Bethsaida - A team of archaeologists uncovered evidence this month that this is the location of the house of St. Peter. While excavating a fifth-sixth century Byzantine basilica at the el Araj archaeological site located on the shores of the Sea of Galilee in Israel, the team discovered a large Greek mosaic that seems to bolster the theory that the church was built over the home of Ss. Peter and Andrew.
Steven Notley, who leads the dig at what is being called “The Church of the Apostles,” is a professor of the New Testament and Christian Origins at Nyack University. He told CNA in a phone interview that the basilica’s mosaic is the “most definitive archaeological connection [we have] with [St.] Peter.”
The mosaic is inscribed with a petition that asks for the intercession of St. Peter, who is referred to as “the chief and commander of the heavenly apostles.”
Byzantine Christian writers commonly referred to the Apostle Peter by this title.
The inscription also mentions a donor named Constantine, “a servant of Christ,” and is framed in a round medallion with two strands of black tesserae, or glass mosaic pieces, that are part of a larger mosaic on the floor of the basilica’s sacristy.
The mosaic is over 1,500 years old and according to Dr. Notley, is compelling evidence that the el Araj site is the lost city of Bethsaida, what he calls “the last lost city of the Gospels.”
After “digging through history” and finding several remains from both the Crusader and Byzantine periods, Notley’s team encountered 15-20 inches of pure silt left over when the Jordan River flooded the region at the end of the third century.
Notley explains that he believes the site has remained largely undetected due to flooding at the end of the Roman period in the third century.
Notley cross-referenced the church’s location with the account of an eight-century Bavarian bishop named Willibald. In 725, Willibald visited holy sites along the Sea of Galilee and described a basilica he stayed at overnight as being the house of St. Peter in Bethsaida, where the el-Araj site is now.
The location also corresponds with Josephus Flavius’ description of Bethsaida in 30.
-CNA