THE HORNED ALTAR (EXODUS 27:1-3; II KINGS 23:8)

 This story begins with one of the great finds of the 20^th century when the Israeli archeologist Yohanan Aharoni was excavating at the ancient site of Beer-Sheba in what was Southern Judah. He noticed some unusually shaped rocks in the remains of the city wall. They were also made of a different type of limestone. He took those particular stones out and managed to piece them together like a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle. They took on the form of an 8^th century BC Jewish altar with four horns as described in Exodus 27:1-3. It even met the description given there in terms of height. The original location for this altar was never located, and it had apparently been torn down during one of Israel's periodic religious reforms intended to centralize worship of Yahweh only at the temple in Jerusalem.

The Dictionary of Biblical Imagery explains, “The sacrificial altar, similar to other ancient Near Eastern altars, had four horns, which were projections on the four corners on the top, on which blood was smeared...The horns of an altar, whatever their original purpose, probably came to symbolize the power of that altar...so the cutting off of the horns of the altars of Bethel symbolized the destruction of their religious or cultic power. (Amos 3:14).”

The ordination ritual for priests given in passages such as Exodus 29 identifies the altar's horns with “the key projecting parts of the human body, and therefore represent the essential nature and power of the Lord. The horns were the holiest part of the altar, just as the priests were the holiest people in the 'holy nation.'” (Averbeck)

That is where the situation stood until around 1975 when another famous archeologist, Yigael Yadin, happened to be reading about King Josiah's reforms described in II Kings 23. He came to v. 8, which reads:

    “He brought all the priests out of the towns of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had made offerings, from Geba to Beer-sheba; he broke down the high places of the gates that were at the entrance of the city, which were on the left at the gate of the city.”

The last portion of that verse had earlier been felt to refer to the city of Jerusalem. But Yadin asked himself why if that were true, would it have been necessary to point out where the high place (site of an altar) was located since everyone in Jerusalem would have already known that fact. But what if II Kings 23:8b referred to the city of Beer-sheba instead?

At that point, he went to the already excavated remains of Beer-sheba, turned left upon entering the remaining city gates, and found a room there which contained a small and unusual set of stairs which led to nowhere. It turned out that the 5-foot high demolished altar Aharoni had found in the city walls fit perfectly up against those stairs, and there was even a drainage ditch originating at that site to carry away the blood of sacrificed animals.

This story is a good example of how archeological findings can not only confirm the historicity of biblical writings, but it can also help in their more exact interpretation.