Top 10 Religious Mysteries That Were Finally SOLVED
#10: How Were Solomon & Sheba So Wealthy?
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The Queen of Sheba and her contemporary King Solomon were famously some of the wealthiest people described in the Bible. In the book of Kings, Sheba visits Solomon. Her caravan contains a wealth of gold, gems, and spices. He, too, is described as being rich in clothes, gold, horses, and silver. But where did all that wealth come from? The two were possibly the world's first mining moguls. In 2012, archeologists found an ancient gold mine located in Sheba’s territory dated to her era. It contained a stone slab carved with Sheba’s sigil. A year later, another dig took place near one of the thousands of ancient copper mines all over Israel’s Timna Valley. They discovered artifacts connected to the period of King Solomon.
#9: Is the Shroud of Turin a Hoax?
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The Shroud of Turin, the alleged burial shroud of Jesus of Nazareth, first appeared in France in 1354. For two hundred years it bounced around Europe until permanently landing at Turin in 1578. In all those centuries, the Shroud has been the center of debate and controversy over its authenticity. Every test invites fringe conspiracy theories, so there is no worldwide consensus. There is, however, a scientific consensus. The Shroud is fake. In 1988, three separate groups of scientists took samples for carbon dating. Some results were published in the journal Nature the following year. The shroud is, at oldest, from the end of the 13th century. Conspiracy theorists argue the results, but the Catholic Church makes no comment about its provenance.
#8: The Ceiling of the Mogao Caves
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At the border of the Gobi Desert sit the Mogao Caves. Some of them date as far back as the 4th century. They were used for meditation by Buddhist monks of the era, many of whom painted the ceilings and walls. One of the caves, number 465, has befuddled researchers for years. The cave’s ceiling is painted with a depiction of the “Five Celestial Buddhas.” What’s odd is that, at the foot of each Buddha, is an unreadable Sanskrit inscription. Researchers have used updated 3D scanning technology to review the paintings. They ostensibly confirmed that the craftsmen hundreds of years ago made a mistake. The paper letters were pasted backwards, possibly by men who didn’t actually read the language.
#7: Did the Sun Really Stand Still?
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The Old Testament is chock-full of seemingly unexplainable miracles. In the Book of Joshua, for example, the King of Jerusalem is poised to attack Gibeon, an ally of the young nation of Israel. After God lays waste to Israel’s enemies, the Bible says that the sun and the moon "stopped moving. How could this be true? According to several linguists, part of the issue is in the translation. They say that a correct translation would read that the sun and moon “stopped shining.” In 2017, physicists took that notion and ran with it, comparing the biblical source to some ancient Egyptian documents. They posit that, on October 30, 1207 B.C.E. a solar eclipse likely occurred in the area.
#6: Did Sodom Exist?
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The Story of Sodom and Gomorrah is one of the most famous in the Bible, with God destroying the cities for being filled with sin. But historical evidence for the actual existence of the original sin cities has been thin. But since 2005, a team of archaeologists has worked on a Jordanian site known as Tell el-Hammam. The size of Tell el-Hammam and its geography match up almost perfectly with the Biblical description of Sodom. Their discoveries come with a grain of salt: the team comes from an unaccredited Chrsitian Literalist institution. Still, people around the world continue to associate the site with Sodom. Like the Biblical city, Tell el-Hammam was mysteriously wiped out at the end of the Middle Bronze Age.
#5: Why Was the Qur'an Written Without Diacritical Marks?
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Languages like Arabic contain both letters and diacritical marks, notation symbols that help with pronunciation. Their absence or presence can change the meaning of a passage entirely. Western scholars of the Qur’an have generally believed that the Muslim holy book was not originally written with those marks. In 2008, a carving was discovered in Saudi Arabia that shed new light on the debate. It was a 1300-year-old Arabic engraving on sandstone, one of the earliest examples of the language. It did include precursors to the diacritical marks that are normally absent from the Qur’an. This has led some researchers to conclude that the Qur'an did once have them. Muhammad’s followers, they say, removed the marks to aid in their translation to different dialects.
#4: Is There a Scientific Explanation for the Plagues?
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In 2010, a team of climatologists may have discovered a proximate cause for the ten plagues that God unleashed on the Egyptians in the Bible. By studying stalagmites, they determined that there was a significant, climate change-induced drought during the reign of Pharaoh Ramses II. The Nile would have shrunk significantly, slowing down and encouraging the growth of Burgundy Blood algae, turning the water to ‘blood.’ The toxic algae would have caused a surge in the frog population, followed by one of insects. The insects, in turn, would have spread disease in livestock and people. It coincided with a volcanic eruption of Thera, in Santorini, whose ash cloud could have spread darkness, locusts, and hail over the land.
#3: Evidence for The Great Flood
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Robert Ballard is the Indiana Jones of undersea exploration. In 1985, his team discovered the wreck of the Titanic. He also may have found evidence of the Biblical Great Flood. Ballard learned of a theory bouncing around scientific circles that, thousands of years ago, a massive flood formed what we know today as the Black Sea. According to the theory, the end of the Ice Age flooded the Mediterranean with glacial melt. Eventually, they say, the overfilled sea spilled onto the land of modern-day Istanbul and formed the Black Sea. Ballard explored the Black Sea and made a shocking discovery: an ancient shoreline. For a human being 7500 years ago, such a flood would have felt like it encompassed the entire world.
#2: Did the Red Sea Part?
The mystery of Moses parting the Red Sea may have been solved by a software engineer. Carl Drews studied the problem and published the results in 2010. His work was both peer reviewed and examined by his employer, the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Drews believes the event is explainable under the right circumstances. First, “Red Sea” may have actually been a mistranslation of “Sea of Reeds.” That would, according to archaeologists, place the parting at the Lake of Tanis, a shallow lagoon. A 60 mph gust called a “wind setdown” would easily have been strong enough to push the water, leaving a walkable path. It’s a phenomenon that has been observed in the region by modern scientists at the Nile Delta.
#1: Where Was Buddha Born?
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According to Buddhists, Buddha began life as Prince Siddhartha Gautama. It was only by eschewing a life of wealth and privilege that Siddhartha achieved enlightenment. For two thousand years, people have argued over the location of Siddhartha’s birthplace. Some said India, while others claimed Nepal. In 1996, a multinational team of archaeologists may have discovered the answer. Under the Mayadevi Temple in Lumbini, Nepal, they discovered a stone marking the birthplace of Buddha. While the stone dates back to some 400 years after Buddha’s birth, the geography of the location precisely matches the descriptions of Buddha’s birth. Today, the site is recognized as Buddha’s birthplace by UNESCO.
Do you have empirical proof explaining a religious mystery? Let us know in the comments below.
