Paul Kitchen

Archeological helps us to understand the world of the first century culturally, politically & economically. Its evidence is independent of literary text (which in the case of Jesus had religious bias and were written much later than the events they describe). Archeology reveals the stuff of ordinary life of all classes of people rather than the interests of the upper-class males who wrote the texts. Its discovery of monuments and inscriptions shows the influence of the Roman Emperor cult and how the proclamation of the ‘divine’ Caesar would have impacted the Gospel message. The evidence for the wealthy lifestyle in Sepphoris and Caesarea contrasts with that of Capernaum and Nazareth, and sets the context for the work and teachings of Jesus. The absence of pig bones in all excavations in Galilee at the time of Jesus is one example of many that show that the life of Jesus must be seen in its Jewish context. (‘The Historical Jesus in Context’ ed. A-J Levine, D C Alloson & F D Crosssan, Princeton, 2006, p 40). There are many sites Jesus is reported to have visited that could be included in this account, such as certain mountains eg, the Mount of Transfiguration (either Hermon or Tabor) the Mount of Olives, the hills of Galilee, the wilderness of Judea, and perhaps the Mount of Temptation, but the following mostly excludes these. In general, the focus here is on archeological ruins & artefacts that help us understand life in the time of Jesus. They are presented in chronological sequence according to the story of the life of Jesus presented in the Gospels.

1. Manger

Jesus is described as being born in the town of Bethlehem, in humble circumstances perhaps in a cave, his parents having faced rejection from family and friends and even from an inn-keeper. Having found no room in an inn, Mary laid the newborn baby in a manger or feeding trough (Luke 2:7,12,16) such as would be as used for providing feed for donkeys (Luke 13:15). This picture shows a rock manger that has been excavated at the Tel of Megiddo. It was once a feeding trough for horses.

2. First Century House

After returning from Egypt where they were refugees for a time, Jesus’ family went north to live in the small town of Nazareth. Houses in the first century village of Nazareth were simple. The hills had many caves, so use was made of these. This picture was taken from near the Basilica of Annunciation in Nazareth, and is of an excavated house of Jesus’ time, with pillars supporting the cave entrance. A thatched roof would complete the structure outside the cave. It is thought animals were kept at the back of the house (in the cave) in winter to provide warmth to those living in the front portion.

The family (often an extended family) would sleep all together on the floor (hence Jesus’ possibly humorous reference to the difficulty of a householder getting up to attend to a neighbour who came to the door. The man answers from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ (Luke 11:7).

Beneath the Sisters of Nazareth Convent in Nazareth, another first century house has been excavated complete with a stone doorway. Note on the left of it the soot marks of a cooking area.

3. Sepphoris

Jesus and his earthly father Joseph were tradesmen (the Greek word tekton refers to one who works with his hands and could mean stonemason rather than carpenter, Mark 6:3) and at the time Joseph re-settled his family back in Nazareth during Jesus’ childhood, a large Greco-Roman city was under construction six kilometres away, named Sepphoris, and only recently discovered. It was built by Romans as an ‘ornament of all Galilee’ (Josephus) and sat above the surrounding valleys like a bird (Sepphoris = Zippori in Hebrew = bird). This building project may have provided work for Joseph and for Jesus in his early adult life. It was the capital city of Galilee during Jesus’ early life, though not mentioned at all in the New Testament. In Sepphoris a Roman Villa has been discovered with mosaic floor and this beautiful mosaic figure known as the ‘Mona Lisa of the Galilee.’

Jesus & Joseph may have helped in the construction of the theatre which could sit 4,500 people, though some archeologists say it was not constructed until the 2nd Century AD. Was this the place where Jesus heard the Greek word He later used so often, ‘hypocrite’ (literally means ‘stage actor’)?

See www.bibleinterp.com/articles/sepphoris.htm

4. A Winepress in Nazareth

has been recently discovered on a hillside outside a Christian hospital in Nazareth. It is a rectangular area for people to tread the harvested grapes, with a channel in the rock leading down to a pit to collect the wine. Near it was also found ruins of a watchtower, much as Jesus described as recorded in Mark 12:1 ‘Then he began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a pit for the wine press,

Reconstructed 1st C Synagogue and house and terraces at the Nazareth Village

and built a watchtower; then he leased it to tenants and went to another country.”’ When the grapes were harvested, the community gathered joyously together to squeeze the grapes with their bare feet, so the juice would run down into the pit. Note the small channel (centre of picture above) leading from the winepress to the collecting pit.

Did Jesus join others and actually tread this winepress?

5. Dead Sea Scrolls

Location: Dead Sea area (Qumran) Photo: P. Kitchen

When Jesus read from Isaiah 61 in the Synagogue in Nazareth (Luke 4:17, 20), he was reading Greek text from a scroll of around the same age at the Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in caves by the Dead Sea in 1947.

6. Capernaum

was a city on the northern coast of the Sea of Galilee and is where Jesus centred his Galilean ministry after leaving Nazareth (Matt 4:13). Most houses were built of local basalt rock and poorly constructed compared to those in Sepphoris. Most had single rooms surrounding a courtyard in common with other families. They had a simple thatched roof of mud & straw that was easy to dig a hole through (Mark 2:4). Even Jesus, the builder, had such a home there (Mark 2:1). The reconstructed synagogue seen there now was built with limestone in the 3rd Century AD but ruins of an older basalt synagogue have been found beneath it. This is where Jesus did much of his teaching and where he healed the man with the withered hand (Luke 6:5-11)

At Capernaum is a pillar that was found on the Via Maris (the Way of the Sea), a road along the coast from the south that actually came east through Capernaum to go into Syria. It is a milestone and a reminder of the statement by Jesus relating to Roman oppression: (Matt. 5:41) ‘and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile.’

7. Chorazin

Jesus specifically cursed the village of Chorazin when its people would not accept him and his miracles. He also cursed Capernaum & Bethsaida which have all been in ruins since the 1st Century (Matt 11:21-23). Here we see the ruins of the city of Chorazin. It lies 4km north of the Sea of Galilee and these are 3rd Century ruins (archeologists have not yet found the 1st Century evidence). ‘Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.’ (Matt. 11:21 & Luke 10:13)

See <www.ourfatherlutheran.net/biblehomelands/galilee/chorazin.htm>

8. Bethsaida

was a fishing village on the northeast of the Sea of Galilee and is important because 5 of Jesus’ disciples probably came from this village (Peter, Andrew, Phillip, James & John). Like Capernaum, its houses were made of basalt stone. In the picture, the excavations look like heap of rubble to the untrained eye, but one can be sure when walking these paths between ruined buildings that Jesus once walked those paths. Here Jesus restored a man’s sight (Mk 8:22-26). See <www.bibleplaces.com/bethsaida.htm>

9. The Land of Genneserat

is a very fertile small piece of land on the northwest edge of the Sea of Galilee. ‘When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesarat and moored the boat.’ (Matt. 14:34, Mark 6:53 ‘Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Genneserat, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.’ (Luke 5:1-3)

10. Caesarea-Phillippi is also known as Banias, at the foot of Mt Hermon on the Golan Heights, and is where Jesus retreated with his disciples. It was a pagan Hellenistic centre away from the soldiers of Herod Antipas and the Jewish leaders who were wanting to molest Jesus & He had no qualms about traveling there. Here in niches on a mountain side, statues of the pantheon of gods were mounted (including the god Pan who was honoured with a temple, hence the name ‘Banias’). This may have provoked the questions he asks his disciples —‘(Among all these ‘gods’) whom do you say that I am? (Mark 8:27, Luke 9:18)’

Location: Ginnosar Photo: P. Kitchen

11. Ancient Boat

Ruins of a 1st Century (100BC to 67AD) fishing boat found in 1986 in sediment in the Sea of Galilee at a time of drought when water level dropped. Note its shallow draft meaning it would be easy to pull fish into it (unless there were too many – John 21:6) but it would also quickly fill with water in a storm (Matt 8:24). It was a humble boat, 8 meters long and made of seven wood types (many repairs by an owner of meagre means until finally no longer sea-worthy). Every iron nail had been removed for use in other boats, evidencing hard times (excessive taxation and economic depression).

‘God & Empire, Jesus against Rome, Then and Now,’ John Dominic Crossan, Harper San Francisco, 2007, p122

Location: Aust. Inst. Archeology, Provenance: Petra, Jordan, Photo: P. Kitchen

12. Oil lamp & flask

Jesus told a parable about being prepared for His return:

“Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.” (Matt. 25:1-3)

13. Alabaster jar

Each of the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark & Luke) tells us of an incident when Jesus was anointed with expensive perfume by a woman with an alabaster flask who poured the ointment on his head after breaking the flask. Calcite alabaster is a hard white stone quarried in Egypt and was highly valued for making perfume bottles or ointment vases. (Matt 27:7, Mark 14:3, Luke 7:37)

Location: Aust. Inst. Archeology Material: Oriental Alabaster

Provenance: uncertain, prob. Mid. Bronze Age Photo: P. Kitchen

14. Money

Judea-Capta Roman Coin minted in 70AD

Jesus spoke much about money & wealth. On one occasion he was given a coin when asked about taxation (Matt 22:19). Note the coins on the left of the pile with an image of the Emperor’s head. Some coins had the letters DIVI FILIUS or abbreviations of that phrase which meant ‘Son of a Divine One’, ie, Caesar was proclaimed to be God or a son of God. How subversive in that culture then for Jesus’ followers to call him Son of God, or indeed for Jesus to say when shown a Roman coin with the Caesar’s head on it – to say – ‘render to Caesar’, and ‘render to God’, when Caesar was said to actually be a god!

15. The Woman at the Well

Jesus once met a Samaritan woman when he sat by a well in Sychar (now known as Askhar) near Shechem  (now called Nablus) where Jacob had once dug a well (John 4:4-30). The well still exists and has pure water. The woman had a container to draw water, but Jesus didn’t – and he probably didn’t actually get the drink he asked for!

16. The Good Samaritan

This powerful parable by Jesus about a man attacked on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho and saved by a Samaritan was recalled when when one drove down that road (before the new freeway was built) past the ‘Inn of the Good Samaritan’ which is a ruin of a walled khan where travelers and their animals would find shelter.

Location: Road from Jerusalem to Jericho

Photos: Slide kept at Aust. Inst. Archeology

17. Pool of Bethesda

This pool in Jerusalem is where Jesus healed the paralysed man (John 6). It was excavated in 1956 and found to have 5 porticoes as stated in John 5:2

Location: Bethesda, St Anne’s, Jerusalem

Photo: B. Marshall

18. Jerusalem – Herodian stones

Herodian stones had bevelled edges. This stone to rebuild wall of Temple Mount base, and surrounded by inferior stones. Location : Jerusalem. Photo: P. Kitchen

Model of possible rope & pulley system used to lift quarried stones. Location: Tantur. Photo: P.Kitchen

Herod the Great constructed a huge base for the Temple, doubling the platform size (Temple Mount), with extensive excavating, and he cut massive stones more than 40 feet long, some weighing over 100 tonnes, and cut so evenly that no mortar was necessary and it is hard to wedge even a paper between them. We dont know how they were lifted into place, though a pulley system such as shown may have been one method. Thus the comment of Jesus’ disciples ‘Look, Teacher, What massive stones, what magnificient buildings!’ (Mark 13:1)

19. Roman destruction of Jerusalem foretold

Stones once used by Roman ballistas to destroy the temple in 70AD

Jesus wept over Jerusalem as he foresaw it destruction by the Romans about 40 years later. ‘As Jesus came out of the temple and was going away, his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. Then he asked them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly I tell you, not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.”’ (Matt. 24:1-2) ‘As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “If you, even you, had only recognised on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognise the time of your visitation from God.”’ Luke 19:41-44)

A stone fallen from the Pinnacle of the Temple during the Roman destruction. It has in Hebrew the words ‘The Place of the Trumpet” and may be referred to in John 11:48

Excavated house south of Temple Mount, First Century. Photo: P.Kitchen

Excavations at the south-east corner of the temple wall have also revealed this damaged 1st century street used for entry to the temple. Jesus would have walked on these stones.

20. The Pool of Siloam

is where Jesus cured a blind man by sending him to wash his eyes after anointing them with mud (John 9:1-12). An unusual way to treat eye-disease!

21. Steps down the Tyropean Valley

When Jesus walked from the Upper Room to Gethsemane at the foot of the Mount of Olives, He may have walked down these actual steps. They lead from the church known as St Peter in Gallicantu, and the Upper Room site on Mt Zion, south of the Old City of Jerusalem. (Matt. 26:30) ‘When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.’

22. The Garden of Gethsemane

is at the foot of the Mount of Olives and has olive trees many hundreds of years old. Some of them may have grown from roots of the trees growing in the garden when Jesus knelt and wept there.

The ‘Game of the king’ inscribed in the rock Location: Lithostrotos, Ecce Homo Convent, Jerusalem Photo: P. Kitchen Pavement. Note the letter ‘B’ for Basileus (king)

23. The Pavement

or ‘Lithostrotos’ (Gk) is where Jesus was tried and beaten. It could have been the courtyard in the Roman Fortress of Antonio which overlooked the Temple grounds. (‘Then the soldiers led him into the courtyard of the palace (that is, the governor’s headquarters); and they called together the whole cohort and they clothed him in a purple cloak; and after twisting some thorns into a crown, they put it on him and they began saluting him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” They struck his head with a reed, spat upon him, and knelt down in ‘homage’ to him.’ (Mark 15:16-19)

Location: Israel Museum, Jerusalem AE1963 No104 Provenance: Replica at Caesarea. Material: Limestone Photo: P. Kitchen

24. Pilate’s Inscription

An inscription referring to Pontius Pilate was found in the remains of the ancient theatre of Caesarea by Italian Archaeologists under Dr Frova in 1961.

…….TIBERIEVM.. Tiberium

[PON]TIVSPILATVS (Pon)tius Pilate

[PRAEF]ECTVSIVDA[EAE] (Praef)ectus of Jud(ea)

The inscription had been reused by restorers of the theatre in the fourth Century AD and was partly destroyed in the process. It refers to a building called a Tiberium, a structure dedicated to the worship of Emperor Tiberias, and records the name of Pontius Pilate. This places Pilate in Palestine during the reign of Tiberius and at the time of Jesus. Sceptics doubted if Pontius Pilate ever lived (not mentioned in Roman records of Josephus). This finding put these doubts to rest.

Location: Australian Institute of Archaeology Provenance: Britain, Roman Period Material : Iron Photo: H.Huggins

25. Nails for crucifixion

It is common to find iron nails on Roman sites. Those pictured come from a site in first Century AD Roman Britain. The nails used were are 13 to 18 cm long, and square in section, 1cm across.

26. Rolling Stone

Location: Northern Israel. Photos: P. Kitchen

In the first century, Jews buried their dead in horizontal shafts dug into walls of underground chambers and a stone was rolled across the entrance. The stone used to secure the cave in which Jesus was buried was a huge rock wheel that would take several men to roll. It is described as a ‘great stone’ (Matt 27:60) and ‘very large’ (Mark 16:4) This picture shows a first century tomb and rolling stone. It is beside a road in the north of Israel and about 4 feet in diameter.

Location: Northern Israel

Photos: P. Kitchen

Location: Australian Institute of Archeology, Material: Limestone, Photo: H. Huggins

27. Ossuary

Ossuaries are receptacles that store bones. For a brief period in the first Centuries BC and AD Jews in the area of Jerusalem recovered bones from tombs (about a year after burial of the body) and stored them in ossuaries so that they could re-use the tomb.

It will be remembered that Joseph of Arimathaeas’s tomb in which Jesus was laid had ‘not been used’ (Matthew 27:60, Luke 13:53). It was common to scratch the name of the person on the ossuary and the names of Jesus, Joseph and Mary have commonly been found on ossuaries often giving rise to controversy. While the claims made about the possible connections with the New Testament have always been doubtful, they do reveal the names that were popular at the time.

This ossuary is in the collection of the Aust. Institute of Archeology, Melbourne. It is unused – ie, no bones were ever put into it. The decoration is common. There were no names scratched on it as you would expect if it had been used. See report on the Ossuary inscribed ‘James the brother of Jesus’. http://www.bibleinterp.com/articles/Official_Report.htm and the comment on the ‘Jesus’Ossuary http://www.michaelsheiser.com/M%20Heiser%20Ossuary.pdf