The Jesus Dynasty / James Tabor

Jesus’ conflict with, and opposition to, the religious and political authorities of Jerusalem came to a head at Passover in the year 30 CE. Although scholars dispute the details, the corrupt high priestly family of Annas, including his son-in-law Caiaphus, and the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, were the key players in the final determination of his fate–execution by crucifixion for sedition. Their involvement in his death indicates that he, like his kinsman John the Baptizer, drew attention at the highest levels of authority. Although there is no evidence that Jesus or John had collected masses or arms or laid plans for any military moves against the establishment, preaching that “the Kingdom of God is at hand” and stirring the masses toward such expectations was not considered a harmless ethereal other-worldly fantasy. It had concrete political and social implications–not the least of which was Jesus’ coronation as the rightful King of Israel, i.e., the anointed Messiah. Jesus preached the imminent and violent overthrow of the religious and political establishment by the power of God himself. This revolution was cryptically referred to as “the coming of the Son of Man in the clouds of heaven” (Daniel 7:13-14, 26-27), and Jesus claimed to be the direct agent of this anticipated deposal. Daniel 2:44 puts it succinctly: “And in the days of those kings (i.e., the Greco-Roman successors of Alexander) the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed…It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever.” The expectation was that the “people of the saints of the Most High,” would take charge as righteous rulers over a new world transformed to the ways of God. This was indeed an “earthly kingdom,” but one in which God’s will was done “as in heaven.”

The excavations on Mt. Zion (Area E), that we renewed this past week were initiated in 1978 by Magen Broshi. The area offers great promise in uncovering just what Jesus, the Galilean peasant, was up against when we talk about the religious and political establishment in late 2nd Temple Jerusalem. On the map below you can see that our excavation site, on the southeastern slope of Mt. Zion, was squarely within the city walls in the time of Jesus, whereas today we are digging just outside the present wall which dates to the time of Suleiman (16th century CE). Mt. Zion itself was the highest hill in the city, towering over even the Temple Mount and the lower city to the south. Herod’s palace was up there, as well as Pilate’s residence. Sloping down the hill, and into what is now the “Jewish Quarter” of Jerusalem, was the most coveted residential area of all Jerusalem. Our little fenced off site was prime real estate before the 70 CE Roman destruction. It was well within the city in both Roman and Byzantine times, as excavations of the southern walls and towers uncovered just this year by the Israel Antiquities Authority excavations, have shown. We visited that most significant excavation, just to the southwest of ours, and I will write about it in a later post.

Many visitors to Israel have visited the underground excavations in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City now part of the spectacular Wohl Museum, including the Priestly Mansion and the Burnt House. These were part of the 1970 excavations in the Jewish Quarter conducted by Nahman Avigad after the Six Day War. The entire Jewish Quarter had been destroyed by the Jordanians after 1948, allowing for full scale archaeological excavations before rebuilding. What became clear was the wealth and opulent lifestyle of the aristocratic inhabitants of this area of the city, as well as their priestly devotion to ritual purity.

We have every indication and expectation that the same will be true of the Mt. Zion area we are excavating. Just this past week we were able to reach the top of the Herodian levels less than two meters below the present surface. We found coins from the period including one of Pontius Pilate, a fragment of an egg & dart stone vessel, and a stone weight, all very similar to what was found in the Jewish Quarter excavations. We are just over intact vaulted chambers that date to late 2nd Temple times and the state of preservation of the Herodian materials at this site is spectacular. The site will allow us to clarify the archaeological layers from 15th century CE back through Byzantine and Roman periods, but it promises to be particularly rich the late 2nd Temple period, just before the 70 CE destruction. It has every promise of capturing for us a “moment in time” We are discussing with the Park Authority the possibility, in the future, of presenting what we find as an archaeological park that would allow a journey “back through history” in terms of the levels of Jerusalem from present back to Iron Age times.

Here you can see the dig site and the two white sandbagged squares were we have renewed our work. The Mount of Olives is in the background with the present wall of the Old City, dating to the 16th century CE, on the left. Zion Gate is further up the hill behind the picture and the Dung Gate is below where the road bends.

This is a lovely example of the edge of a large stone vessel, used by devout Jews to preserve the ritual purity of liquids. The egg & dart decoration, as well as other finds near this one, including imported ceramic fine ware, testify to the wealth of the inhabitants of the area we are digging in late 2nd Temple times.

Director, Shimon Gibson, giving an orientation tour of the site to Stephen Pfann and the staff of the University of the Holy Land

Some of you reading this Blog will be interested in participating in the Mt. Zion excavations in the future and you can keep up with the details at our Web site: digmountzion.com. That Web site right now is just holding our name but soon we will be posting photos, a description of the history of this excavation, a report on what we were able to accomplish in our June efforts, and what we plan for the future.