{N}JUDEA{/}

The use of this term only appears in the texts subsequent to the Exile (Tobit, Judith, Maccabees, Daniel and later certainly in the New Testament). It is evident, besides, that behind it hides the name of Judah. Already starting from the captivity in Babylon the name of Judea is attributed to the southern part of Palestine, including the area between the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. It corresponded more or less to the ancient kingdom of Judah. The frontiers, however, did not exactly coincide due to the fluctuations produced by alliances and invasions.
When God chose David and the city of Jerusalem [1K_11,13] this southern region of Palestine became the heart of Israel.

{K}A HETEROCCLITE REGION{/}
From east to west, the mass of Judea subdivides into three totally disparate regions:
The western region of the Sefela, at the foot of the mountain, presents countryside of low rounded hills and ample valleys adequate for farming.
The mountain itself, which reaches over 1000 meters, extends along forty kilometers, from Bethlehem to Bersheba. It is made up of calcareous and rocky plateaus between which the {N}wadis{/} (valleys) are stuck. On the better-placed slopes, the cultivation of cereals, grapevines, olive trees and fig trees was situated along the grades on the slopes. In regard to Jerusalem, it was situated to the north of the mountain crest, not far from the border that, in biblical times, separated the tribe of Judah from the tribe of Benjamin. The deep valleys that cut through Judea from east to west, made passage between the coastal plain and the valley of the Jordan easy.
But this region also possesses its own desert: the desert of Judah that begins at the doors of Jerusalem and gradually descends until the valley of the Jordan and the Dead Sea, an incline of 1400 meters. On this slope, the rainfall diminishes and the growth of trees becomes more and more scarce. Here we find ourselves in the domain of the shepherds whose sheep and goats try to uproot from the hills, throughout a good part of the year, the thin layer of grass.

{K}AN UNCERTAIN ORIGIN{/}
The name of Judah seems more of a geographic origin than an historic one, the inverse of Naphtali or Ephraim. Actually, the most ancient texts of the Bible omit the tribe of Judah: they mention on the other hand the diverse clans that later constituted it: the Kenizzites, among them the sons of {N}Caleb{/} and those of {N}Othniel{/}, the {N}Jerajmeelites{/}, or even more the clans of Fares, Sela and Zera. It is made up then of a whole mosaic of nomadic clans that, finding unity under the shepherd's crook of David, will take the name of the region it occupies: the south of Palestine.
According to the customs of the societies of oral tradition, and in order to point out how this tribe belongs to the people of Israel, an ancestor among the sons of Jacob will be attributed to it, and the mother is Leah, the wife that was scorned but blessed by God.
Actually, the text in Genesis says: As Yahweh saw that Leah was not loved he made her fertile, while Rachel was sterile. Leah got pregnant for the fourth time and gave birth to a son. "{C}This time, she said, I will praise Yahweh." That is why she named him Judah and after that she had no more children.{/} [Gen_29,31] - [Gen_29,35] 

{K}BLESSED BY THE PATRIARCH{/}
Feeling that his death was drawing near, Jacob called to his sons. After having blessed the first three, he turned to Judah saying: {C}"To you, Judah, your brothers will praise you, you shall seize your enemies by the neck, and your brothers shall bow before you. Judah is a young lion! You return, my son, from the prey. Like a lion he stoops and crouches and like a lioness, who dares to rouse him? The scepter shall not be taken from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs, and who has the obedience of nations. He ties his foal to a vine, and his ass' colt to the choicest branch. He washes his garments in wine and his robe in the juice of grapes." {/}[Gen_49,8] - [Gen_49,12]
We can recognize without difficulty in these verses the work of scribes of the royal dynasty of Jerusalem. They praised in this way David who had managed to impose himself on all the tribes of Israel.
But behind David the image of another king is taking shape already: a king according to the heart of God, who will descend Mount Olive riding on a donkey, a king to whom all the peoples of the land will submit. His clothes will be stained with his own blood [Is_63,1] - [Is_63,3], so that by the wine of the New and Eternal Covenant, all the nations be reconciled definitively with God.

{K}- BETHANY{/}
On the eastern slope of Mount Olive the town of Bethany stands out over the austere countryside of the hills of Judah, which descend to the Jordan; on the horizon one can make out the mountains of Moab. In this town situated {C}near Jerusalem at a distance of some fifteen stages {/}[Jn_11,18] meaning a little more than two kilometers, the Gospel of John places the resurrection of Lazarus which, besides, has given its name to the present day arab town of El-Lazarieh.
The place was familiar to Jesus. The house of {N}Lazarus{/} and his sisters, Martha and Mary, was for him a haven of peace and friendship. In addition, it is renowned as the setting where Jesus performs the masterful sign of returning Lazarus to life, as told by John in chapter 11 of his Gospel, announcing for the last time the mystery of his Passion and Resurrection.
Along the path that descends from the old town towards the east, one finds in a line the tombs from the times previous to the ruin of Jerusalem in the year 70: among these is Lazarus' tomb.
The tomb called Lazarus' is found today crowned by a minaret. Dug into the rock, it is formed by a vestibule and a funeral chamber that is three steps lower. The testimonies that refer to Lazarus' tomb are numerous from the third century on, among them the one from the same Origen can be counted (185-254 A.D.) Through the diverse stories of travel by the pilgrims during the fourth century, it can be verified that previously there had been a sanctuary with an atrium constructed over the tomb between 330 and 390 A.D.
Let us also remember here the anointment by {N}Mary{/}, who poured a pound of fine and very costly perfume over Jesus' feet (Jn 12, 1-11), a prophetic gesture that, some days before the Passover, anticipated the burial of Jesus.

{K}- BETHLEHEM{/}
Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea during the days of King Herod  [Mt_2,1]. City of the Messiah Savior, but also city of David, the shepherd king, and of his ancestor Ruth, the Moabite, Bethlehem (in Hebrew Beith-lehem) probably owes its name to an old assyrian divinity, the god Lahamu (hebr: beith-/ house, or meaning, House of Lahamu). But in the christian tradition, due to an approximate popular etymology, it will remain as "the house of Bread" (hebr: beith-/ house; lehem/ bread. Yet, is not Jesus {C}the living bread who came down from heaven{/}? [Jn_6,51].
Bethlehem is located on the hills of Judah seven kilometers south of Jerusalem, about eight hundred meters high. It had a strategic importance from ancient times, due to its situation, since it was along the route of the caravans heading from Jerusalem to Egypt through Hebron. Settlers were established there since the Stone Age. According to the book of the Chronicles [2Chr_11,6] the town had been fortified by Rehoboam following a philistine occupation.
Cradle of the davidian dynasty, the humble village would never have reached such celebrity if Jesus, a descendant of David, had not been born there. It is exactly in this small town where, going back in time, we find ourselves during the first times with David and his ancestor Ruth, the Moabite.

{K}RUTH{/}
The book of Ruth is a true picture of family virtues. What a puff of freshness, affection and tenderness at a moment when the reader is often disconcerted by the violent stories of the book of Judges or the books of  Samuel! Ruth, the foreign woman, wife of Boaz, who is the owner of the field where she went to glean. From this union Obed was born, the father of Jesse who will engender David.

{K}DAVID{/}
Had not God made the children of Israel know, in many ways, that their thoughts were not His Own, and that their ways were not His ways [Is_55,8]? Once again here in Bethlehem, God chooses an unknown person to make him the king of his people: the small shepherd preferred over his brothers [1S_16,1].

{K}THE PROFECY OF MICAH{/}
Bethlehem reminds us here also of Micah's prophecy, who awaits a Messiah, a new David also proceeding from Bethlehem: {C}Bethlehem Ephrathah, although the smallest among all the peoples of Judah, you will give me the one who should rule over Israel. He himself shall be your peace{/} [Mic_5,1] - [Mic_5,4].
It is this small village of Judah where the people of Israel await with their prophet the birth of David's descendant, the one who will come to bring them the long awaited salvation.

{K}WAS JESUS REALLY BORN IN BETHLEHEM?{/}
Among those that are disconcerted by the gospel, it is practically a fad to allege that nothing is known about the birth of Jesus. And they say that Bethlehem has been mentioned as the place of his birth solely because he was believed to be the Messiah, and consequently "Son of David". Then he should be a descendant of David who was from Bethlehem, and consequently he should be born in Bethlehem... There has never been any argument provided against the testimony of the gospels and, as Joachim Jeremiah wrote, the proof is incumbent upon one who denies the testimony, not the one who accepts it. Besides, to the testimony of the Scripture many others have been added.
In the year 135, Bethlehem is occupied by a roman legion that liquidates the last rebels incited by Bar Kochba. At that time the emperor Adrian, treating Judaism and Christianity with the same disdain, did the same thing against the Church as he did against the Synagogue.
In Mamre he transformed the place that was kept as the memory of {N}Abraham{/} into a market where the Jews reduced to slavery were sold. In Bethlehem, he surrounded the grotto with a sacred forest in honor of Tammuz, the Adonis of the Greeks, whose worship was going to be celebrated in the inside of the same cave. This tells us that the authenticity of the grotto was recognized by the most ancient christian tradition.
At the beginning of the third century, Christianity is in full expansion and Bethlehem attracts more and more pilgrims all the time. In 326, Saint Helen, the mother of Constantine, the emperor who converted to Christianity, promotes the construction work of a great basilica of five naves, preceded by an ample vestibule.

{K}THE GROTTO{/}
The cave of the Nativity is found under the basilica, which can be entered by a stairway placed at the right of the choir chamber. Each cavity of the grotto has known diverse denominations, destinations and modifications in the course of time. Saint Jerome would have worked on his translation of the Bible into Latin here, installing himself in a nearby cave. Let us not forget that during the time of Jesus, these caves were in the middle of the center of the town of Bethlehem. Just as in Nazareth and in many other places in Palestine, many houses were constructed from a natural cavity, and with time rooms were being added in front.

{K}RACHEL'S TOMB{/}
Tradition places the burial place of Rachel, the well loved wife of Jacob and mother of three tribes: Ephraim - Manasseh and Benjamin, at the exit from Bethlehem, along the route to Jerusalem. A small white monument, finished off with a dome, would protect the remains of the second wife of Jacob. Yet this localization is refuted by a passage of the book of Samuel that situates the tomb of Rachel in the territory of Benjamin [1S_10,2], near Bethel.
It is probable that the localization of the tomb had been transferred from Bethel to Bethlehem, as occurred with other venerated places, due to political events. When the territories of the north fell into assyrian hands, it was made impossible for the inhabitants of the south to go to venerate the tomb of Rachel. So they move the memories to the region around Bethlehem.

{K}- EKRON{/}
"The five small philistine kingdoms are: Gaza, Ashdod, Aphekah, Gath and Ekron{N}{/}" [Jos_13,3].-
Ekron formed part of this philistine federation that was going to dominate the fertile lands of the coastal plain and of the Sefela starting from the twelfth century B.C. and it would be in constant conflict with the Israelites of the mountainous region. Recipients and utensils made of flint somewhat previous to the philistine epoch discovered in the place, indicate that the place would have already been occupied in the fourth millennium B.C.

{K}THE PHILISTINE CITY-STATE{/}
Ekron is one of the principal sites of the Iron Age in Palestine. It was an important urban center between the twelfth and tenth centuries B.C.; the city is surrounded by a powerful system of fortification. Inside the surrounding wall, public buildings and industrial areas were built up and besides the philistine pottery that was discovered there were also objects of Cypriot and Aegean influence found. In the center of the city, various seated statues have been discovered in the place dedicated to worship.

{K}THE OIL INDUSTRY{/}
The processing of olive oil produced the wealth of the city. The production exceeded the necessities of the population. The surplus was exported towards the cities of the kingdom of Judah, especially to Jerusalem. First of all the olives were crushed and right away placed in straw baskets under a rudimentary press, made of a great rock actuated by wooden levers. The oil extracted in this way was poured into stone buckets. Hundreds of jugs for decanting or for conservation have been discovered in the different rooms. Actually it was a family run industry. Something characteristic of Ekron: altars constructed of one single rock, very often with four horns or antlers, similar to the Canaanite altars, were placed very near the oil presses.
Other installations were made up of two buckets; the flatter one was found at the entrance of the house and it was placed inside a deeper one. The inhabitants of Ekron, who were occupied only two months of the year in the olive oil production, were dedicated probably to artisan leatherwork and the cultivation of flax during the rest of the year.
Ekron was destroyed in the year 701 B.C. by Sennacherib who began his campaign razing the coastal cities of the Philistine territory.

{K}- GIBEON{/}
Gibeon was a very important city, a royal city greater than Ai, and its men were very brave.{N}{/} [Jos_10,2].
Gibeon, some fifteen kilometers to the northeast of Jerusalem along the route of Bet Horon was already in the second millenium B.C., a powerful Canaanite city. Joshua and the God of Israel made the city famous when, according to the tradition stemming from the Holy Book, they detained the course of the sun over Gibeon.
In this popular story taken from an older popular piece of poetic literature, the Book of the Just, the book of Joshua reminds Israel that it has conquered evil, not because of the strength of its weapons, but because his God gave him victory. He is the one who gives his people the Promised Land. {C}Some boast of chariots, others of horses, but we boast in the name of the Lord, our God .{/} [Ps_20,8]

{K}GIBEON DURING THE ROYAL EPOCH{/}
After his victory over the philistines, {C}Saul built an altar to Yahweh in that place, the first he ever built to Him. {/}[1S_14,35]; an examination of the area authorizes the identification of this improvised altar with "the big stone that was found in Gibeon" [2S_20,8], on top of which the animals were sacrificed. It was this sacred place of the tribe of Benjamin where King Solomon went to offer sacrifices. {C}The  king went to Gibeon to offer there sacrifices, since then this was the most important sanctuary of the hills. And it was in Gibeon that Yahweh appeared during the night in a dream and told him "Ask what you want me to give you.{/}" [1K_3,4] - [1K_3,5]
After the tenth century a wall surrounds the city. The system of water supply from a fountain or well that was found much lower, outside of the surrounding wall, reminds us of those of Megiddo, Hazor, Gezer and Jerusalem. A tunnel that came from the inside of the walls allowed the supplying of water without fear of the raiders. Some hundred steps cut into the rock, inside the tunnel, facilitated the access to the water deposit.

{K}- GEZER{/}
About some thirty kilometers to the west of Jerusalem, along the last foothills of the mountains of Judah, rises Gezer. In the times of the monarchy it was converted, with Hazor and Megiddo, into one of the three great fortresses that controlled the roads against possible invasions [1K_9,15]. However, even for a millenium Gezer will have to share the times of prosperity with times of war in this region of Judea.

{K}A GOOD OBSERVATORY{/}
Nothing apparently lets us guess, in this place where the hills sink, the strategic interest of Gezer; only the layout of the ancient routes explains its privileged position. The Via Maris comes up from Egypt; after following the northern coast of the Sinai peninsula, it crosses the country of the Philistines passing through Ekron, at some eleven kilometers as the crow flies. Afterwards it will carry on its path towards Mount Carmel and its prolongation's will cross on the way to Megiddo. Another transversal way coming from the coastal plain, climbs towards Jerusalem and then descends towards Jericho and from there penetrates Transjordan: these two principal routes cross under the eyes of Gezer. It can then be understood that this strategic position had brought with it very quickly the fortification of this hillock.
The place was occupied since the fourth millennium, as the commercial relations with the empire of the Pharaohs bear witness to. In the seventeenth century B.C., the Hyksos take over the city and construct an impressive system of defense: a colossal wall reinforced with enormous towers. On the inside of the wall on a vast meadow the sanctuary of Gezer exposes its ten "Masseboth" or {C}the rising stones{/} towards the sky. It is the best example of a hillside sanctuary of this type found in this time: the {C}rising stones{/} here are between 1,50 and 3 meters high; in front of one of them a bucket shape hollowed out in the stone in the form of a recipient served, probably, to hold the oil for the libations.
A new population that easily became assimilated with the Canaanites inhabited the city: the {N}Horites{/}. A people of unknown origin, intrepid horsemen and skillful drivers of chariots, they arrived from the Mesopotamia of the north. They dominated the neighboring states of Syria and Palestine during a long time.

{K}GEZER IN THE BIBLE{/}
In the sixteenth century the egyptian armies intervene and the city is razed. Later the egyptian decadence favors the dominion of the Philistines in the southeast of Palestine and the book of Judges leaves us an image of Gezer, inhabited primarily by a canaanite population, but controlled by philistine princes.
During the times of Solomon, Gezer is mentioned once again in the Bible: {C}Pharaoh, King of Egypt, had gone up and had captured Gezer, burning it and putting to death all the Canaanites who inhabited the city. Then he gave the city as dowry to his daughter, Solomon's wife. And he was the one who rebuilt Gezer.{/} [1K_9,16] - [1K_9,17] The architecture is then, characteristic of the solomonic epoch: today one can see it, admirably conserved, with its collector of waters, an underground system which runs through the town from one side to the other. During the same epoch, in the tenth century, the system that assured the access of water in case of a siege had been set up: it consisted of a seven meter deep well that led to a tunnel forty one meters long that flowed into the grotto where the water was available.
This formidable system of defense, similar in everything to those of Megiddo and Hazor, was maintained in the same state that it was found in until the conquest of the country by the Assyrians. In the constructions of what was the administrative center, a small plaque of calcareous material has been discovered on which was engraved the agricultural calendar. It was written in Hebrew and provides the list of the months of the year in relation to the seasonal development of the agricultural tasks.
Following the death of Solomon, the fortress at Gezer was partially destroyed; the pharaoh Sesonc went through there during the course of the campaign he undertook through Asia. In the seventh century, the south of Palestine was converted into a region of some special interest to the Assyrians since it included the route towards Egypt, object of their greed. The archeology gives testimony to the massive presence of Assyrians in the city, which took on then the rank of advanced fortress for the sovereigns of Nineveh. This would last until the babylonian invasion that will put an end to the reign of Judah.
The last occupation dates to the period of the Maccabees, the city is then called {N}Gazara{/}. Simon Maccabee takes over the city, occupied by the men of Bakides, a general of king Demetrius of Antioch. Simon installs himself there for a time and later entrusts it to his son, the future John Hyrcanus [1Mac_13,53].
The crusades made the name of Gezer revive for some years with the Dominion of Mount Gisart. It was at the foot of Mount Gisart where Baldwin IV, the leper king, in a heroic charge against an enemy proud of his first triumphs, annihilates Saladin's army that was marching towards Jerusalem at that time, around the year 1177 A.D.

{K}-  HEBRON - MAMRE{/}
"Abram picked up his tents then and went to settle by the trees of Mamre, in Hebron. There he built an altar to Yahweh." [Gen_13,18]
In the heart of the hills of Hebron, in past times covered by oak and turpentine trees, the faith of our forefathers is rooted. For the believers of three monotheistic religions: Jewish, Christian and Muslim, this place is full of meaning: Abraham's religious experience, the man to whom God revealed himself and in whom {C}all the families of the earth are blessed.{/} All worship there the tombs of the patriarchs and celebrate with the same fervor the common father Abraham, "{C}the friend of God"{/}. Hebron is besides the first great stage in the ascent of David: there {C}the men of Judah came and they anointed David as king over the house of Judah{/} [2S_2,4].

{K}ABRAHAM AT THE OAK TREE OF MAMRE{/}
Successive migrations lead Abraham and the clan of his father, from {N}Ur{/} of Chaldeans (present day Irak) to {N}Haran{/} in higher Mesopotamia (eastern Turkey of today). Calle by God, Abraham leaves the paternal tribe. Filled with blessings and promises, the promise of a land and of descendants, he leaves for a country in Canaan [Gen_12,15]. From camp to camp, the nomad goes through the holy place of Shechem, through Bethel (the House of God) and, finally, {C}he came to settle in the grove of oaks at Mamre in Hebron.{/} [Gen_13,18].
During the monarchical times, a holy path led to the holy place that held together the altar, the well and the oak of Abraham. Herod converted it into a walled enclosure of monumental characteristics, from which still remain enormous blocks of stone. The place was destroyed during the first jewish revolt against the Romans in the year 70 A.D. The stones were used again by the emperor Adrian who had a temple built in honor of Hermes.
Only the book of Genesis mentions the holy place of Mamre. This tribal sanctuary, where an oak was venerated, ran the risk of encouraging the return to the worship of nature condemned by the Law of Moses; without a doubt, due to this it was abandoned once the reform of Josiah in 722 B.C is promulgated [2K_23,1].
There came however the israelite pilgrims in the times of the monarchy. They commemorated the renewal of the promise made by God to the "father" of the believers: the promise to give him against all evidence countless descendants.

{K}A SON OF YOUR OWN, BORN OF YOUR BLOOD{/}
Then the word of God addressed him in these terms: {C}"Your heir will be a sond born of you, born of your own flesh and blood." Yahweh brought him outside and said to him: "Look at the sky and count the stars if you can. Your descendants will be like that" and Abraham believed Yahweh, who held him to be an upright man from then on{/} [Gen_15,1].
In Mamre Abraham prepares the ritual sacrifice of all covenants celebrated among the nomads: animals are split down and the contracting parties must pass in the midst of them. And here is where God himself commits himself in the first place: suddenly the night is illuminated, and the fire burns through the darkness ... God had passed by ...! The covenant has been signed by Yahweh's own hand.
Also in Mamre by the grace of God, what is impossible becomes reality and the son of the promise is born. And it is here as well where Abraham receives his three mysterious visitors, who are definitely no more than the presence of the Only One.

{K}HEBRON, ONE OF THE MOST ANCIENT CITIES OF JUDAH{/}
According to the book of Numbers, {C}Hebron had been built seven years before the city of Tanis in Egypt{/} [Num_13,22]. Tanis-Zoan was a flourishing city, in the northeastern part of the delta of the Nile, and the Hyksos situated their capital there. However, it seems that Hebron is even more ancient: at the beginning of the second millenium it was already a fortress city. The city fulfilled an important role in the mountains of Judah and already possessed a written culture.
The canaanite city was also called Qiryat-Arba (the City of the Four). Surely the four clans that occupied the different areas of the city and the surrounding areas must have gathered together in the central sanctuary.

{K}ABRAHAM BUYS A TOMB AND SOME LAND IN HEBRON{/}
The importance is known of this purchase made by Abraham, since the land acquired will become converted into the place of rest of the remains of {N}Sarah{/}. Abraham not only acquires the cave and the field, but besides all the trees that are found in the field; in this way he becomes the owner of a first piece of the land that God had promised to him.

{K}THE TOMB OF THE PATRIARCHS: HARAM EL JALIL{/}
Abraham converted the cave of Machpelah into his family tomb. There, together with Sarah, he himself was buried, after dying {C}at a very good old age, full of years{/} [Gen_25,8].
The holy place received the name of Haram El-Jalil (the Sanctuary of the Friend). An improvised synagogue, with architecture of the time of the crusades, as also muslim mimbar and mirhab remember here that all of the children of Abraham recognize only one God. All of them: Jews, Christians and Muslims, worship Abraham as the father of faith. Abraham is the father of all of us [Rom_4,16] - [Rom_4,17]. The hope that Abraham is the bearer of concerns all of humanity: {C}Here there is no longer any difference between Jew or Greek, or between slave or free men, or between man and woman, since all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And because you belong to Christ, you are also of Abraham's race and you are to inherit God's promise. {/}[Gal_3,28] - [Gal_3,29].

{K}KING DAVID IN HEBRON{/}
At the time of the conquest of the country of Canaan, Joshua was at the head of all of Israel and took over Hebron: {C}From Eglon they went to Hebron; he conquered it together with all the towns which were subject to it{/} [Jos_10,36]. Later Joshua grants the city and its territory to Caleb who{N} {/}was the only one among the explorers sent by Moses to recognize the Promised Land, who did not scorn the country nor discourage the people.
The region of Hebron that depended on the calebite clans carried out a decisive role in the beginning of the history of David. Pursued by Saul, David found a place of refuge there. He married {N}Abigail{/}, the widow of a famous calebite. This union got him integrated into this powerful tribe and made him a kind of heir of Caleb. Anointed by the Lord, a valiant and skillful warrior, crowned by the glory of his victories, {C}David consulted Yahweh: "Shall I go up to one of the cities of Judah?" The response was: "Go up." David asked, "Where shall I go?" The response was: "To Hebron." So David went up there with his two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel. David also brought up his men with their families and they settled in the towns of Hebron. Then the men of Judah came and there they anointed David king over the nation of Judah.{/} [2S_2,1] - [2S_2,4]
This was how the kingdom of Judah entered into history.

{K}- THE HERODION{/}
The fortress of Herodion rises up some five kilometers to the south east of Bethlehem, in the semi-arid lands that are within the confines of the hills of the desert of Judah. It forms part of the great architectural collection of buildings constructed by Herod the Great in way of defense, but also as a way of exalting his own prestige. It included within the collection: the palaces and fortresses of Jericho, Masada, Maqueronte, Hircania, Cypros, the Antonia of Jerusalem, the grandiose reconstruction of the Temple of Jerusalem and the conditioning of the maritime Caesarea.

{K}THE HERODION{/}
The fortress, that is named for Herod, was constructed starting in the year 37 B.C. in commemoration of the modest victory of his rearguard over those Parthians who were fleeing Jerusalem in order to find refuge in Masada.
From Jerusalem it can be perceived how this natural hill was fortified by Herod after having made his surroundings higher. It forms a kind of crater in which the sumptuous palace - fortress is lodged, hidden from indiscreet eyes. Herod felt sure only when he found himself up high in one of those eagles nests that had been conditioned as winter or summer residences.
The Herodion includes a palace fortress constructed over a hill and at its feet, a residential palace.
One entered the palace fortress through a side ramp of some two hundred steps, which were covered in marble. That ramp went up to the top of the hill and its highest part gave way to a tunnel that led to a small door. The visitor then arrives to a large courtyard with colonnades and an ornamental garden with water deposits , a fabulous luxury considering the situation of the place: at the doors of the desert. The magnificent roman baths that the complex possessed, included, according to the custom: a room for the hot bath, another for the warm baths and a third for the cold baths. Great cisterns had also been carved out of the living rock, to catch the rainwater of the winter. This whole complex included a sumptuous roman villa and a fortress from where Herod's personal guards watched over the surrounding areas.
The residential palace had been constructed some one hundred meters lower, on a terrain of some fifteen hectares. At the center of an immense patio a great pool served likewise as a reservoir and as a swimming pool. In the middle of the pool the columbarium was found, in a round shape where the urns of the incinerated deceased were deposited.
The incineration was a typically pagan form of burial. The Jews of the group of the Pharisees, who believed in the resurrection, could not adopt this funeral rite because of respect for their bodies, depositaries of the promise of eternal life. It seems that the columbarium was reserved for the personal guards of Herod, since they were all pagans (Thraces, Germans, Galatians ...). Herod thought that he could count better on the faithfulness of these foreigners than on that of the Jews, who searched for, possibly, the favorable opportunity to eliminate him.
The sumptuousness of the palace helps us to understand the emphatic pages of Flavius Josephus upon describing Herod's burial.
"At that time Archelaus thought to make the king, his father, a sumptuous funeral and resolved to be personally present. The body of the deceased was attired with his royal clothing, with a crown of gold on his head and a staff in his hand; he was carried on a gold litter with precious stones of great value set into it. Behind it went the children of the deceased and the closer relatives, followed by all the men of war by nation, after nation: the Thraces, Germans and Galatians marched at the head and all the rest followed commanded by their leaders. Each one carried his arms as on a day of battle. Five hundred officials, relatives of the deceased king, brought perfumes and ended this solemn march. They marched in this way, in this order, from Jericho until the palace of Herodion: there the prince was buried as he had ordered it" (Jewish Antiquities XVII 10).

{K}- JERICHO{/}
When they blow the horn, all the people shall come up to attack, shouting their battle cry. At that moment, the walls of the city will fall and everyone shall enter straight ahead of him.{N}{/} [Jos_6,5]
In this way the Bible tells us the story of the capture of Jericho by the israelite tribes, under the leadership of Joshua. With its trumpets and its walls that fall down, the history of the city belongs to the collection of the popular images from the Bible. But Jericho also serves as the setting for the miraculous healing of a blind man and the conversion of Zaccheus, who had climbed up the sycamore tree. In short, it is a decisive stage along the way up to Jerusalem by Jesus, in the course of which the Lord announced for the third time the proximity of his Death and Resurrection. For any traveler who has just crossed through the desert, this oasis, situated about ten kilometers to the north of the Dead Sea, and at two hundred and fifty meters below the level of the Mediterranean Sea, appears as a paradisiacal place. This is the city of the {N}palm{/} trees [Dt_34,3], of exuberant vegetation, where the leafy tropical fruit trees grow. In the center of the present day city, the ruins of Tell-es-Sultan remind us that much earlier than the christian era, much earlier even than the entrance of the tribes in Canaan, Jericho already had a long history that went back beyond the eighth millennium B.C.

{K}TELL-ES-SULTAN{/}
The place was occupied from the tenth millennium by peoples of the Natufian culture. These were semi-nomads who lived by harvesting and hunting; as a dwelling they used huts. Towards the IX millennium important changes are produced in the ways of life, due to which the historians rightly speak of the Neolithic{N} {/}revolution: during this period humans will pass from an economy of {C}predation{/} to an economy of {C}production{/}. The harvesting gives way to agriculture and the cattle raising progressively substitutes hunting; the families get linked to a ground and become sedentary. Because of this they observe the rhythm and the conditions of the development of vegetables and animals, making their own way of life evolve. One of the first sedentary agricultural communities gather together in this area, with settlements to the west of the fountain called "of Elisha" in memory of its purification by the prophet [2K_2,19] - [2K_2,22].
On the western part of the tell a round tower of stone that is 8,5 meters in diameter and 8 meters high flanks a thick wall. One remains astonished on seeing the conservation of these remains: let us think that they are approximately ten thousand years old and that the pyramids of Egypt are closer to us in time than what they are of that tower. An abrupt stairway placed on the inside of the tower, leads up to the top, over which one rock clearly bigger than the rest is noticeable, whose function was probably of sacrificial character. The role that this tower performed is not totally certain. It seems however, that on that plain that is like a corridor along the river Jordan, the tower was a type of "high place" from where top sacrificial rituals were offered.
The place, which was abandoned during many centuries, knew a period of expansion starting from 7500 B.C. In this period only agricultural communities can be talked about and not the city as such.
Beside the tower are found cylindrical structures that had probably been silos. It is not difficult to comprehend the vertigo that overpowered these men, who, after having observed nature and its laws for millenniums, launched themselves on the crazy adventure of agriculture, and saw their first attempts crowned with success. Nothing more natural then, than entrusting the fruit of their harvests - that great treasure - to beneficent divinities.
Humankind will easily forget this humble attitude of recognition. And the Deuteronomy puts Israel on guard against the temptation of believing only in the effectiveness of one's own work: {C}Yahweh, your God, will bring you into this good land, a land of streams and rivers, of subterranean waters that gush forth in the valleys and the mountains, a land of wheat and barley, of grapes and figs, of pomegranates and olives, a land of oil and honey, a land where the bread you eat is not rationed and where you will lack nothing.    ... So take care that you do not forget Yahweh, your God, ... lest you say, "With my own strength I have attained all these good things {/}[Dt_8,7] - [Dt_8,9]; [Dt_8,10], [Dt_8,17] - [Dt_8,18].

{K}JERICHO: A CITY OF THE BRONZE AGE{/}
The process of urbanization that extends from the fourth millennium B.C. all through the Near East lets us now talk about Jericho as a true city. Already in the third millennium it was surrounded by gigantic fortifications. The adobe walls are constructed at that time in independent sections, capable of resisting a seism, which was something frequent in this region of Ghor. A double wall and towers in a horseshoe, later rectangular, contribute to reinforce the system of defense.
Jericho is destroyed at the end of the third millennium. The place is newly occupied by a population of semi-nomads and a change can be observed in this period in the funerary customs. In an urban society, the collective tombs shelter several generations of the same family. Meanwhile among the well to do populations, the deceased are buried individually in tombs in the shape of vertical wells dug into the rock, forming, in this way, vast cemeteries.

{K}THE PASSAGE OF THE HYKSOS{/}
During the period that goes from 1800 to 1500 B.C., Jericho is the most important city in the valley of the Jordan. A wall protects it. In small houses spread along two long streets remains have been discovered such as millstones, grain and potter's wheels, things that give testimony to a local craft making. With the urbanized society, the return to the multiple tombs is produced. These deliver to us a precious information with respect to the way of life of the population of the epoch, thanks to the extraordinary conservation of the organic materials: wooden furniture, beds, benches, tables with three legs and several utensils, without counting the crockery made of alabaster. It is also known that this flourishing city suffered the destruction by a fire around the year 1550 B.C. This disaster coincides with the expulsion of the Hyksos, pursued in Palestine by the Egyptians.

{K}DID THE WALLS OF JERICHO REALLY FALL DOWN?{/}
This question has not gone out of fashion and permits the unbeliever to scoff at the veracity of the Holy Books and the apologist to invent a thousand and one stratagems through which some men blowing on trumpets could have been capable of demolishing the walls of a fortress.
In fact, Jericho was practically abandoned during centuries and could not have sheltered more than a modest population in the time of Joshua. There is then, an apparent contradiction between the arqueological references and the biblical text. But it may be necessary to bring up the following question: What is the function of this story? The text is beautiful, in rhythm with the seven days of the creation, like an echo of the primary rhythm on which the seventh day represents the culmination. Here the capture of Jericho on the part of the Israelite invader does not belong to the factual history of Israel, but rather to the history of its faith. The origin of this grandiose liturgy should be searched for in the rite that was celebrated in Gilgal, around the circle of stones deposited there by Joshua, in order to commemorate the crossing of the Jordan on dry feel. That day, in fact, {C}Joshua set up the twelve stones taken from the riverbed of the Jordan, when they crossed it. Then Joshua said to the Israelites: "When your children ask you in the future what these stones mean, then you shall tell them that the people of Israel crossed the Jordan without getting wet, for Yahweh, our God, dried up the waters of the Jordan before us just as he did to the Red Sea which he also dried up before us to let us cross."{/} [Jos_4,20] - [Jos_4,24].
In Jericho the Israelites give thanks before the miraculous action of God that had just given them the victory. The first city found - in ruins - after having crossed the Jordan, is the first stage of the fulfillment of the promises made to the patriarchs. The story ends with the burning of the city and Joshua's curse: {C}"May Yahweh curse the man who rebuilds Jericho. May its foundations rise on the body of his eldest son and the gates on that of his youngest son"{/} [Jos_6,26]. Around the middle of the ninth century B.C., in times of Ahab, this curse will fall over one named Hiel of Bethel [1K_16,34]. This man did no more than resume the sacrifices for the foundation, practiced by the Canaanite peoples.

{K}THE HERODIAN JERICHO{/}
In the second century B.C. the city extends towards the south east, along the banks of Wadi Qelt. The hasmonean kings made it their winter residence, happy to leave the capital and its mountains during the cold season and to enjoy a more benign climate. Alexander Janeo (103-76 B.C.) started the construction of the first palace. He added two swimming pools surrounded on three of the sides by a vast meadow; gardens and baths complete the installations.
The palace was ready for lodging new occupants: this happened at the end of the first century B.C. Since the encounter with Cleopatra VII in 41 B.C., the triumvir Marcus Antonius (83-30 B.C.) fell in love with the queen of Egypt. Much later she persuaded the Roman to make her his wife and give her part of his possessions: Crete, Cyprus and Phoenicia passed from the authority of Rome to that of Egypt. Marcus Antonius would also grant her the coastal area, from Lebanon to Gaza and later Jericho with its palm and balsam trees and its tropical fruits: every class of goods that assured Cleopatra a very appreciable income. She knew how to take benefit from these territories, leasing them to Herod the Great, who had just received the crown of Palestine from Octavius.
Without wasting an instant, Herod enlarged this luxurious residence. A first palace was built but disappeared with the seism in 31 B.C.. At the same time Marcus Antonius and Cleopatra, defeated by Octavius, took their own lives.
Herod passed in this way from being the tenant to being the owner. He constructed a second palace on top of the ruins of the hasmonean building that he had covered with a thick layer of dirt. Over this layer he installed a residence that dominated the whole palm grove area, and he constructed a great swimming pool to replace the previous ones. It was precisely in this pool where years later he drowned the high priest Aristobulos II, his young brother in law whose popularity shadowed his own greatness.
At the end of the first century B.C., a third palace was constructed on each side of the Wadi Qelt, completing in this way a sumptuous residential complex. It was in this winter residence where Herod died. And so as not to be lacking in his cruel and merciless instinct that had motivated him throughout his reign, he left it arranged that after his death all the notable of the Jews be assassinated. Happily for them, this bloody provision was not carried out.

{K}JESUS IN JERICHO{/}
Besides {N}Zaccheus{/}' old sycamore tree that is humorously mentioned in a garden along the way, no vestiges remain of Jericho in the times of Jesus, but the walls of the city in the times of Joshua.
However, it was here where Jesus cured the blind man {N}Bartimaeus{/} [Lk_18,35]. Jesus reveals in this place the irreplaceable character of the light he brings and the novelty of the ways of salvation. These two stories, situated immediately beside the last announcement of the Passion, are like a catechesis addressed to the disciples who turn away from the scandal of a crucified Messiah.

{K}THE MONASTERY OF THE FASTING{/}
To the west of ancient Jericho, a rocky wall of the Mount of the Fasting sustains, as if suspended on its flanks, the greek monastery of the same name that dates from the end of the fourth century A.D. A wall in ruins surrounds the place that is presumed was the fortress of Dock, where Simon Maccabee was murdered in the year 134 B.C. [1Mac_16,11]. On the inside of this enclosure there was a church built, in order to commemorate probably Jesus' temptations in the desert. However, nothing allows us to state that Jesus has ever been in these places.

{K}- LACHISH{/}
The low relieves of the royal palace of Nineveh have immortalized the capture of Lachish by the assyrian king {N}Sennacherib{/} in 701 B.C. Lachish, situated on a rocky promontory that dominates the coastal plain between Gaza and Hebron, was part of the fortresses that closed the passage to Jerusalem to invaders. This fortress was occupied from the third millennium B.C.

{K}A POWERFUL CANAANITE CITY 1580 - 1220 B.C.{/}
Of the three superimposed temples, constructed in the hyksos defensive ditch, very few remains are found. In the most recent temple, next to the typically canaanite objects, egyptian beetles and pieces of carved marble have been found that give testimony to the control that the Egyptians exercised in the place until its destruction in 1220 B.C. Two outstanding events mark this time: the arrival of the {N}peoples{/} of the {N}sea {/}(the Philistines), and the entrance of the tribes in Canaan under the leadership of Joshua. Let us hear what the Old Testament tells us: {C}From Libnah Joshua went to Lachish, laid siege to it and attacked it. Yahweh also gave them this city with its king and inhabitants, who suffered the same fate as Libnah {/}[Jos_10,31] - [Jos_10,32].

{K}THE ISRAELITE FORTRESS{/}
It was one of the most important strongholds in the kingdom of Judah, after Jerusalem. Starting from the reign of Rehoboam (928 - 911 B.C.), the palaces replaced one another at the top of the hill dominating the city and its surrounding areas. Rehoboam plants the north south route of Sefela with fortified cities like Azeca, Hebron and Lachish. {C}He constructed walls of these cities and put commanders in them with stores of food, oil and wine {/}[2Chr_11,11]. However, it will be the successors of Rehoboam: Asa and Jehosaphat, who will construct truly monumental fortifications, those which, thanks to the archeological excavations, have been newly given light.

{K}THE TAKING OF LACHISH BY SENNACHERIB IN 701 B.C.{/}
After the fall of Samaria, the threat of assyrian invasion over the reign of Judah, and especially over Jerusalem, is profiled as imminent.
{N}Hezekiah{/} (716 - 685 B.C.) took the initiative of a revolt against Assyria with the support of Egypt. He tried to persuade the philistine cities to take part in the cause and to join the revolt; but Gaza and Ashdod had been severely punished by Sargon II for their previous revolts and they had no intention of repeating the experience. However, King Sidqa of Aphekah accepted to join the group. As for Padi, the king of Ekron, who refused to enter into the coalition, he was chained and led to Jerusalem to be put before Hezekiah. The assyrian reaction did not take long to come. Sennacherib's army crossed through Galilee and Samaria; it conquered the philistine cities of the coast and laid siege to the city of Lachish. Sennacherib captured the fortress and converted it into his general headquarters. In order to commemorate this victory he had the capture of the city represented on the walls of his palace in Nineveh, with an incredible precision and richness of detail: a true tape drawn where one can appreciate the battle with the different divisions of the troops and the war machinery, the decoration of the fortress scrupulously reconstructed, and this from the first attack until the procession of prisoners being deported after the capture of the city.
The capture of Lachish was only the first stage for Sennacherib: from there he intended to continue with the attack on Jerusalem; only a miraculous intervention of God would be able, then, to save the Holy City, and this was produced [2K_18,12] - [2K_19,37]. When all seemed lost, God came to help his people, renewing in this way the miracles of the exodus.
Inside the city, numerous recipients with royal seals have been discovered, which served as storage for food for Hezekiah's army, permitting him to support the long and difficult siege. Hundreds of arrowheads made of iron, discovered at the level of the walls and the ramp from the assault of the Assyrians, demonstrate the violence of the combat.
The city was destroyed; remaining buried under a thick layer of ashes. Reconstructed rapidly in the seventh century B.C., it survived until the fall of the Kingdom of Judah. It must have, surrendered to the army of Nabuchodonosor. The famous "letters from Lachish" found near the door of the city, are, in their majority, the missives addressed to the commander of the Lachish fortress in times of Zedekiah and the prophet Jeremiah.

{K}- MARESHAH{/}
Situated at the extreme north of Sefela, Mareshah is quoted in [Jos_15,44], on the list of cities given to the tribe of Judah, at the moment of the distribution of the land. The second book of Chronicles mentions Mareshah among the cities fortified by Rehoboam [2Chr_11,8], but it seems that the work of fortification took place in the previous epoch, before the invasion of the pharaoh Sesong and no one knows what happened to what remained after the egyptian campaign. The Sefela will also be a place of transit of the Assyrians and Babylonians towards the country; and all of its cities will be destroyed at the moment of the conquest of Palestine by Sennacherib in the year 701 B.C.
At the end of the sixth century, the city passes to the hands of the Edomites and is converted into the capital of Idumea. Very probably it served as the setting for the slave trading with Egypt. Also established in the city was an important colony of Sidonians, coming from Phoenicia. Mareshah was destroyed by the Parthians in the year 4 B.C.

{K}- QUMRAN{/}
Qumran is spreads out on a terrace to the north of the wadi of the same name, at a height of three hundred meters over the {N}Dead Sea{/}. A high wall of red limestone, perforated with natural caves dominates the place. In the second century B.C., a group of Essenes, rupturing with the clergy of the Temple of Jerusalem, came to this place in search of solitude and withdrawal. The place had caused very little interest to the archeologists until the spring of 1947, the date of the fortuitous discovery of the celebrated "Dead Sea Scrolls".

{K}THE DISCOVERY{/}
On the first of April 1947, while looking for a lost sheep, a young shepherd of the Ta'amireh tribe, Mohamed el-Dib, threw a stone into the inside of a cavity of the rocky cliffs. The echo produced by the fall of the stone emitted a sound similar to that of broken objects. Intrigued, the young shepherd went into the cave: the ground was covered with clay pots. There were also eight containers preserved with their respective covers. One of them held several rolls of parchment wrapped in a linen cloth. The rolls contained an ancient writing. After all sort of events, the valuable rolls arrived to the hands of the archeologists, and later to those of the exegetes, who had rapidly become aware of the exceptional importance of this discovery. A methodic search was launched within a ten kilometers radius around the famous hiding place. Meanwhile, the natural grottos as well as any dug out in the marl, delivered manuscripts all the time more numerous. The excavations that were performed on the ground around the ruins, insignificant at first glance - revealed the presence of buildings of a community. Very soon it would be proven that these constructions were work of the Essenes in practically all cases.

{K}THE ESSENIAN MOVEMENT OF QUMRAN{/}
The history of the Essenes was known from ancient times because of the texts from Philon of Alexandria, Flavius Josephus and Plinus the Elder. This last man, in his "Natural History" (V, 17,73), defines them in this way: {C}"An extraordinary people, the most extraordinary that could exist, without women, without love, without money, and living in the company of palm trees... In this way, ever since thousands of centuries, an incredible thing, an eternal people subsists, where no one is born."{/} In spite of the notorious exaggerations of this description, marked by the imagination and skillful pen of the author, it is no less certain that the Essenes had formed from the second century B.C., a society of "{C}pure ones{/}" segregated from the world, practicing asceticism and prayer.
Their origin reveals at the same time a religious crisis and a political crisis. In 151 B.C. Alexander Balas, an imposter, usurps the throne of Syria, and Palestine is one of its provinces. One year later, he confers to {N}Jonathan{/}, brother and successor of Judas Maccabee, the dignity of high priest [1Mac_10,20], naming him besides military chief and governor of Judea. As a partisan of Hellenism, meaning then the greek culture, Jonathan abandons at that time the politics of advocating independence and the religious reform that his father and his brothers had been dedicated to. Before this situation of drifting, the priestly medium of conservative Jewish did not take long in reacting: the secularization in course corrupted the fundamentals of Judaism. And to make matters worse, the one who had just accepted said position did not fulfil the conditions. In fact, Jonathan did belong to a family of priests, but he had not come from the descendants of Sadoch. The substitution of the traditional liturgical calendar for the hellenistic calendar is added as well to the complaints that weighed against the new high priest.

{K}THE EXODUS TO QUMRAN{/}
On seeing that the Temple was defiled by an illegitimate and unworthy priest, a small group made up of twelve lay people, symbolizing the twelve tribes of Israel, and three priests representing the three levitical clans, exile themselves in Qumran between 140 and 130 B.C. This is how it is expressed in the Rules of the Community: {C}they will separate themselves from the inicuous and they will leave their houses to go to the desert in order to prepare there the way of God according to what is written: "in the desert, prepare the way of the Eternal One, straighten out on the steppe a path for our God"{/}(Rule of the Community, column VIII).
It is in this way that - following the Master of Justice - founder and master of the movement, who by a special grace understands the hidden mysteries of the Holy Books - the community of Qumran is born, founded on the Covenant, of which the group is considered as the only unique depositary. By retiring to this arid place on the shores of the Dead Sea, the Essenes revive the experience of the "forefathers" and the crossing of the desert before the entrance to the Promised Land. Convinced of representing the true Israel, that {C}small remnant{/}, the only heir to the messianic promises, they prepare the new Israel that will be the answer to the intent of the salvation of God. Only the community life, practically monastic, consecrated to the reading of the Scripture, to prayer and the meditation of the Law and the Prophets, will permit them to live a re-encounter with God.
During approximately three centuries, these priests and lay people voluntarily withdrawn to the area around the Dead Sea, will copy and recopy the Holy Books, at the same time that they will redact original writings.

{K}DIFFERENT STAGES OF OCCUPATION{/}
The archeological excavations let us follow in detail the history and the lifestlye of the {C}Community of the Covenant{/}. When its "founders" arrived at the banks of the Dead Sea, they found a tower and a cistern more or less in an abandoned state: these were the witnesses to the work performed in the eighth century B.C. by king Uzziah {C}who constructed towers in the desert{/} {C}and dug a great many cisterns{/} [2Chr_26,10], probably in order to install small guard houses in this frontier region. Around these elements were built towards the middle of the second century B.C., the first community installation.
Around the year 135 B.C., under the reign of John Hyrcanus I, the enclosure was enlarged and developed a hydraulic system. During this time the place acquires the aspect with which it is known today. The traces of its violent destruction can also be appreciated: without a doubt the earthquake of the year 31 B.C.
Under the reign of Archelaus (4 B.C to 6 A.D), the damaged buildings are repaired and the tower is consolidated with a stone terrace. Seventy years later the coming of the tenth legion will be felt along the banks of the Dead Sea. Rome had sent Vespasian to repress the first jewish revolt. After finishing his mission in Galilee, he launches his troops towards the coastal plain on one side, and towards the valley of the Jordan on the other. Upon arriving at Qumran the legionaries massacre the community and plunder the installations (68 D.C.).
A roman guard will occupy the place until the end of the century. The partisans of Bar Kochba will come later to take refuge in the time of the second jewish revolt (132 - 135 A.D). But it will be necessary to wait close to two thousand years for the archeologists' shovels to pull out from their sleep the ruins of Qumran and their surprising secret.

{K}A FUNCTIONAL PLAN{/}
The plan of the complex reveals the preoccupation with responding to the needs and demands of an important group desirous of living in self-sufficiency and community life on this separated platform.
Near the entrance, on the path going up along the banks of the Dead Sea, a tower controls the accesses. The tower is prolonged towards the south by a construction with a floor consisting of a room surrounded by low seats; maybe it was a meeting room and the "scriptorium" (room where one writes). There is where the {C}desk {/}of the scribes was discovered, a long table of baked clay late plastered, with its bronze inkwells. Besides, in this complex, there were rooms available for the service with kitchen and washing spaces. A long room seems to have been the dining room.
The work shops are grouped: in the southern part are found the pottery shops admirably conserved: a pool, a bucket for mixing the clay, a wheel and two ovens of different sizes - the bigger one must have served for cooking the recipients that conserved in such an invaluable way so many manuscripts. In the western sector the mill was found, the bread shop with its ovens, the stores of grain and fruit, as well as the stable. The hydraulic system was like the dorsal spine of the enclosure: all around there are cisterns and pools for the decantation, besides numerous channels that fed into the already mentioned deposits for water.

{K}THE CEMETERY AND THE FARM{/}
Separated from the city of the living by a long wall of stones that rises up over the gully, the dominion of the dead included no less than 1100 tombs. The deceased in their great majority were men. They were buried in "loculi", in graves dug less than a meter of depth, without traces of offerings nor pieces of coin, as the jewish custom of the time required. Down lower there have been found some skeletons of women and children, which seems to contradict the Rule of the Community and the testimonies of the time, since the mentioned Rule was directed towards celibate single men who had chosen to live in a perfect state of ritual pureness. Maybe it means families linked to the Community, since the "Annexed Rule" mentions women and children in the areas surrounding the "monastery".
At about three kilometers to the south of Qumran, the great oasis of Ain-Fesja, populated with date trees, assured the subsistence of the Community. Abundant fountains irrigated the farmlands; these springs were equally necessary for the tanning of the skins, that later, transformed into {N}parchment, {/}were used by the scribes.

{K}THE LIBRARY OF QUMRAN{/}
The discovery of the manuscripts of Qumran constitutes, certainly, one of the most valuable archeological findings of the twentieth century. The caves have returned to the light the library of these men, who, in times of danger, withdrew to the natural spaces found in the cliffs. Caves 1 and 4 contained the documents of the Community that must have been hidden very hurriedly, when the place was destroyed and abandoned. Thousands of fragments of all different sizes have been patiently put together, but only eleven rolls are practically complete; among these, two correspond to Isaiah and one to the Psalms. The manuscripts are written in general on {N}parchment{/}, in square hebraic {N}writing{/}, especially those that correspond to the biblical books; but also there can be appreciated some examples written in Aramean or in the more ancient forms of Hebrew characters.
The documents can be classified in three categories: biblical manuscripts, Apocryphal writings of the Old Testament and the writings proper to the community.

{K}THE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE{/}
If we confront the biblical texts in the hebrew language discovered there with the copies that were known until that day - and from which the most ancient did not go back beyond the ninth century A.D. - one remains amazed at the similitude, which manifests the extraordinarily conscientious work of the scribes that through their meticulous work have guaranteed the perfect transmission of the Holy Book. The discovery of these manuscripts confirms the hebrew text of the Old Testament and demonstrates that the composition of the text that we read in our bibles had practically ceased at the beginning of the first century B.C.
All of the hebrew books of the Old Testament, except Esther, were found reproduced. There are fourteen copies of the Deuteronomy, twelve of Isaiah and a dozen of the Psalms. The book of Daniel was very much read in Qumran: seven copies were found; and since this book had been composed in the year 164 B.C., these copies are only fifty years away from the original. With respect to the book of Qohelet the manuscript from Qumran is only one hundred years away from the original version.

{K}A VARIETY OF APOCRYPHALS{/}
The Apocryphals of the Old Testament are books that have not been included in the Bible, but they move within the tradition of the Old Testament; the apocalyptic literature here has an outstanding role. The apocalyptic current, with its vision of a world under the domination of the devil and of a history whose events are already written down in the heavenly books, agree with the beliefs and the theology of the Community. Just as the case of its esotericism that reserves the truth only for the initiated ones and its hope in the victory at the end of all times.
The book of the {N}Jubilees{/} presents the sacred history from the Creation until the theophany of the Sinai. The story is developed in 49 periods of 49 years each. The author manages to find in the events of the origins, and preferably in the patriarchal epoch, the justification of the laws and customs of his time. This order, born of the Law given to the people of Israel in the framework of the Covenant, was, besides, guaranteed by a solar calendar whose rigorous observance ruled, each year on its own dates, the religious feasts and the sabbaths.
The book of{N} Henoc{/}, one of the major jewish {C}revelations{/}, tells the story of the travels through the world beyond of this patriarch mentioned in Genesis, as well as his visions of the confrontation between the angels and the demons.
The{N} Testament{/} of the Twelve {N}Patriarchs{/} gathers the recommendations of the twelve sons of Jacob to their descendants exhorting them to observe the Law and to subject themselves to the priestly tribe of the Levites. They called their descendants to sainthood, the ideal that had inspired the group, author of this book where the qumranian theme of the two Messiahs is found.

{K}WRITINGS PROPER TO THE COMMUNITY{/}
The literature of the Community is very abundant.
The Rule of the Community, the most important document, was discovered in the cave 1 practically in its whole state; it can be assimilated to the monastic rules. It contains the annual ritual of the renovation of the Covenant and the penal code of the Community. One doctrinal part exposes the theory of the two Spirits. A Rule for the congregation of Israel in the last days and a series of Blessings were asociated to this Rule of the Community.
In 1910 two manuscripts had been discovered from the tenth and the twelfth centuries A.D., that turned out to be copies of a manuscript previous to the ruin of the Temple in the year 70 of our era. The priests sons of Sadoc, had there an outstanding place; it also spoke about the "New Covenant in the country of Damascus": it was made clear that the community whose rule had just been discovered was related to the Essenes already known of through Philon of Alexandria and {N}Flavius Josephus{/}. The manuscripts of Qumran, and very particularly the Rule of the Community, came to confirm these intuitions.
The Rule of War was to assure the victory of the "Sons of the Light" over the "Children of the Darkness". It provides the warring strategy that should be followed in order to conquer the world.
The Roll of the{N} Hymns{/} of praise to God, is a thanks giving for the divine mercy that grants the salvation to humankind, in spite of its fragility. The whole contents of the book express a profound desire of communion with God.
The Commentaries (or Pesharim) on the books of Habakkuk, Micah, Nahum and Isaiah intermingle the explanation and the meticulous interpretation of the texts in terms of the eschatology and of the contemporary history of the Community. 
The Roll of the{N} Temple{/} is largely inspired in the Deuteronomy; the laws that had been transmitted to the people through Moses, are enunciated here directly by God, in the first person, and addressed to the Community of this New Israel.
The Rolls of{N} Bronze{/}, finally, establish a list of hiding places, in their majority grouped together around Jerusalem, and that would hide a fabulous treasure, so mysterious that all search has resulted fruitless until our days.
This literature clarifies the evolution of the jewish world on the threshold of the christian era; it serves besides, in a certain way, as a link between the last books of the jewish Bible and the writings of the New Testament. On the other hand, these manuscripts provide a direct testimony about the life and the doctrines of this essenian group, retired to Qumran, far from the Temple and from the Holy City.

{K}THE ESSENIAN DUALISM{/}
In order to reach the communion with God, the members of the Community must defeat the impotency of humankind before Evil. In the heart of all humans the two spirits who fight for the world confront each other: the spirit of the Darkness and the spirit of the Light, the forces of Evil and the forces of Good. In this cosmic fight God himself assures the triumph of the Good, not without the contest of the Children of the Light, who must commit themselves to a war of extermination, whose strategy is found meticulously analyzed in the "Rule of War".

{K}THE LITURGY OF THE NEW COVENANT{/}
The highly spiritual ideal of all the members was fed and sustained by a strict observance of the social and religious rules, by the rites of purification (which is proven by the great quantity of reservoirs found), by the rites related to the conversion of the heart, and finally, by the liturgical assemblies in whose development the sacred feast of bread and sweet wine, represented a "pregustation" of the eschatological banquet.
The solemn feasts were ruled by the lunisolar calendar that assured the harmony of the earthly liturgy with the heavenly praise. This life of community prayer constituted in itself the first fruits of the angelic life, promised at the End of All Times.
To the feast of Pentecost they attributed an exceptional importance. This community of the "New Covenant", whose members received the Spirit of Sainthood, and through it, the access to the divine mysteries, should give exceptional solemnity to the day which remembered the delivery of the Law to Israel on the Sinai. The liturgy was inspired in the renovation of the Covenant, just as it is told in the Deuteronomy: {C}These are the words of the Covenant which Yahweh commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab ... Moses summoned all the people of Israel and said to them: "You have seen all that Yahweh did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh, to his servants and to all his land ... So observe the conditions of this Covenant and put them into practice, that you may succeed in whatever you do. You are here in this place to celebrate a Covenant with Yahweh, your God. Through this oath he makes you his people and he becomes your God, as he said to you and promised to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.{/} [Dt_28,69] - [Dt_29,1], [Dt_29,8], [Dt_29,11] - [Dt_29,12]
In spite of its authentic spiritual profoundness and of the ideal of sainthood that it motivated, this community of the "Pious Ones" almost had no influence on the palestinian Judaism, nor on the newborn Christianity. They were so convinced of their superior vocation that they considered themselves the group of the saved ones, the only ones entitled to interpret the Scripture, and they became enclosed in a sovereign isolation.
The sectarian dualism that constituted the basis of the theology of Qumran, the combat without pity of the Children of the Light against the Children of the Darkness destined to the extermination, allows us to capture the reach of their intransigence.
Several parallels can be noted between the essenian writings and the texts from the New Testament; some elements were borrowed from them, others imitated and revised them. This does not impede that christian faith conserve all of its originality with respect to the beliefs and practices of the Community of the Covenant. The Messiah Son of God announces the Kingdom of God already present on earth, the salvation is a free gift of God's love, and all of humankind are called to participate in the banquet at the End of All Times.
