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ISRAEL ANTIQUITIES AUTHORITY

CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS. In the small settlement of Kefar ‘Othnay outside the legionary camp, the Israel Antiquities Authority excavated a prayer hall that bears witness to early Christian worship. Dated to the third century, it predates widespread legal acceptance of the new religion by as much as 75 years. As seen in this excavation photo, the hall featured a small communion table surrounded by decorative mosaic floors. A Greek dedicatory inscription from one of the mosaics reads, “The God-loving Akeptous has offered the table to God Jesus Christ as a memorial,” one of the earliest references to Jesus’s divinity ever found in the Holy Land. Another remarkable inscription was dedicated by Gaianos, a centurion who sponsored this prayer space.