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Proof of Jewish "Roots" in the Land of Israel
(Huffington Post) Richard Elliott Friedman - On Sept. 24, the president of Iran stated that Israel has "no roots there in history" in the Middle East. The Bible pictures an Israelite-Jewish population and government there starting in the 12th century BCE and continuing for at least 800 years. But how do we know if this is true? In the first place, the land is filled with thousands of Hebrew inscriptions found in hundreds of excavated towns and cities - referring to God, kings and other people mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. They include stamps and seals from official documents and inscriptions on tombs. Jeffrey Tigay of the University of Pennsylvania notes: "The names of more than 1,200 pre-exilic Israelites are known from Hebrew inscriptions and foreign inscriptions referring to Israel." Indeed, texts from the neighboring Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Arameans, Moabites, and Persians refer to the people, kings, government, armies and cities of Israel. As documented in the Cylinder of Cyrus, the Persian emperor in 538 BCE let the exiled Jews in Babylonia return to their land. Ironically, Persia, now called Iran, has a president who says that Israel has no roots in the region.