(Photo By: Tzachi Lang/Israel Antiquities Authority)
By: Amanda Borschel-Dan - January 20, 2021
With the words, “Christ born of Mary,” archaeologists have discovered the first evidence of an early Christian settlement from 1,500 years ago in what is today the location of a small Arab village near Nazareth.
According to Israel Antiquities Authority researchers, a recently discovered Greek inscription dedicated to the Christian Messiah had originally been laid at the entry way of a previously unknown 5th century church. The inscribed stone was recently discovered in secondary use in a wall of the late-Byzantine era structure during excavations in Taibe, located in the Jezreel Valley in northern Israel.
According to the text, the church was founded under the auspices of the well-known late 5th century Beit She’an regional archbishop Theodosius, whose name in the partially destroyed text provided the archaeologists with a secure dating.
Read More: Times of Israel