The 'Jesus boat' at Nof Ginosar
Archaeology can throw new light on the Bible story, even when it does not directly 'prove' it to be true.
A drought in Israel in 1985 caused the water level in the Sea of Galilee to fall lower than usual. On January 24th 1986, the remains of an ancient boat were discovered. Archaeologists carefully extracted the remains and preserved them in a museum at Nof Ginosar, near Tiberias. A cooking pot and a lamp were also found with the boat.
The boat is just over 8 metres long by 2.35 metres wide. Radio carbon dating has put its age at 2000 years, which means that it was sailing on the Sea of Galilee at about the same time as Jesus and his followers.
For more on the discovery and preservation of the boat, go to the Jesus Boat Museum site.
This model from the museum at Nof Ginosar shows what the 'Jesus boat' would have looked like when in use. Obviously, in spite of the name 'Jesus boat', there is no evidence that Jesus had anything to do with this particular boat, nor is there any reason to believe that he did. However, some of Jesus's first followers were fishermen on lake Galilee, and this boat helps us to understand what boats were like in Jesus' time. There are more than forty references in the Gospels to such boats.
For more about the 'Jesus boat', see page 186 of 'Discoveries from Bible Times', by Professor Alan Millard