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Do you like puzzles? At our house, the puzzles come out around the winter holidays. Pieces are sorted and assembled, often over multiple hours or days. Some puzzles are quick. Others are difficult because of the multiple shades of color used across the picture. But persistence eventually finds the place for every piece and the picture is complete.
Archaeology is much the same. Artifacts are unearthed including building foundations, pottery shards, ancient tools, and coins. They are the puzzle pieces studied to see a picture of the past. Archaeology has validated the bible’s historical accuracy on numerous occasions. And that validation continues today.
In August of this year, a team of archaeologists excavated a fifth-to-sixth century Byzantine basilica at the el Araj archaeological site on the shores of the Sea of Galilee in Israel. They uncovered a large Greek mosaic that bolsters the theory the church was built over the home of the apostles Peter and Andrew. Steven Notley, professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at Nyack University and co-leader of the expedition, called the basilica’s mosaic the “most definitive archaeological connection with Peter.” According to Notley, the mosaic is more than 1,500 years old. He also believes it is compelling evidence that the excavation has discovered the town of Bethsaida. *
With a puzzle, when most of the pieces are assembled, you can tell what the picture is. Archaeology has pieced so much of the past together we can see the bible is true.
*Edie Heipel, “St. Peter’s House Believed to Have Been Found on Shore of Sea of Galilee,” National Catholic Register, August 24, 2022, https://www.ncregister.com/cna/st-peter-s-house-believed-to-have-been-found-on-shore-of-sea-of-galilee
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Bumper music “Landing Place” performed by Mark July, used under license from Shutterstock.