The Holy Land, of course, very attractive to Christians. Every year, thousands of them visit biblical sites in Israel. Now tourists can see the exhibition “Cradle of Christianity”, which presents artifacts, able to breathe life into some of the details of Jesus ‘ time.
Wondered whether you ever have a question, how was Jerusalem two thousand years ago when Jesus walked the earth? With a giant model of Jerusalem the period of the Second Jewish temple begins the tour of the “Cradle of Christianity”. Visitors to the Israel Museum to see the artifacts, confirming the stories of the Bible.
“This is Jerusalem, a friend of Jesus. This is the Jerusalem built by Herod the Great,” says David Menorah from the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
Museum curator David Mevorach says that this model will give Christians a better idea of specific places mentioned in the Scriptures: “Right behind me, the Temple and the Temple mount, the largest monument in the city. The model is built in scale 1:50 and shows many of the important places where Jesus walked. For example, on my left, the pool of Bethesda, where Jesus performed one of His miracles of healing. And they are all within this city in which only one temple of God,” he says.
The famous Shrine of the book where the Dead sea Scrolls is the next stop. These scrolls contain the oldest manuscripts of the books of the Hebrew Bible. And then the Temple mount.
“Still standing retaining wall of the Temple mount. The Wailing wall is the Western support wall of this huge complex, but the building itself managed to find quite a few pieces,” says David Mevorah.
On tour presents two other important artifact, “One of them is the inscription in Hebrew, tells the priest that he stood up and blew into the pipe at the onset of the Sabbath (it was a sign that it is time to stop working), and again at the end of the Sabbath, when work can be resumed. Another inscription in Greek language. She was near the Temple on the Temple mount. Here in Greek and in Latin it is written that Gentiles are forbidden to enter the temple,” says David Mevorah.
According to Mevorach, rare to find artifacts directly associated with these or other historical figures: “In the case of the trial and crucifixion of Jesus we are very lucky. There are three findings of direct relevance to the events, and two of them are directly related to key figures in the last days of Jesus,” he says.
One of the findings — ossuary, a box for burial of the bones, with the inscription, “Joseph, son of Caiaphas,” that is, the high priest.
“We’re almost 100% sure that this is Caiaphas, known to us on the history of the New Testament, the high priest who arrested Jesus and delivered Him to the Romans,” continues David Mevorah.
A second stone with the name Pontius Pilate. And perhaps the most interesting artifact for Christians is evidence proving the custom of crucifixion from the Romans found in the box with the bones. According to the employee of the Museum of David Mevorah, it is the only finding related to the crucifixion.
“When you see such artifacts, as if the story comes to life. What I read once, today I’m alive,” — says one of the visitors of the Museum.
“When you see so many artifacts of world history and of our Christian faith in one place, very easy to digest information, and it’s so amazing. All it really confirms our belief. This confirms what the Bible teaches. Here it becomes clear what place our Christian faith occupies in the history of the world. This is amazing,” says one of the visitors to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.