an_unshakeable_faith.. - Holy Bible Institute

was one of the crown jewels of the Roman Empire and its 40-acre man-made harbor was “thegreatest engineering wonder of its time.” There was a 4,000-seat theater, a 5,000-seat chariotracetrack, mosaic walkways, colonnaded streets, and all sorts of magnificent buildings, includingHerod’s palace and temples dedicated to Caesar worship. Other than the harbor at Alexandria,Egypt, Caesarea’s was the finest on the eastern Mediterranean and ships could make the trip fromRome in 10 days.Water was brought to Caesarea from miles away by a double aqueduct, an impressiveengineering feat in its own right. This provided plenty of water for the city’s pools, fountains,baths, and sewer system. The name of the Tenth Legion is inscribed on the aqueduct.The Pilate Stone (shown right) found at Caesarea in 1961 during reconstruction of the theaterproves that Pilate was the governor of Judea as the Bible says. Written in Latin, the inscriptionon the limestone block reads “Pontius Pilatus prefect of Judea, erected the Tiberium [temple inhonor of Tiberius Caesar] to the August Gods.” This agrees with Luke’s statement that Pilateruled during the lifetime of Tiberius (Luke 3:1). The stone is housed in the Israel Museum, whilea copy is on display at Caesarea.EVIDENCE AT MASADAMasada is a rocky mountain in the Judean desert overlooking the Dead Sea. Herod the Greatbuilt a fortified palace at Masada three decades before the birth of Christ. During the Jewishrevolt against Rome 100 years later the Jews captured the fortress. They believed that theMessiah was going to deliver them and establish the Davidic kingdom, but in fact they hadrejected the Messiah decades earlier. After the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the templein 70 A.D., Masada was the only site that remained under Jewish control. The rebels used it as abase of operation for raiding parties. In 74 A.D. Flavius Silva, at the head of 10,000 soldiers ofthe Roman Tenth Legion, conquered Masada, after a siege of several months. The Roman armiesbuilt eight camps around the citadel and with Jewish slave labor constructed an assault ramp tothe top. According to the historian Josephus, the remaining 1,000 Jews decided to commitsuicide rather than fall into the hands of the Romans. They had determined that God hadabandoned them, whereas in reality they had abandoned God. Ten men were chosen by lot to killthe others. Then the insurrection leader, Eleazar ben Yair, and the remaining ten men drew lotsagain and one was chosen to kill the others and end his own life. Two women and five childrenwho survived by hiding in a cave told the story of the last hours of the defenders as recounted byJosephus. This account has been disputed by some modern historians (someone is always tryingto make a name for himself by disputing well-established facts of history), but there is no goodreason to doubt it other than perhaps to question the number of Jews that were involved in thefinal suicide pact.The identity of Masada was lost for centuries until the site was discovered by two Americans in1838.158