{"id":332,"date":"2005-11-16T13:17:57","date_gmt":"2005-11-16T20:17:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/2005\/worlds-oldest-church.html"},"modified":"2007-03-18T16:50:53","modified_gmt":"2007-03-18T22:50:53","slug":"worlds-oldest-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/2005\/worlds-oldest-church.html","title":{"rendered":"World’s oldest church?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Kingsleys<\/a> put me on to this interesting story about an archeological find in Israel.  A prison inmate in Megiddo was shoveling away rubble to prepare the ground for a new prison ward, when he uncovered the edge of a mosaic.  It turns out he may have discovered the world’s oldest church building<\/b>.<\/p>\n

Of course, in the early days churches would meet in public areas or in homes.  As persecution intensified, meetings would also be held in catecombs.  There is a great deal of controversy about this church for that very reason – if this church was build in the 200s, that would be before Christianity was even "legal" in the Roman empire.  Perhaps that’s why the church was destroyed in the first place.<\/p>\n

But whenever it was built, it seems likely it was early.<\/b>  For one thing, there’s no crosses anywhere.  For centuries Christians avoided the cross symbol – after all, crucifixions were actually taking place long after Jesus’ death.  The fish was the more popular symbol.  Also, the alter in the centre of the church provides some clues – actually, it’s not called an alter in the inscriptions.  It’s called a table.  Far from the rows of pews in later churches, early Christians would come together to eat, learn, praise and fellowship.  If this really is a table, there may be more insights to come about how people thought of church back in those days.<\/p>\n

Inscriptions included dedications and memorials.  The building was dedicated to Jesus, and an inscription names the Roman soldier who donated money to make the floor, and a lady who donated the money for the table.<\/p>\n

Why not visit the church for yourself?  There are a handful of photos at National Geographic<\/a>.  Some questions answered, more photos and further thoughts over at Blog Rodent<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Kingsleys put me on to this interesting story about an archeological find in Israel.  A prison inmate in Megiddo was shoveling away rubble to prepare the ground for a new prison ward, when he uncovered the edge of a mosaic.  It turns out he may have discovered the world’s oldest church building. Of course, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-current-issues","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"yoast_head":"\nWorld's oldest church? - Finding direction<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/2005\/worlds-oldest-church.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"World's oldest church? - Finding direction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Kingsleys put me on to this interesting story about an archeological find in Israel.  A prison inmate in Megiddo was shoveling away rubble to prepare the ground for a new prison ward, when he uncovered the edge of a mosaic.  It turns out he may have discovered the world’s oldest church building. 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