♪ (music) ♪
(thunder and rain)
(Rhoda)
I, unworthy child of the Saxon race,
who am in comparison with those my countrymen
not only in years but in virtue also
only a poor little creature,
I have made up my mind to address you religious and catholic men
a few words on the beginning of the early life
of the venerable man Willibald.
In the year 725 A.D.,
a young Bavarian bishop named Willibald
makes a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
Over here.
During this pilgrimage, he visits most if not all of the sites
that have to do with Jesus and the Gospels.
Now, think about it.
If only he took the time to write down what he saw,
keep kind of a travel journal,
and if we had that journal today,
we would be able to read about sites that no longer exist,
that have been destroyed long since the 8th century.
Unfortunately, he did not keep such a record.
But, luckily for us, right before he died,
someone interviewed him and wrote down what he saw.
(Rhoda)
should keep all these things in the obstinacy of a dumb silence
with sealed lips.
So we listened
and determined to write from the dictation of his own mouth
two deacons being present and listening with me
on the 9th day before the kalends of July,
the day before the solstice.
This is the work of a young English nun named Roswida,
who took the initiative to write down the itinerary of Willibald's pilgrimage
in the 8th century.
And here's where it gets really interesting.
According to this document, Willibald travels to the lake of Galilee
and visits the regular touristic places,
like Tiberias, Magdala, Capernaum,
and then comes to Bethsaida.
And in Bethsaida he visits a church
that he says was built on top of the house of apostles Peter and Andrew.
And this is what we call today the Church of the Apostles.
And here's the big problem:
Willibald's account is the only known written record
where this church had been explicitly mentioned.
Perhaps, shortly after his visit, it was destroyed.
Sunk in the Galilean Sea.
Or some have even suggested that this church never existed.
Maybe Willibald was confused,
maybe the nun who wrote it down made a mistake.
Whatever the reason is,
we know that the Church of the Apostles has vanished.
It was lost for generations,
until today.
♪ (music) ♪
♪ (music continues) ♪
(Sergio) Alright.
(Rhoda) Look at that, I think they are having a break.
(Sergio) Let's go.
♪ (music) ♪
(Sergio) That's incredible! Look how much they excavated!
Wow!
♪ (music) ♪
♪ (music continues) ♪
(indistinct chatter)
Hey! Good to see you.
- Hey! Hi! How are you? - Nice to see you again.
(Rhoda) This is incredible. It is awesome.
Since last time we were here,
the amount of digging they've done and how deep they went down
to the layers and the years.
It is remarkable.
I believe this is gonna be a big site.
Good to see you. I would do the Middle Eastern kiss, but it's...
(they laugh)
♪ (music) ♪
Gold.
♪ (music) ♪
So [Motey] and I are in dispute,
because he thinks this might be the screen of the gallery of the church.
We've actually been to this place before, one year ago,
and we filmed an episode about this place being the real Bethsaida.
In comparison to the previously thought location to be Bethsaida,
which is like 82 km away from this one, away from the shore,
and back then that was one of the main reasons
why this place would be a much better candidate for being Bethsaida.
Bethsaida was a fishing village,
this one is closer to the shore,
this must've been it.
But since we filmed one year ago,
the archaeological team dug out a ton of new evidence
supporting this to be the real location of Bethsaida.
(Sergio) They think they found something huge in there.
You could feel the vibration from the handle
that there's some big metal piece in there.
And you can watch our previous Bethsaida episode
to learn more about it.
So why are we filming another episode here?
Well, because on top of confirming that this is the real Bethsaida,
they found here the lost Church of the Apostles.
This is the very church that Willibald traveled to in the 8th century.
(man) We think that this is inside of the church.
There is a traditional church built on the house of Peter and Andrew.
(Sergio) Aha.
(man) Most people thought the church didn't exist.
We talked to various scholars, they said, "oh, no, they were mistaken."
The church that they are talking about was over in Capernaum.
But it says Bethsaida's. Ah, they were mistaken.
Now, we know who was mistaken.
Many people have claimed that this church did not exist.
And yet, here we are, standing here today, looking at its mosaic floor,
touching the artifacts that are found from this church.
Once again, the written record of the ancient past has been proven right.
(man) This is a really nice piece here.
(Rhoda) Marble?
(man) Yes, this is from the chancel screen,
and separated the congregation from the area of the altar.
- Ah, it's... - Yeah, yeah.
(man) Here is a roof roller, portion of a roof roller
that was found there.
These are for the resealing of the roofs.
(Rhoda) Oh, yeah!
(man) Yeah, they rolled them and put mud on them and plaster.
- (Rhoda) Just little pieces. - (man) And little pieces.
One was very interesting 'cause it had a...
it was a piece that had a very nice cross on it.
(Sergio) What was it? Is it a...?
(man) It's a Byzantine vessel,
and it had a very nice Byzantine cross inset into it.
(Sergio)
this season.
All the artifacts they found the past few months
have been already taken away for preservation, analysis, restoration.
What we see here today is just what they found in the past few days
and also in front of our eyes.
Yet all of this evidence is pointing that this is the real site of Bethsaida
and this is the Church of the Apostles.
Everything we are finding is...
everyday, the argument gets stronger and stronger.
You know, we are preparing, we are coming to the point where you say
there's no question now.
The question mark is finished, we're on the site of Bethsaida truly.
(Sergio)
At that time, the size of the village was not yet known.
But today, they've extended the excavation by a hundred meters.
(Sergio) It looks to me it's a huge site,
I mean there's, it's all the way there, this expanded so much.
(man) That's the other part of it is that we opened up what we call Area C,
a hundred meters away, so to the North.
And immediately we are on the Roman level.
(Sergio)
we thought it was just a couple of buildings,
a small ancient bathhouse. That's about it.
But seeing how far they've extended the dig today,
it is mind-blowing.
The coins, all the pottery, everything coming out of here
points to Roman period.
More than that, this is where they found the Herodian lamps
that are distinctive to made in Jerusalem pre-70,
together with Jewish soft limestone vessels,
which is part of the developing concern in the Second Temple period
for ritual purity,
so you have these stone vessels,
those are distinctive markers for a Jewish settlement.
So what are stone vessels?
They are food vessels made out of stone.
Unlike clay and pottery that is used all over the world at that time,
the Jews used stone.
Why? Because they figured it can't get defiled, right?
And then they don't have to break it like with a clay.
Right. It's actually a fascinating study,
and we have an episode about it with Dr. Adler,
who excavated the stone quarry in Nazareth.
(Rhoda) So check it out.
(Sergio)
at the shore of the Lake of Galilee
at the mouth of the Jordan River.
It is very exciting to think about the future of this place.
This can become an incredible tourist site in Galilee.
(man) These are gilded in gold
and that tells us that it wasn't on the floor
but it belonged to a magnificent mosaic,
full mosaic on a wall.
These only belong to beautifully ornamented churches.
So it's further evidence that we have a church waiting for us under the ground.
♪ (music) ♪
The excavations here have only began,
because at the end of the season
the team perform electromagnetic ground scans.
The scans show that there are numerous structures
under the surface in between the two areas that they've already excavated.
That is 300 feet of still unexplored streets, buildings
and maybe some other surprises,
all to be revealed in the future digs.
(Rhoda)
tainted with the frailty of my gender,
with no pretensions to wisdom or cleverness to support me
but prompted solely by the violence of my own will,
like a little ignorant child plucking a few flowers here and there
from numerous branches rich in foliage and in fruit.
So I pluck twigs from the lowest branches
with what small skill I possess,
and offer these few things to serve you as a memorial.
It is incredible to think about the bravery of one man
who took a dangerous journey
and the will of one woman,
who despite not being held in high esteem by her peers,
she considered it an honor to write these things down,
a loving offering to us and a joyful praise to God.
(Rhoda)
I have ploughed with my pen,
and left furrowed tracks written in black ink,
which are now offered to your loving knowledge.
Against all the censures of the envious
God's grace and yours will be the shield of our protection,
and yet we calmly commend them to your acceptance,
so that in all things we may joyfully praise our Lord,
our deliverer and the giver of all good gifts.
♪ (music) ♪
This is it for today!
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Should we do another take?