The Carbon-14 Cave by Rev. Raymond Parnell

The sacred book tells that King Hezekiah (727-697 BC) "made a pool and a conduit and brought water into the city". King Sennacherib had besieged Jerusalem with the Assyrian army, causing much distress to the Israelis by cutting off their water supply. It is called the Siloam Tunnel and snakes its way for about a third of a mile south from the Gihon Spring to the Siloam Pool -- a reservoir that is inside Jerusalem's walls.

It was in 1978 while on a tour of the holy land led by Rev. Dennis Croucher, that several of us had the opportunity of going into "Hezekiah's tunnel". The Arab guide warned us that we were not on a sanctioned tour and we were totally on our own! He spoke truthfully and let us enter the tunnel's thigh deep water while he stayed behind and away. It was wet but exciting.

The Biblical Archaeology Review, November/December, 2003 issue, offers more information about that historic tunnel.

"Israeli scientists carrying out carbon-14 analysis on wood, coal and ash found in the plaster walls of Jerusalem's ancient Siloam Tunnel, and running isotopic tests on the uranium and thorium present in stalactites on the tunnel's ceiling, have determined that the tunnel was hewn around 700 B.C. -- corroborating the Bible. The findings support the account in 2 Kings 20:20.

An ancient 100-word inscription discovered in 1880 describes the construction of the tunnel; the paleography -- the shape and stance of the letters -- in the inscription pointed to Hezekiah's time, but assigning a firm date to the tunnel had to await modern scientific analysis.

According to Amos Frumkin, head of Hebrew University's geography department and one of three investigators involved in the dating project, the Siloam Tunnel is the first major Biblical structure to be radio-carbon dated."

We accept the Biblical account and now the scientific findings. What a wise leader was Hezekiah as he provided water for his subjects! Our Lord provides us with living water that does not need scientists to validate our experience, for we have tasted and seen that the Lord is good.