Hezekiah’s Tunnel? The Truth is
Revealed
The Gihon Spring was an underground
water source located outside the
walls of the ancient City of David
(ancient Jerusalem). Its presence
made the settlement of the City
possible, and it was connected to
the areas of settlement by a series
of tunnels that allowed access to
the spring in some cases and
diversion of its water flow in
others.
The story of how the Siloam Tunnel
was built was revealed in 1880, when
explorers in the now-dry underground
aqueduct found an inscription on a
wall that described the process in
detail. But this inscription didn’t
contain any text that would prove
conclusively that it was built
during the time of Hezekiah, as the
Bible states in the Book of Kings
and Book of Chronicles.
In 1909, another set of engravings
was found on a rock wall in an
access tunnel leading to the
entrance of the Siloam Tunnel. But
on initial examination this appeared
to include only the frames used to
surround inscriptions, with nothing
written inside of them. The final
verdict was that someone had
intended to inscribe something here,
but for one reason or another had
never gotten around to it.
But Eli Shukron, long recognized as
one of the most knowledgeable of all
the archaeologists who’ve performed
excavations in ancient Jerusalem,
wasn’t so sure. He believed there
might be faint inscriptions inside
the frames that had not previously
been detected, because they weren’t
obvious to the naked eye. To prove
his theory, Shukron recruited
Gershon Galil to help him study the
rock wall engravings more carefully.
“We took high-quality photos of
these ‘frames,’ Professor Galil
explained. “It soon became clear
that there were indeed exciting and
surprising texts there.”
Israeli Forensic Police
Investigator Helps Solve Bible-era
Mystery
Through their enterprising work, the
Israeli archaeologists overturned a
consensus that had held sway for
more than a century.
“It turned out that there is an
extremely impressive inscription
there. Though eroded by time, the
vast majority of the letters are
legible,” Galil said. In total the
newly discovered inscriptions
included 11 lines of text, which the
archaeologists were able to
comprehend in their entirety.
Galil explained that the ancient
text was divided into five sections,
arranged in literary rather than
chronological order. These included
the title of the inscription,
referencing King Hezekiah, an
accounting of his construction of
the Siloam water project, a brief
mention of his most notable military
success (“he smote the Philistines
from Ekron to Gaza”), lines about
his actions as a religious reformer,
and finally a boast about his wealth
and the wealth of his kingdom,
describing how he’d accumulated “a
lot of silver and gold, perfumes and
good ointment” in his treasure
houses.
“This is an extremely important
discovery that changes [some basic
assumptions of] research, since
until today it was commonly accepted
that the kings of Israel and Judah,
unlike the kings of the ancient
Middle East, did not make themselves
royal inscriptions and monuments… to
commemorate their achievements,”
Galil said.
Even More Confirmatory Evidence
Emerges
The results of this new analysis
seem conclusive. But Professors
Galil and Shukron have produced an
additional piece of evidence linking
Hezekiah with the Siloam Tunnel.
This is in the form of a small rock
tablet, which contains a short
inscription in Old Hebrew script
that the two archaeologists were
able to recently decipher, after
more than a decade of determined
effort.
The palm-sized tablet was discovered
by Eli Shukron and another colleague
in a man-made pool inside the Siloam
Tunnel in 2007. It was mixed in with
a collection of pottery shards that
were dated to the 8th century BC.
The artifact contained just two
lines of inscribed text, which Galil
and Shukron have now translated into
modern language. According to the
archaeologists, this ancient writing
says the following: “Hezekiah built
the pool in Jerusalem.”
So in a very short period of time,
the same two archaeologists have
produced two separate translations
of ancient writings that show King
Hezekiah was indeed responsible for
the construction of the Siloam water
project, as most scholars have long
believed.
“In these new inscriptions, there
are answers to many issues that
scholars have debated for years,”
Professor Galil said, speaking of
the results of his and Professor
Shukron’s work in total. “The
inscriptions are evidence that
Hezekiah carried out a comprehensive
reform (before 709 BC) and even that
he conquered Philistia, especially
Ekron, and stationed soldiers there
(in 712 BC). Moreover, Hezekiah is
indeed the king who built the pool
and the Siloam Tunnel and not
others.”
The contents of the inscriptions and
the story of how they were
discovered and eventually deciphered
will be revealed in full in an
upcoming book entitled “The
Inscriptions of Hezekiah King of
Judah,” which Galil and Shukron
will be co-authoring.
Source:https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/hezekiahs-tunnel-inscription-0017684
