the Bethsaida Dispute

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Decades ago the Israeli Government Naming Committee accorded the name Bethsaida to an ancient village on a tell (large mound) East of the Jordan River and near the Lake of Galilee called Et-Tell. Tour guides dutifully take groups to view it as the home-town of Peter, Andrew and Philip.

This decision was taken despite the fact that, for more than a century, scholars had been puzzled about the true site of Bethsaida, perhaps because the great American explorer/archaeologist, Edward Robinson, favoured this identification from about 1838. Others disagreed and even proposed that there might have been two towns of that name because the literary evidence from John’s Gospel (such as 12:21) seemed incompatible with Josephus (Wars 2:168; Ant. 18:28). This problem remains unsolved.

Rami Arav and the University of Nebraska have excavated Et-Tell since 1987. They have found evidence of the destruction of a well fortified city from the time of David, a much later mid-1st-century settlement, fishing implements, exotic imported goods and cultic artefacts consistent with temple sacrifices. These are noteworthy because in about 30 CE Herod Philip (the Tetrarch) raised the status of Bethsaida to a city (a polis), made it his southern capital, renamed it Junias, and built a temple of the Roman cult to honour one of the imperial women so named.

The identification of Et-Tell has been challenged since 2014 by excavations at el-Araj, led by Mordechai Aviam and Steven Notley. This site is closer to the current shoreline of the Lake although earthquakes and droughts over the centuries have impacted the various dimensions of the Lake. At el-Araj, pottery and 1st-century coins confirm an appropriate date and fishing implements have been found. Uniquely (so far) a Roman bathhouse has been excavated as well as a monastery, mosaics and a Byzantine church that measures 100x66 feet. Apparently the 5th-century Christians regarded this as the site of the three apostles’ house.

The debate is cordial but each team is resolute in support of its own site.

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