• ESPAÑOL: Pasos que conducen a la Piscina de Siloé descubiertos por primera vez en 2.000 años

Archaeologists have recently uncovered the eight steps that led down to the pool of Siloam mentioned in the Bible, Israel 365 News reports.

The steps had been covered for nearly 2,000 years.

The find is significant, because the pool is not only mentioned in the Old Testament but also in the New Testament.

The pool which is approximately 1.25 acres in size is located in Old Jerusalem’s southeast corner and was discovered while workers were repairing a water pipe.

Water was fed to the pool from the Gihon Springs through the 1,750-foot-long Siloam Tunnel constructed by King Hezekiah nearly 2,700 years ago.

The pool, first mentioned in 2 Kings 20:20, would ensure that Jerusalem had a water source during a siege and also served as a mikveh where the Jews could perform a ritual cleansing before entering the Temple.

In the New Testament, the pool played a critical role in Jesus’ healing of a man blind from birth recorded in John 9.

In this account, Christ spit on the ground to create mud which the Lord then applied to the man’s eyes and then told the blind man to wash his eyes in the pool of Siloam where he was ultimately healed:

⁷ “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing. (John 9:7 NIV)

In describing the significance of this discovery to Fox News, Ze’ev Orenstein from City of David Foundation noted that it is “not simply as a matter of faith, but as a matter of fact.”

READ: Ancient steps where Jesus said to heal blind man uncovered in Jerusalem AND Steps where Jesus walked and healed a blind man unearthed for first time in 2,000 years