Bible Archeology Discoveries

Beka Weight
Discovered: Jerusalem, Israel
From: (c. 800 BC)

This find was an extremely rare, tiny biblical stone weight inscribed in ancient Hebrew script with the word “beka”. This First Temple-period weight measure was used by pilgrims paying their half-shekel tax before ascending to the Temple Mount.

The word “beka” appears twice in the Torah: first as the weight of gold in a nose ring given to matriarch Rebecca in the Book of Genesis, and later in the Book of Exodus as a weight for the donation brought by the Jewish people for the maintenance of the Temple and the census, (Exodus 38:26).

Unlike several hundred years later, during this early era, there was no half-shekel coin. Pilgrims brought the equivalent weight of a beka in silver to pay their tax, which was measured out on scales in the very spot where the tiny stone weight was discovered.

"a beka a head, that is, half a shekel, after the shekel of the sanctuary, for every one that passed over to them that were numbered, from twenty years old and upward, for six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty men."
Exodus 38:26

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Notable Finds

Much of what is described in Bible text is lost to history, requiring readers to assume the historicity of the scriptures.

However, many of the places and events described in the Old and New Testaments are periodically corroborated by archeological finds.

Some finds simply help us to better understand things from the ancient world. However, others provide important evidence as to the truth of scripture regarding things about which there had previously been skepticism.

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