The Archeology of the New Testament: The Life of Jesus and the Beginning of the Early Church - Revised Edition

by Jack Finegan

Overview

The Archeology of the New Testament is the authoritative illustrated account of what is presently known about the chief sites and monuments connected with the life of Jesus and the history of the early church. To follow the order of the New Testament, it first investigates sites connected with John the Baptist and then proceeds to Bethlehem and Nazareth, Samaria and Galilee, Jerash, Caesarea, Jericho, the Mount of Olives, Jerusalem, and Emmaus. Each site is illustrated, and the accompanying text, numbered to facilitate cross-reference, contains a bibliography. This edition has been completely revised to reflect the most recent scholarship and excavations, and it contains many new entries. Anyone concerned with the historical, geographical, and cultural background of the New Testament will want to study this classic work as it retraces the steps of Jesus. "The definitive handbook. Finegan's comprehensive treatment of almost every problem in the field of New Testament archeology as well as his judicious evaluation of the evidence makes this book indispensable to every serious student of the Bible."--The New York Times Book Review

Originally published in 1993.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691609287
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	07/14/2014
Series:	Princeton Legacy Library , #154
Edition description:	Revised
Pages:	468
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 10.90(h) x 1.00(d)

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The Archeology of the New Testament

The Life of Jesus and the Beginning of the Early Church

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By Jack Finegan

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS

Copyright © 1992 Princeton University Press
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-691-03608-3

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CHAPTER 1

THE LIFE OF JOHN THE BAPTIST

1. A View of Ain Karim and the Church of St. John the Baptist

THE FORERUNNER OF JESUS was known as John the Baptist and was the son of a priest Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth. When Mary visited the home of Zechariah and Elizabeth she went "into the hill country, to a city of Judah" (Lk 1:39); and when John was born and named the events were the subject of conversation "through all the hill country of Judea" (Lk 1:65). The word here rendered "hill country" is [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]. In the Natural History (v 15), which was completed in A.D. 77, Pliny uses the same word in Latin as the name of the district in which, he says, Jerusalem was formerly (Orinen, in qua fuere Hierosolyma). Certainly the name was appropriate to the mountainous region in which Jerusalem was located. Therefore the home of Zechariah and Elizabeth, which was the birthplace of John, was somewhere in the hilly area around Jerusalem. About A.D. 150 The Protevangelium of James (22:3; JANT p. 48; HSNTA I, p. 387) represents Elizabeth as fleeing to save John when Herod slaughtered the children, and as going up into the hill country where a mountain was rent asunder and received her. Legendary as this is, the reference is at any rate also to the hill country. Theodosius (530) (Geyer p. 140; LPPTS N-B, p. 10; CCSL CLXXV, p. 117; WJP p. 65) states that it was a distance of five miles from Jerusalem to the place where Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, lived. This agrees with the distance (7.50 kilometers) from Jerusalem westward to the village of Ain Karim ("Spring of the Vineyard"). This village is mentioned by name in the Jerusalem Calendar (before 638) when it gives this as the place of a festival, celebrated on the twenty-eight of August, in memory of Elizabeth: "In the village of Enquarim, in the church of the just Elizabet, her memory" (Goussen p. 31/Kopp 1959 p. 133). In the Book of the Demonstration (312), ascribed to Eutychius of Alexandria (940), it is said: "The church of Bayt Zakariya in the district of Aelia bears witness to the visit of Mary to her kinswoman Elizabeth" (csco 193, p. 135). When Jerusalem was rebuilt by Hadrian (135) it was called Aelia Capitolina, so the church just referred to "in the district of Aelia" was in the vicinity of Jerusalem and probably at Ain Karim. Whether the church of Elizabeth mentioned in the Jerusalem Calendar and the church of Zechariah spoken of by Eutychius were two different churches or were one and the same is not fully clear, but the latter will appear more probable in the light of what follows from Daniel. Daniel (1106) describes two separate churches that were evidently at Ain Karim. Proceeding from the monastery of the Holy Cross west of Jerusalem it was, he says (LPPTS IV-C , pp. 51ff.), four versts (the Russian verst equals 3,500 feet or about two-thirds of an English mile) to the house of Zacharias, the house where the holy Virgin came to greet Elizabeth. "A church now occupies this place," he writes; "on entering it there is, to the left, beneath the low altar, a small cavern, in which John the Forerunner was born." Half a verst from there, Daniel continues, is the mountain that gave asylum to Elizabeth and her son when the soldiers of Herod were pursuing them, and this place is also marked with a small church. The church described by Daniel at the site of the house of Zacharias is presumably the same as the church of Zakariya mentioned by Eutychius; it may well be also the same as the church of Elizabeth listed in the Jerusalem Calendar since it marks the place, according to Daniel, where Mary visited Elizabeth. The second church, where the rock received Elizabeth and John, was obviously related to the narrative in The Protevangelium of James rather than to the account in the canonical Gospels.

The spring that provides water for the village of Ain Karim must have encouraged settlement in this region from an early time, and pottery from the Middle Bronze Age has been found at or near Ain Karim (G. Ernest Wright in BASOR 71 [Oct. 1938], pp. 28f.). The town may be the same as the Karem ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) listed in Jos 15:59 LXX among the cities of the tribe of Judah.

The photograph shows the village as it lies in the hill country, with the Church of St. John the Baptist near the center of the picture. The church has been in the hands of the Franciscans since 1674. In 1941-1942 they conducted excavations in the area immediately west of the church and the adjoining monastery. In the area were uncovered several rock-cut chambers and graves as well as wine presses with mosaic floors and small chapels with mosaic pavements. The southern rock-cut chamber contained pottery of a type which has been found elsewhere around Jerusalem in association with coins of the Herodian dynasty and belongs therefore to the period from about the first century B.C. up to A.D . 70. This chamber must have existed, then, in about the first century B.C. , and it is evidence for a community here at the very time of Zechariah, Elizabeth, and John. The other finds show a continuity of the community not only during Roman but also Byzantine and early Arab times. As for St. John's church itself, the present structure may be mainly from the eleventh century (Abel, Géographie II, pp. 295f.) but lower portions of the walls probably still remain from the Byzantine period (fourth-seventh centuries). At the front end of the left aisle is a grotto which must correspond with the small cavern mentioned by Daniel.

Sylvester J. Sailer, Discoveries at St. John's, 'Ein Karim, 1941-1942. PSBF 3 (Jerusalem: Franciscan Press, 1946); Donato Baldi and Bellarmino Bagatti, Saint Jean-Baptiste dans les souvenirs de sa Patrie. PSBFCMI 27 (Jerusalem: Franciscan Printing Press, 1980). Photograph: courtesy École Biblique et Archéologique Française.

2. The Church of the Visitation at Ain Karim

THE OTHER ANCIENT church at Ain Karim is known as the Sanctuary of the Visitation. It is located across the village to the southwest from St. John's. In the vicinity are two rock-cut chambers with ledges around the walls, tombs therefore of a type known in Palestine from the end of the Late Bronze Age and in use even in the Roman period (see No. 253). In 1938 the Franciscans conducted excavations in the ancient ruins at the Visitation Church. The early sanctuary was built against a rocky declivity, and both Byzantine and medieval walls were found. In the crypt a recess contains an oval gray rock, 91 by 104 by 70 centimeters in size, with a natural depression in the center. It is venerated as the pietra del nascondimento, the "stone in which John was concealed," in obvious dependence on The Protevangelium of James (cf. above No. 1).

QDAP8 (1939), pp. 170-172; Bellarmino Bagatti, Il santuario della Visitazione ad 'Ain Karim (Montana Judaeae), esplorazione archeologica e ripristino. PSBF 5 (Jerusalem: Franciscan Press, 1948). Photograph: courtesy École Biblique et Archéologique Française.

3. Marble Statue of Aphrodite from Ain Karim

IN THE EXCAVATIONS at Ain Karim this marble statue of Aphrodite or Venus was found in two broken pieces. As joined together again the total height of the figure is 72 centimeters. The statue appears to be a copy of a work of Praxiteles (340 B.C.) and, with its strong and vigorous lines, is thought to belong to the first century of the Christian era. According to Herodotus (I 105) the goddess Aphrodite was worshiped in a temple in Ascalon as early as in the time of Psammetichus (Psamtik I, 663-610 B.C.) of Egypt. According to Jerome (Letter 58 to Paulinus, 3) there was from the time of Hadrian to the reign of Constantine—a period of about 180 years—on the rock at Jerusalem, where the cross had stood, a marble statue of Venus that was an object of worship. This was done away with when the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was built and dedicated in 335 (Eusebius, Life of Constantine III 26). The statue here shown, made of marble as was the one Jerome describes at Calvary, presumably stood at Ain Karim during the Roman period too, and was also overthrown in the Byzantine period, perhaps somewhat later than the one in Jerusalem.

While the evidence noted thus far seems to point to Ain Karim, there were other traditions. Among the Christian sanctuaries of the Arab period (seventh-tenth centuries) there were two churches of St. John the Baptist of Jerusalem, one on the summit of the Mount of the Olives, the other at the foot of the Mount. Concerning the latter a Slavonic text (Archives de l'Orient Latin, II, p. 392; J. T. Milik in RB 67 [1960], p. 562 cf. p. 357) earlier than Daniel (1106) says that the place at the foot of the Mount was that of the house of Zechariah where John was born and from which Elizabeth went into the mountains with her child.

4. A View of the Wilderness of Judea

ALTHOUGH JOHN was born in a city in the "hill country" of Judah (No. 1), it is stated of him in Lk 1:80 that he was in the wilderness or, literally, in the deserts ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) till the day of his manifestation to Israel, i.e., until the day of his public appearance. Like the Hebrew [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], which it generally translates in the LXX, the Greek [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] is the desolate, empty, lonely land. It may be stony or sandy, or it may be a grassland. It may be the haunt of nomads. But it is not cultivated, and it is not permanently settled.

Since the birthplace of John was in the land of Judea, the wilderness in which he spent his youth was presumably the wilderness of Judea. The latter is definable from biblical references. Num 21:20 states that Mount Pisgah looks down upon Jeshimon. The latter name means desolated or deserted and probably describes the barren terraces of marl on either side of the Jordan above the Dead Sea and the steep hills behind Jericho and on the west side of the Dead Sea. Jos 15:61-62 lists six "cities" which were in the wilderness of Judah. Among them are the following, whose probable locations are in the area just described and whose names are obviously characteristic for desert sites: Beth-arabah, "House of the Arabah (i.e., the 'arid region' containing the Jordan and Dead Sea and extending to the Gulf of Aqabah)," probably to be identified with Ain Gharba, southeast of Jericho; 'Ir-hammelah, "City of Salt," probably the later Qumran; and En-gedi, "Spring of the Kid," still today a hot spring called Ain Jidi on the west shore of the Dead Sea twenty miles south of Qumran. In all, the area of this wilderness (see map, No. 7) is some thirty-five miles from north to south and fifteen miles from east to west.

This view in the wilderness of Judea is taken from the road between Jerusalem and Jericho. In the distance an ancient trail runs across the hills.

Smith, Geography, pp. 312-316. Photograph: JF.

5. Khirbet Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls

BECAUSE ZECHARIAH and Elizabeth were already of advanced age at the birth of John, it may be supposed that the child was left without father and mother at a relatively early time. How this child could live "in the wilderness" (Lk 1:80) is difficult to understand, unless there were those there who received him and helped him. In fact there was a community of men living in the Judean wilderness at Qumran, of whom it was said that, although they did not marry, they adopted children and raised them in their own teachings, and it is at least possible that John was taken in here as a child. The possibility encounters problems, of course, since an antipathy is known to have existed between the people of Qumran and the regular temple priests (Vardaman), and Zechariah, John the Baptist's father, was of the priestly family of Abijah (Lk 1:5), one of the regular line of priestly courses or families.

As for Qumran, this is the name of a wadi or watercourse that cuts down through the limestone cliffs and through a marl terrace on the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea. On the marl terrace beside Wadi Qumran is the site of Khirbet Qumran (khirbet means a ruined place). In 1873-1874 a large ancient cemetery was noted here by Charles Clermont-Ganneau; beginning in 1947 ancient manuscripts and fragments of manuscripts were found in caves in the marl terrace and in the cliffs above by Bedouins and by archeologists, and beginning in 1951 Khirbet Qumran was excavated by archeologists.

Of the architectural remains excavated at Khirbet Qumran the earliest is a rectangular building and a long wall, which are attributed on the basis of the associated pottery to the eighth-seventh centuries B.C. (in Iron Age ii ) and are thought to represent an Israelite fort of that time. At this point Khirbet Qumran may very probably be identified with the 'Irhammelah or the City of Salt of Jos 15:62.

According to the numerous coins found in Khirbet Qumran, the main buildings may have been constructed under John Hyrcanus (135-104 B.C.) and were certainly occupied under AlexanderJanneus (103-76 B.C.). In the reign of Herod the Great the place was probably abandoned for a time, for only few of the coins of this king were found. Such abandonment may well have been due to the great earthquake that Josephus says struck Judea in the seventh year of Herod, 31 B.C. (Ant. xv 5, 2 §122; War I 19, 3 §370). There is probable evidence of this earthquake in discernible damage in the great tower at Khirbet Qumran and in a large diagonal crack running down through the steps into a large pool. Moreover, in E. Netzer's excavations of the Maccabean period buildings and palaces at Jericho, eight miles north of Qumran, widespread evidence came to light of extensive earthquake damage which brought their occupation to an end at this same time, 31 B.C. (Vardaman).

The coins suggest that Qumran was reoccupied under Herod's son Archelaus (4 B.C.-A.D. 6), during which time some repairs and minor modifications were probably made. Occupation continued from then on until the time of the Jewish war against the Romans. Josephus states that in the spring of A.D. 68 Vespasian set out with his army from Caesarea to finish the conquest of Palestine and on the second day of the month Daisios reached and took Jericho, most of whose inhabitants had already fled to the hill country (War IV 8, 1-2 §§443-452). Since Khirbet Qumran is not far from Jericho, it is most probable that the Qumran community was also destroyed at this time, i.e., in June A.D. 68. Evidence of the Roman conquest and destruction was found in Khirbet Qumran in Roman arrowheads of iron and a layer of burnt ash in the ruins. For a few years afterward some Roman soldiers may have been quartered at Qumran, and some coins of the Second Revolt of the Jews against Rome suggest that Jewish forces were there at that time. After that Qumran was no longer occupied.

The buildings excavated at Khirbet Qumran suggest that this was an important center of a community but not the place of residence of most of the members of the community, who lived perhaps in more temporary dwellings and also in adjacent caves. The main building was a large rectangular room about 100 by 120 feet in size, fortified with a massive two-story tower at the northwest corner. In the southwest corner were a court and several large rooms. A low bench around the four sides of one room suggests that this was a place of assembly. Fragments from an upper story in this area fitted together to make a plastered table and bench, which together with two Roman period inkwells, one of copper and one of terra cotta, appear to be from a scriptorium, in all probability the very place where many of the scrolls were copied. In an extension of the main building to the south a room twenty-two feet long may have provided a common dining room, for in an adjacent smaller room were found more than one thousand bowls stacked against the wall.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from The Archeology of the New Testament by Jack Finegan. Copyright © 1992 Princeton University Press. Excerpted by permission of PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS.
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Table of Contents

• FrontMatter, pg. i
• PREFACE, pg. v
• CONTENTS, pg. vii
• CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF ANCIENT SOURCES, pg. xiv
• TABLE OF ARCHEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL PERIODS IN PALESTINE, pg. xxiii
• TABLE OF MONTHS IN THE ROMAN, EGYPTIAN, MACEDONIAN, AND HEBREW CALENDARS, pg. xxviii
• NOTE ON MEASURES OF LENGTH AND STATEMENTS OF DIRECTION, pg. xxx
• LIST OF BISHOPS OF THE JERUSALEM CHURCH WITH EXPLANATORY COMMENTS, pg. xxxii
• THE JUDEO-CHRISTIANS, pg. xxxvii
• OUTLINE OF FESTIVALS OF THE EARLY CHURCH, pg. xlii
• LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS, pg. l
• 1. A View of Ain Karim and the Church of St. John the Baptist– 16. The Church of the Finding of the Head of John the Baptist at Samaria-Sebaste, pg. 1
• 17. The Terraced Slopes of Bethlehem–39. Floor Mosaic in the Roof Chapel at the Field of the Shepherds near Bethlehem, pg. 22
• 40. Nazareth–57. On the Road from Nazareth Looking Toward the Traditional Village of Cana in Galilee, pg. 43
• 58. The Landscape of Samaria– 68. The Unfinished Greek Orthodox Basilica over Jacob’s Well, pg. 65
• 69. The Southern End of the Sea of Galilee– 81. The Modern Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes, pg. 76
• 82. Plan of the Chapel and the Monastery of the Beatitudes at Tabgha– 106. Memorial of the Miracle of the Swine at Kursi, pg. 92
• 107. Plan of Jerash–119. Floor Mosaic in the Synagogue under the Synagogue Church at Jerash, pg. 117
• 120. General Plan of Caesarea– 133. Byzantine Church Mosaics at Caesarea, pg. 128
• 134. Aerial View of Jericho– 142. Traditional Site of the Inn of the Good Samaritan, pg. 145
• 143. Map of the Mount of Olives–158. Plan by Arculf of the Church of the Holy Ascension, pg. 154
• 159. The Mosque of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives–172. In the Garden of Gethsemane, pg. 170
• 173. Plan of Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus– 191. The Triple Gate, pg. 183
• 192. Excavated Area South of the Temple Mount– 205. Plan of the Church on Mount Sion According to Arculf, pg. 208
• 206. Door of the Syrian Orthodox Church of St. Mark– 220. A Game Board on a Paving Stone, pg. 236
• 221. Cistern under the Stone Pavement– 232. Bell Tower at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, pg. 258
• 233. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher from the Tower of the Lutheran Church– 243. St. Stephen's Gate, pg. 280
• 244. Aerial View of el-Qubeibeh, A Possible Site of Emmaus– 247. The Baptistery at ‘Amwas, pg. 287
• Shaft Tombs, 248–250, pg. 292
• Chamber Tombs, 251–252, pg. 293
• Chamber Tombs with Ledges, 253–254, pg. 295
• Chamber Tombs with Kokim, 255, pg. 296
• Chamber Tombs with Arcosolia, 256, pg. 299
• Chamber Tombs with Sunk Graves, 257–258, pg. 299
• 259. Plan of the Uppermost City at Tell Sandahannah– 263. Portion of the Animal Frieze in Tomb 1 at Marissa, pg. 301
• 264. Plan of the Tomb of James and the Tomb of Zechariah– 270. The Pediment of the Tomb of Jehoshaphat, pg. 305
• 271. Plan and Sections of Tomb xiv of the Sanhedriyya Tombs– 272. Entrance to Tomb xiv of the Sanhedriyya Tombs, pg. 311
• 273. Plan and Sections of the Herodian Family Tomb–274. Rolling Stone in the Herodian Family Tomb, pg. 313
• 275. Restoration in Perspective of the Tomb of Queen Helena of Adiabene– 281. Rolling Stone at the Entrance of the Tomb of Queen Helena of Adiabene, pg. 314
• 282. General View of Beth She’arim–287. Epitaph of Marinos and His Wife in Catacomb No. 13, pg. 319
• 288. An Aramaic Inscription from the Jewish Catacomb in Monteverde– 295. Another Painting in the Jewish Catacomb in the Villa Torlonia, pg. 325
• 296. Sarcophagi in the Herodian Family Tomb–301. A Lead Coffin from Beth She’arim, pg. 331
• 302. Ossuary from Tomb 14 at Tell en-Nasbeh–303. Ossuary Inscriptions from a Tomb in the Kidron Valley, pg. 335
• 304. Painted Pebbles with Cross Marks from Tell Abu Matar, pg. 339
• 305. Sandstone Statue from Serabit el-Khadem with proto-Sinaitic Inscription– 306. The Inscription of Yehimilk, King of Byblos, pg. 339
• THE HEBREW TAW AND ITS EQUIVALENTS, pg. 343
• THE SIGN OF PROTECTION AND DELIVERANCE, pg. 343
• THE PHYLACTERIES AND THE SIGN OF THE NAME OF GOD, pg. 345
• 307. Column xxxv of the Isaiah Scroll from Cave 1 at Qumran, pg. 346
• THE CROSS MARK IN JEWISH CHRISTIANITY, pg. 348
• THE CROSS AS REPRESENTATION OF THE STAUROS, pg. 350
• THE CROSS IN THE HELLENISTIC CHURCH, pg. 351
• THE FORMS OF THE CROSS, pg. 352
• ABBREVIATIONS AND MONOGRAMS, pg. 352
• THE CROSS MARK IN RELATION TO FUNERAR Y CUSTOMS, JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN, pg. 355
• ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE CROSS MARK, pg. 356
• 308. Jar from Tel Arad with Hebrew Inscription and Taw Mark, pg. 356
• 309. Inscription and Cross Mark on the Nicanor Ossuary–310. Cross Mark on the Lid of the Nicanor Ossuary, pg. 357
• 311. Inscription with the Name of Judah and Cross Mark on an Ossuary from the Mount of Offence– 314. Inscription with the Name of Alexander on an Ossuary from near Silwan, pg. 359
• 315. Plan of the Tomb at Talpioth– 318. Cross Mark on Ossuary No. 8 from Talpioth, pg. 363
• 319. Plan and Sections of a Portion of the Cemetery at Dominus Flevit– 326. Photograph and Drawing of Marks on Ossuary No. 18 from Dominus Flevit, pg. 366
• 327. Wall Mark at Herculaneum–328. Stand at Herculaneum, pg. 374
• 329. Graffiti in the Vatican Excavations, pg. 375
• 330. A Painted Inscription in the Jewish Catacomb in the Villa Torlonia–335. Trisomus Inscription in the Catacomb of Priscilla, pg. 377
• 336. A Page in Papyrus Bodmer 11 (P66)– 338. A Page in the Gospel of Truth (CodexJung), pg. 381
• 339. Slate Dish Embodying the Sign of the Ankh–344. Painting in a Tomb Chapel at the Oasis of Khargeh, pg. 382
• INDEX OF SCRIPTURAL REFERENCES, pg. 391
• INDEX, pg. 395

Editorial Reviews

"The definitive handbook. Finegan's comprehensive treatment of almost every problem in the field of New Testament archeology as well as his judicious evaluation of the evidence makes this book indispensable to every serious student of the Bible."

The New York Times Book Review

"The definitive handbook. Finegan's comprehensive treatment of almost every problem in the field of New Testament archeology as well as his judicious evaluation of the evidence makes this book indispensable to every serious student of the Bible."—The New York Times Book Review

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