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THE K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
edges. The temple proper was typically Greco-Roman. It is not only the failure to uncover Biblical sites that hinders research. An other handicap to the study of the Gos pels arising from the lack of excava tions in New Testament Palestine has been that the linguist has been forced to turn to Egypt and other countries in order to study the Greek of the Gos pels. Palestine itself has not yet given him any long Greek or Aramaic in scriptions from the time of Christ. Although this is a brief rather than an exhaustive summary of the arch aeology of the .Gospels, it nevertheless shows how great is the need of more archaeological research in the study of the life o f Christ. And this discussion will have been abundantly worth while if we have aroused an interest upon the part of some believing Christians to hasten these archaeological studies which could throw much light upon those days when Christ was with men in the flesh and lived in ancient Pales tine. That Bring Blessing “Dear Mr. Null:” he read; “I was walking on the beach one morning, utterly despondent, when I found a corked bottle. Out of curiosity I picked it up and read the message inside. I felt it was sent directly to me. I am deciding^ now, for Christ.” Dan Carpenter is one of the many who have come to know the Lord as Saviour through a message in a corked bottle sent out by Mr. Null and those who work with him. Oyer fifty percent of the bards returned from those finding the bottles have designated acceptance of Christ as Saviour. Yet this is but one of the methods used in this effect ive ministry. Another method Mr. Null uses is that of handing cellophane-rolled tracts, es pecially arranged for children, directly to boys and girls or tossing the Gospel Bombs, as they are designated, from the “moving pulpit” of his automobile to children along the way. Blit this work does not end with the mere distribution of the tracts. Planned follow-up work makes sure of definite contact with each one who responds with the reply card enclosed. To see evidence of a soul confessing Christ as Saviour for a little over each dollar spent in the adult ministry and for less than forty-five cents in the children’s, is to believe God has mani festly placed His approval upon this work. There is now an opportunity to reach over a million children through this distribution if the material can be provided. Read more about this plan on page 153 of this issue.
baste in honor of Augustus. It serves as a type of the many other cities he built or rebuilt in Palestine, for he was one of the greatest builders in Pales tine's history. Samaria’s round gate way towers can still be seen by visitors to the site, and isolated columns in the ruins still show where the main street, some sixty feet wide and with a fifteen foot colonnade at its side for pedes trians, led over a mile to the forum or civic center where the government buildings were located with the basilica as the major feature. In the valley below was the stadium that went with every modem city of Herod’s day. Most tragic of all, from our point of view, was the great temple of the city where Augustus Caesar was worshiped as a god while Jesus Christ was living in the flesh. A long stairway seventy feet wide led up past an altar and a statue of the Emperor to the templé proper^ which was located upon a great arti ficial platform about five hundred feet long by about a third of that distance in width, with colonnades about its Bottles and Bombs Dan Carpenter walked slowly along the sand, his hands plunged into his pockets, his whole, appearance one of hopeless dejection. Grey waves lapped hungrily at his feet and, far out, the grey of the white-capped ocean merged with the grey of the overcast sky. There was greyness in Dan’s soul, too. He wondered, again; why he had come. Surely he was desperate enough without adding to it by walking here in the rain. No job—no money—no friends, even—it was enough to make a fellow want to end it all in oblivion. He had tried that; but somehow he couldn’t do it. “Just a coward,” he muttered bit terly. The waves were coming closer, so he turned to go a little farther up the beach. And then he noticed the bottle. He saw that it was sealed and there was something inside. “Just like a story book,” he laughed sardonically. But he stooped and res cued the bottle from the cold water. . “Well, if a shipwrecked guy fixed up this message,' he did it pretty fancy,” he mused. Several pencil-like rolls, wrapped in colorful cellophane, filled the bottle. “Hmmm, ‘Facts You Should Know and Believe to be Saved,’ ” he read slowly as he undid one roll. “Well, I’ve nothing else to do—guess I’ll read them any way” Weeks later, Carleton E. Null, a man to whom God has entrusted a ministry of tract distribution that is unusual both in methods and in results, opened his morning mail and paused over one letter.
PALESTINE— WAITING [ Continued, from Page 137]
pavement is yet to be seen with the marks of the soldiers’ games still carv ed in its stone. It may have been this site to which the Lord Jesus Christ was taken as a prisoner before Pilate. The other possible site for the trial is today incorrectly called the Tower of David. Here at the western edge of the city was Herod’s great palace (now excavated), with Maccabean ruins be neath it. We are uncertain whether this building in Pilate’s day served as his headquarters in Jerusalem or the Castle Antonia, but in one of these places Jesus doubtless stood trial be fore Pilate. Pilate’s special contribu tion to the city’s life was an aqueduct which brought water from Solomon’s pools south of Bethlehem to Jerusalem. Sections of it are still to be seen. The most interesting item from the temple is a Greek inscription which reads, “No stranger may enter within the balustrade around the Temple and enclosure. Whoever is caught will be responsible to himself for his death, which will ensue.” On ,the Mount of Olives just across from the Temple area can be seen tombs, some of which were looked upon by Jesus Himself. It was somewhere upon this western slope that the Garden of Gethsemane was located, and from which Christ was taken across the val ley and through one of the eastern gates of Jerusalem. Rich Fields for Investigation At Bethlehem, repairs on the Church of the Nativity have thrown light upon the history of that building, but dig ging yet needs to be done outside the building to determine its true relation ship to the New Testament story. Off to the east is Herodium, the fortress where Herod the Great is buried. If excavated, it could tell us much of what life was like in Jesus’ day. New Testa ment Jericho, where one of Herod’s famous palaces was located and which city Christ visited, could also tell us much. Tell Hum, the site of ancient Caper naum, awaits excavation. The syna gogue uncovered there by the Catholics cannot be dated earlier than a century after the times of Jesus, although ap parently it was built above the New Testament structure. Another neighbor ing city, Bethsaida, has not even been definitely located up to date. Tiberius, beside this Galilean lake, was built in the days of Jesus, and digging on its site would illustrate the times of Christ. Samaria best tells us what the splen dor Of a New Testament City in the days of Jesus was like. Herod the Great rebuilt this site as a typical Greco-Roman city and renamed it Se-
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