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Topics: News, World News, Religion
Gerrard Kaonga
A team of archaeologists believe they have found a location mentioned in the Bible where Jesus performed a miracle near the Sea of Galilee.
Archaeologists and theologians have long attempted to find locations and artefacts that are either mentioned or alluded to in the Bible.
There have long been arguments and debates about whether the Christian religious text is based on factual accounts or a piece of fiction as a teaching tool, and attempts at discovering locations mentioned help strengthen the argument that it is real.
Earlier this month it was reported that an archaeologist and his team believe they have found an area mentioned in the gospels of Matthew, Luke and Mark.
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Dr Scott Stripling, the director of excavation for the Associates for Biblical Research (ABR), spoke in a YouTube video about the believed discovery.
The story from the Bible they believe they have found evidence for is the time when Jesus performed an exorcism and cast demons into a herd of pigs near the Sea of Galilee.
According to the story told in the books of Matthew, Luke and Mark, Jesus arrived by boat across the Sea of Galilee from west to east, and he encountered a man who was possessed by a ‘legion’ of demons.
The ‘spirits’ then begged to be sent into the herd of pigs, which then ended up charging down a slope into the sea and drowning.
Stripling said: “All three gospels say there was a cliff nearby. All three say there were tombs nearby.
“And they tell us that Jesus was coming in on a boat from the west side to the east side.”
To come to the conclusion of where the location described was, Stripling and his team used information from a 1985 excavation that documented dozens of ancient harbors along the Sea of Galilee.
Stripling noted that confirming the harbor’s location was key to understanding where the event may have taken place.
This led him to a small town called Kursi, Golan Heights, Israel.
Visiting the area in 2023, Stripling and his team donned scuba gear and dove into the water in hopes of discovering a long-forgotten and submerged harbor.
He said: “We felt the stones before we saw them.
“Massive, dressed blocks forming twin piers, classic harbor construction.
“'From the harbor, every biblical detail aligns within a 656-foot radius.”
The journey described in the Bible, has Jesus leaving Capernaum and crossing to the east side of the lake, corresponds geographically to Kursi.