Archaeologists working in Israel recently uncovered a reliquary that may have once held the remains of three apostles: Philip, Andrew and Peter. Archaeologists working with Professor Mordechai Aviam of the Kinneret Academic College uncovered the 661 pound basalt block with three smooth compartments in the top while they were investigating the ruins of a church that had once stood in the town. The reliquary was actually uncovered by accident, but it points to the site, called el-Araj, as the most likely location for the biblical town of Bethsaida. The bottom of the reliquary was rough instead of carved like the top just as reliquaries with sacred relics are made before they are placed beneath the church alter. The combination of the ancient church and reliquary uphold what St. Willibald, a Christian pilgrim from 725 B.C., wrote about Bethsaida. He stated that there was a church built at Bethsaida that stood over the home of Peter and Andrew. This would further uphold el-Araj’s claim of being the ruins of biblical Bethsaida.

The site of el-Araj as the location of Bethsaida is still debated among archaeologists, but recent evidence has increasingly bolstered el-Araj’s claim. For years, scholars had believed that el-Araj was not settled until the Byzantine period as it was underwater during the Roman period. Discoveries in the last two short years, however, have shown that el-Araj was not buried beneath two meters of water during the Roman period. It would have been on the lake’s shore. Three meters below the surface of the earth, remains of buildings from the Roman period were found as was a Roman bathhouse. When the excavation was expanded, red fresco fragments, lead weights for fishing nets, pottery and coins from the Roman period were uncovered. A Herodian oil lamp, the type used in Jewish settlements during the Second Temple period, was also discovered, pointing to the presence of Jews in el-Araj.

The town of Bethsaida was abandoned in the late Roman period, and the area was buried beneath floods from the Jordan River and other local water sources. It was resettled in the Byzantine period. As such, the location of the original Bethsaida is still debated, but researchers working at el-Araj believe that the site is the hometown of the apostles. The debate is still far from settled, but such discoveries have left archaeologists eager to return to the site in 2019. The excavation season will run from mid-June to mid-July, and scholars are already looking forward to what el-Araj will yield next.