The Jesus Boat

And when He (Jesus) got into the boat… there arose a great storm on the sea…Then He rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. (Matthew 8:23-27)

Have you ever been on a boat? Jesus and his disciples went on boats a lot. Matthew chapter eight records how a great storm arose and left His disciples terrified.

During this scary experience, Jesus and His disciples were on a fishing boat, but until the late 1980s, we had no idea what this fishing boat would have looked like.

But all that changed in 1986 due to a severe drought in Israel.

One day, two brothers went out walking on the shoreline of the Sea of Galilee, and they spotted the outline of a boat in the mud. That boat happened to be a 2,000-year-old fishing boat!

Upon its discovery, archaeologists found that the wood planks of the 2,000-year-old boat were very fragile, so they soaked the entire boat in a wax chemical to harden the wood. And the boat stayed submerged in that wax chemical for 11 years!

It is now on display at a museum near the Sea of Galilee.

The Jesus Boat is important because it is the only ancient fishing boat ever discovered on the Sea of Galilee.

Now when we read the gospel accounts of Jesus using fishing boats in His ministry, we don’t have to guess at what they looked like, because we have a real 1st-century fishing boat!

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Dr. Angela Everett is a Biblical Archaeologist who regularly speaks on how archaeology confirms the Bible. She is passionate about teaching children that they can trust their Bible, and has created a workbook, “Biblical Archaeology for Kids” found on Amazon. You can follow her on Instagram at @Angela_the_Archaeologist.