Did you hear about this?
Apparently, it's long been believed that there was a church of the apostles in the village of Bethsaida, the home of the disciples Peter, Andrew, and Philip, in the Galilee; however, until recently, it has never been found.
According to The Jerusalem Post, archaeologists have searched for years for this church, which was visited by the Bavarian Bishop Willibald in 724AD and was chronicled in his writings. A few decades after his visit, a major earthquake shook the country, and the Muslim ruling dynasty changed, and many Christian sites—and the memory of their exact location—were lost.
In 2017, archeologists identified a tel (hill) they wanted to explore as a possible site for Bethsaida. Not long after, they discovered "the Roman layer dating back to the time of Jesus, unearthing houses, pottery, coins, and so on. Since the beginning, some finds suggested us that the there must be a church somewhere, such as pieces of mosaics," said Professor Rami Arav of the University of Omaha, Nebraska.
Then, the archeologists decided to investigate another tel 2 kilometers away.
There, they found a large basilica, about 89 ft x 53 ft. " We found mosaics, two inscriptions, the apses, all dating back to the Byzantine period," Aviam said. "The church was built at the end of the fifth or the beginning of the sixth century and probably remained in use until the eighth century."
In the last season of excavations of 2021, the archaeologists found something interesting: a door-less wall in front of the basilica. Was it built to protect the church? or simply to add on to a new structure?
In 2022, we hope to find out when the team excavates around the church!
A second recent (and incredible) find is an amythest seal discovered in Jerusalem with the balm of Gilead engraved on it.
According to the Jewish News Syndicate, this could be the first seal ever discovered with this kind of engraving, despite the written accounts of seals like this.
WOW!!!
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