On a winter day in 1986, two Galilee Fisherman saw the outline of something odd while they were walking along the muddy banks of drought-plagued Sea of Galilee and called in experts. An ancient boat half-buried on the Northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee was discovered..................and it was quickly named the "The Jesus Boat" or in Hebrew; "The Yeshua Boat."The boat was carefully removed from the silt and made it's first journey in 2,000 years, it floated once again on a canal from the Galilee to Kibbutz Ginosar where it was placed in a specially built conservation pool at the Yigal Allon Museum..........
Experts report after testing it they confirmed the boat was constructed and used between 100 BC and AD 70...........The boat was in an amazing state of preservation, thanks to being encased for 2,000 years in the mud....(wood-devouring bacteria could not breath in the mud...) It was completely waterlogged when found, and in order to keep it from crumbling into dust, it was immediately immersed in a giant tub.....Never before preservation's were attempted in order to preserve the boat and with great success the water-soluble wax bound the boat together perfectly........
The boat is about 24 feet long, 7 feet wide and a little less than 4 feet deep........It was built using the "shell first" technique, with mortise and tenon journey.....
A boat of this size would have had a crew of 5, and would have been able to carry about 15 additional people. It would have a working life of 20-30 years. Most of its planks were made of Labanon cedar and the frames were of oak. Much of the wood had been recycled from older scrapped boats. It would have had a small deck in the bow and another one at the stern. It's fishing net would have been deployed from the stern deck.
Wood fragments were uncovered nearby, indicating that the boat was found in a place that had been a boatyard. This indeed is the type of boat that was used on the lake for fishing and for ferrying passengers when Jesus was preaching.........
Although Cedar and Oak make up the most of the boats planks and frames, there were still 10 other kinds of wood used......the picture is a listing of all the different types of wood used.........
A bowl discovered in the boat, whose form alone dates it back to the first century CE.......
As I pulled from my notes everything I could about Yeshua's boat.... I couldn't help but wonder if God is revealing little treasures of His existence all over Israel in hopes that His people will wake up and call out to him
I know that boat was not found by accident....It was there for 2,000 years....... God's timing is so different from ours. It had to be ordained by God..........for two brothers who were walking by the shores of Galilee like it was an ordinary day..... only to find a discovery on the shores of Galilee that has marked history forever...... another piece of the puzzle which God is allowing us to see little bits at a time......
As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fisherman. "Come follow me, " Jesus said, " and I will make you fishers of men." At once they left their nets and followed him. Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him........
Matthew 4:18-22.....
What are we willing to leave behind to follow Jesus????
