Is Atheism Dead? by Eric Metaxas

Author:Eric Metaxas [Metaxas, Eric]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Salem Books
Published: 2021-10-18T16:00:00+00:00

Peter’s House in Capernaum

In the middle of the first century the home was transformed into what was clearly a communal gathering place. The central room of this rustic home was plastered over—something that was rarely done—and from this period there are different kinds of ceramics than the previous era. At some point the ceramics become large jars used for communal gatherings. And in the decades afterward it actually seems to have been transformed into a small church. Biblical Archaeology Review explains that the “room’s old stone walls were buttressed by a newly built two-story arch that, in turn, supported a new stone roof. The room was even replastered and painted over with floral and geometric designs of various colors.”

The building’s key role in understanding how Christianity began was confirmed by more than a hundred graffiti scratched into the church’s walls. Most of the inscriptions say things like “Lord Jesus Christ help thy servant” or “Christ have mercy.” They are written in Greek, Syriac, or Hebrew and are sometimes accompanied by etchings of small crosses or, in one case, a boat. The excavators claim that the name of Peter is mentioned in several graffiti.

This initial church survived for three centuries, but in the fifth century an octagonal “martyrium” church—typical of those built to mark spots of great historical significance—was built. It is inescapably stirring to think that this was the very home where Jesus, Andrew, Peter, and other disciples met during the three years of Jesus’s ministry, and that after those years those who survived met there. It seems impossible that something from so long ago and of such shining importance to the Christian faith really could have survived, and that we today can visit it and see it for ourselves.

And yet what we will now turn to eclipses even the home of Peter in terms of its significance to the story of Jesus. We are talking of the excavation and archaeological discovery of the home of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph in Nazareth.

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