WASHINGTON – The academic director of one of the most famous current archaeological digs in Israel was in Washington, D.C., this week to provide the latest information on the ongoing excavations of the city of Bethsaida, the City of the Gospel. John (1:44) Records as to the home of the apostle Peter, his brothers Andrew and Philip, and where Jesus performed various miracles.
In the presentation of May 5 Catholic Information CenterSteven Notley, academic director of the El Araj excavation project, said that excavations of the last Apostolic period city to be discovered, which began in 2016 and have continued since, have essentially confirmed that the site, known as El Arajis actually the location of the Galilean seaside town of Bethsaida, referred to many times In the New Testament.
Notley, who is also the executive director of Center for the Study of Ancient Judaism and Christian OriginsLived in Jerusalem with his wife and four children for 16 years and has been leading student and lay groups in Israel and the Eastern Mediterranean for more than 35 years.
Melissa OvermyerA Catholic evangelist who participated in the excavations at Bethsaida shared his testimony at the event, saying that being part of such experiences in the Holy Land “turns Biblical stories into Biblical realities.”
Notley said that excavations at the site in 2018 revealed the remains of a Byzantine-era basilica and, in 2023, the remains of a first-century house located directly beneath its apse.
The remains, he said, match historical accounts by eighth-century Bishop Willibald of Eichstätt in Bavaria, Germany, who traveled to the Holy Land in 725 AD and wrote about a church at Bethsaida that was built on the site of St. Peter and Andrew.
One of the discoveries made in this basilica is a mosaic, discovered in 2022, which had the inscription “Chief of the Apostles and keeper of the keys of heaven, intercede for him and his children George and Theophano.”
Last year, the site also suffered a wildfire, the results of which Notley said allowed the team to uncover evidence of pillars and other structures that had previously been overlooked due to dense undergrowth.
Notley told EWTN News that the archaeological team was able to identify a structure beneath the apse of the basilica by identifying pottery found there as 1st century pottery. The team also found fishing weights from the first century.
“So, we have the wall of a first-century house below the apse. It doesn’t have a plaque that says ‘Peter slept here,’ but from an archaeological perspective, it can’t be much better than that,” Notley said.
Notley said he welcomes volunteers to participate in the ongoing excavation, which he said is entirely privately funded. Information on how to become a volunteer can be found through excavations website.
