The importance of Capernaum to the early Christian community is indicated by the fact that the oldest Christian church uncovered by archaeologists has been located in the original site of that city. The church was built in a fashion that suggests it commemorates a sacred place. It is in the form of an octagon, and coins and ceramics indicate that it was built in the fifth century. Nevertheless, records of a pilgrimage to the area in the early part of the fourth century described not only the church but also include the following statement: “In Capernaum, moreover, out of the house of the first of the apostles a church has been made, the walls of which still stand just as they were. Here the Lord cured the paralytic.”
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In
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570, the same church was described as a basilica that preserved the house of Peter.
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Archaeologists now believe the house of Peter has been found beneath the remains of the octagonal church. The Gospels of Matthew and Mark both state that the apostles Simon Peter and Andrew owned a house in Capernaum and that Jesus spent much of the time during his last years in Capernaum. In fact, the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke report that Jesus lived in Capernaum in the house of Peter and taught in the synagogue there (Matt. 8:14; Mark 1:29; Luke 4:38). Virgilio Corbo discovered in the lower levels of the excavated church the ruins of a house of the early first century. It appears to have been especially venerated over many centuries, having been constantly rebuilt with great attention.
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Today you can view these excavations of Peter’s home.
Graffiti written in many languages on fragments of plaster from the walls of the house of Peter have been found. The writings particularly identify one of the rooms as a place with special meaning for early Christians. The words “Peter,” “Christ have mercy,” “Lord Jesus Christ help,” and a Latin inscription with the names of Rome and Peter have been found in these plaster fragments.
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The graffiti also include many other symbols, such as a fish (which was used as a symbol of Christianity in the early church) and various crosses. Archaeologists have interpreted all of this to indicate that the house, and particularly the room described above, were especially venerated from the first century on and that it was associated with, and perhaps was the home of, Peter.
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We have already discussed the finding in recent years of a fishing boat in Capernaum that is consistent with the descriptions in the Gospels of the fishing boat used not only by Peter but also by Jesus and his disciples (Matt. 8:23; 9:1; 14:13; 15:39; Mark 4:36–38; 5:18, 21; 6:32, 45–51; 8:10, 14; Luke 5:1–11; 8:22–23, 37; John 6:16–25).
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The boat used by Jesus was generally described as being large enough to carry the disciples and capable of carrying a substantial cargo of fish. The boat found at Capernaum fits that description.
Additionally, an unusual method of fishing described in the Gospels has been verified by modern fishing industry authorities in the Galilee region.
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The Gospel of Luke describes two boats fishing together unsuccessfully all night. In the morning, at the command of Jesus who joined them, Peter let down the nets in deep water, and the sudden quantity of fish caught was so great the nets began to break. Two boats working in tandem is traditional in Galilee when fishing for musht. Musht are generally caught at night and in a great mass at one time because they gather in shoals, exactly as described by Luke (see Luke 5:1–7). They are rarely caught singly.
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The Gospels describe many towns and miraculous events during Jesus’ brief ministry. Almost every town mentioned in the Gospels has been identified by archaeologists today, providing more corroborative links in our chain of evidence. The Gospel of John reports that Lazarus was raised from the dead in the village of Bethany and that this was one of the things that led to the demand for Jesus’ death by Jewish authorities. John wrote that Jesus was in Bethany a few days before his death, and the Gospels of Matthew and Mark state that he lodged there at night during his final week in Jerusalem (Matt. 21:17–18; Mark 11:11–12; John 12:1–10).
The present village of el-’Azariyeh, located on the edge of the Mount of Olives approximately two miles from Jerusalem, has now been identified with the village of Bethany through historical references and archaeology. The ancient name “Lazarium,” derived from Lazarus, developed into the present Arabic name. In approximately
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330, Eusebius stated that the “place of Lazarus” was pointed out as Bethany, and in
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390, Jerome noted that a church had been erected there to memorialize the tomb of Lazarus and the town.
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In excavations conducted between 1949 and 1953, the Franciscans found numerous caves, tombs, and cisterns that revealed that this village had been inhabited from 1500
bc
to approximately
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100, and thereafter continuously from the sixth century to the fourteenth century. Clay lamps, earthen vessels, and coins from the time of Jesus were located in the excavations, including a coin of Herod the Great and one from the time of Pontius Pilate.
A tomb long venerated as that of Lazarus has been excavated in the location of Bethany. In
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330, Eusebius referred to this tomb in a manner that suggested it had been recognized for many years as Lazarus’s tomb. It is in a cave dug from rocks, with a place for a large stone to cover it, all as reported in the Gospel of John (11:38).
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From the entrance a visitor today steps down into a narrow passage leading five feet into a vaulted small inner chamber. On three sides of the chamber, niches appear in the wall for raised shelves to provide for three burials. Jerome, writing in
ad
390, stated that a church had been built as a monument to this tomb, and the church was also noted by the pilgrim Aetheria who visited the village between
ad
381 and 384.
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Archaeologists believe the church mentioned in the fourth century was partially destroyed in an earthquake and was replaced around
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427. Today a new Church of St. Lazarus stands on this site in the village of el-’Azariyeh in Israel.
The town of Magdala (or “Migdal,” a variant of that name) is mentioned in the Gospels. It is believed that references to Mary Magdalene, a follower of Jesus, that occur in each of the Gospels mean “Mary, the one from Magdala,” and this was her home.
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Magdala was in the location approximately where the small town of Migdal is today. Excavations conducted after 1971 show that Magdala was built according to Roman plan. A building believed to have been a synagogue from the period during which Jesus lived was uncovered. The town also appears to have been the center of a fishing industry; one house contained a mosaic of a boat similar to the fishing boat found in Capernaum in 1986. That house has been dated to the first century and is approximately one mile from the location in the Sea of Galilee where the fishing boat described earlier was found.
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The Gospel of John, which covers a longer period of time for the ministry of Jesus than the other three, places Jesus in Jerusalem several times. All four Gospels relate that the last week of his life was spent in Jerusalem, however. As noted earlier, the Gospel of John makes many detailed and accurate references to geographical features of Jerusalem and its environs, evidencing personal familiarity with the city and its temple prior to destruction by the Romans in
ad
70. For example, Jesus is described as healing a blind man and then telling him to “go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (John 9:7). The ancient pool of Siloam has been located in Jerusalem. It was excavated during 1896 and 1897 by archaeologists associated with the Palestine Exploration Fund. It is in the Tyropoeon Valley at one end of a tunnel, known as the Siloam Tunnel, which was built to provide a continuous source of water for Jerusalem in the event of an attack.
The pool has thirty-four steps, built of hard stones, with a portion cut from natural rock. The stairs were described by archaeologists as “well polished by footwear.”
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An inscription written on a stone slab indicates the original dedication of the Siloam Tunnel many hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus. The slab is now in a museum in Istanbul.
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Of course, the pool was covered over by the destruction of Jerusalem in
ad
70. A personal, immediate reference by an eyewitness to the pool’s existence as given in the Gospel of John further corroborates that the author wrote prior to
ad
70.
The temple in Jerusalem, prior to its destruction by the Romans, was the center of Jewish life. It was described with awe in the Gospels. Josephus wrote that it was covered with heavy plates of gold, which reflected a fiery splendor at the first rising of the sun. Some of the white limestone blocks with which it was built were enormous; at a distance, the temple appeared to strangers as a mountain of snow “for as to those parts of it that were not gilt, they were exceeding white.”
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Leen Ritmeyer, an American archaeologist; his wife, Kathleen, an Irish archaeologist, and an English model maker, Alec Garrard, have recently created a model reconstruction based on archaeological findings and descriptions by contemporary eyewitnesses of the time that have been preserved.
Many of the large limestone blocks described by Josephus and also described in the Gospels have been found and are to be seen today,
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as well as parts of the foundation structure, such as the original steps leading up to the southern entranceway.
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Notices carved in stone warning Gentiles not to enter the inner courts upon pain of death have also been discovered. One found in the late nineteenth century and now at the Archaeological Museum in Istanbul is an almost complete version. The other is a partial construction found in 1935 and today held in Jerusalem’s Rockefeller Museum.
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The Gospels report that the night before the crucifixion Jesus and his disciples went into a small estate, or garden, called Gethsemane (Matt. 26:36; Mark 14:32; John 18:1). The exact location of Gethsemane has not been determined, and two sites are currently preserved in Jerusalem by the Roman Catholic Church and the Greek Orthodox Church, respectively. In
ad
330, Eusebius identified one site (now owned by the Roman Catholic Church) at the foot of the Mount of Olives as the place where Jesus prayed before his betrayal by Judas, reflecting long-standing local tradition.
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Half a century later, in 381, the pilgrim Aetheria also reported in a journal that a church had been built to commemorate the second site as being the place where Jesus was betrayed.
51
The site marked by the Roman Catholic Church was excavated in 1909, and a large mass of rock was found immediately in front of the altar. Archaeologists believe, based partially on a statement by Jerome in
ad
390, that this was the rock mentioned in the Gospels, where Jesus prayed in Gethsemane.
52
Recently Joan Taylor, a scholar from New Zealand, pointed out that the Aramaic and Hebrew translation of a word similar to
Gethsemane
means “olive oil press,” which in the first century was a large cave used for pressing olives into oil. Such a cave has now been located close to one of the two preserved gardens believed to mark Gethsemane. Historians have also found some evidence that this cave may have been the actual location referred to as Gethsemane in the Gospels.
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After Jesus was seized by soldiers in the garden of Gethsemane, the Gospels report that he was first taken before the Pharisees and Caiaphas, the high priest who had planned his death. After the 1967 war in Jerusalem, the Israelis occupied Jerusalem’s old Jewish Quarter, and archaeologists began excavations. They uncovered several of the elegant villas owned by the priestly aristocracy near the location of the old temple mount. Twenty feet below the twentieth-century floor level a home now referred to as the Palatial Mansion was found. Overlooking the temple and the lower city, the mansion was originally two thousand square feet, two or three stories high, and built around a paved courtyard. Archaeologists believe it may have belonged to the temple’s high priest because of its baths and exquisite fresco decorations.
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Additionally, archaeologists have speculated that this could be the house at which the apostle Peter waited at the time of Jesus’ arrest as described in the Gospels.
Archaeologists believe they have found the bones of Caiaphas, the high priest in Jerusalem between
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18 and
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37 reported by the Gospels to have presided over the trial of Jesus prior to his crucifixion.
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Corroboration of this reference in the Gospel narrative is provided by Josephus, who specifically referred to this high priest twice, once as “Joseph Caiaphas,” and thereafter, as “Joseph who was called Caiaphas of the high priesthood.”
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In 1990, several Israeli workmen found a family tomb in an old cave south of the old city of Jerusalem. Several limestone ossuaries, or depositories for bones, were found in the central chamber of the tomb. These have been dated around the time of Jesus. Ossuaries were not generally in use after
ad
70 when Jerusalem was destroyed. Inscriptions on one of the ossuaries bear the name “Joseph, son of Caiaphas” and contain the bones of four children, an adult woman, and a man of about sixty years old. It is believed that the bones of the sixty-year-old man are those of Caiaphas.
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Jesus was sent by Caiaphas to Pontius Pilate, the governor of Judea, to be tried and condemned to death. As we have seen, the occurrence and approximate date of the crucifixion of Jesus have been corroborated with historical evidence. The Roman historians Tacitus and Josephus both wrote that Jesus was executed during the reign of Pontius Pilate, while he was governor of Judea, confirming the Gospel accounts. Pontius Pilate’s existence has been verified in other writings as well. Italian archaeologists in 1961 discovered in a Roman temple at Caesarea Maritima a stone inscription recording the dedication of a building commissioned by “Pontius Pilatus, Praefect of Judea to the Emperor Tiberius.”
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It has now been positively verified that Pontius Pilate was governor between
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27 and 36, thus establishing a beginning and an end date for the period during which Jesus was crucified.