The Thumb-Sized Pomegranate

Reportedly, three thousand dollars. That was the asking price for a thumb-sized pomegranate in a Jerusalem antiquities shop in 1979.

Scripture: So he made the pillars; and there were two rows around on the one network, to cover the capitals that were on the top of the pillars: and he did so for the other capital.

The passage describes brass pillars at the temple porch, their capitals, the decorated tops, covered in network. A few verses later come two hundred pomegranates in rows. This little pomegranate was once thought to be a scepter head from Solomon's Temple, but Kempinski doubts it: its origin is unknown, and there were many houses of Yahweh beyond Jerusalem.

French epigrapher André Lemaire, a scholar of ancient writing, was the first to see it. He published a short note in 1981, and a fuller article in 1984.

It stands roughly four centimetres tall. Called ivory, but reportedly hippopotamus bone, with a hole at the base where a rod was presumably fitted.

Scripture: Around its shoulder runs paleo-Hebrew lettering, the ancient form of Hebrew script, whose age is disputed. As reconstructed, it reads: belonging to the temple of Yahweh, holy to the priests. Some letters are broken, so part is restored.

No excavation found it, so its origin is unknown. It was smuggled out of Israel, resurfaced in Paris, and in 1988 the Israel Museum bought it for $550,000. It is there today.

In 2004 an Israeli investigative committee alleged it was part of an antiquities fraud. Even critics reportedly accept the bone is ancient, per Biblical Archaeology Society. The dispute is over the lettering.

In 2007, Ahituv, Demsky and Goren still held it a forgery, though Demsky said he was eighty percent sure. Lemaire, who first published it, has defended its authenticity.

Others read it differently: Kempinski proposed Asherah; Halpern suggested Ahijah, possibly a priestly family. Archaeologist Aharon Kempinski argued there were many houses of Yahweh beyond Jerusalem.

In 2012 a court acquitted collector Oded Golan of forgery charges, but did not rule on the pomegranate. The judge said of the James Ossuary inscription that acquittal did not mean it was authentic.

Some questions stay open. Which keepsake of your own would you want studied under a microscope? May the Lord Jesus Christ be with you today. Follow to keep exploring.