Scholars have theorized how Hezekiah dug the tunnel to divert the spring, Parker said.
“They dug it from both ends. We think it’s something over a year, it could be as much as two years as they were digging through solid rock. It’s still a great mystery how they did it, and how they were able to meet each other,” he said. “It’s almost 1700 feet long. So, they dig and meet somewhere about half way.
“There’s actually an inscription inside the tunnel that they met there. When you’re in the tunnel looking, you can see the tool marks on the rock and you can tell which ones were coming from which direction, the way they dug,” Parker said. “So it’s a very interesting thing to see.”
Israeli authorities did not provide a timeline of the excavation, but said tourists will be able to view the work, and that the pool would be accessible by tourists in “the coming months.”
Parker is hopeful the excavation will unearth additional artifacts supporting Scripture.
“Once we have it fully uncovered, we’ll be able to measure and see everything so we’ll understand the process fully,” he said. “Many times we find things like that that would point us to another discovery or another truth,” such as coins, pottery and other artifacts. “You never know what you’re going to find, … all of these things that will be important to the additional understanding of the Word.”
The excavation will afford a valuable teaching tool.
“As we teach, we’ll take the Bible verses that bring all of this together, and then we’ll have a visual element just in front of us, and a very large one that we can show and discuss and understand,” he said.
The excavation can also provide clues to other miracles Jesus performed at pools of water, such as healing the man at the Pool of Bethesda who had been paralyzed for 38 years.
“That’s also a place with a water feature that Jesus went to and did a miracle. That will help us understand, too, how that looked,” he said. “The same period of time, probably the same (type of) construction. That had five porticos in it. This is going to have just this one large pool.”
This article originally appeared at Baptist Press.
