Bernard Muller

I read that on this website:
http://www.christusrex.org/www1/ofm/sites/TScpsyEN.html

Has the dating of mid 1st century AD been challenged?
By whom? How? Why?
What evidence do they (I presume, Christian archeologists) have for the aforementioned dating?

"When in 1968 the excavations at Capernaum began again, in area or "insula" nû1, which was noted "sacred" because it included the house of Saint Peter according to tradition, the remains were already visible of an octagonal, fifth-century church uncovered in 1921. Once the mosaic floor had been removed and the entire area excavated with scrupulous care, the team of archaeologists identified three principal strata along with many other, intermediary levels indicating periods of habitation: the first stratum was of private houses built during the second century B. C. and in use until the fourth century A. D.; The second stratum was the "house of the chuch" (Domus-ecclesia) with adaptations for cultic use; the third stratum was the octagonal church form the fith century A. D. Peter’s house was close to the lake-shore and flanked to the east by the principle, north-south road (cardo maximus ) of the village. It was built just like the other houses - little rooms with roofing grouped around largish, open courtyards. The archaeologists naturally focused their attention on this house of particular interest. They were able to find overlaying levels of habitation dating from the late-hellenistic period. From the second half of the second century B. C. up until towards the end of the first half of the first century A. D. these levels are made up of layers of beaten earth mixed with household, ceramic objects (fragments of jars, pots, plates and lamps). Over the top of these older layers they uncovered something exceptional. Covering an area of roughly 12 square metres along the north-east side of the room which had been venerated was the flooring of at least six layers of white plaster. As well as this find, they gathered up various fragments of colored plaster which had certainly been used to decorate the walls of the room. At the same time it was remarked the almost complete absence of household-pottery fragments. Finally one should note that in all of the village of Capernaum, of which a great part has been excavated, this is the only room which has plaster on the walls and floor. All this points to the conclusion that Peter’s house, containing the room which was venerated, had already been set apart as a meeting-place for the comunity by the second-half of the first century A. D. Towards the end of the fourth century A. D. great changes have been verified without there being any interruption reguarind the place’s having been lived in continously until that time. Then the entire area of the "insula sacra" was encircled by an outer-wall and separated off from the rest of the town by a perimeter of 112.25 metres. Two gates, which opened respectively to the north-west and to the south-west, gave access to the "insula".

These changes involved the destruction of some houses, and with the centering of the complex on the venerated room, it too received some modifications. A new floor was put in, a new roof went up and inside, the space was divided into two parts by an arch running north-south. The north wall was riconstructed, while the other three were left untouched. An atrium in the form of a rectangle was made into the east side. The new arrangement of the whole and especially of the structure comprising the atrium to the east and the focal point to the west together with the surrounding wall, confer on the place the character typical of buildings designed for cultic purposes. From the strictly archaeological point of view, this forth century Domus-ecclesia must be considered a most important discovery.

Concerning the transformation of Peter’s house into a Domus-ecclesia, has come down to us the precious testimony attributed to an already well-known pilgrim to the Holy Land, Egeria, writing towards the end of the fourth century: "And in Capernaum, what is more, the house of the prince of the apostles (Peter) has been turned into a church, leaving its original walls however quite unchanged". The archaeological diggings are proof of the accuracy and faithfulness of the above description. The abundant remaining plaster with its numerous examples of grafitti left by pilgrims (in greek, Aramaic, Syriac and Latin) invoking the "Lord Jesus Christ" and Peter or reproducing invocations and liturgical formulations to say nothing of decorative motifs with crosses, confirm in what way the place was visited and held in honour by the Christians.

Towards the second half of the fifth century the "insula sacra" was totally covered over by Byzantine builders who put up a church on an octagonal design. It is interesting to note that they must have had in mind to keep alive the memory of Peter’s house, because they built the centre octagon of their church right over the venerated room. The anonymous pilgrim of Piacenza passing through Capernaum around 560-570 A. D. writes about this final transformation: "And so we came on to Capernaum to the house of Saint Peter, which is now a basilica"."

Best regards, Bernard

Toto

So what if the dating is correct? Nothing connects the first century room with Peter or Jesus. Later Christian Pilgrims decided that it was Peter's house, but we have no way of validating that.