THE NEW TESTAMENT'S UNSOLVED MYSTERIES

By John Elson

ARCHAEOLOGY MAY HAVE CAST DOUBT on the historicity of such Old Testament characters as Moses and Abraham, but what of the central figure of the New? Was Jesus of Nazareth a real person who trod the dusty roads of Palestine in the 1st century? Or were his life, death and resurrection, as recorded in the four Gospels, events that belong entirely to the realm of faith?

Science has neither proved nor disproved the existence of the itinerant preacher and wonder worker who Christians believe was the Son of God. After all, writes biblical scholar R.T. France, "no 1st century inscription mentions him and no object or building has survived which has a specific link to him." Nonetheless, recent finds in the Holy Land have provided a wealth of insights into the milieu from which belief in Christ emerged.

The most controversial of these discoveries were the 800 or so Hebrew and Aramaic texts unearthed during the 1940s from caves near the Dead Sea. Biblicists have long hoped to locate more of them; last month Israeli archaeologists began excavating four newly discovered caves in the same area.

Scholars originally thought that the Dead Sea Scrolls, with their tantalizing references to the imminent coming of a Messiah, represented the quirky tenets of a fringe sect of Jewish ascetics known as Essenes. But experts now believe that the texts, which include fragments of legal codes, oracles and other literary genres, reflect beliefs widely held in 1st century Judaism.

The Holy Land of Jesus' time, the scrolls show, was rife with apocalyptic fervor. Ordinary Jews yearned for a savior who would lead them in a holy war against the oppressive Romans and a corrupt aristocracy, typified by the hated King Herod. Some scholars believe that Jesus was one of many political rebels in Palestine. His proclamation that the meek would inherit the earth was, in this view, not a dream of eschatological hope but a here-and-now demand for a new political order.

Recent manuscript and inscription finds indicate that such biblical names as Joseph and Judas were commonly used in the 1st century. One of those discoveries is especially intriguing. In 1990, diggers in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City uncovered an ossuary (repository for bones) with the inscription JOSEPH SON OF CAIAPHAS. This marked the first archaeological evidence that the high priest Caiaphas, who according to the Gospels presided at the Sanhedrin's trial of Jesus, was a real person. So, indisputably, was Pilate. In 1961, diggers in Caesarea found the fragment of a plaque indicating that a building had been dedicated by PONTIUS PILATUS, PREFECT OF JUDEA.

Nazareth, which many scholars contend was the most probable site of Jesus' birth (rather than Bethlehem), was a small agricultural village in the 1st century. It is only about an hour's walk from Sepphoris, a major commercial center where, according to recent excavations, Romans, Jews and (later) Christians once lived and worked in considerable harmony. Sepphoris is not mentioned in the New Testament, but some scholars speculate that Jesus, a carpenter by trade, might have found work there. If so, he may have been exposed to a wider range of cultures and ideas than his origins in rustic Nazareth would suggest. Did he, for example, learn to speak Greek, the common language of Rome's empire, as well as Aramaic and Hebrew?

Another community that played a major role in Jesus' life is Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee. It was there, according to the Gospels, that he began his public ministry, probably in A.D. 28. Archaeologists have uncovered a 1st century house in Capernaum that according to tradition was the home of St. Peter. The building contains a meeting room that might have been used for worship. Some experts speculate that this was the synagogue where Jesus preached, as recounted in John 6: 59.

The Gospels contain no fewer than 45 references to boats and fishing as they relate to Jesus. In 1986, two members of a Galilean kibbutz came across the remains of a 26-ft.-long wooden dory, buried in the mud near Kinneret on the Sea of Galilee, that has been carbon-dated to the 1st century. Almost certainly, this was the kind of vessel used by Peter, James, John and the other fisherfolk whom Jesus recruited as his first disciples.

Time and again, archaeological finds have validated scriptural references. Discoveries of an astonishing variety of 1st century coins, for example, help explain the need for money changers, whom an angry Jesus drove away from Jerusalem's Great Temple. Still, there are many questions that archaeology cannot now answer. Did Pilate pass judgment on Jesus at the Antonia fortress near the Temple site, or at Herod's palace across town? (If the latter, then the famed Via Dolorosa--the route that Jesus followed carrying his cross to Golgotha--is incorrect.) Is the tomb of Jesus beneath the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, as tradition holds, or some place unknown outside the Old City's walls?

Science may never say. Many devout believers do not care. For them, the divinely inspired testimony of the Gospels is infinitely more reliable than any evidence unearthed by the hammers of archaeology.