Search for Water in Bible Times

Man's search for drinkable water has always been a concern for people around the world and people in ancient Israel were no exception. They built a variety of sources from water channels through rock y ground  to water stations around springs and the traditional well according to author Andre Chouraqui.


Home builders designed their homes with enough of a slope to direct the rain towards underground cisterns cut into the ground where it was stored during the rainy season from October to April so they didn't go thirsty during the arid summer months.


On a national scale  Israelite engineers cut channels into the rocky hillsides to capture the water thunderingdown  the torrent valleys into large cisterns cut into rock near larger cities and towns such as the one that King Hezekiah built near Jerusalem to keep it supplied with  cool, refreshing  water.  This one consisted of the underground pool as well as a conduit or channel to carry the water into the city.


Smaller cities  villages such En-shemesh were built  in locations  were water that had sunk into the ground in the highlands emerged lower down the slopes as bubbling springs. Such springs are mentioned  in numerous parts of  the Hebrew Scriptures or Old Testament.


In still other parts of the country they  built the traditional wells in order to tape into the underground water supply that was kept replenished by  these underground rivers running from the highlands to the valleys.


According to Chouraqui the early Israelite engineers were quite remarkable in their design and construction of systems, especially the cisterns with their supply channels cut into the rock,  to capture, store and transport water to the people.

God's Name in Early German Bible

Back in 1537 a Catholic theologian, Johann Eck,  identified the God we all refer to as Lord or Adonai as Jehoua in his German translation of the Bible.

This might come as a surprise to many of because most of the time God is referred to simply as Lord or sometimes Adonai. But long before the time of Eck  the early writers of the Hebrew Scriptures or the Old Testament  used the Hebrew equivalent of Jehovah in placed like Deuteronomy 6:4.

Morever 2800 years ago Jesus Christ made God's name -- Jehovah -- known and it was recorded  in the early Christian Greek Scriptures or the New Testament so  Eck had good reason to include God's personal name in his German translation of the Bible.

Everybody has a name and God is no exception. Johann Eck certainly got it right, although many translation since his time have not.