Archaeologists have discovered the entrance gate to the biblical city of Zer.

Archeologists have discovered the entrance gate to the biblical city of Zer during excavations conducted in the Golan Heights over the past two weeks.

In recent days and after a year's hiatus, a group of 20 archaeologists from around the world, together with the director of the Bethsaida Project, Dr. Rami Arav, and under the auspices of the Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem, conducted new excavations in two different areas of Bethsaida. The ancient fishing village is mentioned several times in the New Testament as the city where Jesus lived and where he miraculously fed a multitude of people with five loaves and two fish.

Experts excavating a site in Jerusalem are convinced they have found the gateway to the ancient city of Zer.

A team of 20 archaeologists say they have found a series of brickworks that they believe are gateways and date back to the First Temple period - from 1000 BC to 586 BC.

Archaeologists have found that the size, wealth and impressive fortifications indicate that Zer was an important city. 

photo from jpost.com

"There are not many gates in this country from this period. Bethsaida was the name of a city in the Second Temple period, but in the First Temple period it was the city of Zer ", said Arav, pointing to Joshua 19:35 which says:" The fortified cities are Ziddim, Zer, Hammath , Rakkath, Kinnereth. " 

Arav began excavating et-Tell on behalf of the University of Nebraska nearly 30 years ago. In these excavations he identified the ancient Bethsaida, and after his excavations and discoveries, masses of Christian pilgrims visited the site because of its great significance to Christianity.

At that time, archaeologists found coins, beads, jugs and house keys, as well as a shield belonging to a Roman soldier.

One of the most important discoveries was a coin from 35 BCE.

source: jpost.com

 

The Lord Jesus mentioned Bethsaida:

 

Woe to you, Betsaido! For if the miracles were taking place in Tyre and Sidon that were taking place in you, they would have been converted in sackcloth and ashes long ago. Therefore I say to you, Tyre and Sidon will be lighter on the day of judgment than you. Mt

 

 

Just as the Lord Jesus said, it happened. This hometown of Peter, which had rejected Jesus, was destroyed according to prophetic words by an earthquake in the year 363.

 

Bethsaida (in Hebrew. fisherman's house) - a city located north of Lake Gennesaret (Galilee) in Galilee, Israel.

Most likely, one of the wives of Israel's King David, Absalom's mother Maaka, came from Bethsaida. The New Testament locates here the birthplace of as many as five apostles: Andrew, Peter, Philip, John and James the Greater.

 

The mound, identified as ancient Bethsaida, is located north of the Sea of Galilee, near a tributary of the Jordan River to the Sea of Galilee. Tel covers about 20 acres and rises 30 meters above a fertile valley

The local ruler, Herod the Great's son Philip, raised the fishing village of Bethsaida to cities and named her Bethsaida Julia (after the wife of Emperor Augustus).

 

Now here's an interesting fact. I had a hard time finding this information at all. Why? Because it is not as important to discover this city as it is to destroy it according to the prophetic words of Jesus!!!

 

For example. How many people take these parts of the apocalypse seriously:

 

 He who harms, let him yet harm, and the vile let him yet defile himself, and the righteous let him yet fulfill justice, and the holy let him yet sanctify himself.(12) Behold, I am coming soon, and I have my payment with me: and will give to each according to his work. (13) I am the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. (14) Happy those who wash their robes, that the power over the tree of life may belong to them, and that through the gates they may enter the City. (15) Outside are dogs, guzzlers, debauchees, murderers, idolaters, and everyone who loves a lie and lives it.

 

 

Why is the fishing village located 1.5 km from the water?

 Geological and geomorphological studies show that in the past this valley was part of the Sea of Galilee. A series of earthquakes caused silt to accumulate, thus creating a valley and causing the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee to retreat. The result of this process, which lasted until the Hellenistic period, was that Bethsaida, which was originally built on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, was located about 1.5 km away. north of shore.....