Discover the profound archaeological find in Megiddo, Israel: the oldest known Christian worship site, featuring a mosaic with the first public inscription naming Jesus as God. Narrated by Bear Grylls, this film delves into experts' insights on this groundbreaking 2004 prison renovation discovery. Explore the historical and religious significance of this ancient site.
christian-history archaeology religious-documentary bear-grylls ancient-sites israel historical-discovery full-movie
#TheMosaicChurch #ChristianHistory #BearGrylls #FullMovie
christian-history archaeology religious-documentary bear-grylls ancient-sites israel historical-discovery full-movie
#TheMosaicChurch #ChristianHistory #BearGrylls #FullMovie
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CreativityTranscript
00:00:00To be continued
00:00:29The history of humanity is the history of humans seeking.
00:00:35You can go to theology, you can go to philosophy.
00:00:43But if you want to understand the actual journey, you have to see things in their geographical settings.
00:00:51You have to look at where they fall in the chronology of time.
00:00:55You have to explore archaeology, the romance, the historical clues, because it's all connected.
00:01:04The history of humanity
00:01:11Understanding history is understanding ourselves.
00:01:30And every now and then, a groundbreaking discovery comes as shakes that understanding's very foundation.
00:01:40This story starts in a little region in northern Israel, Megiddo.
00:01:46The Megiddo prison is the largest in northern Israel.
00:01:58The Megiddo prison is the largest in northern Israel, and holds the country's most dangerous inmates.
00:02:15In the early 2000s, the prison was running out of space so rapidly, the prisoners were placed in tents.
00:02:25Looking for a long-term solution, the prison made plans to expand the facility.
00:02:31Everywhere you step in Israel, you're treading on the pages of ancient history.
00:02:40Beneath your feet, layers of time whisper stories of faith, conflict, and resilience.
00:02:47Every rock, every ruin carries the weight of civilizations that shaped our world.
00:02:53Because of the vast number of archaeological sites, any time construction begins, archaeologists are required to survey the site to ensure no historical ruins will be disturbed or impacted under new construction.
00:03:08In the Megiddo prison courtyard, some ruins of a Jewish village dating back to early Roman times had already been discovered back in the 1940s.
00:03:18So in 2004, a routine excavation was conducted to ensure there was nothing else.
00:03:25So, this started as a routine, ordinary, small excavation with no great expectation whatsoever.
00:03:33One of three hundreds conducted every year.
00:03:36One of three hundreds conducted every year.
00:03:40And gradually, we worked here on something like a week.
00:03:43Okay?
00:03:44Together with the tens of thousands of workers' homes.
00:03:48We had about 200 miles here.
00:03:51In all this area.
00:03:53So the excavation was nothing special.
00:03:56But, you know, as Murphy's law works in archaeology, there is something really interesting that appears the last day.
00:04:07The day before they were going to release the land for building,
00:04:12Yotan Tepper, the excavation, calls me and says,
00:04:15Ler, we have an inscription.
00:04:17So I said, send it to me.
00:04:20I look at it, even before reading, I say, wow, it is very early.
00:04:28I went to see the place with my own eyes.
00:04:32And I invited Piccirillo to come and see it.
00:04:37Piccirillo was a Franciscan archaeologist.
00:04:41He was a great expert of mosaics.
00:04:45He came with me, look at the mosaics and say, ah, 8th century.
00:04:50I say, Michele, you are wrong.
00:04:52So we went another time with another Franciscan, Liatta.
00:04:59He is the expert of pottery.
00:05:01And we're standing there next to the mosaic.
00:05:03And I asked to take out all the pottery that covered the mosaic.
00:05:10So after that, Aliatta goes around looking, looking, looking, looking.
00:05:15Then he came up to us and he says, Lea is right.
00:05:19And then Piccirillo began taking down centuries.
00:05:25It began by being 8th, then it was 7th century, then it was 6th century, then it was 5th century, 4th century.
00:05:33With time, the archaeological evidence came up.
00:05:39There was nothing, absolutely nothing, in that house that was later than the 3rd century.
00:05:47In the mosaic pavement, there were three inscriptions.
00:05:52The first inscription says, Gaianus, also called Porphyrius, made this pavement from his own generosity.
00:06:06Rutius carried out the work.
00:06:09I said this is early 3rd century, based partly on the paleography, on the shape of the letters.
00:06:17And I see that the man who paid for the floor is a soldier, a centurion.
00:06:23He said, because there is a place in the Roman army, because we are close to the legion,
00:06:34it may be clear that we are in a Roman temple.
00:06:37They continue excavating, and they find two more inscriptions.
00:06:43And one of them, it is a lady offering a table to the God, Jesus Christ.
00:06:51And then all the ramparts began.
00:06:58We are here in the place that's called Armageddon.
00:07:01It's written in the New Testament.
00:07:04So if it's really a church, and the first one, or maybe the very early one,
00:07:09so it's a very important place for people all over the world.
00:07:14We do not have churches of that period.
00:07:18The earliest churches we know belong to the late 4th century.
00:07:22The implications went far beyond the field of archaeology.
00:07:25The Pope was interested, the head of the Christian communities.
00:07:28Suddenly it came from another excavation, one of many, into maybe the major discovery of the decade.
00:07:37What made the big sensation was, of course, the mentioning of Christ in a public building.
00:07:44The first time ever.
00:07:46It was a kind of emotional experience because, you know, when you touch something, you touch it, and you know that people have been there.
00:08:00And when they left the place, they covered the mosaic with big pieces of pottery and plaster.
00:08:19They had to go away, but they didn't want the place to be desecrated.
00:08:24Perhaps they thought maybe one day we will come back.
00:08:34So you got there, and you feel like the last person that was here was here in 290.
00:08:45Experts date the Megiddo Mosaic Prayer Hall to 230 CE.
00:08:50This structure played a key role in the Roman village as a public Christian prayer and worship space during a pivotal time period when Christianity was not recognized as a sanctioned religion.
00:09:05It's the first of its kind to be found ever in recorded history.
00:09:10Since its discovery in 2004, the mosaic has been locked inside the center of the Megiddo prison.
00:09:17In early 2024, it was decided that the mosaic would finally be re-excavated and preserved.
00:09:24In April 2024, the Israeli prison authority gave our film crew unprecedented access to document the re-excavation process.
00:09:42My name is Mark Abraham. I exhibit many artifacts in Israel, also in the foreign country.
00:09:59It's very important for me, and also very important for the new generation, also for education.
00:10:09It has to be presented to the public. There is no question about that. But at the same time, you cannot bring the white public into a prison.
00:10:18The question whether to keep it or take it out goes between the professional scientific needs and what we call the wide public interest.
00:10:32If you go to visit what is called today the Lod mosaics, one of the most beautiful mosaics in the whole Mediterranean, it was discovered in the middle of the city of Lod.
00:10:45It was thoroughly excavated and then covered. And for years there were planning to exhibit it, to change municipal plan. It's right in the middle of a very crowded town.
00:10:55The solution was, it was removed from the site. It went into the grand tour of the walls, the metropolitan, the louvre, the hermitage and so on and so forth.
00:11:07And at the end of the day, it came back to Lod and today, museum was built right on the site exhibiting the mosaic.
00:11:14Basically, this is the process we would like to see with the Megiddo mosaic.
00:11:21And of course, when you put three archaeologists in one room, you will have five opinions about everything.
00:11:29So there's a very large, I would say lively discussion about how to do it, if to do it, whether to do it now or postpone it.
00:11:38Or postpone it.
00:11:42Now, what is very important, the protection of the skull of the skull, is that it needs to be illegal.
00:11:48Why? To, at the minimum, to change the elements of the skull inside the Sifas,
00:11:53so that it doesn't have the lachy.
00:11:57What is the protection of the skull that there is in the Sifas?
00:12:01The Sifas.
00:12:02And it will always be illegal.
00:12:04Why is it illegal?
00:12:05Because it's a big gap, it's a big gap.
00:12:07And therefore, there are a lot of Sifas in the Sifas.
00:12:12And that's not fair.
00:12:13That's what we want to do to Sifas if we want to bring it to the family.
00:12:18That's what I mean, every year they will be here and the protection of the skull here will not help.
00:12:23So this is the only case.
00:12:24Yes.
00:12:25So I know that this is the only case for all the case.
00:12:29All the evidence of our skull and the skull.
00:12:32If we don't know a Sifas like this, in this period, which is built in our own shape,
00:12:37then it changes our whole claim of the skull.
00:12:40And the skull, I don't remember.
00:12:42But it may be that there is a different case here.
00:12:45There is a different case here, but if we are working, I'm going to look at practical,
00:12:50if we are working and want to bring the Sifas in a situation like this,
00:12:56we can't do it.
00:12:58If we need to remove the Sifas, then we also talked about it.
00:13:05So this is an aerial scan.
00:13:07This is actually a point cloud data.
00:13:09Wow.
00:13:10Oh, my gosh.
00:13:11Yeah, so this is kind of that new tech that's really...
00:13:14That is incredible.
00:13:15...really helping shape, you know, how you can experience these things.
00:13:18Hi, I'm Jonathan Henry.
00:13:21I'm currently a lecturer at Princeton University.
00:13:24I teach ancient religion.
00:13:26My name is Tom Wright, or N.T. Wright in the long form.
00:13:30Yiska Harani.
00:13:31I'm an independent scholar, educator, and an interfaith activist.
00:13:37So many people think that a mosaic floor, it's just rocks.
00:13:41It's not very interesting.
00:13:43Who cares?
00:13:44But this, when you get under the skin of what it means, is absolutely fascinating.
00:13:50We know from historic documents, the Christian community living under persecution,
00:13:57looked for places where it could gather, whether it's in the catacombs,
00:14:02the burial chambers of the martyrs, whether it was in the homes of believers.
00:14:09But this is important because it describes a uniquely established place that was designed
00:14:16for the Christian assembly to come and worship.
00:14:20So this is extremely huge.
00:14:23It's the most significant biblical discovery of the 21st century.
00:14:29And there is hunger.
00:14:31Millions of people hunger for these historical discoveries in these ancient writings.
00:14:36This church in Legio, I think what's cool about it is it comes at this transitional moment.
00:14:41Before Constantine, you still have large potential for this ethos of Jesus
00:14:45and these memories of Jesus to be just unfettered in many places.
00:14:49The fact that this is a meeting point between Judea and the Galilee.
00:14:55Now, these are two regions that are world known because of the New Testament.
00:15:01And here in between, these two very dramatic regions, we find the transition of a society.
00:15:11And the transition is from the Roman pagan world to Christianity.
00:15:17Something begins to grow.
00:15:19And that is the story of the Roman world accepting Christianity.
00:15:25And from there on, it's going to go all over the world.
00:15:31With the Megiddo mosaic, you have geography that is coming into play.
00:15:37You have politics and political regions and political divisions that have a lot to contribute to what's going on.
00:15:45We have international politics, language that's important.
00:15:50It all comes clashing in and blending together in its own beautiful mosaic form in the valley that Megiddo is located in.
00:16:01For me as a historian, I want to say, let's go back and see what we actually know about the Greek world, about the Roman world, about the Jewish world.
00:16:10And how they converged.
00:16:13Megiddo was an ancient city.
00:16:16It's just a really important defensive position over top of this very fertile valley, the Jezreel Valley, which is really what you're trying to protect.
00:16:28There was a lot of agricultural significance to it.
00:16:31And it was very necessary for the prosperity of the people.
00:16:33And so this was a great position for defending all of your people and all of their agriculture up in that area.
00:16:39We're talking formative human history with old Megiddo, the beginnings of civilization.
00:16:46Because of the mountains, you have very few places that people can cross east to west.
00:16:53And so when you find one of those places, which is the Jezreel Valley connecting to the Harod Valley, and you have a place that is wide and open and a place that has a lot of water and has plenty of agriculture and food.
00:17:08And it is almost a flat terrain.
00:17:10You're just begging for people to go east west through that valley.
00:17:16So a place like Megiddo is on this really crucial crossing point of the roads.
00:17:23So it is a powerhouse city.
00:17:26And the geography tells us that, but then we can look at the archaeological record.
00:17:31They tell Megiddo we have 26 layers of civilizations living all on the same spot because the same spot was always the crucial spot to try to hold onto throughout time.
00:17:46Infamous for its bloody past, Tel Megiddo lies less than a mile north of the mosaic.
00:17:54From the beginning of recorded history, this site has seen more warfare than any other in the region.
00:18:02Many have translated Megiddo as Armageddon, a word steeped in both ancient literature and enduring mystery.
00:18:11Some believe this is a literal place foretold as the setting for the ultimate battle of the apocalypse.
00:18:19There are many differing opinions about what it means and what will be.
00:18:24There were many battles that took place right there.
00:18:27You see Joshua and you see the children of Israel.
00:18:30They come after the Megiddo king in the book of Joshua.
00:18:33But many do believe that there will be one final battle there.
00:18:36You go to Revelation chapter 16, Armageddon, the battle where good defeats evil at the end of the age.
00:18:47Even if a person has no interest in discussing that aspect of it, there's still that strong historical background in which this place was just known as a battlefield throughout history up to the Roman Empire.
00:19:00So when the Romans get there, they didn't want to set up shop up on the top of the mountain where the other fortifications had been.
00:19:07They just looked at it and said, look at those big long fields and look at these mountains here.
00:19:13And we could put a big camp right there.
00:19:15And the camp they put down was huge.
00:19:17The remarkable work of Yotam Tepper back in the early 2000s led to the discovery of this site that before nobody had any idea was there.
00:19:30Legio is a fantastic discovery that was Legio Six Farada that was there.
00:19:36Legio just means legion.
00:19:37It's what the Romans called their different legions.
00:19:39Legio is a very first military headquarters found from that time.
00:19:46It is yet another once in a generation discovery.
00:19:51The Ottam's major discovery apart from the Megiddo mosaic is the Roman camp.
00:20:10It's another evidence that showed the importance of this area, the strategic location of the Megiddo area, within the complex of the Holy Land of Egypt.
00:20:20Everybody wants to talk about Armageddon as a word, as a theology problem, or something to figure out and crack.
00:20:29And then the archaeologist goes in there and goes, wow, actually what we're finding is also historical significance that completely overlooked, completely lost.
00:20:37We lost an entire legion and Yotam Tepper managed to get enough literary clues and then also doggedly pursued this.
00:20:49Yotam, Yotam, Yotam did something that like, you know, the legendary archaeologists of the past were doing.
00:20:55If you admire any archaeologists, he's right there with them.
00:20:59You have to get into the mind of an archaeologist who, in many cases, start excavating a site and then it becomes his life mission.
00:21:11He developed it into his master's and PhD thesis and since then, although he does many other things, a kind of professional devotion which becomes also kind of personal.
00:21:27In the spring of 2024, the Israel Antiquities Authority developed a plan to exhibit the mosaic at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C.
00:21:42An unveiling ceremony of the mosaic was held for the museum delegates.
00:21:49Thank you for coming here to visit the mosaic. We are now sitting. I'm standing in the Kfar Otnai.
00:21:59The Roman army built a legionary camp just 500, 600 meters north of the village. The camp stayed here for 200 years, about.
00:22:11I think that now is the right moment to take out the cover, and I will explain a little bit more about the inscription.
00:22:19We have the connection here between Roman soldiers, the Roman legion, and Christianity.
00:22:41Third one, we have women, five women that are very important to this place.
00:22:47The exhibition of this mosaic in major venues in the world, we hope that it will go to a number of them, will, first of all, create awareness.
00:22:58It will provide the worldwide public with the knowledge of this site, and at the end of the day, this mosaic will come back to its original position.
00:23:09With the plan now set in place, the greatest challenge still lies ahead.
00:23:15To safely and securely cut the mosaic out of the prison grounds to bring the experience of the Holy Lands to the rest of the world.
00:23:27To safely and securely cut the mosaic and remove one of the campsite.
00:23:40From the south of the island of the Nirmala at the south of the north of the north of the island of Surah, the 22nd of the north of the east of the north of the East.
00:23:43As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah.
00:23:58In the IAA we have Jews, Christians, Muslims working as professionals.
00:24:09The main issues in this country is the multicultural aspects of its population throughout the ages.
00:24:18This is a meeting point.
00:24:19It's a cradle of Judaism, Christianity, Islam.
00:24:34And then identities are located in a very small area with huge amount of archaeological
00:24:41sites.
00:24:46This place is a kind of hub and a meeting point for all the ancient cultures of the New
00:24:51East.
00:25:05For us archaeologists, as we work in our hobby, it puts you in a special position, especially
00:25:10in this piece of land, you know, the Holy Land.
00:25:17Every tiny area in the Middle East, but at the same time, this is the most condensed region
00:25:23in the world.
00:25:29Here in the heart of the old city of Jerusalem, arguably the most sacred city on the planet,
00:25:37you'll find the origins of humanity's deepest beliefs and fiercest conflicts.
00:25:56Behind these walls lie the roots that shaped our civilizations, a legacy that has echoed throughout
00:26:03time.
00:26:07Speaking about archaeological sites, we have more than today 40,000 registrated archaeological
00:26:14sites from all periods.
00:26:17From the very earliest stage of humanity, the first men going out from Africa to Europe
00:26:27and Asia, they stayed for a time in what became later the Holy Land.
00:26:36All of this creates huge amounts of archaeological sites, starting from very humble dwelling places
00:26:50in the countryside and ending with the big monuments, churches, temples, mosques and so
00:26:55on.
00:26:57The multicultural aspect of this place is the most interesting thing to explore, to excavate
00:27:18and to learn about.
00:27:20This is a focal point for half, maybe more than that of the globe's population.
00:27:39When you browse in the big museums of the Western world, you will find the artifacts coming
00:27:45from this small region.
00:28:00The number of archaeological excavations conducted in this country has been significantly increased.
00:28:05And the outcome is more than 300 sites which are excavated every year.
00:28:11While Israel is an ancient place, it is also developing rapidly.
00:28:27Located in Jerusalem, the heart of the Holy Land, the Israel Antiquities Authority presides
00:28:34over all of Israel's archaeological discoveries.
00:28:38They steward some of history's greatest treasures and use cutting-edge technology to understand
00:28:53and preserve them.
00:28:55The purpose of the archaeological archaeology in Israel is to explore the archaeological archaeology.
00:29:05In this house, there are all the units of archaeological archaeological sites
00:29:11for the archaeological archaeology.
00:29:12The revelation in all theысatory Palestine names are found in the mortar and leaf shrouds.
00:29:17The first of the-'ähän Awakens'- observingину okay—the faculties of all the
00:29:18small-the-art-art- Futures of the Ge colder changes in Sheila nay
00:29:25These images have found already in a village, so you can see a future
00:29:32thekraut.
00:29:33Okay, so hi, welcome to the mechanisms of the Metals Lab.
00:29:35This is really where all metal artifacts including coins end up after excavations.
00:29:40We treat about 1,000 or more objects a year and between 3,000 to 5,000 coins a year
00:29:48that archaeologists and researchers can study and discover as much as they can.
00:29:55And the object from...
00:29:58Is that from...
00:29:59It is from Megiddo, that is it?
00:30:01Can I take a photo?
00:30:03Yeah.
00:30:05It's not really God, it's Lar.
00:30:08It protects the home or the house.
00:30:13I think one of the important things to take away from this find, the Megiddo church,
00:30:19is archaeology is going to continue to make very, very, very significant discoveries
00:30:25which are going to affect the greater world.
00:30:29And this can be the Megiddo mosaic.
00:30:31This can be the street in Jerusalem which is currently being uncovered by the Israel Antiquities Authority
00:30:39or this can be more fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
00:30:42This is the most important laboratory.
00:30:51This is where what Times Magazine defines as the most important archaeological finding of modern era
00:30:58and we are the guardians.
00:31:00The Dead Sea Scrolls are the most significant discovery of ancient biblical and historical texts ever found.
00:31:15Widely regarded as the single greatest artifact for understanding the ancient world,
00:31:21they stand as a powerful confirmation of the accuracy of biblical literature.
00:31:27What's even more fascinating, the bulk of these discoveries occurred between 1947 and the 1950s.
00:31:35A reminder that so much of our past remains buried and is waiting to be uncovered.
00:31:44The Dead Sea Scrolls are a group of documents discovered in the Judean desert
00:31:50which span 1,800 years of human activity.
00:31:54Most definitely the most prominent group are the documents which were found in the caves surrounding the site of Qumran.
00:32:08The Qumran caves yielded scrolls dating from roughly the 3rd century BCE
00:32:15all the way up into the 1st century CE.
00:32:18Within this collection of scrolls we also have the earliest copies of the biblical text known to date.
00:32:27Just on this one table with about 8 examples of a huge collection of over 1,000 manuscripts
00:32:39we have the oldest document that we have written in Paleo-Hebrew.
00:32:45We have one of the later documents written in Arabic.
00:32:48We have the biblical books of Psalms and Genesis, the first book in the Hebrew Bible, Isaiah.
00:32:56And then shift into this additional biblical book that is also found within this entire corpus of literature.
00:33:06We can only display a scroll for three months because we're minimizing its exposure to light.
00:33:15It will then be put into our vault for five years because although the very, very dry climate
00:33:21allowed these organic materials to survive to this day,
00:33:26they still underwent several types of damage, including exposure to humidity, salt from the Dead Sea,
00:33:35wormholes which ate through pieces of the fragments.
00:33:38And an even bigger challenge, I would say, is making sure that documents and scrolls
00:33:43which survived for hundreds and thousands of years
00:33:46continue to survive for hundreds and thousands of years forward.
00:33:51This area at the bottom, which is darkened due to the exposure of the parchment to moisture
00:33:59and the text is hidden beneath it, that text is brought out and you'll see that
00:34:05in the multispectral imaging system that we have next door in which using the infrared light,
00:34:12the dark parchment disappears and the carbon ink is brought out and can be read very clearly.
00:34:21This is basically taking us into the next stage of research on the scrolls.
00:34:28Through consultation with different experts of different fields,
00:34:32a technology that was developed for NASA was implemented
00:34:36and a multispectral imaging unit was built.
00:34:40The purpose of the multispectral imaging unit was to provide objective, steady images of the scrolls
00:34:52under different wavelengths and different exposures,
00:34:55which each wavelength and exposure brings out a different feature in the fragment being documented.
00:35:02It's not only documenting a color image of the collection,
00:35:06it also gives us analysis of the chemical and mineral substances that are involved in the artifact.
00:35:14For me, it's fascinating.
00:35:16So the camera gives us a lot of links to history that we cannot see with our eyes.
00:35:19It's, we can see things that are not supposed to be legible anymore.
00:35:24It teaches us a lot about the content of the text itself,
00:35:27but it also can teach us in a thing in a wider spectrum that everything has place somewhere.
00:35:34Even things that we cannot see with our eyes,
00:35:36it's still worth to experiment, try to understand,
00:35:40and see what is missing in our links with history.
00:35:43We are now involved in numerous projects which use these images as the data set
00:35:53for what we call projects within the digital humanities,
00:35:57using computer tools to take us to the next level of research in the world of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
00:36:05Each of these things is another piece, sort of another block,
00:36:08to reconstructing our connection with the past
00:36:12and how relevant that past is to us today.
00:36:15And in that sense, advances in the sciences and the digital world
00:36:19will continue to tell a story because it's not just about the new things that you're finding,
00:36:25but things that were found several years ago
00:36:28and that we can now apply new avenues of research
00:36:32which could teach us more about them.
00:36:42Tel Shemron is a site on the northern side of the Jezreel Valley.
00:36:49When we look south, we look right across the valley
00:36:52and we see the site of Legio and the site of Megiddo every day as we come to work.
00:36:57So one of the things that we're doing at Tel Shemron
00:36:59and you're doing with the excavations at Megiddo
00:37:03is that we're using technology in order to reconstruct the things that we're digging.
00:37:08One of the first things we're using that most archaeologists in this region are using
00:37:15all the time is photogrammetry.
00:37:18We're using different photographs from different angles
00:37:21and using some off-the-shelf computer programs,
00:37:24we can reconstruct very accurate 3D models
00:37:27using these different photographs that we've taken from different angles.
00:37:30And then using some of our surveying equipment,
00:37:33we can place those models exactly where they appear on the globe
00:37:37and have a wonderful record of exactly what was there
00:37:40before we started excavating or before we remove anything.
00:37:46The second thing we're doing in order to record the things that we're excavating
00:37:50is to use something like LIDAR.
00:37:53LIDAR or laser line scanning,
00:37:56use a laser that is sent out from a machine
00:37:58and we measure how long it takes for the laser to come back.
00:38:01And by measuring this, you can figure out how far away
00:38:05the thing is that it bounced off of.
00:38:07And so using this, you can get a full 3D picture of the world around you.
00:38:16Once we combine and use both technologies,
00:38:20we can use a very accurate data from the laser
00:38:24with the high photorealism from the photos.
00:38:28So we get both accuracy and visualization for this 3D model.
00:38:35In the mosaic, we used around 60 laser scans.
00:38:40We took about 3,000 images.
00:38:48In this project, the resolution was the most important.
00:38:52This is a visualization project.
00:38:54They want to see each and every detail and stone
00:38:58and really small details that you can't even see with your eyes.
00:39:06A lot of insights come from this kind of data.
00:39:12In 100 years from now, people can go back and look at this mosaic.
00:39:17It's an eternal documentation for it.
00:39:21It will be like being there.
00:39:23And we can share it globally, not just for the people who live here.
00:39:27This technology opens the door to new research opportunities
00:39:41by giving archaeologists around the world
00:39:45a working, real-time, scaled model of the site.
00:39:49And based on other evidence from that time period,
00:39:53the digital model becomes a foundation
00:39:56for reconstructing a much more accurate picture
00:40:00of who these people were
00:40:01and how they existed in that space.
00:40:05And this is just one of the tools in our toolkit
00:40:16in order to carefully record the things
00:40:19that are being excavated and moved by archaeologists.
00:40:24One of the things that you know
00:40:26from trying to understand the world today
00:40:28is how hard it is to get good information.
00:40:32How hard it is to know what's true or what's false.
00:40:35And on the excavation, we face that problem even more.
00:40:41Excavating is a way to fill in missing pieces of the past.
00:40:47And why that past is important to each one of us
00:40:49is less relevant than filling in the missing pieces
00:40:53for all of us together so that we can all see the past
00:40:55in as rich a way as possible.
00:40:57Until now, we are proceeding very careful cleaning of the mosaic.
00:41:05We clean every stone.
00:41:07For one square meter, we have around 6,000 stones.
00:41:12We will prepare very precise documentation and we will begin gluing cotton fabric.
00:41:24Our process of detaching began from the bedding of the mosaic.
00:41:30We're dealing with little pieces of the past, little broken shards that tell us this story
00:41:37that we're trying to figure out together.
00:41:39When you see the conclusion of the archaeologist, it looks to you simple because it's been done.
00:41:45The details of the chronology, when the year, what year exactly is this?
00:41:49It's all hard, but they're really trying to honestly show something about the past.
00:41:53And it takes all of our perspectives and all of our hard work to try to tell that story of the past
00:42:01as carefully and honestly and reliably as possible to understand the history of this land.
00:42:06And this is a story that we're trying to figure out together.
00:42:08When you see the conclusion of the archaeologist, it looks to you simple because it's been done.
00:42:12The details of the chronology, when the year, what year exactly is this?
00:42:14It's all hard, but they're really trying to honestly show something about the past.
00:42:17And it takes all of our perspectives and all of our hard work to try to tell that story of the past
00:42:22and to understand the history of this land as it happens.
00:42:30In addition to using technology to understand these sites, experts go back to the remains
00:42:37and search for relics that give historical clues.
00:42:41In the case of the Megiddo mosaic, coins were found that revealed more about the people who built it.
00:42:48This is the IA coin department. About 600,000 coins, 200,000 excavation coins, 340 hordes.
00:43:00Coins come from a certain context. They give a story.
00:43:05The earliest coin found in the Tel Megiddo excavations is a coin that was minted in the city of Ashkelon.
00:43:13And what I see is a stamp of the legion that was in Legio.
00:43:20So what happened many times is that there wasn't enough money.
00:43:24When there weren't enough coins, what people used to do, especially when these Roman legions came,
00:43:29is to re-stamp, to re-issue the coin, an old coin.
00:43:34The coins sort of symbolize the transition of the settlement from a pagan settlement into the Christian period.
00:43:42How the populations changed also their, you know, their religion.
00:43:46The coins are historical documents. They tell a story, especially when they're found in a historical, archaeological context.
00:43:55I think that's the most powerful part of the coin.
00:43:58You can really feel the Roman camp, the soldiers, you know, using money.
00:44:02And, you know, 50% of the coins that basically circulated were used by soldiers.
00:44:06That's an interesting fact, you know. I mean, we found this early Christian place of worship near a Roman camp.
00:44:16And that's not by coincidence, because there were two populations in the Roman Empire that really were attracted to Christianity.
00:44:24One was women, and the other one was soldiers.
00:44:29So I think that's sort of a connection.
00:44:31There's an organic connection between soldiers and the start of Christianity.
00:44:38And, of course, this important venue.
00:44:46We know that until Constantine, Christianity was forbidden.
00:44:50And there were some periods when the Christians were permitted to worship.
00:44:56The best period of all was at the time of Elagabalus and Severus Alexander, between 218 and 236.
00:45:11It was clear from this inscription that it was not a private house, it was a communal place.
00:45:16The soldier lived in the house, but it was probably owned by the state, by the army,
00:45:24so that the centurions could live there.
00:45:28Because in other rooms of the house, they found weapons.
00:45:34They found bread stamps used by the army, and there were ovens for baking the bread for their soldiers.
00:45:43This is important, because we do not know much about Christianity in that period.
00:45:48We do know that not many Jews converted to Christianity, but pagans did.
00:45:56So there must have been soldiers who converted to Christianity.
00:46:01Christians were not supposed to be soldiers, but they were.
00:46:04The fact that a military man, which we usually associate with being very practical, pragmatic,
00:46:12people who are less than spiritual, and there is somebody who cares so much to take from his own salary,
00:46:21and to say, for God, I do that.
00:46:23When we look at the physical context, this is a very large collection of Roman soldiers who are put in the Jezreel Valley to be guarding the interests of Rome.
00:46:45And so someone of such status gives money for not just a little structure, not just a dedication,
00:46:54but to an entire building and to the building of this incredibly detailed mosaic floor.
00:47:02This is no small thing.
00:47:04He is tying his name, his reputation, and his status to this building that is very public and in the middle of the community.
00:47:15We know in the New Testament there were centurions in the Middle East who built synagogues for the local Jewish communities.
00:47:22This wasn't a totally unusual thing to do.
00:47:25Somebody who's stationed there, who has learned to like these people,
00:47:29and actually wants to do his bit and wants to keep the Roman peace such as it was.
00:47:36It's not an unusual thing to do from that point of view,
00:47:39but it says that here is a Roman official who is not frightened to be known to be associated with this extraordinary subversive movement.
00:47:49And then the fact that there are high-ranking or well-off women who are contributing.
00:47:58The inscription that is on the western side says,
00:48:00The god-loving Akeptus has offered the table to God Jesus Christ as a memorial.
00:48:10The centerpiece of the mosaic is the table, also known as an altar,
00:48:17dedicated by a woman named Akeptus.
00:48:20We have descriptions of Christians meeting in dining halls and standing all around a table to receive the bread and the wine.
00:48:34And one of the earliest rituals ever developed by people who believed in Jesus was commemoration of Jesus' life and death.
00:48:41Basically, there's instruction to remember, and you see the word remember even in these mosaics.
00:48:47The eastern side says,
00:48:49Remember Pramila, Syriaca, Dorothea, and moreover, also Cresti.
00:48:56In the Roman world, women were marginalized,
00:48:59and their role was pretty much to make the men eat, enjoy, and have security in their family life.
00:49:09They may have been just relatives of the patron, or perhaps they may even have been martyrs,
00:49:18because we know there had been a persecution of Alexandria some years before them, about 203,
00:49:25but we really do not know.
00:49:28The way that this inscription ends with the and moreover, also Cresti,
00:49:32seems to set her apart from the previous list and the previous women.
00:49:36This particular name, Cresti, might be a slave name and potentially could refer to
00:49:44Cresti being a woman who was once a slave but is now a freed woman.
00:49:48For one of them to have a name that could be a slave name, possibly suggesting that she's been a freed
00:49:56slave, means that there is some equalizing of status that is going on in this community.
00:50:05This is one of the things I'm so fascinated by. Why on earth are there so many women who are listed,
00:50:10especially when you have a centurion who is also there? And what role do these women play?
00:50:18One of them is giving money for the table, which is probably the place where they're having the Lord's
00:50:24supper. But why is she the one who is given this designation of contributing the money for that
00:50:32and providing the blessing for the table?
00:50:36It reminds me of Mary Magdalene, of course, and the other women that are mentioned in the Gospel of
00:50:41Luke that pay for Jesus' ministry. Interestingly, Christianity was much more favorable to women
00:50:48in the ancient world than paganism was. And so some of the earlier converts among upper-class
00:50:55Romans were among upper-class women. In the ancient world, women were somebody's property.
00:51:01They didn't have independence. Ancient Roman men, if they'd had enough children already,
00:51:07if another girl was born, they would just throw them away, quite literally leave them out for the
00:51:12wolves or the gypsies or whoever to take. We now shudder at that. But we shudder because we have been
00:51:19influenced by the valuation of human life that the early Christians modeled.
00:51:24By the end of the second century, there was an increase in Christian women and quite often the
00:51:30Christian women would then marry pagans and convert them or at least bring up their children as
00:51:35Christians. So it's a quite extraordinary story which goes against what we might have thought if we
00:51:42come with the assumption, as many do, that Christianity is bad for women. It certainly wasn't in the early
00:51:47centuries. So women in general were marginalized, and yet we can tell from so many other inscriptions
00:51:56in churches around the country, they were pushing, I would say, the carriage of spirituality.
00:52:04Right from the start in Paul's letters, we can see women taking leading roles in the church.
00:52:09In John chapter 20, Jesus is first recognized by Mary Magdalene, of all people.
00:52:16And Jesus says to Mary, go and tell my brothers, I'm ascending to my father and your father,
00:52:22to my God and your God. Now, that is the beginning of the proclamation of the Christian gospel.
00:52:27Paul's greatest letter written to the Roman church, he entrusts to a businesswoman from Corinth,
00:52:33who's on her way on a business trip to Rome. So the valuation of women was much higher, which is,
00:52:40this is not what feminist rhetoric has been trying to tell us. This is a new message where women are so
00:52:48much involved in the prayer, they're involved in discussing theology. I think it's very natural that
00:52:55women are more drawn to spirituality. But at that age, they get the green light to be there,
00:53:02instead of ousting them out and saying, go and fix the food because we're coming out of the prayer
00:53:06house in one hour. They are there.
00:53:11There's a human dimension of this. And so every one of us, and at the higher level of scholarship,
00:53:16this is really ultimately what we're trying to do is gain sympathy with people in the past and
00:53:22understand in an empathetic way, what were they going through that made them make that bad decision
00:53:29or that good decision? For me, the three inscriptions are amazing for specifically the people that are
00:53:39mentioned there. So the idea of a building like this turning up, it's very exciting as a sign of what
00:53:47archaeology can produce, but also as a sign of this is this diverse community, which is establishing
00:53:56itself to the point of making a very attractive worship space. And presumably it isn't the only one.
00:54:06Who knows what the archaeologists have yet to discover?
00:54:11While the mosaic describes a unique group of people,
00:54:15it also depicts a symbol of a cultural revolution.
00:54:21In the ancient world, names were important, but symbols were also important. And as far as we can
00:54:26tell for the early Christians, something about having a symbol rather than a name meant it could be
00:54:32cross-cultural.
00:54:38of course, the Greek word for fish,
00:54:54the letters spell out Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior. So it was a wonderful secret sign,
00:55:02but which also hooked up with the stories about Jesus multiplying the loaves and the fishes.
00:55:10By the time you get to Legio, the fish would be probably the most recognizable symbol,
00:55:14very simple symbol, but just not common for anything else.
00:55:19From early on, the fish became a very easy to draw symbol, but which actually had a power,
00:55:27the power of the name of Jesus, but then the power of the belief that he is the Son of God,
00:55:32he is the Savior, which then was able to translate, as symbols can, into other cultures.
00:55:38This one abbreviated phrase in the mosaics, it has a line running across it, that's an early example
00:55:46of what they call nominous sacra. And those nominous sacra are used to abbreviate not just any word,
00:55:52they're used to abbreviate important words, words like God, words like Jesus, and words like Christ.
00:55:58The abbreviation itself, God, Jesus, Christ, that's in this mosaic,
00:56:02those are not words that we're accustomed to seeing together in that order. You don't even see it in
00:56:07the New Testament. Now, obviously, Christians today confess, ever since the Nicene Creed,
00:56:15Jesus Christ is not just Lord, but he's God, and there's all kinds of language to go around that.
00:56:19That was not necessarily how people talked before that.
00:56:24Was Jesus God? People have been arguing about this for 2024 years, so it's nothing new.
00:56:31You have people that believe that Jesus is an offshoot from the Egyptian gods. You have people
00:56:37that say there's no historical findings that promote Jesus as God. And this is sort of the
00:56:43early picture of what you see for the rest of church history. They went to town on working out
00:56:47these kinds of problems, said Jesus Christ is God, Jesus Christ is divine, not the God, but maybe in
00:56:53some way, yeah. And this is where heretics and Orthodox people are fighting for time immemorial.
00:56:58Most groups at the time were separated from each other. They could take all options and views about
00:57:05Jesus. Here is just the first example to show us that a mixed community with Romans is choosing this
00:57:13path. It's a huge deal. It starts in a lot of ways with this desire to tell your people,
00:57:20what is the significance of all of this? The terms are significant because now looking back through
00:57:28time, we go, we don't have words in this order, in this kind of a statement that's a slam dunk,
00:57:35Nicene Creed kind of a statement a hundred years before Nicene Creed had come to that conclusion.
00:57:41I believe it was a strong proclamation from them to say that the God, Jesus Christ. But what does
00:57:48that mean for us today? You have people still asking the same question, who is he? Who would have
00:57:57ever thought a Jewish rabbi from 2,000 years ago would get this much reaction?
00:58:10The early church, I think, does reflect Jesus
00:58:14to a very large degree in ways that are better than we find anywhere in writing,
00:58:19by the way that they died and the way that they lived with their neighbors and the way that they
00:58:26just made up their mind they were going to socially cohere and get together and make something new work.
00:58:34Though we today look back and we call it a religion, it certainly wouldn't have been
00:58:39seen as a religion in its own time. Ancient religions had temples, they offered sacrifices,
00:58:44people went and consulted oracles. The early Christians did none of those things.
00:58:49It's hard to say why people became Christians in the second and third centuries, particularly when
00:58:54the Romans were doing their best to stamp it out. But one of the crucial things is that in the world
00:59:00of Greece and Rome, they had many gods and these were all powerful rulers in the heavenly places.
00:59:07But nobody ever said that Zeus or Aphrodite or Neptune loved you. Now, the early Christians went around
00:59:16talking about a God who made the world and who loves you. This is a totally new conception.
00:59:23The early Christians backed that up by establishing communities which were communities of what we can
00:59:31only call love. It was a different kind of movement. It had a completely different way of understanding
00:59:41your neighbor, your community, than anything Rome had to offer.
00:59:46In our heritage with our Jewish brothers and sisters, that religious obligation of caring
00:59:54for the poor was also present. In the books of the Old Testament, there are many admonitions
01:00:00that they too had an obligation to care for the stranger, for the immigrant, this obligation for social justice and social outreach.
01:00:13The early Christians said things like Jesus is Lord in a world where the person who was called Lord was Caesar.
01:00:24People who rise to the top and become so powerful that they seem superhuman. It's easy to build up a
01:00:30politician or a leader to that extent, where when they reach the top of that pinnacle and they can tell
01:00:35a legion to go and another legion to go, they seem like a god. But when Jesus is called Lord and God,
01:00:42this is in your face to seize. It looks as if this is a politically subversive group.
01:00:48It was an entire movement which you might as well call a political movement or a philosophical movement.
01:00:55The Roman Empire was very concerned about stability. They did not like new religious movements of any sort.
01:01:03You look at some of the letters that the leaders were writing to each other and they were first asking,
01:01:07is this going to be a problem or not, this new movement?
01:01:10Pliny writes to Trajan in the early second century to say, what do I do about these Christians?
01:01:16Had there been a law on the statute books saying, this is what you do, Pliny would have known it
01:01:20because he was a good bureaucrat. So it looks as though persecution was sporadic. And it tends to be
01:01:26the case that the Roman authorities go after the leadership. There's a sense we can't go and kill them
01:01:32all. From time to time, we will round some of them up and make an example of them. And maybe that will
01:01:37discourage the rest. But it has the exact opposite effect. Because they see these people unafraid
01:01:44to face suffering and death. So that is actually part of the reason why this movement spreads.
01:01:52In a world of violence and cynical brutality,
01:01:55Christianity is showing that there is a way through and out the other side.
01:02:06As Christianity spread around the world, early Christians stressed the importance of Christian
01:02:11set of values that's uniform across the world. A Christian sense of ethics and behaviors.
01:02:17That view is really unique in comparison with the other conflicting value system
01:02:22found within the broad reach of the Roman Empire. The book of 1 Peter says things like,
01:02:28make sure that if you're persecuted, it's not because you're doing bad things. You know,
01:02:32when you're living under governance, it's not going to persecute you just because you say Jesus.
01:02:37They're going to persecute you because you say Jesus and you stole.
01:02:41Don't steal. And it seems like a no brainer to people now because character training and
01:02:46virtues training is everywhere now. But back then it wasn't. And so that really changed people's
01:02:51behaviors to get a sense of it was cultural critique. It was incisive and it was sort of a
01:02:57socially adept. I don't think that was the be all end all of Christian faith.
01:03:01He wants people to stay safe. And in that culture, this is how you structure households.
01:03:05But for a Christian living in the third century, I don't think that our centurion was putting
01:03:13himself in a huge line of fire, at least not when he put the mosaic in, because he could point to
01:03:19a contemporary emperor ruling at this time who had devotion towards various kinds of figures,
01:03:24including Jesus. Emperor Severus and his family was very amenable and fond of many Christian aspects.
01:03:32Christianity is not legal, but there were very good relationship
01:03:40between the Christian and the empire in that specific period.
01:03:47They are actually in this place, in the Jezreel Valley, taking advantage of this tolerance
01:03:55from the Roman empire itself.
01:03:56Now, was it always favorable? I'm not so sure.
01:04:04In the same area, you have another emperor down the line, Diocletian,
01:04:09famous for being the worst persecutor, the most systematic persecutor.
01:04:13This structure where these Christians are gathering together in Megiddo dates to 2.30,
01:04:21and it is only 50 years later when Diocletian becomes the Caesar, where we have the worst persecution
01:04:29of the Christian community. Diocletian had become actually afraid of the movement and said,
01:04:36we need to do something about it. He was also having financial issues. Inflation was breaking out.
01:04:42He was looking to shore up any kind of loss anywhere.
01:04:46I mean, Diocletian, he was a genius. From a financial and military reform perspective,
01:04:51he really rebuilt the structure of the empire. But he made a wide attempt to bring forth a revival of the
01:04:58old gods. And whenever people didn't want to comply, he started to persecute Christians,
01:05:04and it got extremely bloody. Diocletian kills 17,000 Christians in 30 days,
01:05:11the highest amount in recorded history, more than Nero.
01:05:17So for this community in Megiddo, we have such a small window of time. They can make these loud and
01:05:24dramatic statements about the lordship of who Jesus is. But as soon as Diocletian comes and that
01:05:31persecution comes, they cover their floor. So let's just imagine the centurion, he lives a long and
01:05:41peaceful life. And maybe the next person who inherited this room is the one who had to cover it over and
01:05:46abandoned it because of the Diocletian persecution.
01:05:50It's a possibility. This is the reason the mosaic floor is so well preserved, is because the original
01:05:57community valued it enough to preserve it, to cover it, maybe thinking at some point they'll be able to
01:06:04come back and worship in this space again.
01:06:10This room probably was not in function for a very long time, but it does speak to the
01:06:14persecutions that broke out.
01:06:19And within another 15, 20, 25 years, things had changed yet again. Because you go from Diocletian,
01:06:26not too many years, to Constantine, his famous work. Doing the exact opposite of Diocletian,
01:06:32he Christianizes. He raises Christian bishops up to places of importance in his own court.
01:06:40The empire was too big for its boots at that time and was about to split in two really the east and
01:06:46the west. Constantine and his successors tried to use formal Christianity as a way of holding things
01:06:53together. He had an incalculable influence on the evolution of the church subsequent to him. The whole royal
01:07:02organism started to be all about building churches and supporting this new way of doing things,
01:07:10new way of being a royal court.
01:07:12So Constantine is building gigantic buildings, like which churches are still looking at and going,
01:07:33how did they do that? All these building and construction projects were done with great intent.
01:07:39You know, the policeman was often political. The money was never an issue. Things that date back to
01:07:46connect an elite person of such magnitude with a humble fisherman from a couple hundred years before.
01:07:52When it becomes the state religion, the state of Christianity becomes something different
01:07:59than what we see on this mosaic floor in the kingdom.
01:08:05Roman Empire eventually fell after being the dominant world power for over 400 years.
01:08:12The most powerful empire in history was outlasted by the humble movement of a Jewish rabbi.
01:08:20That movement's lineage can be traced all the way back to this mosaic floor, when a small window of
01:08:28tolerance, some 20 years, was given. And a pivotal piece of history was built.
01:08:37And now exists to tell the story.
01:08:58There's so much about looking at the history of who this historical figure of Jesus was.
01:09:07This Jewish rabbi who taught people in this very little part of the world for a very short amount
01:09:14of time. Three years, maybe. And yet those teachings really took hold and humans really responded.
01:09:22If we believe, as Christians have taught for a long time, that Jesus was both fully divine and fully
01:09:28human, then the history and the theology ought to work together. Getting that to happen is much harder
01:09:35than you might imagine, because often historians feel as if they're pulling the whole thing apart
01:09:40and reducing it to little fragments. And the theologians often feel as though they're
01:09:44floating in a hot air balloon, way above the subject somewhere, and never the train shall meet.
01:09:49I mean, that's the journey of people seeking history. And that journey is taking place
01:09:54in geographical context. It's taking place in a chronological context. It's taking place
01:09:59in historical context. Megiddo just exemplifies how history and spirituality or history and theology meet.
01:10:08I am very excited today. Today it's a great day. After 1700 years, mosaic is free from the prison.
01:10:30In our laboratory, we will construct new support for the mosaic and we clean and remove cotton fabric.
01:10:38And very precise cleaning of the surface of the mosaic. We prepare mosaic for the exhibition.
01:10:44It will travel for a few years in the United States and Europe. People all over the world can see it.
01:10:53Then it will return back to Israel to the same place it was found.
01:10:58When we look at the inscriptions on the floor, we are seeing this element of Christianity play out
01:11:09just in the words that are written. This Christian community that worshipped in this building
01:11:15was embodying the very teachings of Jesus. Material remains, buildings, floors, inscriptions.
01:11:23These are the ways in. And even the way the letters are formed in the writing.
01:11:29There is far more to discover. And the more we discover, the more coherent sense it will make.
01:11:46There are untold numbers of people who have disassociated themselves
01:12:00from their religious history. No matter what faith they may have belonged to.
01:12:08To lose contact with your history,
01:12:11in some respects, is to lose contact with yourself.
01:12:18How do we pursue the truth that is God? And how do we attain it?
01:12:24In general, the world is confused because there are confusing claims and bits and pieces of information
01:12:40that are being construed in a way that is oversimplified.
01:12:47When we are reading history, we bring so many assumptions to the table.
01:12:53We bring stories we heard as a kid, maybe a story we learned in school as we were growing up.
01:13:00But history is complex. And the people of history are complex.
01:13:08When you're looking at something ancient, patience is required for this.
01:13:12Look at the whole person as much as you can. Be empathetic with the whole person.
01:13:17You might not have much more of a person than their name.
01:13:20But sort of the challenge is saying, I know there's a human there.
01:13:23Human empathy and sort of the passion and patience to get into that will get you everywhere
01:13:28in learning that we're not so different from those people.
01:13:31That's why it's important to be self-critical. Just as much as we are being critical of whatever text or
01:13:39material goods that we are looking at. And this is why we have to study in communities so we can have
01:13:46lots of different perspectives.
01:13:47I have to acknowledge that there is an objective truth. Truth is not merely what I think. It is a truth
01:13:56that is beyond more than just my perceptions. The way God fashioned us is to give us the capacity
01:14:06to reach out and search for him and discover him.
01:14:23This is an exciting day at the Museum of the Bible. Today marks a remarkable day because we are
01:14:34about to unveil and cut a ribbon. Unveil a remarkable mosaic.
01:14:40This object really is a way for us to come together. A way for us to see that these tiny
01:14:46little tesserae, these tiny little chips, these beautiful pieces, when placed together,
01:14:51they tell a remarkable story of unity. A remarkable story of a place that brought people in from
01:14:57many different areas. And yet they shared enough in common to understand that they were people who
01:15:03could celebrate, who could worship, who could come together in peace. And it's what we come together to
01:15:10celebrate today. Blessed are you, Adonai our God, sovereign of all, who has kept us alive, sustained us,
01:15:26and brought us to this season. Amen. Thank you.
01:15:40When people ask you, what is the earliest place that has been found? It was a place of worship
01:15:46for Christian people, never found in history. You could now boldly say to them, it's often called
01:15:52Leggio or Megiddo, and I saw it at the Museum of the Bible. If someone asks you, what's the earliest
01:16:01written form that declares Jesus as God? You can confidently say that up till now in 230,
01:16:08this mosaic that was formed has an inscription that refers to Jesus in that passage. And you saw it.
01:16:15When you go and you see the places where the texts happen, you now realize the things that you've
01:16:24assumed. You start to gather more data points, you start to understand the context, and people become
01:16:31real people. They become people who had to grapple with daily life in a way that we often don't think
01:16:39of feeding their families, doing their jobs, living life. If I can be that empathetic towards people,
01:16:47I will never meet in a text. I'm rubbing shoulders with people just like that every day.
01:16:53You may not think of yourself as a historical figure, but you are. We all are. We all inhabit history.
01:17:00So the context changes everything about how we understand these historical people.
01:17:04History is absolutely still speaking to us, and we should support the historical disciplines
01:17:08that are at work here. This is incredible. We lifted the mosaic, and now we assembled mosaic
01:17:17in this beautiful hall to conserve mosaic, to transfer to the future, to the future generation,
01:17:23and we've done this work successfully, I think. Like, this is a huge living piece of history,
01:17:31and it's here. It's incredible to see in person and just to walk around in times of itself.
01:17:35The young people aren't aware of the history before them and how hard it was for people to get to this
01:17:42point. To give women this voice mentioning Jesus Christ as God for the first time ever that we have
01:17:49written outside the scriptures, just amazing. It just shows you that God can work in all sorts of different
01:17:57facets of life and different backgrounds in history, too. This movement brought people together who were
01:18:04not like-minded. It brought people together who grew up with the scriptures and people who grew up with a
01:18:11pagan culture and yet provided a space for them to figure out how to be a like-minded people.
01:18:21The church in its unity and multiplicity is designed to be the small working model of new creation,
01:18:45to demonstrate to the world who the true God is and what this true God is doing and will do and will
01:18:54complete. We see this in the mosaic. And so when they said Jesus is God, this wasn't an abstract
01:19:02philosophical proposition. This was when we're with Jesus, we know we are with the God who made the world
01:19:09and who is in the process of remaking it. Megiddo, to me, is a place where Samaritans, Jews, pagans and
01:19:18Romans lived. And if they lived together at least for one century, well maybe that can be a lesson
01:19:29to this wounded world. And I think for Megiddo, this is maybe providence, I don't know.
01:19:36The Megiddo Mosaic is a story of an unlikely community, drawn together because of a shared
01:19:45belief. That belief was a bold claim that Jesus is God. A statement that changed history. And as the
01:19:56debate of Jesus continues even after 2000 years, one thing is certain, the story isn't over. History is
01:20:05still speaking. What will it reveal next?
01:20:35.
01:20:38.
01:20:45.
01:20:51.
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