John the Baptist Cave: New Secrets Emerge
The cave includes a huge cistern with 28 steps that lead to an underground pool of water. Some 250,000 pottery shards were also found and are presumed to be remnants of small water jugs used in the Christian baptismal ritual performed by the fiery New Testament preacher. Wall carvings etched into the cave tell John's life story; they were likely made by monks in the fourth or fifth century. In addition, a stone was found in the cave that researchers believe was used for ceremonial foot washing.
Now new secrets and mysteries have emerged from this cave, known as the Suba Cave.
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Vernon Clayson - 5/16/2006
It's over 2000 years, since so-called biblical times, when otsiders, i.e., enemies and outcasts of the people, operated from caves, and here they are again, or still, nipping at our heels from caves. Will dissenting Middle Easterners ever operate in the open, in daylight, or will they always have a cave as their headquarters and stealth and death as their policy?
Are we to always dread plots being hatched in caves by shadowy individuals? Does anyone wonder if Muslims are merely angry at Israel because they operate in open forums rather than in dank and dark caves?
Jeremy Dupertuis Bangs - 5/16/2006
Would it be too dull to end with a sentence such as "Now new artefactual evidence and explanatory hypotheses have emerged from the study of this cave, known as the Suba Cave."? Perhaps, in a news article, naming some of the new ones (in contrast to those listed, that are presumably the old ones) might also divert from the fashionable gasping approach to history.
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