The discovery of the El-Araj mosaic reinforces the theory that this was the location of the city from which the apostles set out to fish and where their home was located.
Photo: Divulgation/El Araj Excavation Project.
Newsroom(08/18/2022 13:20, Gaudium Press) A more than 1,500-year-old mosaic was found by archaeologists Mordechai Aviam and Steven Notley at the so-called el-Araj site, next to the Ottoman mansion Beit HaBek. The work features an inscribed prayer asking for the intercession of St. Peter, “the chief of the heavenly apostles.”
Church of the Apostles
The inscription also reveals that “Constantine, the servant of Christ” was the one who financed the construction of that temple. According to experts, the inscription does not refer to Emperor Constantine and the type of writing shown corresponds to the Byzantine tradition of dedicatory mosaics.
In Byzantine times it was common to make pilgrimages to the city where the Apostles Peter, Philip and Andrew were born. Christians would visit a temple built in the home of the apostles that would be called the “Church of the Apostles”. According to Byzantine Christian tradition the house of St. Peter is located in Bethsaida, not Capernaum.
Archaeological discoveries
So far, archaeologists have found ruins from Roman times, Jewish family homes and the ruins of this Byzantine basilica from the 5th century at the site. Their search centered on a dedicatory inscription that would support the theory that the site is actually Bethsaida.
There is yet another excavation, that of el-Tell, near Lake Galilee, which attempts to locate Bethsaida. However, because it is two kilometers from the lake, some experts consider that this place is unlikely to have been the fishing village where these apostles were born. (EPC)
Compiled by Teresa Joseph
