Khirbet el-Araj Press RELEASE: AG Center for Holy Lands Studies Leads Survey
SITE SURVEY IN ISRAEL MAY INDICATE LOCATION OF NEW TESTAMENT BEITSAIDA
Students and professors from several Assemblies of God colleges just completed a five-day “shovel
testing” survey of Khirbet el-Araj (a possible location for the New Testament site of Beitsaida).
“We now know that el-Araj was an ancient site that began at least during the late Hellenistic period with
settlement in the early Roman period (time of Jesus), and continued to the Byzantine period,” states Marc
Turnage, director of the Center of Holy Lands Studies who, together with Dr. Mordechai Aviam, founder
of the Institute for Galilean Archaeology and senior lecturer at Kinneret College, arranged for the survey
as part of a cooperative agreement between the two institutions.
“El-Araj is indeed a possible site for New Testament Beitsaida, but we will only know with a full
excavation,” Turnage said.
In the shovel testing and land survey the students found pottery, architectural fragments from public
buildings (possibly a synagogue), and pieces of mosaic tiles.
Beitsaida (House of the Fisherman), together with Chorazin, and Capernaum, was the location for the
majority of Jesus’ ministry. Several of His disciples came from Beitsaida (John 1:44) and it was one of
the cities which Jesus severely upbraided for their lack of repentance (Matthew 11:20-24).
For the past 20 years an excavation at the site of Et-Tell which is 11/2 miles north of the Lake of Galilee
has been identified as Beitsaida. However, there are a number of difficulties both with the location and
with archaeological finds. Distance from the lake makes it improbable that Et-Tell would have been a
fishing village. El-Araj is located on the shores of the lake and its elevation is consistent with Capernaum
and other fishing villages.
At the conclusion of the 5-day shovel survey, Dr. Aviam noted “The results are very clear that we have
pottery from the late Hellenistic period (the second century B.C.), Early Roman pottery from the first
century, and even Byzantine pottery from the fifth and sixth centuries. We also found architectural
fragments that were made of both limestone and basalt which are typical of large public buildings like a
synagogue.”
The survey was made possible through cooperation of several institutions: a donation from North
Central University (Minneapolis) provided funding for the survey. Turnage and the Center for Holy
Lands Studies worked with Archaeologists Mordechai Aviam and Dr. Dinah Shalem to arrange for the
survey license for the survey was obtained through Samford University (Alabama) and South Florida
University with the assistance of Dr. James R. Strange.
Turnage said, “While the survey could not positively identify el-Araj with Beitsaida, nothing in the
survey precludes it from continuing to be a possible location for Beitsaida. Only a full excavation will be
able to determine that.” Discussions are ongoing to make plans for such an excavation.
Some 60 students and professors participated in the survey as part of their 3-week study tour of Israel and
Jordan with the Assemblies of God Center for Holy Lands Studies. The students also worked in the
Excavations of Samford University and Kinneret College at the ancient Jewish village of Shikhin,
northwest of Nazareth, and near Sepphoris.
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