Teaching Team
Archaeology Part 1: The Tomb of John the Baptist
Archaeological and historical sites provide one with a fascinating and up-close glimpse of the world of antiquity. Students of the Bible are often very excited at the discovery of something that sheds light on these sacred texts. Over a small series of posts, I want to provide a brief glimpse into the tombs of the prophets. These mysterious men and women helped bring Israel back to repentance and service of the one true God. To start this series, I want to provide some historical details from ancient writings on the tomb of John the Baptist.
Details concerning the Immerser can be found in all four Gospel accounts, so I will not bother to cite this information. I will begin with the account of John’s death as found in Josephus. The historian tells us that Herod Antipas imprisoned John in the Macherus fortress, which is located on the eastern side of the Dead Sea; it is there that the Immerser was beheaded (see Antiquities 18:5:2). The Gospels tell us that John’s disciples took his body and buried it. It is likely that John’s disciples buried him nearby.
Church tradition tells us of another place in which John was buried. In the Ecclesiastical History of Theodoret Book III, Ch. 3, it says “At Sebaste, which belongs to the same people, the coffin of John the Baptist was opened, his bones burnt, and the ashes scattered abroad.” It seems that John’s disciples buried him immediately near Macherus and afterward took his bones to Sebaste, which is Samaria (Herod changed the name to Sebaste to honor Augustus). It was not uncommon in Jewish antiquity to later move the bones to a separate place after the initial burial. The latest mention in history of John’s traditional tomb is in the fourth century; in c. 362 CE, under Julian the Apostate, the tomb was desecrated and John’s bones were partially burned.
Rufinus of Aquileia (c. 345-411 C.E.) says in his translation of Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History in Book 11, Chapter 28:
“In Julian the Apostate’s time (c. 361-363 C.E.) the ferocity of the pagans sprang forth in all its savagery, as though the reins had gone slack. Thus it happened that in Sebaste, a city of Palestine, they frenziedly attacked the tomb of John the Baptist with murderous hands and set about scattering the bones, gathering them again, burning them, mixing the holy ashes with dust, and scattering them throughout the fields and countryside. But by God’s providence it happened that some men from Jerusalem, from the monastery of Philip, the man of God, arrived there at the same time in order to pray. When they saw the enormity being perpetrated by human hands at the service of bestial spirits, they mixed with those gathering the bones for burning, since they considered dying preferable to being polluted by such a sin, carefully and reverently collected them, as far as they could in the circumstances, then slipped away from the others, to their amazement or fury, and brought the sacred relics to the pious father Philip. He in turn, thinking it beyond him to guard such a treasure by his own vigilance, sent the relics of this spotless victim to Athanasius, then supreme pontiff, in the care of his deacon Julian, who later became bishop of Parentium. Athanasius received them and closed them up within a hollowed-out place in the sacristy wall in the presence of a few witnesses, preserving them in prophetic spirit for the benefit of the next generation, so that now that the remnants of idolatry had been thrown down flat, golden roofs might rise for them on temples once unholy.” (From: Philip R. Amidon, The Church History of Rufinus of Aquileia. New York, New York: Oxford Press, 1997, p. 85-86)
Although pilgrims to the present day still visit Sabaste (Samaria) as the site of John’s final burial, we cannot be dogmatic about this and must in the end consider it only a possibility for the actual location is unknown.
(Credit: Brian R. Volunteer/ Researcher)
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