Shrine’s inscription wows Bible scholars

JERUSALEM – A barely legible clue – the name “Simon” carved in Greek letters – beckoned from high up on the weather-beaten facade of an ancient burial monument.

Their curiosity piqued, two Jerusalem scholars uncovered six previously invisible lines of inscription: a Gospel verse – Luke 2:25.

Archaeological finds confirming biblical narrative or referring to figures from the Bible are rare, and this is believed to be the first discovery of a New Testament verse carved onto an ancient Holy Land shrine, said inscriptions expert Emile Puech, who deciphered the writing.

A few Old Testament phrases have been found on monuments, and a passage from Paul’s Letter to the Romans (3:13) is laid into a floor mosaic in the ancient Roman city of Caesarea.

Jim Strange, a New Testament scholar from the University of South Florida, said the ancients apparently believed chiseling Scripture into monuments debased sacred words. The widespread use of Bible verses on shrines began only around 1,000 A.D., in Europe, said Strange, who was not connected with the discovery.

The inscription declares the 60-foot-high monument is the tomb of Simon, a devout Jew who the Bible says cradled the infant Jesus and recognized him as the Messiah.

It’s actually unlikely Simon is buried there; the monument is one of several built for Jerusalem’s aristocracy at the time of Jesus.

However, the inscription does back up what until now were scant references to a Byzantine-era belief that three biblical figures – Simon, Zachariah and James, the brother of Jesus – shared the same tomb.

Earlier this year, an inscription referring to Zachariah, who was John the Baptist’s father, was found on the same facade. Puech and Joe Zias, a physical anthropologist, continued to study the monument. Applying a “squeeze” – a simple 19th-century technique of spreading a kind of papier mache over a surface – they uncovered the Simon inscription. Now, they hope to complete the trio by finding writing referring to James.

The Simon and Zachariah inscriptions were carved around the fourth century, at a time when Byzantine Christians were searching the Holy Land for sacred sites linked to the Bible and marked them, often relying on local lore, Puech said.

The monument is in the Kidron Valley, between Jerusalem’s walled Old City and the Mount of Olives. The Bible says James was hurled off the Jewish Temple, bludgeoned to death in the Kidron Valley below and buried nearby. The historian Josephus refers to a Temple priest named Zachariah being slain by zealots in the Temple and thrown into the valley. There is no word on Simon’s death.

There have been historical references to a Byzantine belief of joint burial of the three, although there is no evidence they were actually buried together.

The inscription says the monument is the tomb of “Simeon who was a very just man and a very devoted old (person) and waiting for the consolation of the people.” Simeon is a Greek version of Simon.