Israel — Part of the remains of the Siloam Pool - which played a significant role in one of Jesus' miracles as recorded in the Bible's Gospel of John - have been uncovered by archaeologists in Jerusalem.

Just prior to Christmas 2004, spokesmen for Israel’s Antiquities Authority announced they were slowly digging out the pool “where water still runs,” says a published report by Associated Press.

A wide flight of steps leading down to the site has reportedly already been uncovered, as well as one side of the pool, two corners, a part of the esplanade around it and the water channel leading to it.

“We have excavated it and dated it very accurately with coins found in the cement which the pool was built of,” dig leader Roni Reich of Haifa University told Reuters news agency. “Hopefully we can continue the dig.”

Reuters says the earliest coins found thus far, date from the middle of the century before Christ’s birth.

The pool is part of what was once “a complex of water works that carried water from the Gihon spring,” (the only freshwater spring in the immediate vicinity), “located on the eastern slope of the Ophel ridge above the Kidron valley, into Jerusalem,” according to Eerdmans Bible Dictionary. It is located near the old walled city of Jerusalem, in the present-day Arab neighbourhood of Silwan.

Focus of research

The pool has been a focus of research since the 19th century.

The conduit that feeds the pool is known as both the Hezekiah Tunnel and the Siloam Tunnel. In 1880, a boy discovered an inscription in the rock, close to the mouth of the tunnel, which records its construction. According to the ancient inscription, work began on both ends of the tunnel simultaneously, and the workmen were guided by the sounds of each other’s tools chipping away the rock as they progressed. They broke through only a few meters apart.

The pool itself is thought to have been used as a source of drinking water and for ritual immersions by Jews for over a century, from about 50 BC to 70 AD, when Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed by the Romans.

But the history of the pool likely dates back much further, for “some underground means of obtaining water from Gihon was already in use before David took the city” as recorded in 2 Samuel 5:8, states Eerdmans. And when Nehemiah rebuilt Jerusalem, the Siloam Pool or another reservoir in the same water system was adjacent to a city wall (see Nehemiah 3:15).

In September 2003, radiometric tests on the Siloam Tunnel confirmed that it dates back to around 700 BC. [Read story here]

A place of miracles

John 9: 1-11 details the story of Jesus applying a paste of saliva and mud to a blind man’s eyes, and then telling him to wash them in the pool of Siloam. The man did as he was told, and he was healed. The remainder of the chapter relates the story of how Pharisees at the temple investigated the healing, and how Jesus used the opportunity to teach about spiritual blindness.

People with physical disabilities were prohibited from the temple. The pool would have contained the purest water available; so pure in fact that many people believed the pool’s waters could even cleanse leprosy. Some Bible scholars think Jesus may have chosen the Siloam Pool because he wanted to make a point not only about physical healing, but about spiritual healing as well.

“The whole point is that people will not only be healed physically but also healed spiritually,” biblical scholar Stephen Pean said in the AP report. “This discovery helps bring the Gospel alive in the context of Jewish practice.”

100 percent certain

“The moment that we revealed and discovered this four months ago, we were 100 percent sure it was the Siloam Pool,” archaeologist Eli Shukron told Associated Press. “We know today that the Siloam Pool is connected to the Temple Mount. There is a road that connects the two elements. The entire system is clearer today,” he added.

Until now, another pool, dating from the Byzantine era, discovered at the end of the 19th century, was known as the Siloam Pool, according to The Jerusalem Post.

Associated Press indicates that the Greek Orthodox Church owns the land at the site, and the Israeli Antiquities Authority is in negotiations with them to continue the dig.