Israeli archaeologists say they have discovered the first physical evidence supporting Old Testament accounts of Bethlehem’s existence centuries before it became revered as the birthplace of Jesus.
The proof came, they said, in a clay seal unearthed near the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem and imprinted with three lines of ancient Hebrew script that include the word “Bethlehem”.
Eli Shukron, of the Israel Antiquities Authority, said the seal had apparently been placed on a tax shipment of silver or produce sent from Bethlehem to the King of Judah in Jerusalem in the 8th or 7th century BC.
“This is the first time the name Bethlehem appears outside the Bible in an inscription from the First Temple period [1006 BC to 586 BC],” Mr Shukron said.
The find proved that Bethlehem was a city in the kingdom of Judah, and possibly even earlier, he said.