Jerusalem ? A barely legible clue — the name “Simon” carved in Greek letters — beckoned from high up on the weather-beaten facade of an ancient burial monument.

Their curiosity piqued, two Jerusalem scholars uncovered six previously invisible lines of inscription: a Gospel verse — Luke 2:25.

Archaeological finds confirming biblical narrative or referring to figures from the Bible are rare, and this is believed to be the first discovery of a New Testament verse carved onto an ancient Holy Land shrine, said inscriptions expert Emile Puech, who deciphered the writing.

A few Old Testament phrases have been found on monuments, and a passage from Paul’s Letter to the Romans (3:13) is laid into a floor mosaic at the ancient Roman city of Caesarea.

Jim Strange, a New Testament scholar from the University of South Florida, said the ancients apparently believed chiseling Scripture into monuments debased sacred words. The widespread use of Bible verses on shrines began only around 1000 A.D., in Europe, said Strange, who was unconnected with the discovery.

The inscription declares the 60-foot-high monument is the tomb of Simon, a devout Jew who the Bible said cradled the infant Jesus and recognized him as the Messiah.

The inscription does back up what until now were scant references to a Byzantine-era belief that three biblical figures — Simon, Zachariah and James, the brother of Jesus — shared the same tomb.

Earlier this year, an inscription referring to Zachariah, who was John the Baptist’s father, was found on the same facade. Puech and Joe Zias, an anthropologist, continued to study the monument and uncovered the Simon inscription.

Two Greek inscriptions uncovered on the facade of an ancient funerary monument in Jerusalem's Kidron Valley are seen in this drawing. The vertical inscription, found recently, refers to Simon the Just, a devout Jew who the Bible said cradled the infant Jesus and recognized him as the Messiah (Luke 2:25). The drawing was made by tracing a cast of the badly scarred facade.