This discovery changed everything we thought we knew about Galilee.

Dr. Craig Evans was there when they found it.

Magdala... 2009. They were clearing land to build a retreat center when three pillars started sticking up from the ground.

Not much. A foot, maybe two. But they were in a pattern. And that pattern screamed synagogue.

By 2010, it was confirmed. A first century synagogue. Right in the town where Mary Magdalene lived.

And in the center of the room, they found a decorated stone covered in temple symbols. Pointed south. Toward Jerusalem.

This discovery changed everything we thought we knew about Galilee.

Scholars used to think Galileans were theological liberals. Cosmopolitan. Hellenized. Progressive.

Archaeology proved the opposite.

They were the conservatives. They took Scripture seriously. They criticized the ruling priests in Jerusalem for being too cozy with Rome. For living in palaces while ignoring widows and orphans.

Jesus and his followers weren't the radicals. They were calling Israel back to the Law of Moses.

A couple years later, they found a second synagogue at Magdala. Larger. More public.
And when skeptics said the decorated stone was a one-off, God answered. The very next year, they found another one at a different site.

Dr. Evans walks through the entire discovery and what it means for how we understand Jesus.

Episode drops tomorrow morning.

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