Israeli researchers announced last week the discovery of an ancient Christian church in the Golan Heights that dates from the Byzantine Era.
An excavation team from the Israel Antiquities Authority said that the church dated back to 400 CE and had likely built upon a pagan temple dedicated to the Greek god Pan, according to The Times of Israel.
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According to Professor Adi Erlich of the University of Haifa, the 5th-century builders likely converted the ancient temple for their own purposes. Erlich also noted that the church may be the site where Jesus tasked Peter with establishing Christianity, as mentioned in Matthew 16:18.
"You are Peter and, on this rock, I will build my Church," the passage reads.
After discovering an inscription carved on an altar to Pan, the satyr god of shepherds, music, and sex, IAA archaeologists said they were confident the highly stylized open-air temple had once been dedicated to Pan.
The very word Banias, the name of the Golan Heights spring that is the source of the Jordan River, is thought to be a slight Arabic corruption and alteration of the word Panias or Paneus – a reference to the same god.
The church was discovered as part of a conservation project by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and the University of Haifa to preserve monumental archaeology.
This article was first published by i24NEWS.
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