This summer, archaeologists continued unearthing early first-century AD artifacts at el-Araj, bolstering the site’s claim as the location of the lost New Testament town of Bethsaida. They reported finding a discus lamp and three intact Herodian lamps; the latter were only made in Jerusalem before AD 70. The team also unearthed pieces of chalkstone vessels in all excavation squares, as well as many fishing weights, indicating that fishing was an important industry at el-Araj in the first century. R. Steven Notley, the academic director of the El-Araj Excavation Project, further notes,
One should not jump to the conclusion that these were impoverished fishermen – as NT scholarship so often depicts them. At Bethsaida-Julias we have uncovered evidence of frescoed walls and beautiful glassware. . . .The results of this excavation will continue to challenge the oft-repeated mistaken notion in scholarship that Galilee and the north were a backwater of poor, illiterate peasants.
The evidence of the Gospels is that Jesus and those who heard him were anything but illiterate, and the archaeological evidence indicates that the towns and villages where he travelled were thriving, even under Roman occupation. (See report below.)
Source: https://www.bethsaida-julias.com/post/season-10-s02-wo4-summary-the-final-week-of-excavations
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