Arav reports gate from time of King David

Rami Arav, Professor of Religious Studies and Director of the Bethsaida Excavation Project, has once again made international headlines with the remarkable discovery of a city gate at Bethsaida that dates from the time of King David.

In a festschrift celebrating Arav’s thirty-years of dedication to the Bethsaida Excavation project, fellow scholars Fred Strickert and Richard Freund explain the significance of Bethsaida to biblical scholars and biblical archaeology, “Bethsaida, a fishing town on the north end of the Sea of Galilee, plays a prominent role in the Gospels, was home for several of Jesus’ disciples, and was the location of the feeding of the 5,000 and many of Jesus’ other healings.”

Going many layers deeper at the dig and moving back in time 1,000 years, the project has uncovered an iron-age city.

In an interview with Fox News, Arav elaborates,“since this is the period of time of King David and since the Bible narrates that King David married Maachah, the daughter of Talmai the king of Geshur, it is reasonable that King David walked on these very cobblestones when he visited the city.”

The story was also picked up by i24 News, The New York Post, The Times of Israel, The Jerusalem Post, and the list goes on.