“Hidden Treasures Unearthed: Is This the Long-Lost ‘Church of the Apostles’ That Could Rewrite Early Christianity?”
“[Willibald] states that the church was in Bethsaida built over the house of Peter and Andrew, among the first disciples of Jesus,” said Notley.
Zachary WongA piece of a mosaic floor found at the excavation site.
According to Haaretz, this discovery is also important because it clears up the historical record, which has largely been cloudy until this point. Notley explained that because no church from this era had been found until now, that people usually “correct” records of the pilgrimage from Bethsaida to Capernaum accordingly.
“Now we have a church right where the pilgrims say was a church,” said Notley.
The Legendary Village Of Bethsaida
Zachary WongExcavations yieled pottery, foundations of houses, Roman-era coins, and pieces of stone with Christian crosses carved into them.
According to Romano-Jewish historian Josephus Flavius, the Church of the Apostles wasn’t the only thing built over the home of Jesus’ earliest disciples in what was the village of Bethsaida: The Roman city of Julias sprang up there during the first century A.D.
The New Testament described disciples Peter, Andrew, and Philip calling Bethsaida home, and also mentioned Jesus healing a blind man there. Luke 9:10-17 describes Jesus feeding 5,000 people nearby with just five loaves of bread and two fish.
And while it’s not yet certain whether or not the el-Araj site is indeed the former home of Bethsaida and the Church of the Apostles, Notley and company are confident.
“The discovery of the church strengthens our position that el-Araj should be considered the leading candidate for New Testament Bethsaida-Julias,” he said. “We have only made that claim after three or four years of reservations,” Notley told LiveScience. “We have much more evidence to support our claim that this is Bethsaida.”
