These 2025 archaeological discoveries reshaped what we know about the Bible
From a garden at the Holy Sepulchre to new dates for the Dead Sea Scrolls, new research is offering detailed glimpses into biblical stories.
The biblical archaeology discoveries in 2025 paint a vivid picture of a rich, interconnected world whose traces echo down the millennia, in stone and text. Ongoing excavations at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, believed to have been built over the site of Jesus’s crucifixion and burial, continue to offer a glimpse at the site’s earliest days, indicating what the geography may have looked like prior to the church’s erection in fourth century. Archaeological digs elsewhere offer insight into Christianity’s early spread across the world, including traces of seventh-century monastic life in the Persian Gulf. New research is also revealing the roads Saint Paul, the apostle who spread the Christian faith across the Roman Empire, may have used during his mission. Meanwhile, sophisticated new technologies are enriching our understanding of the Dead Sea Scrolls and even shedding light on the sprawling trade routes that would have accounted for ivory’s many appearances in the Old Testament.
Taken together, these new discoveries and research offer compelling perspectives of the material realities of biblical stories, changing how we understand the Bible, both as a book of faith and a primary text of the ancient world.
An ancient garden discovered below the Holy Sepulchre
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem has been a site of Christian pilgrimage and devotion since it was built by fourth century Roman Emperor Constantine. But the centuries have taken their toll—much of the current structure dates to the 12th century work of Europe’s Crusaders—and the site is currently undergoing extensive restoration to shore up its shaky, deteriorating foundations for future generations. That presents a rare and precious opportunity for archaeologists, who are currently working to unlock the site’s ancient mysteries.
A team led by Professor Francesca Romana Stasolla of La Sapienza University of Rome is conducting archaeological excavations under the structure’s floor, peeling back layers of history to peer at how the site has been used through the millennia. The team has found traces of an Iron Age quarry, for instance, but over time, it shifted to a place of cultivation. Specifically, archeobotanical analysis, the study of ancient plants, has revealed evidence of grains, grapes, and figs. That matches details given in the Gospel of John, which says Jesus was crucified next to and then buried in a garden: “The Gospel mentions a green area between the Calvary and the tomb, and we identified these cultivated fields,” Stasolla told the Times of Israel.
Discoveries and research show the spread of early Christianity from Abu Dhabi to suburban Rome
Far-reaching finds from many regions offered a window into the world of early Christianity. Taken together, they paint a picture of vitality and movement of ideas, as well as the diversity of the communities that embraced the nascent religion.
Archaeologists outside Abu Dhabi discovered a 1,400-year-old plaster cross nearby a seventh and eighth-century monastic complex on Sir Bani Yas Island, confirming the houses were part of the monastery and testifying to the spread of Christianity in the region prior to the advent of Islam. Other notable discoveries this year shed additional light on the spread of Christianity. In Turkey, for example, archeologists working at the ancient city of Olympos uncovered a stunning mosaic floor at the entrance to a fifth century Christian church, which declares sternly: "Only those on the right path may enter here.” Archeologists working in Israel’s Negev Desert also announced the African-style ebony figurines in Christian graves from sometime between the fourth and seventh centuries A.D., the Byzantine period; the figurines’ owners may have originally been from Ethiopia.
Researchers have also unveiled a new way to look at the connections between early Christian communities: an updated, open-access dataset of Roman roads. Called Itiner-e, it’s a handy tool to visualize the roads that apostle Paul would have traveled during his mission through the vast Rome empire.
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These discoveries come on the heels of a late 2024 discovery when, shortly before the new year, archaeologists announced the discovery of the oldest evidence of Christianity’s spread north of the Alps, a small silver amulet found in a Frankfurt grave, dating from A.D. 230 to 260. The delicate material was inscribed with 18 lines of text, including words that translate to: “Holy, holy, holy! In the name of Jesus Christ, Son of God!”
Rethinking the date of the Dead Sea Scrolls
The Dead Sea Scrolls have been the subject of intense fascination ever since their rediscovery in 1947, after thousands of years tucked away in dry desert caves. Scholars typically ballpark the creation of the ancient religious texts between the third century B.C. and the second century A.D. Dating individual manuscripts is difficult—there are limited clues within the texts themselves, and radiocarbon-dating all of them is impractical.
This year, however, a team of researchers announced a groundbreaking new tool: Enoch, an AI-based date-prediction model named after the Old Testament prophet and father of Methuselah, trained on radiocarbon-dated manuscripts. The model suggested that many scrolls were older than previously believed.
In another fascinating application of new technology, researchers announced the rediscovery of a long-lost Babylonian hymn in praise of the god Marduk, the patron god of the city. Researchers found the hymn by using AI to comb through digitized cuneiform tablets; the hymn appears in several texts from the seventh to first centuries B.C., a period that includes the Neo-Babylonian Empire’s conquest of the kingdom of Judah under King Nebuchadnezzar. The conquest was recorded in the Old Testament's Second Book of Kings. Researchers say that the hymn was a schoolroom staple.
Ancient ivory trade networks
Ivory appears over and over again in the Bible, a sign of great wealth and luxury: King Solomon’s throne is described as crafted from the material, for instance, and it even takes on an erotic charge in the Song of Solomon: “His body is like polished ivory decorated with lapis lazuli.” But where did it come from? This year, a multidisciplinary team of researchers published an extensive study, which examined hundreds of ivory objects from the southern Levant and concluded that for a millennium, between 1600 B.C. and 600 B.C., the answer was sub-Saharan Africa, specifically via traders from Nubia, known as Kush in the Old Testament.
New discoveries at the ancient stronghold of Megiddo
The ancient city of Megiddo may be best known in the English-speaking world by the Greek name under which it appears in the Book of Revelations: Armageddon. But Megiddo, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is rich with history dating back to the 3000s B.C. and the early Bronze Age, when it was a great stronghold of the Canaanites, who appear often in the Old Testament as antagonists of the Israelites.
This year, archaeologists working at the site revealed the discovery of an enormous seventh century B.C. layer of Egyptian-made pottery. That’s intriguing because in the Bible, Megiddo is the site of a disastrous battle between King Josiah and the Pharoah Necho, resulting in Josiah’s death, but there’s been no archaeological evidence to back that up. The pottery suggests there could have been an Egyptian army at the right place and the right time.
A separate team working at a nearby site also announced the discovery of an ancient winepress—5,000 years old—carved directly into rock, as well as trove of carefully buried objects which were most likely ceremonial, including a rare intact vessel in the shape of a ram, and could shed light on ancient Canaanite worship practices. The finds offer a glimpse into a culture that looms large in the Bible, but remains deeply mysterious.
Dating the site of one of Jesus’s miracles
The Siloam Pool in the city of David, south of Jerusalem’s walls, appears in the Bible in the New Testament Gospel of John. According to the passage, it’s the site of one of Jesus’s miracles. John chapter nine records Jesus telling a man blind from birth to go “wash in the Pool of Siloam.” The passage continues: “The man went and washed, and came home seeing.”
This year, researchers announced they’d radiocarbon-dated the pool’s stone dam to 800 B.C., suggesting it was built as part of a vigorous and well-organized response to climactic upheaval at the time.
A revelation about an Old Testament king in modern-day Iraq
Archaeologists working in modern-day Mosul, Iraq, announced the discovery of what may be the largest known Neo-Assyrian lamassu—an enormous stone statue, 20 feet tall, depicting a hybrid creature with a winged bull’s body and a human head. Researchers found the massive sculpture in what’s believed to be the palace of Esarhaddon, a seventh century B.C. Assyrian king who appears several times in the Old Testament. As Biblical scholars have noted, Esarhaddon’s story mimics the story of Joseph in the Old Testament. Like Joseph, the Assyrian king was a younger son favored by his father, driven from his home, and impoverished before becoming an unlikely king. The discovery of the large scale lamassu speaks to the incredible wealth and power at Esarhaddon’s disposal, an important element of his Biblical biography.
Tiny, tantalizing inscriptions
The sprawling, powerful Assyrian Empire appears repeatedly in the Old Testament, even bringing the Kingdom of Judah under its control as a vassal state. While sifting at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, the present day home of the Dome of the Rock, researchers discovered a 2,700-year-old piece of cuneiform—and it’s the king of Assyria demanding that the king of Judah fork over late tribute payments: “Dear King of Judah, send the late payments quickly by the first of Av and if not consequences will be severe.”
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