• ESPAÑOL: Un barco de Jesús descubierto en 1986

Boats are mentioned 50 times in the Gospels. They were used for a variety of things, including their primary roles for fishing and transporting people and goods.

But Christ also used boats as a pulpit of sorts when He was teaching allowing Him to address the crowd standing along the beach (Matthew 13:1-2).

Though boats are mentioned over four dozen times, only one boat from this period has ever been discovered.

In 1986, Moshe and Yuval Lufan, who were fishermen on the Sea of Galilee also referred to as Lake Kinneret in the book of Numbers, discovered the boat during a severe drought.

Both of them were amateur archaeologists, and after the water receded they searched the revealed shore and found the remains of the boat protruding from the sand.

The boat is 27 feet (ca. 8 m) long and 7.5 feet (2.29 m) wide. It would have had a mast for a sail, which had obviously been salvaged along with other usable wood before its owners abandoned it. It also came with a flat bottom that allowed it to come close to shore. This feature was why Jesus could use it as a pulpit of sorts.

Though it was constructed primarily of oak and cedar, this boat was unique as researchers discovered 12 different types of wood, some of which were obviously used to repair water damage.

Radiocarbon dating put the boat sometime between 40 BC and 40 AD. However, the wood used in construction appears to have been plundered from other boats, suggesting it was probably in service closer to Jesus’ time. An old cooking pot and lamp found near the boat dated the boat between 50 BC to 50 AD.

This particular boat would have been large enough for a helmsman and four oarsmen.

But as Ferrell Jenkins points out in his blog, at times Jesus and the disciples used a larger boat capable of holding all of them and even leaving room for Christ to sleep on a cushion near the stern (Mark 4:38).

²² Now on one of those days Jesus and His disciples got into a boat, and He said to them, “Let’s cross over to the other side of the lake.” So they launched out. ²³ But as they were sailing along He fell asleep; and a fierce gale of wind descended on the lake, and they began to be swamped and to be in danger. (Luke 9:22-23 NASV)

The smaller version of this boat found on the Sea of Galilee could not have been suitable for transporting 13 people, but it may have been the size set aside for Jesus as He ministered:

⁹ And He told His disciples to see that a boat would be ready for Him because of the ^[a]masses, so that they would not crowd Him; (Mark 3:9 NASV)

The boat is currently on display at a museum at the museum at Kibbutz Ginosar located along the Sea of Galilee.

READ: Jesus taught the crowds from a boat AND ‘Jesus Boat’ Causes Ripples