Bible scholar Dr. Bill Humble has spent a lifetime studying the history and geography of the Holy Land.  He has also conducted tours throughout the Holy Land on more than twenty occasions.  In this series, Dr. Humble introduces you to five archeological sites that have amazed the scientific community.  Please note the copyright notice at the bottom of this page.

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• The House of David in Dan
• The Ossuary of Caephus?
• Palace of Herod the Great
• The Oldest Fragment of Scripture Ever Discovered?
• Echron, City of the Philistines
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The House of David in Dan

Mike: Dr. Bill Humble is a retired professor of Bible at Abilene Christian University in Abilene, TX. He also is quite conversant with archeology and the Bible. Dr. Humble regularly takes tour groups to the Holy Lands for study sessions and tours a number of archaeological sights, and Dr. Humble is joining us today to talk about a number of archaeological finds in the holy lands, a number of sights and findings that have amazed the scientific community in recent years. Dr. Humble, we appreciate you taking the time to come and join us today.

Dr. Humble: Thank you, glad to be here.

Mike: Dr. Humble, today for our time together, you are going to be taking us to the city of Dan, I believe.

Dr. Humble: Yes, that's correct.

Mike: And talk a bit about a description that identifies the House of David that's is associated with the Bible character, King David?

Dr. Humble: King David, that's correct. And this is one of those exciting discoveries made very recently in the summer of 1993, and when it was announced, it made newspapers all over the United States and the world, in fact. It even made the front page of the New York Times, and an archaeological discovery of the importance, we certainly ought to be interested in. Mike, you mentioned the fact that I take tour groups to Israel every summer and I enjoy doing this very much, and it so happens that we were at Dan at the very spot that this discovery was make only four or five or six weeks before this discovery was made. Dan is located in the extreme northern part of Israel, right at the base of the beautiful Mt. Herman. In the Bible you might remember the expression, from Dan to Beersheba; Dan in the north and Beersheba in the south. Dan has been a very important archaeological sight. When we were there in the summer of 1993, they had found the location of the main city gate and they had found a cobblestone street that was leading up into the city gate. They had a number of Druse workmen at work at the time, and they were taking up every single stone and cleaning it and putting it back in place. They intend for this to be the access to the city for tour groups in the future, and because of earthquakes, this nearly 3000 year old street was very rough and uneven. And so they were taking up every single stone and cleaning it and putting it back into place. And when they picked up one of these stones, they found that it had once been a part of a monument, and that monument had been broken up and the broken pieces had been laid into the cobblestone street. On this particular stone, they found 13 lines of writing in the Aramaic language. They determined that this monument had been set up around 900 B.C., probably by the King of Damascus. Back in those days, Syria had formed an alliance with Judah in the south to side against Israel the northern kingdom after the Jewish kingdoms divided into the 2 rival kingdoms, and here was a war between Damascus and Syria and Israel. The kings of Damascus had won the war and put up this monument to commemorate his victory. But the thing that really caught the attention of the archaeologists was that on this monument, there were the words, "The House of David, The Dynasty of David". Now, the importance is, this is the first reference ever discovered to David in any inscription outside the Bible. Anyone who has ever read the Old Testament know that David is a very, very important person, and after Solomon died about 930 B.C., and the kingdoms divided, the southern kingdom was ruled by descendants of David for more than 200 years. So the House of David is extremely important in the Old Testament. But there had never been found anywhere an archaeological reference giving the name David, the House of David, until this discovery in 1993. The monument, of course, is now on display in the great archaeological museum in Jerusalem where I've had a chance to see it, and it's so exciting, people all over the world who are interested in the Bible, and especially people in Israel, that the renewed story about this discovery in the newspapers and magazines all over the world, and it was so significant that it made the front page of the New York Times. And of course, every discovery like this just makes the Bible spring to life and become a real living book. We could read our Bible and we could read about David and we know that, according to the Bible, that he lived about 3000 years ago, in fact, he captured the city of Jerusalem exactly 3000 years ago, and made it the capital of the southern kingdom, Judah. But for many people, these are just stories. For some people, almost mythical stories, but when we discover an inscription like this referring to the House of David, the inscription put into place around 900 B.C., then we are just reminded that these are real people, and real places, real events that we are dealing with in the Bible. And that is the value of this discovery.

Mike: Dr. Humble, if some of our listening friends should become interested in this and decide that they want to go back now and read a bit more about the life of David, where would they go in the Bible to find that?

Dr. Humble: In the books of Samuel and Kings, I Samuel and I Kings, they can read a great deal about David.

Mike: Appreciate you taking the time to be with us, and you're going to join us again tomorrow and take us to Jerusalem to view some very old bones, I understand.

Dr. Humble: Oh, yes, I'd be happy to.

Mike: We'll look forward to that.

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The Ossuary of Caephus

Mike: This is Alaska calling, Station KNLS calling Abilene, TX to talk with retired professor of Bible, Dr. Bill Humble. Dr. Humble has specialized over the years in Bible lands archeology and Bible land history, and over the next several days, he is going to be taking us to the Holy lands to visit a number of archaeological sights, sights that have been quite significant and have made quite a bit of news during the last few years. Today, Dr. Humble is going to take us to the city of Jerusalem. Dr. Humble, I understand that you are going to take us to Jerusalem to view the bones or what is supposed to be the bones of a Bible character that was very central to the life history of Jesus.

Dr. Humble: Yes we are going to do that, but actually it is not the bones themselves. It is going to be the bone box, the box the bones were discovered in. And I will tell you in a moment why we will not be able to see the bones themselves. But this is an exciting discovery that was made in November of 1990. The archaeologists were excavating in a valley just about one mile south of the Old Walled city, the Ancient City of Jerusalem. And they found a burial tomb, a large cave that served as a burial tomb that goes back to about the first century BC, and it had never been found before and never explored or excavated, and inside that burial tomb, they found 12 ossuaries. I'm sure that most of our listeners have never heard of an ossuaries. It is an archaeological term, of course, so let me explain it. Very simply, it is a bone box. 2000 years ago, the Jews had a burial custom that is quite different from ours. Each family would have its tomb or sepulchre, and when a loved one died, the body would be buried very much as we bury a body today. But then after 2-3 years, after all of the flesh had deteriorated and disappeared completely, and when only the bones remained, then they would go into the tomb and collect the bones, and they would bury them in a small box. And the name for these boxes is ossuaries. Many, many of them have been discovered in excavations all over Israel. Sometimes, they are made of stone, and they are very crude. If it is a well-to-do-to-do family, they will be made of marble, with beautiful decorations of the sides of them. Normally, they are about 2 feet long and about 18-20 inches high and about the same width. And in this burial tomb, they found 12 ossuaries. One of them very beautiful, indicating a very wealthy, well-to-do family. It is on display in the archaeology museum in Jerusalem where I have seen it a number of times. The beautiful circular decorations on it are very lovely, and they indicate that this is a very wealthy family. But what really captured the attention of the archaeologists was a name inscribed on the ossuary. And the name is there, not once, but twice, and the name is Caephus. Now you remember that when Jesus was condemned to death, he was taken before the high priest Caephus, and the Sanhedrin in the dead of night. And they decided that it was necessary for him to die, and they in turn sent him on to Pontius Pilate for the death sentence to be carried out. There is no way of proving absolutely, positively that these bones in that ossuary were the very Caephus from New Testament times. However, archaeologists think that it is highly probable that this is the very Caephus that we read about in the New Testament. We know that he was the high priest from AD18 to 36 and that is the very period that this burial cave goes back to. We know that this had to be an extremely wealthy family, to have a large burial cave like this with ossuaries that are so beautiful, so the archaeologist in Israel believe that it is highly probable that these bones which they discovered are the very bones of the Caephus, high priest, before whom Jesus stood and heard the death sentence announced. Now if that is true, then this is the first time that the actual physical remains, the bones of some Biblical person, have ever been discovered.

Mike: But you say the bones themselves are no longer in the ossuary?

Dr. Humble: No, the bones are not in the ossuary, and here is the reason. Among orthodox Jews today, it's desecration to disturb a grave. The Orthodox Jews believe that archaeologists should not even excavate a grave when they find one. So it would be highly offensive to practicing Orthodox Jews in Israel for bones that have been discovered to be placed on display, for example. So after these bones were discovered and examined and studied, then they were reburied, probably in the great cemetery on the slopes of the Mount of Olives, just on the outside of Jerusalem. The bones were given a loving, secondary burial, but the ossuary in which they were discovered, that is what is on display in the museum in Jerusalem.

Mike: OK, that is a fascinating story.

Dr. Humble: And you know, it really makes the Bible spring to life. You know, we can read about a man like Caephus, and it just becomes almost a routine story, but if you walk through that archaeology museum in Jerusalem, and see that ossuary, and if you say, "The man whose bones were buried in this ossuary, that is the very man that condemned Jesus to death." When that happens, the Bible springs to life. You really realize that these are real people, and real events, true events, that we are talking about in the Bible.

Mike: I know that must be a wonderful experience for you each time you go to the Holy Lands, the experience of a lifetime for those you take in your tour groups.

Dr. Humble: Yes, I think that's true. I've been to Israel nearly 20 times now, and every one of those trips is just a great highlight for me. Many of the people who go say afterward, "When I see these places that I've read about for so long in the Bible, when I see these places, then the Bible really just springs to life and has more meaning." And many people say "just one of the greatest experiences of a lifetime, to see these places that I've read about in Scripture."

Mike: Well, Dr. Humble, we appreciate your sharing those places with us. I understand tomorrow you are going to take us to a King's palace. We look forward to that certainly.

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Palace of Herod the Great

Mike: I understand that today you are going to take us to the city of Caesarea and visit a king's palace.

Dr. Humble: Yes, that's correct. I'm going to tell you about the discovery of a palace that was built by Herod the Great. And it's a very recent discovery. The palace was discovered only in 1992. Now Caesarea was an extremely important city in New Testament times because it was the harbor through which all shipping came into the Bible land, and therefore Caesarea was mentioned many times in the Bible. For example, the first Gentile to become a Christian, Cornelius, was a Roman army officer who lived in Caesarea. And this great city and the harbor had been built within the thirty years before the birth of Jesus. It was an interesting building project; perhaps the greatest of Herod's building projects. You see, the Bible land had no good natural harbor of any kind, and Herod was building up such a great commercial empire that he needed a harbor. He said, "I'll build an artificial harbor." It had never been done, never in human history had an enterprise like this been undertaken, but he did it, and he did it very successfully. They built two large breakwaters out into the Mediterranean Sea to form the two arms of the harbor with an opening between them. The breakwater on the south is the longer one, about a third of a mile long, and about 200 feet wide. The one on the north side is a little bit shorter than that. Now these can no longer be seen above water, but much of these breakwaters are still there and have been examined underwater by archaeologists who used scuba diving gear. Josephus, the great Jewish historian, tells us that Herod cut blocks of stone 50 feet long and 18 feet wide and let them down somehow into 120 feet of water. That would be an amazing feat today, much less 2000 years ago! And the Romans had just learned the secret of hydraulic concrete, concrete that will harden under water, and Herod the Great employed that. Archaeologists have found large blocks of concrete, about 50 feet square, sometimes with forms still in place. Those blocks of concrete were poured and hardened at the bottom of the sea. So it was a unique feat of ancient engineering to build an artificial harbor like this. And of course you have to build a city to match the harbor. And Herod the Great worked for about 15 years building that city that we read about so often in the New Testament. We know that he had a palace there, but the palace was not discovered until the summer of 1993. It's on a little promontory sticking out into the Mediterranean Sea just below the harbor itself. Archaeologists had trouble finding it because no walls of the palace remain standing at all. But the focal point of the palace was a large swimming pool, cut into the solid rock. And of course that hasn't changed very much in 2000 years. And when the archaeologists found that large swimming pool cut into the rock, they had the clue that this was Herod's palace. We know now that that swimming pool was a sort of focal point of the palace, Columns all around it, rooms surrounding it, and on the side opposite the sea, there was a large dining room. The archaeologists have found a beautiful Mosaic still intact that was the floor of this large dining room, so that Herod and his guests could sit in this dining room, looking through the columns, across the swimming pool, and then out across the setting sun and the Mediterranean Sea, and it must have been a very, very beautiful place. I got to see the palace last summer. After they discovered it, they fenced it off with a great big fence and they didn't want tourists to come in, but last summer, we were able to go in and walk around the palace to see a few little sections of the mosaic and certainly to see the big swimming pool. Now the thing that makes this palace so interesting to me is that it is explicitly mentioned in the New Testament. You may remember that at the end of Paul's 3rd missionary journey, he arrived in Jerusalem arriving in the harbor of Caesarea. He was sailing from Greece and landed at Caesarea and came from Caesarea to Jerusalem and then in Jerusalem, he was assaulted by a mob, he was taken into custody by the Roman soldiers, he was a Roman citizen, and we learned that a number of his enemies plotted to assassinate him. When the Roman authorities heard this, they knew that they had to get him out of Jerusalem for safe keeping. A large company of soldiers, more than 400 if I remember the Biblical story, took Paul by night from Jerusalem to Caesarea where he would be safe there. The Bible tells us about his appearance before the Roman governor, governor Felix. At the end of that examination, the Bible says, "Then governor Felix ordered that Paul be kept under guard in Felix's palace." That is the last verse of Acts, chapter 23. Paul was kept under guard as a prisoner in Felix's palace. And that is the very palace that has been discovered so recently. When I was there last summer, wondering around the palace and taking pictures and looking at that swimming pool and so on, I thought of that passage, and I said to myself that the apostle Paul that I've read so much about was once here, right here in this very palace! He was examined by the governor and then he was kept as a prisoner here for a period of time. And when you stand at a spot like that you can read about in the Bible and know that the apostle Paul was once there at that very spot, the Bible is not a fairy tale or a book of legends, but it is a real book about real people and real places and real events, and that's the value of these discoveries of archaeology.

Mike: How exciting that you could stand there in that very spot and think about the apostle Paul and all that he means to the New Testament and Christian people. That must have been an amazing experience.

Dr. Humble: Yes, and just to think about how many times Caesarea is mentioned in the Scripture.

Mike: Thank you, Dr. Humble. And I understand that tomorrow you're going to take us to Jerusalem, and going to share with us a bit about a very precious little amulet.

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The Oldest Fragment of Scripture Ever Discovered

Mike: I understand today we will be returning to the city of Jerusalem to take a look at a very small but very precious silver amulet?

Dr. Humble: Yes, many, many discoveries have been made around Jerusalem, of course. I suppose more archaeology has been done in the area of Jerusalem than any other Bible land. This is a very small discovery, but very important and fascinating. Back in 1980, the archaeologists were working in the Hennan Valley, that is the deep valley just on the south side of Jerusalem, that's where Judas was buried after he committed suicide and so on, and the archaeologists found a burial tomb that goes back to about 700 BC. 2700 years old, but this tomb had never been discovered, and never opened, and when the archaeologists went into it, they found the bones, of course, of several people that had been buried there, many pieces of pottery, and a few pieces of jewelry. One of the pieces of jewelry was a little strip of silver that had been rolled up, and evidently worn by some man or woman on a string around their neck, sort of a good luck charm or amulet, something like that. Well, it took several years for the archaeologists to decide how they could unroll this silver without destroying it, 2700 years old and extremely fragile, and they knew that if they just tried to unravel it, that it would shatter and be destroyed completely, so even though it was first discovered in 1980, it was more than 10 years before they finally devised a way to unroll it. And when they unrolled it just a few years ago, they found writing on it to their surprise. The writing is extremely tiny letters, the amulet is now on display in the Archaeology Museum in Jerusalem, and they have it on display under a magnifying glass so that one can see the letters. But even through a magnifying glass, the letters are so tiny, that I just can't imagine how some person, without magnifying glasses, 2700 years ago, could have made such beautiful letters on a little strip of silver. But somehow, they did it. And when finally the archaeologists unrolled this and saw those letters and then translated the words, here is what it said, "The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you. The Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace." This is the beautiful priestly blessing that is found in Numbers 6, beginning at verse 24. You can read it there in the book of Numbers. And that priestly blessing was inscribed on this tiny piece of silver. Now the amazing thing is, this is now the oldest fragment of Scripture, the oldest piece of Scripture that has ever been discovered. If you had asked me just a few years ago, "What is the oldest piece of Scripture that archaeologist have found, the quick answer would have been, "The Dead Sea scrolls", of course, because they were very old and very important. And some of the Dead Sea scrolls go back to as early as 200 BC, but this little strip of silver is 700 BC! So it is about 500 years older that the oldest of the Dead Sea scrolls, and therefore, the oldest fragment of Scripture ever discovered. And that's its importance.

Mike: Dr. Humble, even though these two that you mention, this little amulet and also the Dead Sea scrolls, are quite ancient, they are among just literally thousands of pieces of Scripture found over the years of varying ages, isn't that the case.

Dr. Humble: Absolutely, there are thousands of ancient manuscripts of the Scripture. Now the Dead Sea scrolls we might talk about sometime, another time, but they are so important because they are so much older than the oldest Hebrew manuscripts. But because we have these hundreds, yes thousands of ancient manuscripts, we have no reason to question the accuracy of the text of our Bible. We can be sure from all of these discoveries that the Bible that we have today is just as it was written by the original writers.

Mike: Well, we appreciate your taking time to share with us, and I must say that I'm more than just a little envious of the trips that you have taken to the Holy Lands and the chances and opportunities that you have had along with your visiting friends to visit the museum where this little amulet has been kept and to see that and all of the other things you have described for us. Very lucky to have that opportunity.

Dr. Humble: Well, it is a great experience to be able to go. But very few people have had the privilege that I have, and in telling these stories, maybe I can share a little bit of this with some of your listeners who will never be able to go and to see these things for themselves, and I hope I will be able to do that.

Mike: We certainly appreciate your doing that for us. You have painted some very beautiful word pictures for us, and it has been much appreciated. Tomorrow you are going to be taking us to visit the city of Echron, and to meet some people, who because of a number of Bible stories, have become somewhat infamous in Bible history.

Dr. Humble: Yes, that's right. The Philistines.

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Echron of the Philistines

Mike: Dr. Humble has been with us a number of days this week to take us on our own little radio mini-tour of the Holy land, visiting a number of archaeological sights that have proven very important in recent years. Dr. Humble, you have taken us on several fascinating tours this week to the city of Dan, a couple of times to the city of Jerusalem, and to the seaside city of Caesarea. Today you are going to take us to the remains of the city of Echron, I understand.

Dr. Humble: Yes, that's correct. Echron is one of the five Philistine cities that are mentioned in Scripture. Back in the days of the judges and then King David, the Philistines were a very strong people, and American archaeologists have been working at a sight since 1983 that they know is a very important Philistine city. The modern name of the sight is Tel-Nikna, the word Tel means "ruin" or "hill", and this sight is located about 20 miles southwest of Jerusalem out on the Philistine plain. And these American archaeologists, Dr. Seymour Geyton, who is the director of the Albright Institute in Jerusalem, he has been directing this dig, and they have found a number of fascinating things there. For many years they have been rather confident that they were working in the Biblical city of Echron. We know a great deal more about the Philistines than we did just a few years ago. They were a very formidable people, they were far more sophisticated with a much higher level of culture and civilization than we'd ever realized before. The city planning, the layout of the city, that they were excavating, was very advanced and sophisticated for its day. They have found many, many installations for manufacturing olive oil, the large olive oil presses, so they know now that the manufacturing of olive oil was an extremely important industry here in this city. In fact, they estimate that there are so many of these olive oil presses, that this Philistine city produced a thousand tons of olive oil a year! And this is 3000 years ago! So the archaeologists have given us a great deal of information about the Philistines. The Philistines appear so many times in the Old Testament. You know they were the enemies of the people of Israel during the time of the Judges, you remember that Samson fought constantly against the Philistines, and it was the Philistines who killed King Saul and Jonathan, the first king of the Israelite people. These American archaeologists have believed for a number of years that that this city that they were excavating so successfully was the Biblical city of Echron. But was it really? The answer - yes! Emphatically. Just a few months ago, they were excavating the entrance of a large building, the building was probably a temple surrounded by columns, and they turned over a large block of stone, and there was a fairly large inscription of this large block of stone at the entrance to this building. In that inscription, there was not only the name of the city, Echron, but also 2 of its kings, one named Ikish, and another named Patti. Now there is a king Ikish of the Philistines who is named in Scripture, in I Samuel, chapter 1, during the time of David, but that would be a little too early to be the one mentioned on the inscription. So evidently, Ikish was a sort of title, or family name, that was worn by one king after another across a number of generations. Now there are a couple of things that make this discovery important. First is, that we can now be positive that this city that has been excavated so well, was indeed the Biblical city of Echron. But even more interesting, this is the only time that excavators have ever discovered an inscription with the name of a Biblical city where they were working, and with a list of the kings of that city. The first time ever that they have proved positively, this is the name of the city that we are working in, and these are some of its kings from an inscription. And it's so easy for us to read about the Philistines that lived 3000 years ago, just a sort of mythical, legendary people. Oh, no, not at all. When you read these stories in the Bible and then you see the excavations done at a place like Echron, the Bible springs to life, and you realize that even though these people are villains in the Bible, they were real people, and real history, and real places. That is the value of archaeology.

Mike: Dr. Humble, over the years, archaeologists and historians and others have sometimes scoffed at the Bible's mentioning of these various cities and these various tribes that inhabited them and warred and fought against the Israelite people, but more and more these cities and peoples are being discovered and confirmed independently.

Dr. Humble: Yes, a vast amount of evidence has been found, say in the last 100 years, because archaeology is a rather new science, and there are some examples, such as the Hittites of Asia Minor, scholars once scoffed at there even being such a people, because they had disappeared from history completely. But now, thanks to archaeology, we have found their capital city, Hadesus, and we know a great deal about the Philistines today.

Mike: We appreciate you taking us to visit them, and we appreciate your being with us all of this week.

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