ETS 2003, Atlanta, Georgia
Excavating Jesus or Inventing a Jesus?
15
little of the totality of the site is actually examined
58
. Schoville notes that with few excep-
tions seldom more than five percent of a site is excavated today.
59
While archaeological
work has been going on in the south of Israel, particularly the region in an around Jerusalem
for about 150 years, work in Galilee in general and Capernaum in particular is still in a state
of relative infancy.
Here is the difference then, since the synagogue now standing in Capernaum is most
probably from the Byzantine era, Crossan and Reed make the assumption that there was no
synagogue at the time of Jesus. However, the synagogue and surrounding site has never been
really excavated.
60
There is a lower white stone layer beneath the black basaltic walls of the
Byzantine-dated structure that some have speculated are the remains of the Jesus-era synago-
gue.
61
This conclusion may well be true, but without detailed excavation (which would likely
require removal of the Byzantine-era structure) there is no way to bring the matter to a great-
er level of certainty. Those who hold to inerrancy or even a maximal view of the gospel ac-
counts would assert that since the text affirms the existence of a synagogue, one must have
actually existed, even if yet undiscovered.
62
Archaeological data can neither affirm nor deny
either position with certainty; and as a discipline it is not designed to do so in these types of
cases. As Wright noted three decades ago the nature of archaeology, final and absolutely
58
A typical site may be excavated for multiple seasons (which may span decades) and interim reports issued. A
final report on the site, its artifacts, interpretation and significance may not be produced for several years after
the final season. In fact final reports for many excavations have never actually been produced.
59
Schoville, Biblical Archaeology, p. 122. See also McRay, New Testament Archaeology, p. 22.
60
The excavating in and around Capernaum itself is not all that extensive and it possible that the Byzantine-era
synagogue does not represent a location to a first-century synagogue location.
61
Yamauchi, Biblical Archaeology, p. 135.
62
The same would apply for a synagogue at Nazareth, which the authors dismiss as unreal and claim Jesus
could not have read a scroll in a synagogue service in Nazareth, as noted in Luke 4:16, since scrolls would not
have been located in such a small rural location, there was no synagogue, and as we note later, Jesus could not
read in the first place.