For more than a decade, Dr. Győző Vörös has been investigating the ancient biblical site of Machaerus, a desert fortress of Herod Antipas and the location of St John the Baptist’s imprisonment and execution. On Feb 1, 2022, he was presented with the Gold Medal of the Pontificate by the Pontifical Academies.
Newsroom (08/02/2022 4:00 PM Gaudium Press) Lost for more than a thousand years after the Romans destroyed it at the end of the First Jewish Revolt in 71/72 A.D., Machaerus, the site of Herod’s palace, was definitively identified in 1968. A German scholar discovered the remains of the siege wall erected by the Roman legions. The infamous birthday banquet of Herod Antipas, which culminated in the beheading of St John the Baptist, took place in the royal city of Machaerus, east of the Dead Sea in present Jordan.
Hungarian architect and archaeologist Dr. Győző Vörös has led the excavation and conservation efforts at Machaerus, after winning a contract from Jordan’s Royal Department of Antiquities.
“They contacted me in 2009 as an answer to the wish of His Holiness, Pope emeritus Benedict XVI, as during his papal visit,” he expressed his interest concerning Machaerus… the most important Gospel scene in Jordan. Dr. Vörös explained the historical significance of the death of John the Baptist: “the only Gospel passage which has a parallel narrative from the same era written by a non-Christian author,” the Jewish historian Josephus. The location of John’s execution was confirmed some 250 years later by the Christian writer Eusebius of Pamphilia.
“In addition to the uniqueness of its historical value, there are two unique characteristics:” The first “is that it is an archaeological site [that has] remained as a time capsule… it’s unbelievable. It’s a miracle that you have a Gospel scene that has survived as an archaeological time capsule.”
Dr. Vörös and his team have been able to present a reconstruction of Herod’s palace, the very place where the daughter of Herodias danced for Herod Antipas and his guests and was promised the head of John the Baptist.
“These are Bible illustrations of reality, and this is the heart of the [archaeological] mission” at Marchaeus,” explains Dr. Vörös. “There is no history without geography, without visible and visitable historical monuments,” he said, adding that archaeological research can provide “the framework and the real context for the Gospels in the Holy Land.” Dr. Vörös said the sites of the Holy Land offer historical context not only for us “but for our children, for the next generation” for whom “we can provide religious books that are illustrated with historical reality.”
Dr. Vörös emphasized the significance of the death of John the Baptist, which Jesus Himself compared to His Passion and death. “So, when we speak about the imprisonment and beheading of John the Baptist, it is somehow the precursor, of the event of the Calvary as well,” he warns. “John was also the precursor of Jesus Christ with his sufferings, and it is not a theological fantasy. Jesus Himself gave the key to Machaerus to us when He spoke about the sufferings of John the Baptist that the Son of Man will suffer similarly. So, it is a very important passage of the gospels and have it in our hands with its historical reality it is… It is, I am ready to say, a certain kind of 21st century gift of the Almighty God.”
Noting that we will soon mark the 2,000th anniversary of the martyrdom of St John the Baptist, Dr. Vörös hopes the archaeological site of Machaerus will be ready to be presented “in a very clear way, a very authentic way, which is most important.” With the Jordanian authorities, he hopes that Machaerus “will be once again on the map of the Holy Land when the next Pope of Rome will visit this sacred archaeological site.”
St John the Baptist died in 28 or 29 A.D.
(Via Vaticannews.va)
(Compiled by Raju Hasmukh)
Related Images:
