Destination Spotlight: Shiloh

Workers from Spain, Canada, Ireland, and Denmark were part of this season’s team. Of course, they had local specialists on their team as well: a representative from the Temple Mount Sifting Project, an artifact conservator, and ceramic specialists who visited and reviewed their pottery finds. The project, now entering its third year, is overseen by Associates for Biblical Research.

Pastor Reynolds writes, “I learned that on an archaeological dig, it is great to find small things – coins, weapons, pottery, bones, etc. – all the things that help date the level on which they are found. However, they [the dig leaders] are looking for big things like rooms, houses, meeting places, walls, gates, etc. The place Aaron and I were working was thought to be the main entrance to the city during then Roman Era. That was pretty exciting. We will not know until the excavation continues next summer. I look forward to learning if that is indeed the spot. It was a thrill to have my hands in the dirt at the location where the Tabernacle rested for the first 369 years the Hebrew people were in the Promised Land.”

The Bible tells us that the Tabernacle remained in Shiloh for over three centuries, during the period of the Judges. Eventually, with the building of the First Temple in Jerusalem, the Tabernacle was moved there. However, until the death of the High Priest Eli, Shiloh was the center of Jewish worship and the main pilgrimage site for the Children of Israel. Three times each year, faithful pilgrims of the twelve tribes traveled to Shiloh, bringing festival offerings.

With the Tabernacle now in Jerusalem, Shiloh declined as a pilgrimage site. Philistines attacked and destroyed the town. Eventually, Romans and Christians took over the mostly-deserted spot. Later, Muslims conquered the area. Shiloh became just another small hilltop town. In the 1920s and 30s, European archaeologists began to explore and work in the area. Others followed, but it was not until excavations in 2006 uncovered several mosaic floors and Greek inscriptions that once and for all identified the site as the ancient village of Shiloh. Since then, a great deal of attention has been devoted to uncovering the past and developing the area.

Because of its hilltop location, Shiloh offers a spectacular panoramic view for miles and miles around. One of my favorites of the new buildings on the site is the HaRoeh Tower. Situated on the top of Shiloh Hill, the tower offers a unique film shown on a huge screen that alternates from being opaque to translucent so that the historical reenactments of the film are at times superimposed on the actual distant contemporary landscape. On the floor below, there is a small museum with artifacts from the various digs on the site.

Special annual events that take place at Shiloh have their roots there as well. We know that Eli was the last of the high priests to serve at Shiloh. The book of Samuel tells us that Eli’s wife Hannah entered the Tabernacle and prayed for God to give her a child. After the birth of her son, Samuel, she reentered the Tabernacle, this time to offer a prayer of thanksgiving. When he was old enough, Hanna turned him over to Eli to be raised in the service of the Lord. Samuel would grow up to become one of Israel’s great prophets. Today, a special women’s prayer and music festival, “Hannah’s Prayer,” is held each year at Shiloh, around the time of Rosh Hashanah.

Thanks to the archaeologists and developers of the site, we can visit the very place where Joshua, Hannah, Eli and Samuel changed history. Whether you visit Shiloh as a tourist or sign up to work on the archaeological dig, you will be moved by this special site.