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Anonymous (Investigator 97, 2004
July)
TUNNEL DISPUTE The Old Testament describes the building of a 533-metre tunnel to bring water from the spring of Gihon 300 metres outside the east wall of ancient Jerusalem to the pool of Siloam inside the city. The tunnel,
according to
the Bible, was built
in the reign of King Hezekiah of Judah who reigned around 700 BCE. (II
Chronicles 32; II Kings 20)
Various critics disputed the Bible's date for the tunnel, the identity of the king who authorised its construction, and even whether the tunnel was man-made or natural. The dispute was
settled by
science in 2003.
TUNNEL DETAILS Knowledge of the
tunnel’s
existence was lost
for centuries until the tunnel was rediscovered in the Middle Ages. In
1880 a six-line Hebrew inscription was found on the wall six metres
inside
the tunnel. It describes how two groups of stonecutters, working toward
each other, broke through the remaining rock that separated them.
Translated
it reads:
The boring
through is
completed. Now this
is the story of the boring through. While the workmen were still
lifting
pick to pick each toward his neighbor and while three cubits remained
to
be cut through, each heard the voice of the other who called to his
neighbor,
since there was a crevice on the rock on the right side. And on the day
of the boring through the stone cutters struck, each to meet his fellow
pick to pick; and there flowed the waters to the pool for 1200 cubits
and
100 cubits was the height of the rock above the heads of the stone
cutters.
(Unger 1983)
What wasn't
scientifically confirmed
was the Bible’s date for the work and that Hezekiah was the king who
authorized
it. The six-line inscription does not name Hezekiah even though most
ancient
monarchs commonly boasted of their architectural achievements.
TUNNEL SCIENCE During construction, plaster to line the tunnel was prepared in large quantities outside the tunnel and plant material had become mixed in. In 2003 a team led by Amos Frumkin, a geologist of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, extracted fine wood and plant material embedded in the plaster and carbon dated it. They also dated stalactite material from the tunnel’s ceiling using uranium-thorium dating. The plant
material – the
plants of course died
before the tunnel was completed – was found to be from plants that died
800-700 BCE. The stalactites – which could only form after the tunnel
was
finished – were dated to around 400 BCE.
"It verifies the biblical account that King Hezekiah was responsible," said Frumkin. (New Scientist, 2003) He also told PhysicsWeb, "This is the first time a structure mentioned in the Bible has been radiometrically dated." Jeff Rosenbaum,
a
geochemist, said, "We…put
an end to the arguments in the biblical/archaeological literature about
the age of the Siloam Tunnel…and…whether the tunnel is natural or
man-made."
(Sever, M)
TUNNEL PURPOSE Hezekiah
commissioned the
tunnel to supply
water for Jerusalem in the event of a siege. A siege occurred when King
Sennacherib of Assyria, commanding the world's most powerful armies,
smashed
the armies of neighboring nations and then attacked all the cities of
Judah.
Jerusalem was
saved by
means unexplained
to this day – the Bible says by an "angel of the Lord". The story is in
Investigator
71.
TUNNEL IMPLICATIONS By the 19th and early 20th centuries almost the entire Bible seemed erroneous, so thoroughly had critics criticized it. Since then,
hundreds of
Bible statements
have been verified, their status changed from false to true. This has
occurred
even in unlikely subject areas like astronomy, zoology and oceanography
– demonstrated in Investigator Magazine.
The Bible
teaches that
every human is wrong
and misled but that it itself is accurate, inspired by God and "God
cannot
lie." Consider the implications for yourself.
REFERENCES Frumkin, A.,
Shimron, A.,
and
Rosenbaum, J. Radiometric
dating of the Siloam Tunnel, Jerusalem, Nature, Volume 425, 2003,
169-171
New Scientist, Biblical tunnel verified, September 13,2003, p. 26 PhysicsWeb, http://physicsweb.org/article/news/7/9/7 Sever, M. www.geotimes.org/nov03/NN_tunnel.html Unger, M.F. 1983 Unger's
Bible Dictionary,
Complete and Unabridged, Paperback Edition, Moody Press, Chicago, USA The Bible investigated on this
website
by citing 20th and 21st century discoveries: Investigator Magazine |