Was Christ really crucified and did he really even exist? These questions have mystified not only the followers of Christianity but also scientific experts.
The Dead Sea scrolls were discovered in 1947 in the Qumran CavesImage: picture-alliance/United Archives/WHA
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The biblical story of the Passion of Christ tells of how Jesus of Nazareth was condemned to death and nailed to the cross at the orders of Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea.
Much of the story is based on accounts in the Bible's New Testament and not all of it is historically verified.
Did Jesus Christ even exist?
Little is known about those ancient days from a purely historical perspective. Even the method of Christ's execution — crucifixion — is hardly documented at all as a widespread punishment in antiquity.
Gunnar Samuelson, a historian at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, studied all the Greek, Latin and Hebrew/Aramaic sources he could find to learn more about crucifixion. The research into his doctoral thesis in 2010 took him all the way back into antiquity — from Greek philosopher Homer into the 1st century CE. But Samuelson found that there was hardly any recorded evidence of crucifixion as a common method of execution from that period.
But archaeologists have discovered nails with DNA traces on them at the site of today's Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, although there still is no scientific proof that it was indeed Jesus Christ who was crucified and later laid to rest at that site.
However, there is little doubt that Jesus Christ in fact, did exist. "The details have been debated for centuries, but no one who is serious doubts that he's a historical figure," Eric Meyers, archaeologist and professor emeritus of Jewish studies at Duke University said in an article published in the National Geographic magazine.
Experts unearthed city walls from the Byzantine and Herodian eras in Jerusalem in 2020Image: DW/T. Krämer
A different perspective on Jerusalem
Stories from the Bible often move in the mythical realm; they cannot be proven right archaeologically.
For example, Jerusalem is described in the Bible as the epicenter of King David's great empire. In truth, however, according to the book "The Forgotten Kingdom. The Archaeology and History of Northern Israel" by archaeologist Israel Finkelstein, Jerusalem was nothing but a one-horse town at the time.
This is exactly why there are new questions and research approaches being raised all the time. Findings in archaeology have become an important source for Bible researchers from around the world because they examine, support or reject biblical arguments.
Materials and artifacts retrieved from excavation sites that date back to the time of Jesus Christ are constantly being evaluated in relation to their respective historical context — with great success.
For example, archaeological excavations in the Old City of Jerusalem have been unearthing more than just the remains of the ancient city walls there. Along with the walls, they have unveiled unexpected finds and new insights reaching back to the Old Testament era.
Oral traditions
"You can read (the Bible) as a religious book, but you can also use it as an archaeological source," Dirk Schmitz of the Romano-Germanic Museum in Cologne told DW. At least in that regard, he says, the Bible has its own scientific merit.
"If you want to explore that time period, when Jesus Christ is reported to have come to Jerusalem during (what now is considered to be) the Easter season, where he was arrested and brought before the Roman governor — these are all references to institutions that you can find from historical records."
Schmitz said that Biblical records as such did not exist until 50 or 60 years after Christ's death: "Before that, it was all passed on orally... Something or the other does get altered. Now, imagine written accounts 200 or 300 years later. Against this background, you have to ask yourself, of course: how precise is the historical accuracy of these accounts? Such things are always colored, they are never objective reports."
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Jerusalem: A paradise for archaeologists
For archaeologists, Jerusalem is a city full of hidden treasures waiting to be discovered.
Image: picture-alliance/newscom/D. Hill
A village in the city
Jerusalem is arguably the most contested city in the world, the site of centuries of religious conflict. Synagogues, churches and mosques exist side-by-side, both above and below ground, where thousands of years of history lie buried. As recently as spring 2020, this village from the 2nd century B.C. was excavated in the ancient City of David. It is said to date back to the Bronze and Iron Age.
Image: picture-alliance/NurPhoto/A. Widak
Find from more recent times
Recently, archaeologists discovered a hiding place for ammunition in an old cistern under the Western Wall. It was apparently placed there by Jordanian forces during the Six-Day War between Israel and its Arab neighbors in 1967. At that time, the old city of Jerusalem belonged to Jordan, but after Israel's victory it fell under the control of the still young state.
Image: picture-alliance/zumapress.com
Ancient fragments exposed
Archaeologists also benefited from the annexation of east Jerusalem in 1967. After a district near the Wester Wall was demolished, excavations began and are ongoing to this day. In 2017 fragments of a theater and long-hidden sections of the Western Wall were uncovered. Archaeologist Tehillah Lieberman (pictured) described them as likely the best stones of the Wall known today.
Image: picture-alliance/newscom/D. Hill
A mosaic for the emperor
Near the Damascus Gate, in the north of the old town, construction workers found this 1500-year-old mosaic with the name of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. It was discovered in a room that was probably used as a pilgrims' hostel. It was a miracle find for excavation director David Gellman: "Every archaeologist dreams of finding an inscription, especially one so well preserved."
Image: Getty Images/AFP/A. Gharabli
Beer from ancient yeast
Clay vessels discovered in a palace in Jerusalem and a 5000-year-old Egyptian brewery near the border to the Gaza Strip revealed more than just details about ancient pottery: Yeast colonies were found hidden in the microscopically small pores of the shards. Thus, in 2019, archaeologists and microbiologists were able to brew beer and honey wine from ancient yeast for the first time.
Image: picture-alliance/zumapress.com
In search of the city wall
The German archaeologist Dieter Vieweger and his team spent five years searching for the ancient city wall of Jerusalem on Mount Zion. But it turns out that in Old Testament times, the wall did not run where the researchers had suspected. The revelation has not deterred Vieweger, and the search for the original wall continues.
Image: DW/T. Krämer
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Real or fake?
More than 130 years ago, there were a number of ancient Bible scrolls discovered in a cave in Israel near the Dead Sea. Antiquities dealer Wilhelm Moses Shapiro presented these manuscripts, which had been preserved on fragmented pieces of leather, to some of the leading experts of his time in 1883.
Later that year, he even offered these finds for sale to the British Museum in London. However, it was alleged that the documents were forgeries, which were destroyed in a fire. Shapiro, who had been exposed as a forger before, took his life.
Idan Dershowitz, a researcher at the School of Jewish Theology at the University of Potsdam, says, that these documents were only a
"small part of the original manuscript." The Israeli scientist fervently continues to believe to this day in the authenticity of this biblical find, even arguing in their favor in an article published in the New York Times.
"So people prepared a general drawing of what this fragment looked like, but they weren't extremely careful about getting the shape of each letter right." Derschowitz then found another transcript that had been made by Shapiro himself, and it was really interesting for various reasons.
"I had almost the entire text and I was able to study it. And as soon as I started doing that, it seemed to me like this couldn't be the work of a 19th-century forger," he said.
Wolfgang Zwickel, professor of Old Testament and Biblical Archaeology at the University of Mainz, told DW in March that this scroll, written in Greek, gave away something about its authenticity because it already was a translation: "Greek was the lingua franca of the Mediterranean at that time. Hebrew was a language that almost no one else knew at that time — apart from the scribes," he said.
The place where all of those aforementioned documents were discovered is not an unknown location, either — particularly among Bible buffs. Known as the Qumran caves, this is where the world-famous Dead Sea Scrolls were also found in 1947.
Pope Francis' visit to Iraq's biblical sites
Abraham was born in Iraq and this is where the whale swallowed Jonah, according to the Bible. Pope Francis' is traveling to an area steeped in biblical history.
Image: Liszt Collection/imago images
Banished from paradise
In biblical times, paradise was where Adam and Eve lived, supposedly the area between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers — until God banished them from the Garden of Eden because they nibbled on the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. There are still lush oases on the banks of the river, but people's lives there today are anything but paradisiacal.
Image: Victoria Theakston/Robert Hardin/picture alliance
River baptism
John the Baptist baptized people, including Jesus of Nazareth, in the waters of the Jordan River, symbolically cleansing them of their sins. For the Mandaeans in Iraq, one of the oldest religious communities in the world, he was the last prophet on earth. To this day, they believe in the power of water and regularly purify themselves in the Tigris — just like their prophet once did.
Image: Ameer Al Mohammedaw/dpa/picture alliance
Abraham's home
Villages that would later become powerful empires were founded in Mesopotamia about 5,500 years ago. Today, most of this historical region lies on Iraqi territory, between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. In ancient times the land was very fertile, today it is barren and sandy. Abraham once lived here, in the city of Ur.
Image: Asaad Niazi/AFP/Getty Images
Holy Land
Ur dates back to 4,000 BCE. It is one of the oldest cities whose ruins have ever been discovered by archaeologists, and thought to be the cradle of civilization. According to the Bible, it is where God ordered Ur-native Abraham to leave for the Promised Land, Canaan. On his Iraq trip, Pope Francis is expected for a visit.
Image: Mohammed Aty/REUTERS
Important figure in three world religions
Abraham is a key figure in the Old Testament. God repeatedly tested him, and demanded the ultimate proof of his faith: the sacrifice of his son. Abraham went ahead with the preparations but was stopped by God just in time. God also told Abraham his descendents must be circumcised, a practice that Jews and Muslims still follow today.
Image: Asaad Niazi/AFP/Getty Images
Destroyed pilgrimage site
Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire, also stood on the Tigris River. The ruins of the ancient city can be found in Mosul. "Islamic State" (IS) militants in 2014 destroyed the Mosque of the Prophet Jonah, an ancient church that repurposed by Muslims where he was allegedly buried.
Image: Khalid Mohammed/AP Photo/picture alliance
Jonah and the whale
The pope is also scheduled to visit Mosul because Jonah's tomb was a revered pilgrimage site for Muslims and Christians alike. The prophet was told to announce God's judgement of sinful Nineveh. He boarded a ship to flee, but the vessel capsized in a storm. Jonah survived because a whale swallowed him whole and later spat him out, according to the Bible.
Image: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images
Tower of Babel
Perhaps this is what the magnificent Ishtar Gate, built during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II. (605-562 BCE), looked like. Today, there is only this replica of a city gate through which people once streamed into the city of Babylon. But the people of Babylon wanted more than a gate: a tower so high it would reach heaven.
Image: Hussein Faleh/AFP/Getty Images
The fall of Babylon
God prevented the tower by creating so many languages that people could no longer communicate. According to Isaiah 13:19-22, God wanted to annihilate Babylon: "And Babel, the glory of kingdoms, will never be inhabited or lived in through all generations," it says. "Desert creatures will lie there, jackals will fill her houses; there the owls will dwell, and there the wild goats will leap about."
Image: Hussein Faleh/AFP/Getty Images
Another prophet: Ezekiel
Ezekiel, the son of a priest, lived as a captive among other exiles in Babylon under King Nebuchadnezzar II. He chastised the people for idolatry and prophesied the downfall of cities and nations that turned away from God. Legend has it that the tomb of the prophet Ezekiel is located in the Iraqi village of al-Kifl.
Image: Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP/Getty Images
Holy shrine for Jews and Muslims
Jews have been making pilgrimages to the tomb of the Prophet Ezekiel since the 10th century. 200 years later, Muslims also claimed the burial place of "Dhu l-Kifl," a shrine that is strategically located on the traditional route of the Hajj caravans from Iraq and Iran, as a destination for pilgrims.
Image: Mario Tama/Getty Images
Assur: Reign of terror
Assur is the name of a god, a city and the once powerful Assyrian nation — a name that struck fear in the hearts of people in the Ancient Near East. The kings of Assyria, whose empire extended as far as Egypt, ruled with brute force. In the Bible, Assur is used only as a synonym for Assyria; the city itself is not mentioned.
Iraq faced a reign of terror in the 21st century. When "Islamic State" (IS) militants invaded the town of Baghdida, also known as Karakosh, near Mosul, almost all families fled north. About 97% of the population are Christians — people the IS considers infidels that should be killed. About 250,000 Christians live in Iraq today, less than 1% of the population.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/T. Coex
Prayer for Christians
St. Joseph Cathedral in Ankawa near Erbil is the seat of the Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Iraq, built on historic ground. Traces of the fighting between the army and the Islamic State are visible everywhere, both in Erbil and Mosul. Prayer will be the means by which Pope Francis gives hope to his fellow Christians.
Image: CC BY 2.0
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A group of goatherds was instrumental in the discovery, regarded among the most important archaeological discoveries of the 20th century. Today, these documents are invaluable to archeologists and Bible researchers alike, but Dirk Schmitz of the Romano-Germanic Museum in Cologne wants to put things a little bit more into context:
"The Bible was not one of the important books at that time — that is at 132 CE. Christianity was neither a state religion nor even a widespread religion. It was only faith one among many."
Perhaps, this is the healthiest attitude when it comes to excavations in the Middle East and elsewhere. With excavation projects around the ancient city walls of Jerusalem entering the next phase in the summer of 2021, who knows what might be unearthed next, and what we might learn about the likes of Jesus Christ — and others?
