Archaeology with an Open Mind

Sir Willian Ramsay, a scholar 

Further study . . . showed that the book [Acts] could bear the most minute scrutiny as an authority for the facts of the Aegean world, and that it was written with such judgment, skill, art and perception of truth as to be a model of historical statement. (The Bearing of Recent Discovery, p. 85)

So what was it that changed his mind? And what have we discovered since that might further reinforce his altered view?

The Census of Augustus

Luke informs us of the following:

And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city. Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child. (Luke 2:1–5, NKJV)

Pliny, a Roman governor of Bithynia, reveals that a regular census was taken by the Romans, while a papyrus from Egypt informs us that everyone had to return to their home for it. This papyrus from Egypt dated to a.d. 104, reads in part:

“. . . it is essential that all those who are away from their homes be summoned to return to their own hearths . . .”

Ramsay discovered an inscription at Antioch, which revealed that Quirinius was the chief magistrate of the city in 8 B.C. Evidence reveals that he shared the governorship of Syria with Sentius Saturnius at the time. 

Herod the Great

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Herod's Successors

Herod Archelaus

Herod Archelaus, son of Herod the Great, was appointed Ethnarch of Judea, Samaria and Idumea. Joseph knew he was a man to be feared, because while en-route home from Egypt, upon learning that Archelaus was ruler, went directly to Galilee rather than Judea (Matthew 2:22). We now know Herod was hated by the Jews because in sup- pressing a Jewish rebellion, he massacred some 3000 of them. Emperor Augustus eventually exiled him because of his excessive cruelty.

Herod Agrippa

Herod Agrippa is the last of the five Herods mentioned in the New Testament. When Caligula was assassinated in a.d. 41, he backed Claudius to be emperor, who in return made him King of Judea and Samaria. It was this Herod who executed James and imprisoned Peter (see Acts 12:1–19). Luke gives the following account concerning Herod’s death:

So on a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat on his throne and gave an oration to them. And the people kept shouting, “The voice of a god and not of a man!” Then immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he did not give glory to God. And he was eaten by worms and died. (Acts 12:21–23, NKJV)

That might sound a little far-fetched, but it accords perfectly with what Josephus wrote concerning events:

Now when Agrippa had reigned three years over all Judea he came to the city Caesarea . . . and there he exhibited spectacles in honour of Caesar, for whose well-being he'd been informed that a certain festival was being celebrated. At this festival a great number were gathered together of the principal persons of dignity of his province. On the second day of the spectacles he put on a garment made wholly of silver, of a truly wonderful texture, and came into the theatre early in the morning. There the silver of his garment, being illuminated by the fresh reflection of the sun's rays, shone out in a wonderful manner, 

Lukes Chronology

Dates appear to have been less important in ancient times than they are today. However Luke does give specific chronological data. In Luke 3:1–3, this ancient historian, using a Greco-Roman style, obviously wanted to show the historicity of what he wrote when he gave a large amount of historical data:

Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, while Annas and Caiaphas were high priests, the word of God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness. And he went into all the region around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. (NKJV) 

Caiaphas, The High Priest

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Famine during the reign of Claudius

In the book of Acts, Luke mentions a famine that occured during the reign of the Roman emperor Claudius:

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Josephus mentions the visit of Helena, queen of Adiabene (a territory to the east of the Tigris river), to Jerusalem at this time. She had accepted the Jewish faith. Of this visit Josephus says her coming was “of very great advantage to the people of Jerusalem” because on seeing the suffering caused by the famine, she sent to Alexandria “to buy a great quantity of corn” and to Cyprus “to bring a cargo of 

Roman historians Suetonius and Tacitus also men

Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla (because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome); and he came to them. (Acts 18:2, NKJV) 

In AD 49, Suetonius referred to an expulsion of Jews from Rome during the reign of Claudius as follows: 

Since the Jews constantly made disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus, he expelled them from Rome. The Life of Claudius 25.4) 

Pontius Pilate

The New Testament informs us that Pontius Pilate was the governor of Judea who sentenced Christ to death by cruci

Sergis Paulus, Proconsul of Cyprus

In Acts chapter 13, Luke reports on Paul’s visit to Cyprus, where at Paphos he met Sergius Paulus, the proconsul of Cyprus:

Now when they had gone through the island to Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar-Jesus, who was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man. This man called for Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. (Acts 13:6, 7, NKJV)

A number of possible references to Sergius Paulus have been discovered. Pliny the Elder in his work on Natural History (Hist. Nat. ii. 90.97, 112) makes reference to a “Sergius Paulus” and also, interestingly, mentions that the island of Cyprus was overrun with those who practiced sorcery, the very thing Luke states that Paul encountered on Cyprus.

There are four inscriptions possibly referring to him, of which two were discovered in Cyprus. The first was found at the city of Silo, just north of Paphos, in 1877. The second, from Kythraia (Chytri) in northern Cyprus, refers to a certain “Quintus Sergius” whose last name is missing. Another, found in Rome in 1887, is on a boundary stone set up by Claudius Caesar. It says that “L. Sergius Paulus” (listed with several others) was responsible for maintaining the banks and channels of the Tiber River. Finally, the name L. Sergius Paulus was also found on an inscription from Pisidian Antioch in Turkey, in 1912.

Erastus, Tresurer of Corinth

The apostle Paul, in his letter to the Romans, written from the city of Corinth in Greece, ends with the following greetings:

Gaius, my host and the host of the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the treasurer of the city, greets you, and Quartus, a brother. (Romans 16:23, NKJV)

In 1929, an inscription on a marble paving slab, dating to the middle of the first century a.d., was discovered at Corinth. It reads: “Erastus, in return for his aedileship, laid this pavement at his own expense.” The aedile was in charge of city finances. Because of the rarity of the name Erastus, and since both Paul and the inscription refer to him as the treasurer of the city, and because it is unlikely two men of the same name would hold financial office in Corinth at the same time, scholars reasonably conclude they refer to the same man. 

Rulers (Polytarchs) of Thessalonica

Acts refers to the goddess Diana (pictured, statue of 

Luke in his Gospel and book of Acts mentions some 32 countries, 54 cities, nine islands, and various per- sonalities and events, all of which are known to have existed or occurred, and of which this article contains

but a sampling. Many other archaeological discoveries exist that further confirm biblical writings as an accurate and reliable record of human history and culture, a source not to be readily dismissed. Such was the road that the sceptic Ramsay travelled, until overcome by the weight of evidence, he came to accept the wider history and cultural descriptions of the Bible, along with its deeper themes.