sins, trying to overthrow his father. this is amazing. so, how d they build this? well, as you can see, this was built out of solid bedrock about 2,000 years ago. so, jesus would have seen this? yeah, jesus would have seen this prior to his crucifixion. for hundreds of years now, people believed this was absalom s tomb, and what do they do? they stone it. muslims, christians, and jews, pilgrims as they come by here for hundreds of years, this has been a jerusalem tradition. but zias is sure the stone-throwers had it wrong. his proof? inscriptions that suggest it s not absalom but people close to jesus life who were buried here. so, what does the inscription say? above the door, where it should have been, we found an inscription that says, this is the tomb of zechariah, the pious martyr, the father of john. now, who s the john? it s obviously, in this context, john the baptist. the inscription is in greek, and it s dated probably no later than 350 a.d. next to that is t
350 a.d. next to that is the oldest new testament inscription ever found. part of a verse from the nativity story of luke, about simian the old man who held the baby jesus. you ve seen the inscriptions. in fact you discovered them. how do re authentic? well it s a good question because unfortunately we re living in an age of forgeries. there s so much of it on the market. but here are inscriptions which were there almost 30 feet in the air. it s impossible to go and forge something like that today. a forger would want to forge something that he could sell, and you cannot sell something this big. that s a good point, yeah. there s no way, again, this is up there. it s been up there for the last almost 1700 years. and it will always be there. like absalom s tomb, christianity has survived a variety of assaults over the centuries. these days, it s a best-selling book that has many christian leaders angry, and upset. that story next.