Die Publikation macht es möglich, insbesondere für die hellenistisch-frührömische Zeit die ersten ca. 25 Jahre der am Nordende des Sees Gennesaret seit 1987 durchgeführten Ausgrabung von et-Tell nachzuvollziehen, und sie lässt für diesen Zeitraum den letzten Stand der auch für die neutestamentliche Forschung wichtigen Grabung erkennen. Die Grabung wird von dem israelischen Archäologen Prof. Dr. Rami Arav geleitet; der Verfasser ist Professor für Neues Testament und Kodirektor des Bethsaida Excavations Project. Die Grabung hat gezeigt, dass et-Tell gleichzusetzen ist mit Betsaida/Julias, das z. B. im Neuen Testament (siebenmal), bei dem jüdischen Historiker Josephus und in der rabbinischen Literatur erwähnt wird. Der Band, der weit über 100 Abbildungen, zu einem großen Teil in Farbe, enthält, verfolgt also ein doppeltes Ziel: Zum einen kann aufgrund der 15 gesammelten Aufsätze in Deutsch und Englisch und der fortlaufenden Münchner Ausgrabungspläne der entdeckten Schichten von Eisenzeit IIA und hellenistisch-römischer Zeit der Verlauf der Grabung von Anfang an verfolgt werden (die gefalzten Pläne in doppeltem Seitenformat), zum anderen geben die Nachträge zu den veröffentlichten Aufsätzen sowie der letzte unveröffentlichte Aufsatz den jüngsten Stand der Grabung wieder. Der Verfasser richtet den Blick öfter speziell auf die erste Hälfte des 1. Jh. n.Chr. und das historisch-kritisch nachweisbare Wirken Jesu in Betsaida (gemäß Mt 11,21–23 parallel Lk 10,13–15).

In this major revision of his prize-winning 1998 book, Bethsaida: Home of the Apostles, Fred Strickert presents nonspecialist readers with the latest findings in the ongoing excavation and evaluation of et-Tell, now identified by many archaeologists as the site of biblical-era Bethsaida. New discoveries have linked the site back to the Iron Age time of David and revealed new connections to the tetrarch Philip and his family. Strickert develops an explanation for the decline and destruction of the city sharply different from his previous conclusion. Readers of Bethsaida: Home of the Apostles will want to follow the story into this sequel.

This first volume of a four-volume set reports the initial findings of the internationally recognized Bethsaida Excavation Project. The project is uncovering one of the most important New Testament sites, lost to the world since the first century. This volume examines the finds of the first years of the excavation, including pottery, coins, and much more, as well as Bethsaidas place in historical literature.

Bethsaida, a fishing town on the north end of the Sea of Galilee, plays a prominent role in the Gospels, was home for several of Jesus’ disciples, and was the location of the feeding of the 5,000 and many of Jesus’ other healings. However, the Golden Age of Biblical Archaeology all but ignored this important site until 1987 when a young Israeli archaeologist, Rami Arav, undertook a probe revealing early Roman pottery, coins, and the remains of domestic buildings. This led to a thirty-two-year-long research project at Bethsaida, adding to our knowledge of the Historical Jesus and his disciples, and acting as a window into the world of common first-century men and women going about their daily lives in the realm of the family of the Emperor Augustus and the Herodians. The big surprise was that layers below the surface (and a thousand years earlier), there also appeared a major iron-age capital city of the Geshurites with a magnificent palace, impregnable city walls, a massive four-chamber gate system, and many religious symbols. This volume honors the work of Arav, who tirelessly dedicated himself to this dig, establishing the Bethsaida Excavations Project and bringing together a consortium of Universities and Colleges and a diverse team of international scholars who have joined in collaborative research to uncover the story of Bethsaida. In this volume, a representative selection of Bethsaida scholars shares their research to demonstrate the success of Arav’s venture spanning over three decades.

The village of Bethsaida and the polls of Julias have both been attested to in the first century AD. The New Testament tells about Bethsaida on multiple occasions. According to Josephus Flavius Bethsaida was refounded as Julias and the territory of this new foundation was certainly enlarged as new settlers were added to the original population of the village of Bethsaida. Thus Julias must have contained both the fishing village of Bethsaida and the new settlement. Of how these two units were spatially related to each other the literary sources do not speak. During the centuries various sites known under their modern names have been proposed as hiding the remains either of Bethsaida, of Bethsaida-Julias or of Julias. The controversy as to the placement of Bethsaida, however, was still unsolved in the twentieth century. Archaeological investigation of the most probable candidate to be named Bethsaida, et-Tell, an artificial hill dominating the area north of the modern shores of the Sea of Galilee, started in 1989. After a few seasons of field work the excavators indicated that the remains of the New Testament Bethsaida were indeed located at et-Tell. This identification was already acknowledged by the international society of scholars before the Polish mission joined the excavation. The year was 1998 and it was the first official Polish archaeological mission in Israel. The present report presents the results of field and library research of the years 1998-2000 relating principally to the squares containing the remains named the "The Temple of the Imperial Cult". It is leaning on the research predating our engagement, comments on them and disputes them, at the end presenting a new conception of the reconstruction of the sacral area...

Papers present research from different regions ranging from ancient Mauritania, through Africa, Egypt, Cyprus, Palestine, Syria, as well as sites in Crimea and Georgia. Topics include: topography, architecture, interiors and décor, religious syncretism, the importance of ancient texts, pottery studies and conservation.

This volume is an archaeological analysis, history, and description of a key excavation of the site of biblical Bethsaida, the most important Holy Land location in the narrative of Jesus’ life. This volume presents some of the pre-eminent biblical archaeological scholars in the field, all of whom were associated with Professor John T. Greene, either in the process of decades of archaeological exploration of the ancient site of Bethsaida, or in some other related activity in the field of biblical studies and religion. Professor Greene has been a leading scholar in the excavation and publication of field reports and historical and biblical analysis of the rich lode of discoveries that Bethsaida has revealed to us. This volume will be the highly sought-after summary of the historical-biblical information now available about ancient Bethsaida, the location at which Jesus vacationed, taught, healed, and announced his self-perception as the promised Jewish Messiah who became a new kind of Christian Messiah after his death by crucifixion on a Roman cross in approximately 30 CE in Jerusalem. Bethsaida in Archaeology, History, and Ancient Culture: A Festschrift in Honor of John T. Greene, describes the operational life of the ordinary people, religious communities, military movements, and socio-political hierarchy, from a ground-level perspective of the centuries before and during the lifetimes of Philo Judaeus, Jesus of Nazareth, and Flavius Josephus. It is unique in its popular presentation of this key era for scholarly research, appealing to both scholars in the field and informed non-professional readers, as well as scholars in corollary disciplines. This volume will be immensely sought after by a wide range of those persons who expect interesting, important, and highly readable works from municipal and academic libraries, as well as the popular book stores throughout the English speaking world.