Bible Synapse
Masada
Site · c. 35–15 BC · Time of Jesus
See it on the map and timeline
- Date
- c. 35–15 BC (Herod's palaces and walls)
- Found
- Masada, above the Dead Sea, Israel, 1963. Shmarya Guttman made a trial dig in 1959. Yigael Yadin excavated the summit in 1963–65, and the final excavation reports began to appear in 1989.
- Now
- At the site
- Passages
- Matthew 2:1, Luke 1:5
What it is
A flat-topped rock fortress above the western shore of the Dead Sea. Herod the Great ringed the summit with a casemate wall and built palaces there, including one on the rock's northern tip. Jewish rebels held it after the fall of Jerusalem until the Romans took it in AD 73 or 74, and their siege ramp and camps can still be seen. Yadin's team also found scroll fragments, including copies of Genesis, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Ezekiel and the Psalms.
How it connects to the Bible
Masada is not named in the Bible. It is one of the best-preserved works of Herod the Great, the king “in the days of” whom Matthew and Luke place the birth of Jesus. The biblical scroll fragments found there show these books being read and copied in Judaea before the fortress fell.
What scholars debate
Josephus says the defenders killed themselves rather than surrender; many historians doubt parts of his account, and the excavators found the remains of no more than 28 people.