Dug out of the ground
They found Pilate's name carved in stone.
In 1961, archaeologists digging at an ancient theater in Caesarea, on Israel's coast, turned over a limestone block. Carved into it: “Pontius Pilatus… Prefect of Judea.” It's a first-century inscription from Pilate's own lifetime, now in the Israel Museum.
They keep checking out too. In 2004, crews fixing a water pipe in Jerusalem uncovered the steps of the Pool of Siloam, where John says Jesus sent a blind man to wash. John also describes the Pool of Bethesda, “surrounded by five covered colonnades.” For centuries there was no trace of it; excavations since the 1800s have uncovered two large pools with colonnades near the Sheep Gate, where John places it.
The Gospel writers name real places, and the ground keeps agreeing with them.
John 9:7 · John 5:2