Biblical scholar and archaeologist Scott Stripling points at the excavation site ahead and his excitement is palpable. "What are we looking for here?" he asks, "One of the most important places in history. No doubt it is here somewhere, but have I found it? Perhaps yes, but we may never know for sure."
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Even after 100 years of searching by Israeli and international archaeologists, Stripling isn't giving up and perseveres to solve the great mystery: the location of the lost biblical tabernacle of Shiloh, a focal point mentioned repeatedly in the Bible. And although experts agree on the general area where the tabernacle stood about 3,000 years ago, no one knows its precise location.
In order to understand the origins of this historical detective story, one must travel back to biblical times. In the Book of Exodus, God instructed Moses to build a temporary temple – a tabernacle – to offer sacrifices to him. The importance of such a structure can be reflected in the fact that scripture dedicates no less than seven chapters and hundreds of verses to the detailed instructions for the building of the tabernacle.
The structure was built in a way that allowed for it to be dismantled, moved, and rebuilt again at a different location using special boards and sheets woven from lucrative materials. The tabernacle housed, among other things, the Ark of the Covenant with the tablets received at Mount Sinai inside. According to scripture, the Israelites carried the tabernacle with them to every location and reassembled it wherever they settled.
Upon entering the land of Israel under the leadership of Joshua, they began conquering the land, which would take 14 years, and in the meantime, rebuilt the tabernacle in Shiloh, where it would stand for 370 years.
"And the entire congregation of the children of Israel assembled at Shiloh and set up the tent of meeting there. And the land was conquered before them," the Book of Joshua says.
The Israelites erected the Shiloh tabernacle around 1258 BCE, and it stood until approximately 889 BCE. It was revered with the same sanctity as the Temple that King Solomon would go on to build in Jerusalem in the second half of the 10th century BCE.
Due to its importance, the Shiloh tabernacle was a pilgrimage site where Israelites would travel to offer sacrifices and pray. One of the most well-known stories about the holy site is the story of Hannah, the mother of the Prophet Samuel. After a decade of not being able to have children, Hannah arrived at the tabernacle and silently prayed for one.
"Hannah, she was speaking in her heart, only her lips were moving, and her voice was not heard," the Book of Samuel describes.
Such a silent prayer, which is how the Jewish people pray today, was not the norm at the time and the High Priest, Eli, thought Hannah was drunk and scolded her. After Hannah corrected him, he blessed her that her prayers would be answered.
Indeed, Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to Samuel, who would become a prophet and go on to anoint the first Israelite king, Saul, and herald a new era in the land of Israel.
However, the tabernacle era ended tragically. According to the Book of Samuel, Eli's sons – Hophni and Phineas, who scripture describes as "not knowing God"– ruled the sanctuary when he got old. A war broke out with neighboring Philistines and the Israelites suffered a defeat in the first battle, in which they lost 4,000 men. Hophni and Phineas went out with the Ark of the Covenant hoping to receive strength from God.
The plan failed miserably and in the second battle with the Philistines, about 3,000 Israelites were killed and the Ark of the Covenant captured. Hophni and Phineas died in the battle, and when Eli received the news, he fell from his chair and died too.
The Bible says that God punished the Philistines for taking the Ark of the Covenant until they finally returned it to the Israelites and it was placed in Kiryat Ye'arim. In the absence of the Ark of the Covenant and the deaths of Eli, Hophni and Phineas, the tabernacle was lost without a trace.
"This is where the Israelites settled after wandering in the desert for 40 years. They crossed the Jordan River and erected a tabernacle," Lilian Zitman, director of the ancient Shiloh archaeological site, said. "This was the first capital of the people of Israel. They would come here on pilgrimages, offer sacrifices, many biblical stories happened here. Shiloh was the most important place for Judaism for hundreds of years, no less. Unlike other biblical sites that have disappeared with time, and whose location is still unknown, the tradition surrounding ancient Shiloh remains."
The Book of Judges describes it in a way that made it easier for archaeologists to identify: "Shiloh … is to the north of Beth-el, on the east side of the highway that goes up from Beth-el to Shechem, and to the south of Lebonah."
In 1838, American biblical scholar Edward Robinson identified the place, among other things, through the nearby Ein Silon spring, with locals dubbed "the remnants of Silon."
Exactly a century later, in 1922, a group of archaeologists led by Hans Kjaer from Denmark began the first excavation of the site during which they uncovered ancient remains, including those of a 5th- or 6th-century church. Israeli expert Zeev Yavin began to excavate the site in the 1970s and archaeologist Israel Finkelstein in 1981.
Since 2010, several excavations have been managed by the IDF Civil Administration's Staff Officer for Archaeology. At the same time, the Binyamin Regional Council turned the site into a booming tourism spot with more than 100,000 visitors arriving to learn about the ancient site every year.
"We excavate and invest in this important place not to prove to anyone that Jews lived in the land of Israel, but to connect our daily activities to the values and heritage of the Jewish people," head of the Binyamin Regional Council Yisrael Gantz said. "Every find here reminds us of the path we continue and why we live here and strive so hard to continue developing. This place and the many heritage sites here give us a lot of strength that unites Israel."
Zitman stressed that over the years, significant finds have been discovered at the Shiloh site, "including jugs that were used by the pilgrims who came to the tabernacle." But despite the exciting finds, each of which has enormous historical importance, the most important part – the location of the tabernacle itself – remains unknown.
Experts say that three parts of the large excavation site could potentially be the location where the tabernacle stood.
Finkelstein, 73, believes that it used to stand at the top of Tel Shiloh. Another possible site is where Hannah supposedly prayed, in the northernmost area of the structure, where visitors arrive at the end of their guided tour. The third option is where Stripling has been overseeing excavations since 2017.
Such a discovery would be one of the most important ones in modern history. After all, Shiloh is the cradle of Jewish history in the land of Israel and is only second in holiness to the temple in Jerusalem, whose location is revered.
The most important question is whether the exact location of the tabernacle can be found at all, because, as mentioned above, it was constructed of temporary materials, which were destroyed thousands of years ago.
Some researchers say physical walls were built around the tabernacle, so its location can indeed be found. "In the story of Samuel the prophet, it is said that the tabernacle was inside a room, i.e. a stone structure," Hanania Hizami, Archeology Staff Officer at the Civil Administration said.
The Civil Administration has invested millions of shekels to excavate the site in search of the city gate and the wall on the southwest side of the site. The tabernacle is thought to have been located near the gate of Shiloh, which may have been on the southern side of the site.
"We opened the latest season in April with one goal – to find the southern wall line of the site, because we believe the city gate is there," archaeologist Reut Ben Aryeh, who lives in the Shiloh settlement and spearheads the efforts, said.
Due to budgetary considerations, excavations are usually held between April and late July, and last month the place was full of archaeologists digging through the site, uncovering ancient remnants.
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Ben Aryeh said, "We are constantly finding pottery, broken glass, bones – apparently of animals, but not everything is clear – and we are analyzing everything. At the same time, we continue to uncover the line of the wall and identify it. We already have an identification of a wall, but we are digging deeper to look for additional findings and to strengthen our hypothesis that it is indeed a wall from the time of Joshua."
Q: Do you believe you will find the tabernacle itself?
"I believe it will be found. But even if we don't find the structure itself, we will find remains of activity, sacrifices, remains of bones, tools, and the like. It should be said that there is no explicit evidence in the Bible of what happened to the tabernacle after the construction of the Temple in Jerusalem. There are later verses, in Isaiah and Psalms, of prophecies about a temple that will be like in Shiloh. They refer to the destruction that was here, but it is impossible to know exactly what happened. It is believed that this is the result of the battle with the Philistines."
Stripling, 59, is an extraordinary person. A large man, with a massive and striking physical presence, he truly is like a real-life Indiana Jones. He is a practicing Christian living in Texas and a grandfather of four. He has been excavating in Israel for many years as part of his role as director of Excavations for the Associates for Biblical Research at ancient Shiloh, a Christian organization working to find archaeological evidence that supports the narrative of the Bible.
A leading archaeologist, six months ago he discovered the Mount Ebal curse tablet featuring God's name, the earliest such inscription in history uncovered so far.
"Shiloh is Joshua's first capital, and this is the place where the tabernacle was located for more than 350 years. The Ark of the Covenant was here - as were Joshua, Hannah, Elkanah, Samuel," Stripling said excitedly.
His team began excavations at the site in 2017, and the results have been impressive.
A large site, divided into rooms, stands on the slopes of the northern hill, overlooking the place where – according to tradition – Hannah prayed, and "might well be" the location where the tabernacle stood.
"When I started working here, I did not believe that I would uncover this structure," Stripling said. "In 2016, I wrote an article in which I addressed the various theories regarding the question of where the tabernacle is, but did I believe it could actually be found? Not really.
"I was very lucky. There is no doubt that this is the holy grail, and in a perfect world, that is what we would like to find. But the truth must be told – in the absence of an accurate description, which we do not have, we will never know with 100% certainty that this is the tabernacle. It can be said that the structure we found corresponds with a high degree of reliability to what we expect when we read the text in the Bible."
Stripling gives me a tour of the excavation site and points out various parts with excitement.
"According to our explanation, this is the Holy of Holies, the place where the Ark of the Covenant was located, and we are standing in the area known as 'holy.' On the other side is the place where sacrifices were made. Do you see those little rooms? In the past it was not possible to make financial donations, so they brought all kinds of food and agricultural products, donations, and tithes. We found seven storage rooms here, which may have been where the donations and tithes were put.
"We've found thousands of pieces of pottery here from the Late Bronze Age, the time of Joshua, and it looks as if they broke them on purpose, as part of a sacrifice." This corresponds to scripture, which says that if a person who was exposed to another person who died touched a piece of pottery, that vessel was considered impure and needed to be broken.
Although Stripling reiterated again that there is no unequivocal evidence that the site is indeed the location of the tabernacle, he believed in a few months he will be ready to write a scientific work on the matter.
"I don't know if we will ever be able to prove it completely. There is evidence to suggest that this is the location, and we will continue to look for more evidence. If we really succeed in proving that this is the tabernacle – it will be one of the greatest discoveries in our lifetime, so far. But we also have to tell the truth – in archeology we are always left with a certain degree of uncertainty, and we may never know the whole truth."
In July, a special event was held at the site to celebrate 100 years since excavations of ancient Shiloh began, which includes discussions by leading archaeologists and an exhibition with photographs of various remnants uncovered throughout the years.
Eliana Passentin, International Desk Director of Binyamin Regional Council, says she is in love with ancient Shiloh.
"Although I've been here thousands of times and given guided tours, I still feel the excitement as soon as I arrive. You can feel the visitors connecting with the place. True, there is an aspect of action here, an archaeological mystery, but in the end, those who come here want to know exactly where Hannah stood, to pray like her and to know that they are in the right place. In my opinion, the archaeologists are also looking for the place because they want to feel something, to find this holy site."
Like the archaeologists, Eliana also believes that the tabernacle will be found, but unlike most, she does not think it will be a dramatic reveal.
It is very important to find the place of the tabernacle, and it will move me very much – but at the same time, it will not. Why? Because even today you can feel the holiness of the place. Shiloh is a very special and spiritual place. People want to go on a time journey to our past as a people."
