The Saturday Morning Blogger – Travel Diary Israel

James Barrington

I have heard it said that journalism is the first draft of history. I’m pretty sure that’s true, although in these days it’s more of a rough draft needing a lot of review and correction than a first draft fit to be printed.

That is a prologue to my Israel travel dairy note about ancient graffiti on the stones at the temple mount. If we can get a photo posted on the WordSmithSix blog site, you will be able to see a fourth century AD bit of graffiti chiseled in stone on the western wall of the temple mount. Translated from the Hebrew, it says, “Then you shall see and your heart shall rejoice and their bones like grass shall”. It is almost a quote of Isiah 66:14, which says, “Then you shall see and your heart shall rejoice and your bones like grass shall flourish.”

Our guide speculated that the “author” of the graffiti may have been chased off before he could complete his work. He also said that the difference between “your bones” and their bones” is one letter in the Hebrew. He further noted that at the time the graffiti was placed there, Jerusalem had been rebuilt as a Roman pagan city.

It seems that people have been writing and “editorializing” for centuries, even when it would have taken considerably more effort than simply typing on a keyboard.