The Burnt House

Off the beaten path lies two of the most fascinating museums we attended in Israel. One of the advantages of doing things on your own is having the time to explore the less visited sites that your groups miss. The Burnt House of Kathros was one of them.

In 1970 Israel was preparing an area for construction when they came across ruins of an ancient home. They immediately called in an archaeological specialist who discovered the home had been from around 70AD and had been severely burnt. The remains telling an interesting story of the family who lived there and paints a vivid picture of live in the 1st century AD.

What remains of the home is the basement walls around 4 feet high and many artifacts. Since then many homes have been discovered all built on the slope of a hill facing the Temple Mount. The homes were inhabited by rich priest families. The first one we visited was inhabited by the Kethros family, this is known b/c of the family named marked of their pottery. This is a famous priest family mentioned in Jewish Scripture. The Jewish scripture called Talmud tells us about the Kethros family, "Woe is me because of their poison pens...For they are the High Priests, and their sons are treasures, and their sons-in-law are trustees, and their servants beat the people with staves."

Among the artifacts was a roman spear and a girls arm ripped from her body. The stone of the home had suit on it from being burned to the ground. This is from the well documented invasion Jerusalem by the Romans in 70AD. In less than 3 days they burned the Temple to the ground, burned the city, and slaughtered the inhabitants. It was a very sad point in the History of Jerusalem. Th only remains of the magnificent Jewish Holy Temple is part of the Western Wall which is the holiest of all places to the Jews.

There were so many remains of pottery, walkways and homes in the 6 or 7 homes excavated. It helped Casey and I to be able to visualize life in the first century. It was interesting to note how all the homes faced the Temple and had large balconies which opened up toward the Temple. The whole city was oriented in that direction.

The history was interesting as well. The Jews accounted the first Temple being destroyed b/c of idol worship and wickedness. However, they account the 2nd destruction of the Temple due to hatred within their own ranks. The fundamentalist wanted to wage war against the Romans and the majority wanted no war, so as they were fighting amongst themselves the Romans broke down the wall of the Temple burned it and entered the fortified city. It is also important to note the extreme corruption of their Priest who rose to the level of aristocracy. Much of their contention was with the Sanhedrin and Priestly aristocracy. However, it is interesting how plain it is for Christians to see the fulfillment of prophecy. When Jesus was battling against the wickedness of the Priests he prophesied that the Temple would be torn down in just 3 days and that one stone would not lay upon another. The Jew laughed him to scorn. It was interesting will all this, what Christians would consider, evidence of the fulfillment of prophecy isn't obvious at all to other people. In another Museum the Jews accounted for the Crucifixion of Christ by simply saying he was killed by the Romans. The account of Christ by the two scriptures in much different. To Jews he was a great teacher of the law that made the Romans agery and they did away with him then his followers made him into something he is not. By the Christian account he is the Saviour of the world, despised and reject by his own and innocently crucified.

It was truly amazing to see these homes, and to gain a better understanding of how people lived in the 1st century.