On a sweltering Thursday afternoon last month, Prof. Mordechai Aviam of Kinneret College drove to el-Araj, an archaeological site on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, hauling buckets, tarps and digging tools to prepare for his team’s 2025 excavation season.
By Friday, those plans had gone up in flames, literally, as a wildfire swept through the area. It was still burning on Sunday, the day he had hoped to kick off the dig.
When the archaeologists were finally allowed back, they found devastation — and unexpected opportunities.
The flames destroyed the team’s equipment, but in the process, they also cleared out the dense vegetation that had long concealed parts of the site. What emerged was evidence that could bolster the archaeologists’ long-held argument that el-Araj is in fact the ancient village of Bethsaida, celebrated in the New Testament as the hometown of St. Peter and a place where Jesus walked and performed miracles.
“The fire helped us a lot in understanding the site,” Aviam told The Times of Israel over the phone.
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The archaeologist explained that for at least the past century, and likely longer, the area had been either densely cultivated or overgrown with thick vegetation, and often flooded by the nearby lake, making it impossible to determine the village’s boundaries.
The team excavating at the archaeological site of el-Araj in the Galilee, which some identify as the New Testament town of Bethsaida, in July 2025. (Mordechai Aviam/El Araj Excavation Project)
“After the fire, we carried out a ground survey and saw that the site was much larger than we realized,” he said. “We identified remains of private houses as well as architectural elements typical of public buildings, including pillar drums, two Corinthian capitals, two Doric capitals, and several cornices.”
Aviam said the remains can be dated to the Roman period, based on both nearby buildings that his team has already excavated and the style of the architectural elements uncovered.
The site’s considerable size supports its identification as Bethsaida, he added, because it aligns with the way the village is described in “Antiquities of the Jews” by first-century CE Jewish-Roman historian Josephus.
“Philip [son of Herod the Great] advanced the village Bethsaida, situated at the lake of Gennesareth, unto the dignity of a city, both by the number of inhabitants it contained, and its other grandeur, and called it by the name of Julias, the same name with Caesar’s daughter,” reads a passage from the work.
“In light of what Josephus says, Bethsaida could not have been a small village,” Aviam noted.
The team excavating at the archaeological site of el-Araj in the Galilee, which some identify as the New Testament town of Bethsaida, in August 2025. (El Araj Excavation Project)
El-Araj is not the only candidate for the site of the elusive Galilean town where, according to the Gospels, the apostles Peter, Andrew, and Philip were born.
About two kilometers (1.2 miles) away, the site of e-Tell has been claimed to be Bethsaida since 1987, when Rami Arav launched the “Bethsaida Excavations Project,” which has been active ever since.
Arguments for a third possibility, al-Mesydiah, located roughly two kilometers from the mouth of the Jordan River, have lost ground in recent years in favor of the other two sites.
The team excavating at the archaeological site of el-Araj in the Galilee, which some identify as the New Testament town of Bethsaida, in August 2025. (Mordechai Aviam/El Araj Excavation Project)
Aviam, who serves as archaeological director of the excavation at el-Araj, has been digging at the site since 2016, together with his co-director Prof. Steven Notley, a historical geographer who teaches at Pillar College in New Jersey.
“He was the one who initiated the excavation, suggesting that el-Araj could be Bethsaida,” Aviam said.
Soon after digging began in 2016, the team uncovered the remains of a Roman bathhouse, showing that the settlement was already active in the Roman period. In later seasons, they unearthed a fifth-century church with colorful mosaic floors, further strengthening their case.
According to Aviam, the most decisive evidence came with the discovery of a Greek inscription dedicating the church to the “Head and Leader of the Heavenly Messengers” and “Keeper of the Keys,” titles traditionally associated with St. Peter.
A mosaic floor found in the remains of what archaeologists believe is a Byzantine church standing over the home of biblical figure St. Peter and his brother, Andrew at the site of el-Araj in the Galilee. The Greek inscription dedicates the church to the “Head and Leader of the Heavenly Messengers” and “Keeper of the Keys,” titles traditionally associated with St. Peter. (El-Araj Excavation Project)
The scholars argue that Byzantine Christians built the church on that spot because they believed it marked the house of Peter described in the New Testament, much like what happened at another key Galilean site, Capernaum.
The researchers dedicated the 2025 summer excavation season to exploring several areas of el-Araj — including underneath the church’s floor — to shed more light on life there during the Roman period.
Aviam said the team immediately uncovered the remains of Roman buildings. The walls, still visible beneath the fifth-century church, made it clear that the church’s builders had recognized the older structure.
“We don’t have proof that this was Peter’s house,” Aviam said, “but the builders may have believed it was the home of Peter and Andrew. It’s exactly like Capernaum, where the church was constructed directly over what they called Peter’s house. Peter was born in Bethsaida, but he moved to Capernaum because his wife was from there.”
Prof. Mordechai Aviam of Kinneret College (right) with a fellow archaeologist at the site of el-Araj in the Galilee, which some identify as the New Testament town of Bethsaida, in summer 2025. (Courtesy)
Aviam said that el-Araj shows evidence of occupation from the Hellenistic and Hasmonean period (second century BCE) through the end of the Roman period (third century CE).
“Between the third and fourth centuries, the Jewish village was abandoned, possibly because rising lake levels caused flooding,” he noted. “Later [in the fifth century], the first Christians who came to the site identified it [as Bethsaida] and began building the church.”
Consistent with the New Testament description of Bethsaida, the scholars identified the settlement as Jewish based on three types of evidence: Hasmonean coins, stone vessels — which Jews used because they did not become ritually impure — and a very small number of pig bones.
While the fire has been useful for Aviam’s research, he said the team will likely not excavate structures revealed by the blaze.
“Archaeology is a science of destruction, because when you expose something, it starts to deteriorate,” he said. “So if we already have the answers we need, we are already certain that the structures are from the Roman period, between the first century BCE and the first century CE, we do not need [to excavate] more houses to prove it,” he said.
A wildfire burned through the archaeological site of el-Araj in the Galilee, which some identify as the New Testament town of Bethsaida, in July 2025, ruining the digging equipment but exposing several Roman structures. (Mordechai Aviam/El Araj Excavation Project)
The team plans to return to el-Araj for the second part of the excavation season in October.
“We will excavate deeper in the area where we believe the bathhouse was located, as well as in other parts of the site, with the goal of learning more about life here during the Roman period,” Aviam said.
