Megiddo Archaeological Find

(Picture 1: Ruins at Megiddo with Valley of Megiddo in background)

(Picture 2: Valley of Megiddo [Jezreel Valley] with Mt. Tabor in background)

Hello Fellow Travelers.

There is a great article in the Biblical Archaeology Review magazine of Mar/Apr 2007. While digging the footing for the expansion of the territorial prison, an early Christian prayer hall was found. Specific artifacts found at the site reveal the hall was part of the military base for the VI Legion stationed near Megiddo (Roman name: Caporcotani.)

In the center of the hall is the remains of a table stand, believed to be the Eucharist Table. Mosaic floors are in very good condition and inscriptions (in Greek) date to the 3rd century based on their paleographic characteristics.

"The inscription at the top of the northern panel is dedicated to Gaianus, the centurion who paid for the floor to be paved with mosaics. It reads, 'Gaianus, also called Porphyrius, centurion, our brother, has made the pavement at his own expense as an act of liberality. Brutius has carried out the work. 

The inscription on the eastern side of the southern panel is call the 'Women Inscription" because it asks for remembrance of 'Primilla and Cyrica and Dorothea, and moreover also Chreste.'

The most important part of the floor, and the one that makes it undeniably part of the Christian place of worship, is the inscription on the western side of the southern panel, which is dedicated to 'the God-loving Akeptous,' who offered the table to God Jesus Christ as a memorial." (Biblical Archaeological Review: March/April 2007, p. 46)

Archaeologists dated the ruins circa 230 AD making it the earliest known Christian church in Israel to date. I don't know if this site will be open to the public when we are in Megiddo. But if it is, we certainly will visit this marvelous find.

Shalom.

Pastor Rick