-midwife.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2023\/01\/archaeologists-uncover-tomb-of-apocryphal-jesuss-midwife.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2023\/01\/Salome-Cave_credit-Israel-Antiquities-Authority-Emil-Aladjem-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2023\/01\/Salome-Cave_credit-Israel-Antiquities-Authority-Emil-Aladjem-scaled.jpg","width":768,"height":576,"caption":"Emil Aladjem \/ Israel Antiquities Authority"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2023\/01\/archaeologists-uncover-tomb-of-apocryphal-jesuss-midwife.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Archaeologists Uncover Tomb of Apocryphal \u201cJesus\u2019s Midwife\u201d"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/","name":"Christ News Today","description":"Christian News From Around the Globe","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/#\/schema\/person\/77cb6eeb5c74ee0eb8c77ea1ebc43c6a","name":"Leigh Pizzutilla","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/author\/lpizzutilla"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/664"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5178"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5190,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5178\/revisions\/5190"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}