Archaeologists believe they have identified the birthplace of three of Jesus' apostles in Israel. Christian tradition holds that the lost Roman city of Julias, previously known as Bethsaida, was the home of Peter, Andrew and Philip.
Several sites near the Sea of Galilee had been proposed as possible locations, but the recent discovery of an advanced Roman-style bathhouse at the multi-layered site of al-Araj has strengthened the case. Excavations led by Dr Mordechai Aviam indicate that a large city once stood there, rather than merely a fishing village.
The finding matches the account of the Jewish historian Josephus Flavius, who wrote that King Philip Herod, son of Herod the Great, transformed the small fishing village of Bethsaida into a Roman polis around AD 30. He renamed it Julias in honour of Livia Drusilla, known as Julia Augusta, mother of the Emperor Tiberius.
The team found the bathhouse remains and coins in a layer dating from the late Roman period (1st to 3rd centuries AD), beneath the Byzantine level. They also uncovered a mosaic, which may indicate an elaborate church at the site, possibly matching an 8th-century report of a church built over the house of Peter and Andrew.
