The church at Armageddon
Israeli prison- yard find declared earliest Christian temple Skeptics suspect propaganda aimed at tourists to Holy Land
JERUSALEM— As the site of so many of the ancient world’s epic battles, Megiddo didn’t really need another reason to matter. Not with a proven 8,000 years of tempestuous history laced in as many as 30 layers beneath the surface. But the famed hilltop fortress city, known as Armageddon to readers of the New Testament, soared to even greater fame over the weekend with the announcement of a dramatic new discovery.
Here, on top of everything else, Israeli archaeologists found what they say may be the world’s oldest church. Or maybe not, according to the sober second judgment of some of the region’s leading experts on early Christianity. Already, they doubt the tenor of the claim, adding an archaeological dispute to a location so famously embattled.
It is said that in Israel, one cannot so much as pitch a tent without encountering history. And that’s exactly how this site was revealed, inside the confines of an Israeli prison yard a few hundred metres from the more thoroughly excavated hill of Armageddon. The Israeli prison authority had been working for 18 months to transform the tent compound inside high- security Megiddo Prison into something more permanent for its more than 800 tenants, most of whom are Palestinian militants detained during the past five years of intifada.
Anticipating an encounter with history, the Israeli Antiquities Authority oversaw a crew of 60 Arab prisoners on a dig to lay the foundations for a new prison wing. And what they found has set the Christian world aflutter — a mosaic tile floor with intricate geometric patterns, inscribed in ancient Greek with a salutation to “ the God Jesus Christ.” Embedded in the floor is a tiled sphere showing two fishes entwined, another early Christian symbol.
“ This is, in Israel for sure, the earliest Christian church,” archaeologist Yotam Tepper, who heads the excavation, told reporters on a walkabout of the site yesterday. The breathless Biblical pronouncement was echoed by the words of Israeli Tourism Minister Avraham Hirshzon, who said it made his “ heart palpitate.”
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the Vatican’s man in Jerusalem both piled on, declaring the find a “ great discovery.” And as of last night, Google was returning more than 1,800 news hits on the story.
Franciscan priest Michel Piccirillo, an archaeologist who many Jerusalem scholars regard as without peer, was amused when asked about the discovery last night.
“ It’s a myth,” Piccirillo told the Toronto Star. “ It seems to be more propaganda and advertisement for tourists than anything else.” By Piccirillo’s reckoning, there is no doubt the discovery at Megiddo ranks as an early Christian church, quite possibly from the 4th century. But based on what has been shown, there is little to distinguish it from more than 260 other Christian churches of the Byzantine era in the Holy Land. The earliest among them, he said, remain the jewels of Christianity as determined during the rule of Emperor Constantine — most notably the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem and Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity.
Earlier churches once existed and may yet be one day discovered, said Piccirillo. He points, as evidence, to records of 3rdcentury Roman imperial orders to burn churches during Christianity’s formative years.
“ Every few years we hear such pronouncements. The Jordanians were the last to declare the discovery of the earliest Christian church,” said Piccirillo.
“ But to declare this one of the most spectacular discoveries is too much. So far they have only uncovered a small excavation. You have to open it up to see the context, to know whether this is a small chapel, or part of something larger.
“ Only then can you say what it is.”
Yisca Harani, an independent Israeli scholar specializing in early Christian antiquity, shared Piccirillo’s doubt.
“ I’m hesitant. It would seem that having the earliest Christian church in Megiddo — and not in Jerusalem — is problematic in itself,” said Harani.
“ The dating will be crucial. We have to wait for the full picture and only then can we throw around these big statements.
“ If it actually pre- dates the Holy Sepulcher, it will make everyone ask how the Galilee precedes Jerusalem in Byzantine church history.” But Harani said she sees rea- son to rejoice in the intense interest of Israeli officialdom.
“ I celebrate the fact that Byzantine churches matter to the Jewish state of Israel,” she said. “ That alone makes me enthusiastic.”
Israeli government officials have already mused on the possibility that Megiddo Prison may have to move, should the site eventually be deemed a worthy addition to the destinations of Christian pilgrimage, which include nearby Nazareth. But having already invested heavily in rebuilding the jail, the Israeli Prison Authority may not go easily. Though the ancient church is surrounded by razor wire and guard towers, prison officials say there may be away to adjust the facility’s borders to accommodate Christian visitors.
“ It is not easy to move a jail. But there may be other solutions,” said Prison Authority spokesman Ofer Lefler. “ Perhaps we can secure the area and have a bridge for outside visitors.” Whatever its ultimate value, the early church is certain to add at
least some degree of
historic lustre to one of
the ancient world’s
most embattled summits. Canaanites,
Egyptians, Israelites,
Assyrians and Persians
all trod here in the biblical era. It was the staging ground for conquests by Pharaoh Thutmose III and for the fall of Josiah, the last Jewish king of the lineage of David. As recently as 1917, Megiddo was the site of one of the world’s last great cavalry charges, as British commander Edmund Allenby led an Australian mounted division to rout the last of the Turkish forces in Palestine, ending four centuries of Ottoman rule. Allenby is perhaps better known for taking Jerusalem from the Turks, but in claiming his hereditary title for service to the Queen, he chose the appellation Viscount Allenby of Megiddo for posterity.
Notwithstanding so many millennia of grand battles, it is the one not yet fought — the biblical prophesy from the Book of Revelations describing the earthshattering, end- of- days struggle of good versus evil — that lends Megiddo, Armageddon, its eeriest appeal.
“ Right now our struggle is just to find a place to put the prisoners,” said prison spokesman Lefler.
“ But we can build a little bit left or a little bit right. We’ll find a solution for all of this history that surrounds the prison.
“ The Jewish mind will find a way.”