Herod's Tomb--Why It Matters

They have found Herod's tomb--finally. Josephus wrote about it 2,000 years ago. One guy has been digging for it for 30 years. Imagine going to the same place to work every day for 30 years with one goal--to find something that ought to be there--but you can't find it. And then--bang--you decide to dig somewhere it's unlikely it isn't and you find it.

That's how archeology often is. As was the case with Herod's tomb, though the site of his palace had been excavated for decades, his tomb had never been found. Ancient authorities said it was there but no one had found it. The response of too many outside the academic world (and some inside) is to simply conclude that it doesn't exist; Josephus was wrong. But alas, a shovel scrapes a stone one dry Israeli afternoon and a lot of skeptics are forced to change their minds. Ancient witnessed are right again.

This story won't get a lot of press. It will get a little. But its greater significance for many of us will be lost. I think this story stands as a significant reminder that archeology is not the guarantor nor saboteur of faith because the past will never be known exhaustively. Arcaheology is a a few (and I mean very few) well-trained people scraping up enough funding to dig in deserts for years and years, trying to put together the puzzle pieces of the past. Unfortunately, we don't have the puzzle box cover to look at.

It excites me that an advance has been made in putting together the puzzle, and maybe it will help us know this rascal Herod a little better. But it doesn't strengthen or weaken my faith--it simply illuminates.