In the last century there has been an increased look at archaeology to provide evidence for Christianity. Generally when I think archaeology, I immediately flashback to Indiana Jones finding the Holy Grail or the Ark of the Covenant, but the majority of these finds are significantly less concrete than that. Many of them are small and point to certain details from the Bible. There have been some major discoveries as well, but they are almost always surrounded by controversy. Let’s take a quick look at some of the archaeological finds in recent years.
There are a couple of references in the Bible which were questioned because no archaelogical evidence had been found to authenticate them. Until 1961, there was no evidence of Pontius Pilate’s existence, when a stone slab was found with “Tiberium, Pontius Pilate, Prefect of Judea” inscribed on it. The Pool of Bethesda from John 5:2 was a mystery, until traces of it were excavated in 1888. Layers of sedimentary rock were discovered molded together in the supposed location of Soddom and Gomorrah. This can only be explained by an intense heat occuring (see Genesis 19:24). You can find plenty more archaeological finds like these in the book Evidence for Christianity. They may seem like very minor references, but they do help give credence to the historicity of the Bible, especially in the generally secular field of science.
If you are looking for the “smoking gun” that proves the Christian faith without any doubt, then you are going to get into more controversial items, such as the previously discussed Shroud of Turin. Another controversial item is commonly known as the James Ossuary or the Jesus box. You probably remember the news story in late 2002 about a box that was found with the Aramaic inscription
James, son of Joseph, Brother of Jesus
The box is an ossuary, which is a place for the skeletal remains of the dead. It was fairly common for families to bury their dead in a cave or tomb and then retrieve the bones to put in a box. 
A collector named Oded Golan was found to have a limestone box with the above inscription on it. The ossuary was touted as the most important discovery in the history of archaeology and Christians everywhere joined hands in a circle and sang “Amazing Grace.” Of course the immediate question was which Jesus? Jesus and James were fairly common names and there could have been thousands of brothers named as such. It was also very strange for the brother of a person to be listed along with the father. Usually the father was the indentifier, but the deceased could have had a family member famous enough that warranted their name mentioned as well. As experts in such a craft got the chance to examine the box, they pointed out too many significant problems for the box to be considered genuine. The words “Jacob son of joseph” were inscribed in a much different fashion than the words “Brother of Jesus” and a faked patina, a chemical compound that builds up on antiques, was discovered on the inscription as well. There were also rosettes inscribed as decoration on the opposite side which were much more worn than the inscription and out of place since usually only one side of the box was decorated. In July 2003, Israeli police raided the home of Oded Golan to find many other antiques “that appeared to be in various stages of being counterfeited.” They also found the James Ossuary, which had been declared a fake by then, sitting on the toilet. An odd place for an item that Golan had previously insured for $1 million.
Such a saga may continue with the recent excavation in Rome of what could be Paul’s tomb. In late 2006, two huge slabs of marble were moved from underneath the altar at the basilica of St. Paul to reveal a sarcophagus which is believed to be the final resting place of the Apostle Paul. On the sarcophagus there are holes where the ancient visitors might have pushed pieces of cloth through to touch his remains (hoping to see the results of Acts 19:11-12). For now you can take a trip to Rome and see it closed, but the Catholic church hasn’t decided whether or not they will open it up anytime in the future.
Archaeology has proved to be very useful in apologizing for the Christian faith, but we should be careful. It is hard to miss the irony of wanting hard evidence for a religion that requires faith for salvation. If definitive proof is the basis for our decision to follow Christ then we should carefully consider verses such as Matthew 12:39. I enjoy hearing about any new discovery, but generally approach it with quite a bit of skepticism.
References:
- Evidence for Christianity
- James Ossuary
- James Ossuary: Skepticism
- “Jesus Box” is a Fake
- St Paul’s tomb unearthed in Rome
- Genesis 19:24
- Matthew 12:39
- John 5:2
- Acts 19:11-12