The Jesus Boat

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This is the story of the Jesus boat, the hull of a 2,000 year old fishing vessel which is on display in its specially created cradle in the Yigal Allon Museum of Kibbutz Nof Ginosar, just beside the Lake of Galilee.



In January, 1986 during a time of drought, while exploring the mud flats of the Lake two brothers, Moshe and Yuval Lufan found the hull of a boat buried in mud that were usually covered by water. Mendel Nun, an expert on the Kinneret was called in and he made contact with Yossi Stefanski of the Department of Antiquities, who, in turn, called in Shelley Wachsmann, a departmental Inspector of Underwater Antiquities. Shelley, was able to determine that the boat was ancient.

Working day and night, volunteers from the Kibbutz and from far afield helped with their bare hands to rescue the boat from its muddy grave, to save it from souvenir hunters and from the rising water level. Soon another expert arrived, from America. Professor Richard Steffy, the world expert on ancient ships came for a week with advice and instructions. Then a professional woman came onto the scene Orna Cohen who took over the conservation stage with its many challenges and problems and performed the remarkable feat of preserving this precious relic..

Covered entirely with plastic and then with polyurethane sprayed on over that, and looking like a giant insect’s cacoon or a strange creamy dessert, the boat was floated, intact, on the Lake to its new home. All of this polyester skin then had to be laboriously removed in a race against the timbers drying out, The boat was then immersed for about ten years in a tank of synthetic wax called PEG to replace the water in timbers with poly ethylene glycol after which it was put on display.

Years previously a mosaic illustration of an ancient boat had been found at Magdala. It depicts oarsmen rowing the boat and a helmsman with a quarter-rudder guiding the boat, which had no tiller and rudder combination. The new boat conformed to that same ‘type’. Pottery found at the site helped to confirm its age and Carbon 14 dating places it somewhere between 120 BC and 40 AD/CE.

It required a crew of 5 and because men were smaller and lighter then than now 15 people could have sailed in it so Jesus and his disciples or their friends or relatives could have sailed in it. It was often repaired over the years and it is almost certain that old Zebedee saw it sailing past during his many years as a fisherman nearby.

See the video of the Jesus boat :



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