The reproduction temple found in the ruins of the fortress contains ans alter made of undressed stones and 2 standing stones - stones found in temples of this era usually symbolize the gods being worshipped. Previous nations occupying the land always had a male and a female god - in this region, Baal and Asherah - so it's possible that the Israelites in Arad at the time were worshipping God and Asherah here. The Bible gives many laws and instructions on how to obey and worship God, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the people at the time were following those practices. The prophets speak almost continually against the wrong type of worship, and based on Josiah's reaction to finding the book of the law during temple renovations, he must never have heard the law. (It's interesting to note that the original temple, on display at the Israel Museum, has only 1 standing stone!)
After exploring the ruins of both sites, we drove to the Beer Sheva in the Central Negev. This is often considered the southern end of the country (as in "from Dan to Beer Sheva") even though there is a lot of land south of this point. (There is another Beer Sheva in the north of the country, but most passages in the Bible refer to the Beer Sheva at the southern end of the country) The name Beer Sheva (or Beersheba) was given by Abraham after an arguement with Abimelek over a well Abraham had dug. Beer Sheva also had a temple, but this one had an alter made of hewn stones (the law commands that only natural, uncut stones are to be used for the alter) that was torn down and broken, possible during the reformation of Hezekiah or Josiah. The real alter is in the Israel Museum, but a replica was on the site.
The ruins of the city contain many examples of the 4-room house typical in Israel throughout the Old Testament period. There were 3 long front rooms, and a room across the back. Most likely, this design was used to facilitate purity laws - the clean person did not have to walk through the room where the unclean person was to get to the other rooms of the house. Often, one of the side rooms was used to house the best animals. When Jephthah vowed to God that he would sacrifice whatever came out of the door of his house first to meet him, he was probably expecting one of his prized animals to come out of the door (besides the animals the only other occupants of the house were his wife and daughter) We read the Bible to say that the animals used for sacrifice must be perfect, but actually, they only needed to be without defect, therefore, it wasn't necessarily the best animal that was sacrificed - so Jephthah was offering the best animal he had. Jephthah probably didn't sacrifice his daughter, but most likely sent her to work at the temple for the remainder - we read that she went into the hills to grieve that she would never marry, but if I was about to be killed, I would have been mourning that ... and probably not returned home!
Sitting at the gate, we discussed a story showing the importance of the city gate in society - the death of Sarah and Abraham buying a plot of land to bury her. Abraham would have been desparate to purchase a tomb (a body in this heat begins to decompose quickly), and went to the Hittites to buy a tomb. While the owner of the tomb Abraham is interested in is present at the gate, Abraham first asks the group as a whole if he can purchases the tomb - the polite way to do such a thing in this region. When Ephron replies that he will also "give" Abraham the field it is in, his isn't giving, but rather selling, and the quote that he gives Abraham is highly inflated. Abraham accepts the cost, but also takes possession of the trees, which are generally not included in a land deal unless specified!
We had lunch at a beautiful oasis before heading to Nahal Zin, also know as the "wilderness of Zin"), the area where Moses hit a rock and it produced water. The Midrash records the tradition that this rock was a rock that followed the Israelites in the same way that the pillar of smoke and fire led them. Paul refers to this rock in 1 Corinthians where he writes about "the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ." After this brief meditation, we hiked up to the end of the canyon, then up a series of ladders and steep stairways carved into the chalk walls. It was hot and tiring, but the beauty of the water running down the canyon and the views from the top were worth it!
Our final ruins of the day were the Nabatean settlement of Avdat.
Then it was a quick stop at the Big Bowl on the way back to the hostel. There are three bowls in this area, formed after the bedrock was pushed up, the bottom layers eroded, and the top layers collapsed. The road to the base was steep and twisty, and there were several car wrecks strewn along the bottom (sorry Mom, I know you don't like hearing about that stuff!)
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