Monthly Archives: March 2010

Edward F. Campbell, in a report on the 1960 excavation at Shechem, tells about Sellin’s discovery more than three decades earlier.

“While this work was underway, he found time to study some stones in the court before the temple. On each side of the door there was a large stone block, one of them nearly 4M ft. long, the other nearly 6 ft. long. Both had long depressions cut into their tops, and Sellin had first thought that they were watering troughs—though how such small depressions could have served any such purpose in front of the temple is difficult to imagine. Directly in front of the door in the courtyard to the southeast was a much larger stone with a similar though much deeper and wider trough, which also had been interpreted as a receptacle for water. Now, however, Sellin took note of a large, flat stone with rounded sides lying nearby. Though broken and much of it gone the reminder is still over 5 ft. high, some 4M ft. wide and 1 m ft. thick. Experiment showed that the smooth flat stone had been made to stand up in the trough, so Sellin put the two together. Two more flat stones were found to fit together in the left (southwestern) stone base beside the temple door. Sellin concluded that these three could only be installations of sacred standing stones that once framed the temple entrance—stones that in Old Testament Hebrew are called massebot” (Biblical Archaeologist: Vol. 20 1-4, electronic ed. (American Schools of Oriental Research).

The stone bases on either side of the entrance to the temple are visible today, and marked here by the red arrows. The base on the left has the broken sacred standing stone in place.

Courtyard and entrance to temple of Baal-Berith. Photo by F. Jenkins.

Notice the courtyard in front of the temple entrance. In a future post we will report how the largest standing stone was almost destroyed.

The book of Judges describes the situation at Shechem after the death of Gideon.

After Gideon died, the Israelites again prostituted themselves to the Baals. They made Baal-Berith their god. (Judges 8:33 NET)

Abimelech, the son of Gideon was such a desperate politician that he took money from the Shechemites from the temple of Baal-Berith (Judges 9:4). Dr. Bryant Wood describes the temple of Baal-Berith.

References to the “house of Baal-berith” (v. 4), “Beth-millo” (v. 6,20), “house of their god” (v. 27), “tower of Shechem” (vv. 46,47,49), and “temple of El-berith” (v. 46), all appear to be the same structure at Shechem. Berit is the Hebrew word for covenant, so the temple was for “Baal of the covenant.”

A large fortress (or Migdal) temple discovered on the acropolis of Shechem has been identified as the temple of Judges 9. It was  constructed in the seventeenth century B.C. and lasted until the destruction of the city by Abimelech in the twelfth century B.C. The largest temple yet found in Canaan, it measures 21.2 x 26.3 m, and has foundations 5.1 m thick that supported a multistoried superstructure of mud bricks and timber. On the east, two towers containing stairwells to the upper stories flanked the entrance. Inside, two rows of columns, three in each row, divided the space into a nave and two side aisles (cf. vv. 46-49)” (Bryant Wood. “From Ramesses to Shiloh.” Giving the Sense. Kregel, 2003).

The photo shows the foundation of the Temple of Baal-Berith at Shechem. This structure was brought to light in the

Temple of Baal-Berith in center of photo. Gerizim (L) & Ebal (R). Photo by F. Jenkins.

G. Ernest Wright says, “Before 1903 biblical geographers all thought that Shechem was once located where the modern city of Nablus is.” They associated the Roman city of Neapolis with Nablus. The German scholar Herman Thiersch found the walls of “old Shechem” June 26, 1903. He said, “The place is somewhat under cultivation with vegetables and seed-crops.” (G. Ernest Wright, Biblical Archaeologist: Vol. 20 1-4, electronic ed. (Philadelphia: American Schools of Oriental Research, 2001, c1957). This site is identified with the mound of Tell Balata.

The first excavations at Shechem were conducted by Prof. Ernst Sellin in 1913 and 1914. More extensive excavations took place between 1926-1928.