➡ Archaeological findings in Jerusalem and ancient Israel, such as the Galilee boat from Jesus’ time, remains of synagogues, the Pool of Siloam, and the ossuary of Caiaphas, support the historical accuracy of the Bible. The discovery of the Pilate Stone and the Nazareth inscription further validate biblical accounts. These discoveries show that Jesus’ life, teachings, crucifixion, and resurrection had a significant impact, leading to the spread of Christianity despite early persecution.
➡ A large Greek inscription in a cave, translating to “Jesus is present”, and Jacob’s well, where Jesus met a woman from Samaria, are two significant biblical sites. The well, located in the town of Nablus, north of Jerusalem, is still functional and visitors can drink its water. However, the text suggests that accepting Jesus can provide ‘living water’, symbolizing a transformative spiritual experience.

Proof of Jesus is found all throughout Jerusalem and ancient Israel. These archaeological finds validate the historical accuracy of the Bible, which in turn tells us that we can trust that what is written within the pages of the Bible is the truth. The first discovery we’ll look at is the Galilee boat. In 1986, during a severe drought in the region, an ancient boat was discovered buried in the mud. The boat was excavated and studied and was found to be from the first century A.D., the same time period that Jesus was on the earth.

It was an amazing discovery and is a great example of the style and size of boats that sailed on the Sea of Galilee during the time of Jesus. This boat could have looked very similar to the ones Jesus and the since Jesus walked the earth. A lot of evidence has been destroyed, which led many scholars for years to claim that there were no synagogues in Israel around the time of Jesus. We have many accounts within the Gospels like Matthew 4.23 and Luke 4.16 which say that Jesus went into the synagogues to teach, and some scholars were suggesting that synagogues did not arise until after the destruction of the temple in A.D.

70, but archaeology has proven otherwise. To date, the remains of 10 synagogues dating to before A.D. 70 have been unearthed in Israel, including at Capernaum, Jericho, Magdala, and Beth Shemesh, just to name a few. In addition to the remains of the synagogue structures, there’s a famous inscription known as the Theodotus inscription, which states that Theodotus built a synagogue in Jerusalem for the reading of the Torah and teaching of the commandments. In John chapter 9, Jesus healed a blind man by putting mud on his eyes and having him go wash in the pool of Siloam.

Many tourists visiting Jerusalem have visited the pool of Siloam, which was actually built by Empress Eudocia, built in the 5th century to commemorate the miracle. This pool is located at the end of Hezekiah’s tunnel, the aqueduct that brings water from the Gihon spring into the city, but in 2004 the actual pool of Siloam from the 1st century was accidentally discovered during repairs to a drainage system. Scholars believed for years that this was the actual location where the pool of Siloam was. It’s only 70 meters from the Byzantine pool. This is identified as the actual pool of Siloam where Jesus healed the blind man.

Hey, I’ve come back to the excavations here at the pool of Siloam and there’s some brand new archaeological work going on. You know, when I first came here in 2005, there had been a broken sewage pipe and we heard that there were some stones from the steps of the pool of Siloam that had been found. And so we came to look at those stones and boy, you could hardly see anything at all. It didn’t look like a pool then, but as the years went by, it looked more and more like a pool and we were getting more and more excited.

And then came a stalemate. There was some property that needed to be purchased, but it could not be purchased. Things move very slowly here in Jerusalem sometimes with that kind of thing. Last year in 2023, the property had been purchased and work began in earnest on trying to find out what was below all that dirt. Well, there was a lot of excitement in January and February, but when I came back in March of 2023, well, there was a spirit of disappointment. The stones hadn’t been found. There was nothing on the floor of the pool.

Couldn’t find any of the walls of the pool. It’s like there was nothing under all that dirt. But now I’m back about a year later in 2024 and there is a lot of excitement around this work. You can kind of feel it. Everybody here is excited about it. What we can pass along for sure is that what’s been found is the eastern wall of what is believed to be the Pool of Siloam. This wall dates to the time period, we think, from the Second Temple period and also the Hasmonean period. In other words, that would be the time of the New Testament, the time of Jesus.

Remember, Jesus sent a man with mud on his eyes, a blind man, to the Pool of Siloam. He washed in this pool and came back seeing. So it’s a very famous story and it has a lot of interest for Christians. The pool has a lot of interest for Jewish people. This is one of the most exciting excavation sites in all of Israel. And all I can say right now, something is happening again at the Pool of Siloam excavation. We read all throughout the Gospel accounts that the main people who rejected Jesus were the scribes and the Pharisees.

Their rejection of Him as Messiah is what set in motion His crucifixion. And the man who actually sentenced Jesus to be tried by the Romans was the high priest Caiaphas. Well, in 1990, the box that is holding the bones of Caiaphas was discovered near Jerusalem. Well, in 1990, they discovered this very ornate ossuary that on the side of it identified the remains as the remains of Caiaphas, who is Caiaphas. He was the high priest that sentenced Jesus to die. When Jesus said, I am the Messiah, and you will see the Son of Man coming with great power on the clouds, Caiaphas tore his robe and said, blasphemy, this man must die.

The man that sentenced Jesus to die, we not only know He existed, we have His bones. When they discovered this ossuary, they discovered the bones of a 60-year-old man and his family. There’s only one Caiaphas known from history. And that’s the Caiaphas of the New Testament who sentenced Jesus to die. We not only know He existed, we have His burial box. After Caiaphas and the rest of the Jewish Hierarchy condemned Jesus, he was sent to Pontius Pilate. The first piece of archaeological evidence proving the existence of Pontius Pilate was found in 1961 at an ancient Roman theater in Cassarea, Israel.

This is known as the Pilate Stone. Excavations near the theater revealed a limestone block inscribed with a dedication to Tiberius Caesar from Pontius Pilate, prefect of Judea. While there was never really a doubt that Pontius Pilate existed, he’s mentioned in all four gospels as well as by ancient writers such as Josephus and Tacitus, but actually seeing his name written in stone validates it even more and he plays a very crucial role in the gospel stories as he is the Roman prefect who handed Jesus over to be crucified. Jesus came to suffer that death for our sins.

He not only laid his life down, but by the power of God was raised back up three days later in victory over sin and death. The knowledge of this event obviously spread far and wide and many believe it’s the reason for this next piece of evidence known as the Nazareth inscription. This is a Roman decree not to tamper with graves because this account of the risen Jesus was turning the world upside down. The Nazareth inscription is an inscription written in Greek on a slab of marble about 15 inches wide and two feet high.

It’s a puzzling piece of information until you see the context. The Nazareth inscription is an edict of the emperor prescribing the death penalty for anyone who removes a body from a tomb or moves a sealing stone in front of a tomb. What’s curious about this? Two things actually. First, the prescription of the death penalty is out of scale with the penalties for all other sorts of offenses at that time. It’s a very odd thing that anyone would be sentenced to death merely for moving a body. The second interesting thing is that there’s nothing in the Nazareth inscription prohibiting robbing bodies in tombs.

It’s only the moving of the bodies. What sane person would move a body without robbing it? The background helps us to understand what is probably going on here. We’re told that during the reign of the emperor Claudius there was rioting in the Jewish quarter on account of one Christus, a common Roman misspelling of Christus, the name for Christ in Greek. Claudius expelled all of the Jews from Rome. But why? Well, we know what the Jewish story was in answer to the Christians. The Jewish story was that the disciples had stolen Jesus’ body.

The best explanation of the Nazareth inscription is that the emperor, having heard the Jewish version of the story of what happened after Jesus’ death, decided to put a stop to this kind of public unrest by levying the heaviest penalty possible against anyone who would try that again. Christians were under heavy persecution in the early church days. This led to many Christians constantly living in a state of fleeing and hiding. This actually led to the gospel being spread even farther and faster. It also led to archaeological evidence referring to Jesus being left behind in hidden places.

So there’s an area that’s located to the southwest of Jerusalem and about five miles east of Lekesh. In this area is an archaeological site called Beit Loya. And within the ruins themselves and in the surrounding hills are many, many caves. And it’s in one of these caves that has a fig tree growing out of it. You actually have to climb through the leaves of this fig tree to get down into the cave where you can see on the side of this limestone wall this huge Greek inscription. In fact, there’s a shot of me walking between the camera and the inscription that shows you just how big this inscription is.

Fortunately, this inscription has been published. It starts with a simple cross, a very early version of the cross, followed by two Greek words, all of them in uppercase Greek letters. The first word is a name and it’s translated Jesus. The second Greek word is translated present. So this inscription is translated Jesus is present. Some locations mentioned in the Bible are disputed and claimed by different people to be at different places. Jesus’ baptism site, Golgotha, his crucifixion site, and the location of his tomb are just a few. But a location that’s agreed upon by almost all scholars is the location of Jacob’s well.

This is the most authentic Bible site associated with Jesus anywhere in the Holy Land. It’s about one and a half hours drive north of Jerusalem in the area that was called Samaria in Bible times. Here on one of the main streets of the town of Nablus is the fourth century Greek Orthodox church, St. Fratini, that was built over the site of Jacob’s well during the Byzantine period. It’s truly a beautiful church surrounded by gardens and to get to Jacob’s well we go down into the crypt of the church. We are now standing beside the same well where Jesus met the woman of Samaria.

Over 2000 years ago Jesus was traveling from Jerusalem to Galilee when he chose to walk through Samaria, an area that Jews would not normally enter. When he stopped at this well he asked a woman from Samaria for a drink. She told him the well was deep and it still is today. The well is over 40 meters deep and pure spring water is still drawn from it. You can actually visit this location and drink some water from this well but the water will leave you thirsty again. If you accept Jesus as your Lord he will transform your life just like he did the woman at the well and he will give you living water.

Jesus answered and said to her if you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you give me a drink you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. [tr:trw].