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ONE OF THE most familiar of Bible images is that of Jesus and his disciples in a boat on the Sea of Galilee. Since several of the twelve were fishermen it was only natural for Jesus to make use of a fisherman’s boat to travel to and fro across Galilee between the various towns and villages that lined its shore in those prosperous times. Mark in fact records that Jesus “spake to his disciples, that a little boat should wait on him because of the crowd” (3:9, RV), and shortly afterwards he used it as a teaching platform when the shore became too crowded to teach from (Mk. 4:1). Thereafter Mark tends to speak of “the boat” (RV), indicating that it was this particular boat that Jesus and his disciples continued to use; and it is reasonable to suppose that it was one belonging to the fishing partnership of Peter and Andrew, or that of John and James, placed at the disposal of the Master for as long as he required it.

What did this boat look like? A remarkable recent discovery gives us a good idea of what a fishing boat on Galilee two thousand years ago looked like. In January 1986, following a period of drought, the waters of the Sea of Galilee were unprecedentedly low. Two residents of Kibbutz Nof Ginnosar, midway between Capernaum and Tiberias on the western shores of the sea, noticed the outline of a boat on the exposed mud. Shelley Wachsmann, Inspector of Underwater Antiquities for the Israeli Government’s Department of Antiquities, was called in, and, after scraping some of the mud away, was able to state that the construction was in accordance with the way ancient boats were known to have been constructed.

A team of experts to excavate the boat was quickly formed. For eleven days and nights the team worked to clear away the mud. To stop the boat drying out and disintegrating it was covered with polyurethane and cocooned in plastic sheeting. It was then transported by water to a specially constructed conservation tank at Kibbutz Nof Ginnosar. Now it sits in its tank in the dark, gradually soaking up a synthetic wax solution intended to strengthen the cells of the wood so that it can eventually be put on full display to the public.

Close to the boat were found pottery fragments typical of the first century AD. Carbon-14 dating indicates construction between 120 B.C. and 40 A.D., and the world’s leading expert on ancient boat construction, Professor Richard Steffy of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology at the University of Texas, stated that the building technique was that used at the time of Jesus. The boat was chiefly made of cedar and oak, but other woods had been used, and there was evidence that it had been much repaired. In fact the boat was not complete; what was found was the hull, and other parts such as the sternpost and the stempost appeared to have been taken away for reuse.

What was the boat doing there? It was situated just off the ancient harbour of Migdal, the home of Mary Magdalene. Fragments of two other boats were found in the locality along with other wood debris, and the suggestion is that this was an area used for building and repairing boats. The boat discovered was a discarded hulk from which reusable parts had been removed.

How does the boat fit the picture that we have in the Scriptures? We have very little information in the Gospels about what the boat which Jesus used was like, but such as we have is entirely consistent with the excavated boat. The boat is estimated to have been big enough to carry a maximum of fifteen people; in the case of Jesus and the apostles there would of course have been thirteen. This is consistent with a reference in Josephus to ten passengers being transported in a fishing boat, since examination of the excavated boat shows that it would have had four rowers and a helmsman, and a mosaic found at Magdala shows a boat with two pairs of oars and a steering oar.

Boats of a similar size to the two-thousand-year-old discovery were in use on Galilee up to the early twentieth century. They used seine nets from about 500 to 1,500 feet long, the sort of net referred to in Matthew 13:47 which catches everything in its path. The use of a seine net requires a large stern platform, and it is interesting to note that in the Mark account of the stilling of the storm Jesus is stated to have been “in the stern, asleep on the cushion” (Mk. 4:38, RV). The two italicised words are very significant. If the fishing boat had a large stern platform then there would have been a space underneath it, ideal for the weary Jesus to use to catch up on some sleep, out of the way of the rowers. Hence he was in the stern, not on it.

As for the cushion, the definite article indicates that the reference is to a standard part of the boat’s equipment, and the reference is thought to be to a sand-filled bag used for ballast, as still used by Arab sailors a century ago and called by them either a ballast sack or a ballast pillow, according to size. Such would be stowed out of the way in the space under the stern platform when not being used, and would therefore have been available for Jesus to have rested his head on.

Until the ancient timbers of the Galilee boat have soaked up enough resin to preserve it for posterity it is not possible to see this exciting relic from the first century. Visitors to Nof Ginnosar are shown a film about the discovery of the boat, and can visit the darkened chamber where the boat lies in its tank, and glimpse just a small part of it. Within a year or two, however, visitors to Israel will be able to see the boat in full daylight, and will be able to visualise more clearly Jesus and the disciples going to and fro across the Sea of Galilee in their missions of preaching and healing.

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