Legendary lost Church of the Apostles found by team of archaeologists

The Church of the Apostles may have been discovered by a group of archaeologists in Israel's Galilee.

Photo Credit: Center for the Study of Ancient Judaism and Christian Origins

Highlights

By Abigail James (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
Catholic Online (https://www.catholic.org)
8/1/2019 (5 years ago)

Published in Living Faith

Keywords: Church of the Apostles, St. Peter, St. Andrew, Galilee

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The Church of the Apostles is the Biblical site described as being located on top of Apostles Peter and Andrew's homes. 

Although there has never before been any physical evidence of the church's existence, it has been mentioned in several pieces of Christian text dating all the way back to 725 A.D. For the first time ever, physical evidence may have been discovered, by a team from Kinneret College in Israel and Nyack College's Center for the Study of Ancient Judaism and Christian Origins.

Excavations, near the northern shore of the Sea of Galiliee, turned up many pieces of mosaic floors, gilded remnants of a wall mosaic and the fragments of a marble chancel screen, according to The Daily Mail.

"This season's dig at nearby El-Araj confirmed it as the site of Bethsaida, a fishing village where Peter and his brother Andrew were born according to the Gospel of John," explained Mordechai Aviam, of Kinneret Academic College. "The Byzantine church was found near remnants of a Roman-era settlement, matching the location of Bethsaida as described by the first century AD Roman historian Flavius Josephus."

According to a Bavarian bishop of Eichstaett who visited this area around 725 AD, "a church at Bethsaida had been built on the site of Peter and Andrew's home."

Evidence, thus far, has indicated this was part of a monastery complex.

"We excavated only one third of the church, a bit less, but we have a church and that's for sure," Aviam told AFP, according to The Daily Mail. "The plan is of a church, the dates are Byzantine, the mosaic floors are typical... chancel screens, everything that is typical of a church."

"Between Capernaum and Kursi there is only one place where a church is described by the visitor in the eighth century and we discovered it, so this is the one."

The last deciding detial, though, would be if they find the church reveals an inscription.

"It would be normal to find an inscription in a church of the Byzantine period, describing in whose memory it was built, for instance."

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