Sea of Galilee teams with a wealth of faith and history

TIBERIAS, Israel — It is truly a small world.
As a small group of American journalists enters the Igal Allon Centre, home of the Man in Galilee Museum and the Ancient Galilee Boat, Jack Gabay, the charismatic educational director of the site, asks excitedly, “Who’s here from Rhode Island?”
When I step forward to shake his hand, Gabay, who reminded me of a young Telly Savalas, of Kojak fame, proudly tells me that he has visited the Ocean State three times and his family is good friends with Judge Frank Caprio, whose own TV show, “Caught in Providence,” has become a viral YouTube hit in its own right.
To emphasize the strong ties, he pulled out his phone to show me a photo of his father visiting Caprio the day before in Miami, where both smiled broadly in the warm sunshine.
After watching a short film and reading about some of its history, Gabay brought us to the small museum’s pièce de résistance, the famed Galilee Boat, which Carbon 14 testing dates to the time of Jesus.
In 1986, two brothers from Kibbutz Ginosaur, a small settlement on the shores of the Sea of Galilee a few miles north of Tiberias — the modern, tourism anchor city of the region whose Old City holds important Jewish and Christian pilgrimage sites, including the Tomb of Maimonides and Abulafia (Etz Chaim) Synagogue — discovered the Galilee Boat during a time of severe drought.
The vessel had been buried in the seabed’s sediments, which protected the boat for 2,000 years.
In dramatic fashion, excavators then packaged the fragile, waterlogged hull in a cocoon of fiberglass and polyurethane foam and raised it to the surface. It was then floated a short distance to its current home, where it underwent an 11-year conservation process in a special pool to preserve it for the ages.
Iron nails recovered that held together the typical ancient “shell-based” construction, which employed pegged mortise-and-tenon joints to edge-join the planking, are preserved in a humidity-controlled display near the boat.
Many chapters in the life of Jesus were situated on the shores of the Sea of Galilee — known in Hebrew as the Kinneret, an approximately 13 mile-long and seven-mile-wide freshwater lake in the north of Israel. At about 600 feet below sea level, it is the lowest freshwater lake on Earth and the second-lowest lake in the world.
After traveling East from his home in Nazareth Jesus stayed in Capernaum, at the top of the lake, where he lived among fishermen, including Simon Peter and Andrew, accompanying these “fishers of men” and others on their night watch and ministering to them in sickness and sorrow.
Jesus chose five Apostles from Capernaum: fisherman Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John, the tax collector Matthew. He also performed many miracles there, including the healing of the paralytic man lowered through the roof of Peter’s house, and the feeding of 5,000 with only a few loaves and fishes.
It is believed that Jesus preached the famous “I am the Bread of Life” discourse in the Capernaum synagogue and delivered the Sermon on the Mount atop the Mount of Beatitudes on the nearby Korazim Plateau, a mile away.
Nineteen seasons of archaeological excavations took place in 1986 in Capernaum, which is administered by both the Franciscans and Greek Orthodox, between 1968-1986, and it has been determined that in its heyday, the community was home to about 1,500 people at its maximum expansion.
As a border town at the north end of the Galilee, it collected money from customs duties, and it prospered from fishing, industry and trade. It would also become a center of Christian pilgrimage after the year 300 A.D.
Re-discovered in the late 19th Century, the site of Capernuam was acquired by the Franciscan Friars of the Custody of the Holy Land in 1984. Throughout the 20th Century, friar archaeologists excavated and brought to light again many of the ancient ruins of the holy place, including the house of St. Peter.
To commemorate the House of St. Peter, a testament to the origins of Christianity, and also to continue the tradition of Christian worship at Capernaum, the Franciscan Friars of the Custody of the Holy Land built a modern church directly over the archaeological ruins.
Eight pillars elevate the church over the ruins, and it was constructed using black and white slabs, recalling the monumental and first century synagogues. Its octagonal shape represents the site’s underlying Byzantine-era church.
Nearby, the Church of the Beatitudes in Galilee is built on the site where tradition says that Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount. The octagonal floor plan represents the eight beatitudes.
The church overlooks the north shore of the Sea of Galilee and was designed by the Italian architect, Antonio Barluzzi. It was built between 1936-1938 on the site of some 4th century Byzantine ruins.
The Church of the Beatitudes is maintained and overseen by the National Association for Assistance to Italian Missionaries (ANSMI), and has a serene garden below for quiet contemplation.
Not far from the Mount of Beatitudes, back on the shore of the Sea of Galilee are a pair of churches at Tagba.
Known for the place where the miracle of Jesus feeding 5,000 people with just five loaves and two fish, the modern Church of the Multiplication of Loaves and Fishes houses restored mosaics from the fourth century that commemorate this momentous event in the life of Jesus.
Beneath the altar is the rock on which it is believed Jesus placed the loaves and fish when he blessed them.
Tagbha is also the location of the Church of the Primacy of St. Peter, a church which houses a rock where its builder contended that Jesus appeared for the fourth time after his Resurrection.
All of these sites are close enough to easily be visited during the course of one day.
Standing at the shore of the Sea of Galilee near sunset, it is easy to imagine Jesus out on the water, preaching to the fisherman as they cast their nets for the daily catch.