Archaeologists find possible site of Jesus’s trial in Jerusalem
A
view of the iconic Jerusalem citadel. Archeologists claim that the grand palace
of the emperor Herod stood in this location during the first century B.C. (Ruth
Eglash/The Washington Post)
JERUSALEM — It
started 15 years ago with plans to expand the Tower of David Museum. But the
story took a strange turn when archaeologists started peeling away layers under
the floor in an old abandoned building adjacent to the museum in Jerusalem’s Old
City.
They knew it had been
used as a prison when the Ottoman Turks and then the British ruled these parts.
But, as they carefully dug down, they eventually uncovered something
extraordinary: the suspected remains of the palace where one of the more famous
scenes of the New Testament may have taken place — the trial of Jesus.
Now, after years of
excavation and a further delay caused by wars and a lack of funds, the
archaeologists’ precious find is being shown to the public through tours
organized by the museum.
The prison “is a great
part of the ancient puzzle of Jerusalem and shows the history of this city in a
very unique and clear way,” said Amit Re’em, the Jerusalem district
archaeologist, who headed the excavation team more than a decade ago.
For Re’em, the building
has yielded a trove of thrilling discoveries from across the centuries —
symbols etched into old jail walls by prisoners from the Jewish resistance
fighting to create the state of Israel in the 1940s, fabric-dyeing basins from
the era of the Crusades and the foundation walls and an underground sewage
system that probably underpinned the sprawling palace built by Herod the Great,
the eccentric king of Judea under the Roman empire.
But
for the more than 1 million Christian pilgrims who visit Jerusalem each
year, the site is especially significant because it could have been an
important place in the life of Jesus.
“For
those Christians who care about accuracy in regards to historical facts, this
is very forceful,” said Yisca Harani, an expert on Christianity and pilgrimage
to the Holy Land. “For others, however, those who come for the general mental
exercise of being in Jerusalem, they don’t care as long as [their journey] ends
in Golgotha — the site of the Crucifixion.”
Today, many Christian
pilgrims to Jerusalem walk the Stations of the Cross, or Via Dolorosa, taking
them from where it is believed Roman procurator Pontius Pilate held the trial
and sentenced Jesus to death, to where Jesus was eventually crucified and
buried.
Harani said that since
pilgrims started making their way to Jerusalem centuries ago, the route of the
Via Dolorosa has changed several times, depending on who ruled the city at the
time and what they deemed important.
In the Byzantine period,
for example, the Via Dolorosa began closer to the area where the museum now
sits in the western part of the city. It was only after the 13th century that
the starting point moved to the Antonia Fortress, the site of a former Roman
military barracks, which today sits beneath a school close to the al-Aqsa
mosque and the golden Dome of the Rock.
The debate over the site
of the trial continues among Christian spiritual leaders, historians and
archaeologists. Questions about the location stem from various interpretations
of the Gospels, which describe how Jesus of Nazareth was brought before Pilate
in the “praetorium,” a Latin term for a general’s tent within a Roman
encampment. Some say Pilate’s praetorium would have been in the military
barracks, others say the Roman general would probably have been a guest in the
palace built by Herod.
Today, historians and
archaeologists are certain that Herod’s palace was on the city’s western side,
where the Tower of David Museum and the Ottoman-era prison stand.
For Shimon Gibson, an
archaeology professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, there
is little doubt that the trial occurred somewhere within Herod’s palace
compound. In the Gospel of John, the trial is described as taking place near a
gate and on a bumpy stone pavement — details that fit with previous
archaeological findings near the prison, he said.
“There is, of course, no
inscription stating it happened here, but everything — archaeological,
historical and gospel accounts — all falls into place and makes sense,” Gibson
said.
The Rev. David Pileggi,
minister of Christ Church, an Anglican congregation whose complex includes a
guesthouse and heritage center near the museum, said the discovery inside the
prison confirmed “what everyone expected all along, that the trial took place
near the Tower of David.”
So, now that it is open
to the public, could the prison become a new holy site for Christian pilgrims
or even change the path of the Via Dolorosa?
“I don’t think that will
happen anytime soon,” Pileggi said. “What makes a place holy is the fact that
people have gone there for hundreds of years, prayed, cried and even celebrated
there, so I don’t think there will be changes to the route anytime soon. But
the prison does give us a clearer explanation of Jerusalem’s history.”
In the Tower of David
Museum, named for the medieval citadel in which it sits, director Eilat Lieber
hopes the prison will eventually become a standard attraction for Christians.
Museum officials have already started working with tour guides versed in
Christian history, who can explain the significance of the remaining rugged
walls and carefully carved tunnels underneath.
“We will continue to
develop the prison for visitors,” said Lieber, previously the museum’s
educational director, who had hoped to expand it 15 years ago to create an
educational space for children. Although that dream has yet to materialize,
Lieber is delighted that the prison, with its layers of history, will give all
visitors a better understanding of the past.
“It’s like a cake,” she
said. “Showing all the layers of Jerusalem.”
