Give him the right hat and a whip, and he could be Indiana Jones.
Dr. Randall Price has some pretty impressive job titles:
- Author and Archeologist
- Director of Excavation on the Qumran Plateau in Israel
- Executive Director of The Center for Judaic Studies at Liberty University
- Professor of Jewish Studies at Liberty University
But more than a fascination with ancient biblical history, Randall Price loves Yeshua (Jesus). His personal relationship with the Jewish Messiah began back in 1967 when he was a high school student. He had a teacher who “wanted his students to know more than just the subjects he taught,” Dr. Price recounts. “He wanted them to know God and have a personal relationship with Yeshua.” This teacher took Randall to church. The pastor was teaching through the book of Revelation at the time, teaching things Randall had never heard before.
Prophecy unfolds on TV
“They seemed wild,” he remembers. But then, the Six-Day War happened and Israel regained possession of Jerusalem. As Randall watched news about the war, he thought about the teaching he’d heard. He realized he was watching prophetic events unfolding right there on television. “This is true!” he said. “Everything God said should be believed!”
“I felt that very night it was something I had to do,” he says, referring to accepting Yeshua as his personal Savior. “I couldn’t get away from it.”
“It changed my life ever since. It led me in the direction, ultimately, of studying the Bible, teaching the Bible to others, and even getting involved in unearthing things from the Land of the Bible to help make the Bible more clear.”
Digging for the Dead Sea Scrolls
For the last ten years, Randall has directed the excavation site on the Qumran Plateau in Israel, the area where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. The Dead Sea Scrolls are ancient biblical manuscripts found in caves near Qumran between 1947 and 1956. The site Dr. Price oversees has only been excavated by three people, and he is the only Believer to have worked on it. “We’ve discovered some amazing things,” Price says, things that will be published in the near future. He believes the findings will build a bridge of interest in the Messiah within the Israeli and Jewish populations. Dr. Price will be going back to the Qumran site this next year to excavate another cave in search of more Dead Sea Scrolls.
Something’s missing
His love for helping Believers understand the Bible and its historical references led him on a three-year quest to create a virtual tour of the Temple area in Jerusalem. The site of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem is “a 35-acre platform that is probably the most volatile place on Earth,” he told us. Though it is the holiest site in Judaism and Christianity, it is under Muslim control as the Islamic Al Aqsa Mosque is situated on it. Since the year 2000, Muslim authorities have prevented tourists from visiting certain buildings, and no one is allowed to speak of anything related to the Jewish Temple. A member of the Islamic Waqf (the overseeing agency) is always present making sure no one speaks even a word about the site other than from an Islamic perspective. Non-Muslims are not allowed to pray or carry a Bible at the site. These Waqf members closely monitor conversations and clothing for anything offensive to Muslims and remove violators from the area.
These stringent restrictions have deprived Christians and Jewish people of the opportunity to tour the Temple area and learn about its history while seeing the actual locations. Dr. Price wanted to fix that. He and a film crew set out to secretly film him teaching on the site. They used a secret 360 degree camera and hidden microphones. They were repeatedly thrown off the site, and it took three years to complete the project. The result is the Virtual Tour of the Temple, an interactive computer software program that allows you to sit at home and tour the modern Temple site like you’re not allowed to do in person. The program has data points you can pull up and includes 100 different videos of Dr. Price on location teaching the biblical context of each site.
“We did it so that now the truth can be told,” Dr. Price said.
One thing – from Dr. Price
We asked Dr. Price, out of all his writing and teaching, if he had to sift it down to one statement, encouragement, or admonishment for Believers today what would it be? His answer:
Remember that Israel is at the center of God’s purpose and plan. What God does with the world, He does first through Israel, because ultimately, He will bless the world through that People who He chose for that purpose. Even though today, there is rejection – largely – on the part of Jewish people, there’s a day coming when they’ll be brought to faith. Along the way, everything we have – the New Testament, of course, the Old Testament, the Church, Yeshua – all of this came to us through Jewish hands. Therefore, we need to respect God’s purpose for the Jewish People and know He has a future .
Watch Dr. Randall Price this week on Jewish Voice with Jonathan Bernis, and discover more about his work and the exciting Virtual Tour of the Temple.
