HISTORICAL EVENTS
Although various historical accounts document the tragedy of the devastation of Jerusalem by the Roman legions, the archaeological record provides the most tangible evidence of the city’s total destruction in AD 70.
The excavations of NahmanAvigad (1969–1982) in the Old City of Jerusalem uncovered structural remains hidden for millennia. Some of them are remarkably well preserved after so many centuries. Avigad dug in the area known today as the Jewish Quarter, opposite the Temple Mount and Western Wall.
In the site’s Area B, he recovered remains of four settlement strata extending from the Iron Age to the early Ottoman Period. The first level dates from the end of the First Temple period (Stratum 4), the time of the Neo-Babylonian forces that conquered Jerusalem in the sixth century BC. The most fascinating level is Stratum 2 which contains the ruins of a residential structure destroyed during the first century AD by the Romans. The structure has come to be known as the “Burnt House” and has a most significant role in the archaeological research of the late Second Temple period.
Because of the existence of present-day buildings on the site, archaeologists have only recovered a courtyard along with some of the rooms, a kitchen, and a miqveh, or ceremonial bath. A mansion next to it was two stories high, had two or more cellars, and various cisterns to collect rain water. The massive and impressive structure was constructed around the beginning of the first century AD. The rooms of the Burnt House and the mansion contained fragments of dozens of ceramic and stone vessels. The number of stone vessels indicates its owner’s interest in religious purity since Jews of the period believed that objects made of stone did not become ceremonially defiled. One find that has stirred the imagination of many is the arm of a young woman buried under a layer of charred beams and a collapsed wall. The Burnt House was probably where a family in the service of some priests lived.
The remains of the house testify to the wealth and good taste of some first-century Jews. A stone weight bearing the inscription ברקתרס[ד] [dĕ]bar Qātrōs, “[of] the son of Qatros” suggests that the mansion next to the Burnt House may have belonged to the family of Qatros, one of the principal high-priestly families of the Second Temple period. The home of Caiaphas was likely similar to this mansion, possibly giving us an idea of the courtyard in which Peter followed Jesus (see Mark 14:66).
The Babylonian Talmud preserves negative memories of some wealthy priestly families, declaring,“Woe is me because of the house of Qadros, woe is me because of their libel” (T. Men. 13.20). The same verse includes woes against Abba Joseph b. Haninwhich probably refers to Annas (the father-in-law of Caiaphas). Josephus mentions a Cantheras (Κανθ流ρας) who could be the Qadrosof this house (Ant. 20.1.3).
Avigad, Discovering Jerusalem.
Evans, “Mark 8:27–16:20, ”Word Biblical Commentary, 463–464.
Geva, Jewish Quarter Excavations in the Old City Jerusalem Volume IV: The Burnt House of Area B and Other Studies.