A bird’s eye view of how archaeology helps our study of scripture.
The story of Jesus is well known. in addition to the gospels, numerous secular authors within 150 years of his life mention him. In addition, Josephus affirms that Jesus was called the Christ and that his brother was James, Pliny the Younger notes that Christians worshipped Jesus “as a god,” and Tacitus wrote that Christ, “suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus.” No serious historian questions the existence of Jesus. Numerous archaeological discoveries affirm and illuminate details about Jesus’ life as recorded in the gospels. Here are the top ten discoveries related to Jesus.
10. The Galilee Boat. In 1986, a severe drought in Israel resulted in the water level of the Sea of Galilee dropping several meters. 2 brothers went along the shoreline for archaeological objects and discovered the outline of an ancient boat in the mud. The fragile wood, exposed for the first time in 2000 years, required skill to remove it safely. It was submerged in a chemical preservative for 11 years before it was put on display in a local museum.
The “Jesus Boat” is approximately 27 ft long, 7.5 ft wide, and 4 ft. deep, and would have accommodated a crew of up to 15 men. It was typical of the style of vessel that fishermen like Peter, Andrew, James and John would have used. Jesus crossed the Sea of Galilee in such boats, and even taught from a boat when the shore became too crowded. It’s the only ancient boat ever discovered at Galilee and helps us understand the types of boats Jesus and his disciples used.
9. Synagogues The remains of the synagogue at Magdala.
While some scholars have suggested the synagogue did not arise until after the destruction of the temple in AD 70, and that the references to synagogues in the gospels are anachronistic, archaeology has proven otherwise. To date the remains of ten synagogues dating to before AD 70 have been unearthed in Israel, including at Capernaum. Structures were public buildings used by Jews for civic and religious gatherings. The religious gatherings focused on the study of the Hebrew Bible and prayer.” The archaeological record affirms the descriptions of the synagogues in the gospels and helps us understand Jesus’ role as a teacher within first-century Judaism.
8. The Pool of Siloam. Jesus healed a blind man by putting mud on his eyes and having him go wash in the Pool of Siloam.
In 2004, the Pool of Siloam from the first-century was accidentally discovered during repairs to a drainage system. Archaeologists were called in to excavate and unearthed a large pool that had at least 20 steps leading down from the street level into the pool. Pottery from one end of the pool was used to date it to the First-Century AD. Given that it was in the exact location that scholars had long believed the actual Pool of Siloam to be – and that it dated to the time of Jesus, it was identified as the actual Pool of Siloam where the blind man had washed to receive healing.
7. Jacob’s Well. Jesus met a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well near Sychar and revealed to her that he was the Messiah. Today, an ancient well located at the foot of Mt. Gerizim just south of the village of Askar is unanimously identified as Jacob’s Well by all traditions – Jewish, Samaritan, Christian, and Muslim. A pilgrim account from AD 330 also identifies it as the well that Jesus visited. French archaeologist Andre Parot once described the water from the well as “cool and pleasant-tasting…drawn from a depth of 128 feet.” Today a Greek Orthodox church stands over the well. While many modern tourist sites in Israel are of dubious authenticity, nearly all scholars agree is the actual location of Jacob’s Well where Jesus met the Samaritan woman and offered her “living water.”
6. The Southern Steps of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. A 61-meter wide flight of stairs led to the main entrances to the Temple complex; the easternmost portion of this staircase has been unearthed with alternating short and long steps. Jesus likely used these steps many times.
Josephus records that there was a wall on which there were warning signs in both Greek and Latin that forbade foreigners from going beyond that point on pain of death. In 1871, a limestone slab with a seven-line warning inscription was discovered – the very one described by Josephus. Jesus would have walked past these warning inscriptions many times.
5, The Caiaphas Ossuary He was the high priest who oversaw the trial of Jesus. The ancient historian, Josephus, records that Caiaphas’s full name was Joseph Caiaphas. In 1990, a construction team was building a water park near Jerusalem when their bulldozer plowed through the roof of a first-century tomb. Archaeologists were called in and discovered a variety of ossuaries (bone boxes used in the first century), including an ornate one that was inscribed with the name “Joseph son of Caiaphas.” Inside were the bones of six people, including those of a 60-year-old man which scholars believe are the remains of Caiaphas himself.
4. The Pilate Stone confirms that Pontius Pilate was Prefect of Judea.
All four gospels declare that the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, sentenced Jesus to death by crucifixion. While his historicity has never been questioned,archaeological evidence for his existence was unearthed at Caesarea Maritima in 1961. Excavations near the amphitheater revealed a limestone block inscribed with a dedication to Tiberius Caesar from “Pontius Pilate, Prefect of Judea.” The Pilate stone confirms that Pilate was the Prefect of Judea, governing as the gospel writers described. Furthermore, in 2018, a copper ring that had been unearthed during the 1968-69 excavations at the Herodium was cleaned, photographed, and analyzed revealing the Greek inscription, “of Pilatus.” Rings like this were common among Roman soldiers, and since the name Pilate is uncommon, many believe the ring was once the property of Pontius Pilate or one of his servants. The Pilate Stone and the Pilate Ring provide archaeological evidence for the Roman Prefect, Pontius Pilate, who handed Jesus over to be crucified.
3. The heel bone of the crucified man. Archaeological evidence for Roman crucifixion was unearthed in 1968. A construction crew accidentally dug up several tombs in northeast Jerusalem. Inside the tombs were several ossuaries, including one inscribed with the name Jehohanan, which contained skeletal remains of an adult male, including his heel bone with a nail still embedded in it. The anthropologist who examined the remains determined that Jehohanan had been in his twenties when he was crucified in the first century (ca. AD 7-66). Further study revealed that he had likely been crucified with a leg on either side of the cross and the nail driven in sideways through his heel. The heel bone of the crucified man affirms the description of Jesus’ crucifixion in Scripture. Furthermore, it counters the objections of critics who have argued that Jesus would have been thrown into a mass grave for criminals rather than have been dignified with a proper burial. We now see that the loved ones of a crucified victim could retrieve the body and prepare it for burial it in a family tomb.
2. Tomb of Jesus in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre There are 3 tombs in Jerusalem purported to be the final resting place of Jesus. The site with the oldest attestation to being the tomb of Christ lies within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Archaeological research has demonstrated that this site was a Jewish cemetery in an ancient limestone quarry outside the walls of Jerusalem at the time of Jesus’s death. This aligns with the biblical description of the tomb in which Jesus was laid outside the city walls. The historian Eusebius wrote that the emperor Hadrian (2nd century) built a huge platform over the quarry and constructed a temple to Venus/Aphrodite (ironically the Latin/Greek goddess of love) over the tomb of Christ. This temple stood there until Emperor Constantine destroyed the pagan temple and excavated until he found the tomb of Christ. He then had a new structure (the Church of the Holy Sepulchre) built around the tomb. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre has been restored and rebuilt several times since its construction.
During restorations to the shrine that surrounds the remains of the ancient tomb, experts removed the limestone slab that covered the burial bed of the tomb for the first time in almost 500 years. Mortar samples from the structure surrounding the tomb were tested, confirming it was built in the mid-4th century and then rebuilt Crusader chapel in the middle ages, affirming the ancient written history of the site. “Although absolute proof of the location of Jesus’ tomb remains beyond our reach, the archaeological and early literary evidence argues strongly for those who associate it with the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.”
The Nazareth Inscription is an edict from Caesar inscribed on a marble slab that imposes a death penalty in Israel for anyone caught moving bodies from family tombs, specifically “sepulchers tombs” such as the one Jesus was buried in. It is dates to the reign of Claudius (41-54 AD), and appears to be directed at a Jewish audience. It is not common to see Caeser make such a pronouncement. It was common for grave robbers to plunder tombs but not take bodies. Scripture says that Jewish leaders spread the lie that Jesus’ disciples had stolen the body to explain the fact that the grave was empty after Jesus rose from the dead. This report reached the Roman emperor, who would have seen the new Christian sect as a dangerous, anti-Roman move
A different historical interpretation exists. Namely: “The context of the Nazareth Inscription clearly proves that it was written for Jews and not Gentiles and that it was almost certainly issued by Claudius in response to the story of the resurrection of ‘Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews’.”
Each of these discoveries is related to Jesus in some way, either representing a place he visited or people he interacted with, or an event central to his life. Together they indicate that while scripture is not a history text, it is riveted in history and within the lives of real people. They are the reason Jesus was here in human history—teaching us humans how to live. The work of historians and archaeologists is important for many reasons but it is especially helpful in sorting through the predators who emerge over time. We need people to help us recognize fact from fiction and reality from lies—such as occurred several years ago when a con man claimed to have found the ossuary of the apostle James. Thank God for those who seek truth within this field of study.