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The World's Oldest Church?

By Toby Janicki | Comments (4) | Posted on June 19, 2008

Last week a Jordanian archeologist made the claim that he had found the world's oldest church. The claim was made after a cave was discovered under St. George's Church which is also believed to be one of the world's oldest known churches. A mosaic on the floor of St. George's church reads "the 70 beloved by God and the Divine," and therefore it is thought by this archeologist that the cave found beneath the church belongs to the original 70 disciples of Yeshua (see Luke 10:1). He believed that these disciples fled here during the Roman persecution around 70 AD and established a church. Yet, other than some circular seating that was discovered inside there seems to be little evidence to back up this claim.

Many scholars and archeologists including Hershel Shanks of Biblical Archeology Review have come out stating that the claim is bunk and that there is no evidence to back up this speculation. Stephan Pfann of the University of the Holy Land in Jerusalem had some very apt comments in an article by National Geographic News. Here's a quote from that article:

"It sounds rather anachronistic," he said, adding that during the first century, the term "church" or "ekklesia" was used for the assembled body of believers--not the building or catacombs where they were assembling. "If they are talking about a cave, it could have been a hiding place. In time--if there were martyrs there or something significant that took place there or a well-known individual who was among the disciples of Jesus--then you would have had reason to commemorate the site, which could later be used by the church's monks. But the cave that's there is one that doesn't necessarily commemorate anything ... I don't know how you can take an underground cave and say it could present itself as a first-century church."

To add onto what Pfann has said, it should also be remembered that from the evidence of the Apostolic Writings the earliest disciples were still meeting in the synagogues along with the rest of Israel.

To read more about the story click here.

About the Author: Toby Janicki is a teacher, writer and speaker for FFOZ. He is also a writer for messiah magazine and the author of the Restoration Workbook and a new book on the Mezuzah.

Visitor Comments

I had my doubts from the moment I read the story. Being a former Orthodox Christian, I know that Orthodoxy very often sets churches over other structures and then backdates a tradition to the earlier structure to legitimize it.

St. Catherine's Monastery is a good example. While there is no hard evidence that St. Catherine's rests near the location of the actual Mt. Sinai, especially with the monastery only dating back to the 500's C.E., Orthodox tradition has named it THE Mt. Sinai and even claims to have the burning bush in a chapel nearby (I used to have a leaf from it that someone had given me). When I was Orthodox, it was almost heresy to suggest that St. Catherine's may not actually be the actual location.

Having seen many, many traditions like this while I was Orthodox I'm just too skeptical. I think the declaration by the archaeologist was a little premature.

Posted by: David Smith | June 19, 2008 5:05 PM

I should probably clarify what I posted earlier by adding that the church being dedicated to St. George (Agios Giorgios in Greek) and its mosaic floor are tell-tale signs that it either is still now, or was originally, an Orthodox Christian church.

St. George is one of the most popular saints to dedicate churches to in Greek culture and Orthodox mosaics have been common for centuries, and are still very popular today. If you Google "St. George, Orthodox" you'll see what I mean.

The church that was discovered was probably built and dedicated after Constantine's time on top of an older structure rumored to have been used by early Christians, at which point the clergy or some of the laity would have gone into the old structure and carved the dedication that was discovered.

Posted by: David Smith | June 20, 2008 1:30 PM

Hi,
It seems that though they did continue in the synagogues in most places some were thrown out of synagogue very early after Jesus'death and ressurection or persecuted by fellow brothers such as Stephen which may have caused fear to go to synagogue. Maybe there were more men like Paul before his vison on the way to Damascus that could have sent many believers of Messiah running to this place. Is this possible? I have always wondered how long they were able to worship in synagogues because Jesus said when He was alive that some would be thrown out. I guess most of it would have happened before 70AD. Or was this pointing to after 70 AD?

**Toby's Response:** Most of the heavy persecution happened post 70 AD, such as when the benediction in the Amidah was amended against believers in Yeshua. But the very fact that that benediction was amended against the Nazarenes shows that believers were still attending the synagogue.

Posted by: cristal coleman | June 21, 2008 3:45 PM

As Pfann mentioned in the National Geographic News article, the church is a group of people, not the structure used to hold the group. The word church in greek is "ekklesia" and in Hebrew the word is "kahal". The FIRST place that the word "kahal" is found in scripture is not in the B'rit Chadasha (New Testament), but in the Torah. In Sh'mot (Exodus), the assembly at Mt Sanai is called a "kahal" in Hebrew. If a person wants to find artifacts of the "first" church, discover the true Mt. Sinai. If they want to find out what this body of believers believed and how they responded to G-d, read Sh'mot.

Posted by: Meira | June 24, 2008 9:14 AM

We Thank You offers a simple and innovative liturgy for disciples of Yeshua by weaving the ancient meal blessings of Judaism together with recently discovered prayers of the early believers.

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