D. Brent Sandy
[Dr. Sandy is Associate Professor of Greek at Grace Theological Seminary, Winona Lake, Indiana.]
Current Status
It is only in the last two decades that Palestinian archaeologists have begun to give proper attention to the remains of the New Testament period. Archaeology as a careful scientific discipline has been at work in Palestine some three-quarters of a century and has contributed much to historical research. Even so, as the major twentieth-century leaders in Biblical archaeology were interested almost exclusively in Old Testament remains, the Hellenistic and later periods were passed over quickly. But broader interests have surfaced and with recent sophisticated and more precise methods of archaeology, every piece of antiquity regardless of age is now studied to reconstruct everything possible about the history and culture of the people. Thus the evidence needed to analyze the New Testament period is becoming more readily available.
A shift in New Testament studies is also underway which encourages the work of the archaeologist. A tendency common among New Testament scholars has involved an attempt to understand the New Testament from a theological perspective without due consideration of the historical, geographical, literary, and cultural setting. However, in many circles a new awareness is evident that the historical context, in many ways presupposed by the
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authors of the New Testament, is indeed an important element in a proper understanding of the text. This means that the need is growing faster for more information from New Testament archaeology and other background studies.
New Testament archaeology requires the examination of especially diverse and scattered antiquities; it does not focus only on one race of people or on one specific area of the world. It is rather the story of a world movement and must encompass parts of the Near East and much of the Greek and Roman world, from Galilee and Judea, to Qumran and the Decapolis; from Tyre and Caesarea to Gaza and Egypt; from Antioch in Syria, to many of the cities of Asia Minor; from Athens, Corinth, and Macedonia, to the capital of the empire, Rome. It must also encompass a variety of evidences; the debris of occupied sites, human remains, synagogues, tombs, churches, pottery, implements, architecture, catacombs, inscriptions, scrolls, papyri, coins, etc. New Testament archaeology then tends to be piecemeal, as it must be sifted from a large accumulation of data in various forms, from numerous locations, and representing varied cultures.
Fortunately, some recent books are filling the gap of our limited knowledge. Two works by Jack Finegan present a detailed look at the New Testament sites: The Archaeology of the New Testament: The Life of Jesus and the Beginning of the Early Church (Princeton, 1969) and The Archaeology of the New Testament: The Mediterranean World of the Early Christian Apostles (Westview, 1981). A book by Eric Meyers and James Strange offers some important insights into Galilee and Judea; they demonstrate that the archaeological data for the ministry of Jesus and His disciples is changing some ideas about the mix of traditional Judaism and Greek and Roman culture: Archaeology, the Rabbis, and Early Christianity (Abingdon, 1981). Two books by Edwin Yamauchi, The Stones and the Scriptures: An Introduction to Biblical Archaeology (Baker, 1972) and The Archaeology of New Testament Cities in Western Asia Minor (Baker, 1980) offer significant information on how archaeology confirms the New Testament, on the results of excavations at Qumran, and on the history and archaeology of missionary outposts in Asia Minor.
Selected Sites and Finds
Nazareth, though frequently mentioned in the N.T., was not mentioned by Josephus or by any other literary source earlier than the third century A.D. So an inscription found in excavations at Caesarea which mentions the town of Nazareth is an important witness to the town. Now partially excavated, it is clear that Nazareth was an unpretentious village, mostly of farmers, and probably of Jewish inhabitants. Yet it was not isolated for it was near one of the busiest trade routes of Palestine, the Via Maris. Jesus, though from a no-name country village, was well acquainted with the lives of all sorts of humanity.
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Capernaum, where Jesus made something of a headquarters for His public ministry, was an important commercial center; its population may have approached 15,000. Most of the town consisted of one-story houses, four to a block, each with a group of rooms around a central courtyard. Fishhooks found beneath floors and a harbor on the Sea of Galilee confirm that this was a fishing center. It was near here that Christ called the fishermen. Numerous remains suggest that the inhabitants here were very prosperous and lived comfortably. The The town had high ranking government officials, a Roman Centurion, and at least one tax collector (Matthew). An important church excavation here was built directly over a first-century house which, judging by the Christian graffiti and shape of the church, was an especially sacred place for the early Christians; they apparently cherished this as the location for the house of Peter.1
The excavation of other sites around Galilee, with their synagogues and Jewish religious objects, suggest that particularly Upper Galilee was heavily populated by Jews. Lower Galilee, however, was more affected by the urbanization of the Gentile culture, with a more prominent cosmopolitan and pagan atmosphere.
Dominating a view of New Testament Jerusalem was the grandeur of the Second Temple and the mount on which it was erected. Recent excavations of the area around the temple mount have revealed some of the splendor of Herod’s rebuilding of the temple; massive walls with geometric and floral patterns carved in stone, a monumental bedrock stairway, broad streets, massive bridges, etc., all attest to the wealth and prosperity of Herod’s kingdom. Another impressive structure built by Herod was his palace covering an area of 193,680 square feet. Herod literally made Jerusalem the showplace of the East. How unfortunate that the people of this impressive city were unimpressed by the most important person ever to grace its monuments. They mistook the King of Kings for just another insignificant stranger from a lackluster rural area.
Though Herod is well known for his pagan practices (e.g., the temples he built to the Roman emperor), excavations of his fortresses do not show evidence of pagan worship. The Herodium (near Bethlehem) and Masada (near the Dead Sea) have produced no pagan cult objects; to the contrary, Masada even had a synagogue. Perhaps Herod was a practicing Jew.
A find of some of the coins minted by Pilate demonstrates that the money the Jews were forced to use while Pilate was governor was particularly offensive. The Roman government realized the propaganda value of coins but it also preferred not to offend the people by symbols placed on the coins. Pilate, however, went against that policy
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and minted his copper coinage with pictures of the cult objects of the worship of the emperor. Though the story of Christ and the tribute money involved a less common coin, a silver denarius with the emperor’s portrait on it, the Jews conducted daily business with coins just as offensive; this money was to them a form of pagan idolatry.
Recently found in Jerusalem were the first physical remains of a person who had been crucified. A single iron nail had been driven through both heels, one overlapping the other; the calf bones were shattered; the arms had been pierced with nails in the forearms rather than palms. It is possible that this is precisely the way Christ was crucified, for the word for hand in the original designates also the lower forearm.
Conclusion
Many other examples of archaeological discoveries could be cited for Galilee and Judea as well as other parts of the New Testament world. Clearly much is to be learned from the scientific analysis of the remains of the New Testament period. Not that every bit of data will have relevance to the understanding of the New Testament nor that major changes in interpretation will be the result-New Testament archaeology does however confirm the accuracy of the record, it does provide a setting for the accounts, and it does improve our understanding of the God-given message.
(Reprinted by permission from Spire, a quarterly publication of the Grace Theological Seminary Alumni Association, Vol. II, No. 4, Spring 1983.)
But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man.
Hebrews 2:9
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