Archaeological Discoveries Related to Jesus

February 10, 2024

—This pool sits at the lower end of the City of David and only a short walk south of the Dung Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem. The stepped remains of one side of the pool were discovered in 2004 after being unearthed by construction workers doing repairs on a drainage system.

—Until 2004 archaeologists accepted the long-standing tradition that a small pool adjacent to the modern exit of Hezekiah’s Tunnel must be the biblical Pool of Siloam, and although there are some, albeit very few, who still prefer the traditional site to the larger, newly-discovered pool further down the hill, there seems little doubt that we have finally found the true Pool of Siloam where Jesus healed a blind man. For many years the digging at this new site had been delayed by a land dispute. Archaeologists sought to dig beneath a beautiful orchard next to the site, hoping to unearth the remainder of the pool. Finally, the legal hurdles were cleared and digging resumed last year. What did they find? Sadly, they found nothing! Long ago the locals evidently repurposed most of the pool’s stones for other building projects. All that remains of the pool from Jesus’ day is largely what had been visible prior to the land dispute. Even so let’s not lose site of the historicity of the pool and its connection to the words and actions of Jesus in John 9:6b-7, “Then [Jesus] anointed the man’s eyes with the mud and said to him, ‘Go, wash in the pool of Siloam’ (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.”