In the last week, the world was overwhelmed by the discovery of a Roman bath house in el-Araj.
The furor started from foreign media, such as Independent and Fox News, which launched Israeli media Hareetz. They wrote that archaeologists are likely to have found the home of the three disciples of Jesus, the Apostle Peter, Apostle Andreas, and the Apostle Philip, on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee.
However, the researchers involved in the excavation denied it. Interviewed by National Geographic August 7, 2017, Steven Notley, New Testament professor and Christian Religion at Nyack College and academic chairman at the el-Araj excavation wrote in an e-mail that they did not find the home of Jesus' disciples and wrote the title.
Notley straightened and said that what they found in el-Araj was a Roman bath (the 1st-3rd century) that indicates that the site was once inhabited by humans, and alleged that the site of el-Araj was a former town of Bethsaida, the third hometown of the Apostle .
In addition, the researchers also found the remains of the church from the time of the Eastern Roman Empire in the form of walls from the 5th century and glass mosaic. This kind of mosaic, according to Notley, was found only in the important churches of the time.
The researchers also suspect that the church was a church once described by Willibald, the Bavarian bishop of Eichstatt who had visited the area in 725. Willibald reported that a church in Bethsaida had been built on the apostles Peter and Apostle Andreus.
However, Notley emphasizes that this is only a conjecture. Further research is needed to prove el-Araj's relationship with Bethsaida.
If proven, el-Araj will remove the el-Tell crown as the location of Bethsaida.
In fact, the site near el-Araj has been believed to be the site of the important city since 1839. The Bingaida Digging Project that studied el-Tell since 1987 also managed to find walls of the Iron Age, the houses of the Roman Age with fishing gear, and The remains of a Roman temple.
These findings fit into the description of the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, writing at the end of the first century that Bethsaida, a small fishing village, turned into a Greco-Roman city (polis) under the leadership of Philip the son of Herod. Philip, the son of Herod the Great, later renamed Bethsaida to Julias in honor of the mother of Tiberius emperor.
However, many archaeologists have questioned the identification of e-Tell as Betsaida described in the New Testament.
The reason, Betsaida too far, about 2.5 kilometers, from the coast to become the center of fishermen. In addition, the remains of the Roman empire found on the site over the last three decades are considered less important for an important and major city of its time.
Jodi Magness, an archaeologist and recipient of the National Geographic research fund said that although the remains of the Iron Age in Bethesda (el-Tell) are very important and remarkable, the remains of the Roman Age on this site are so lacking that the site can not be considered a center Urban areas.
Meanwhile, Rami Arav, head of the Betsaida Excavation Project in el-Tell, said that for the time being, there is no solid evidence to identify el-Araj as a Bethsaida location.