BIBLE HISTORY DAILY

Where Jesus Walked

This BAS Special Collection is a priceless tour through the places associated with Jesus’ life

“The word of Jesus went forth first from Capernaum. Capernaum was not only the center of Jesus’ Galilean ministry, but it was also the place of his longest residence.”

House of Peter in Capernaum

Capernaum. Photo: Garo Nalbandian.

This is how authors Hershel Shanks and James F. Strange set the stage for the tantalizing discoveries described in the Biblical Archaeology Review article “Has the House Where Jesus Stayed in Capernaum Been Found?”

These compelling words lead the reader into a mystery within a mystery within a mystery. And as so often happens in Biblical archaeology, although most clues to structures in antiquity have long since vanished, the ardent beliefs of Christians, and the buildings they reverently—and repeatedly—raised on top of the ancient ruins, point like arrows to places we’ve all longed to view.

You can follow all the clues in this fascinating study, down through the many layers, the many years, and the many misdirections that humans bestow upon historical study.

Follow clues like mysteriously plastered walls … disappearing domestic pottery sherds … early Christian graffiti. (Is that a sigma? Omicron? Even the authors don’t agree.) Discover a fourth-century tourist’s diary that explains her certainty about this structure.

Could it really be the Apostle Peter’s house, where Jesus stayed for so long and where he preached? Could the house-church discovered beneath a later octagonal church actually have been created from this home?

We still don’t know for sure, but the tantalizing evidence is on full display in “Has the House Where Jesus Stayed in Capernaum Been Found?” How much proof will satisfy you in your quest to know the truth?


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Where else did Jesus walk?

If Capernaum is one of the most important places where Jesus walked, it’s not the only one that archaeologists study. You might think that Nazareth, where Jesus was raised, would be a hotbed of archaeological activity—but you’d be wrong.

Nazareth. Photo: David Harris.

Although very little archaeological work has been done in Nazareth, recent excavations within the Sisters of Nazareth Convent have offered some intriguing evidence about what the town would have been like when Jesus lived there. Archaeologists uncovered a “courtyard house” from the time of Jesus. The house was later overbuilt with churches from the Byzantine and Crusader periods, suggesting its significance. Could this have been Jesus’ boyhood home?

Read testimony from a seventh-century pilgrim who had visited the site, and explore the archaeological finds that indicate the town Jesus grew up in was a conservative Jewish community that had little contact with nearby Hellenistic or Roman culture.

There are still more places associated with Jesus that archaeologists and scholars are studying, and you’re invited to join in. Picture yourself making a pilgrimage to the site of the Swine Miracle, or imagine gazing upon Herod the Great’s Temple when Jesus drove out the merchants and money-changers.

And consider for yourself: According to archaeological evidence, the supposed site of Jesus’ tomb beneath today’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre would have seemed unlikely, even bizarre, when Emperor Constantine and his mother were pointed toward it in the fourth century. Could this very strangeness make it more likely that it truly does mark Jesus’ burial place, than if a more obvious spot was identified as the tomb?


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Discover all this and more!

It’s mysteries like these that keep so many scholars and interested readers poring over the BAS Library Special Collection Where Jesus Walked. From Capernaum to Bethsaida to Jerusalem, the archaeological and historical evidence keeps piling up—and all of it is documented in this carefully curated collection of articles from Biblical Archaeology Review.

Every new discovery, every new interpretation is detailed in this BAS Library Special Collection. You can read all of these eye-opening articles—more questions than definitive answers, but always intriguing—and more from the pages of Biblical Archaeology Review:


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Read Biblical Archaeology Review online, explore 50 years of BAR, watch videos, attend talks, and more

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The world of the Bible is knowable. We can learn about the society where the ancient Israelites, and later Jesus and the Apostles, lived through the modern discoveries that provide us clues.

Biblical Archaeology Review is the guide on that fascinating journey. Here is your ticket to join us as we discover more and more about the biblical world and its people.

Each issue of Biblical Archaeology Review features lavishly illustrated and easy-to-understand articles such as:

• Fascinating finds from the Hebrew Bible and New Testament periods

• The latest scholarship by the world's greatest archaeologists and distinguished scholars

• Stunning color photographs, informative maps, and diagrams

• BAR's unique departments

• Reviews of the latest books on biblical archaeology

The BAS Digital Library includes:

• 45+ years of Biblical Archaeology Review

• 20+ years of Bible Review online, providing critical interpretations of biblical texts

• 8 years of Archaeology Odyssey online, exploring the ancient roots of the Western world in a scholarly and entertaining way,

• The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land

• Video lectures from world-renowned experts.

• Access to 50+ curated Special Collections,

• Four highly acclaimed books, published in conjunction with the Smithsonian Institution: Aspects of Monotheism, Feminist Approaches to the Bible, The Rise of Ancient Israel and The Search for Jesus.

The All-Access membership pass is the way to get to know the Bible through biblical archaeology.


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