I'm John Dasch who is my colleague Theius McCutter and the dusty one is here,

the chapeau, the bullwhip, a bag of tricks, and he's grinning big time.

He's found something in Megido.

Yes, Indiana.

You have found something that you are shipping

to the US Museum of the Bible?

It is true, a very exciting discovery of a mosaic floor that is believed to be the world's

earliest Christian prayer hall in Megido, which was it came about because of an excavation.

And as you know, whenever in Israel anything is to be built, they have to excavate the land around it, and always find something.

Well, this was for a sports field, and they found this,

dating back to the year 300, a prayer hall,

predating when churches were established but here you had a

beautiful mosaic about 580 square feet with a Greek inscription the God-loving Acapadas has offered the table to God Jesus as a memorial

The mosaic is preserved and has geometrical figures but also images of fish,

an early Christian symbol, as well as the names of the donors,

including women, and it shows their role in the early years

and the name of a Roman army officer,

a centurion who was serving in a camp nearby.

This was right adjacent to a Roman era community that was abandoned then

because of the persecution of Christians under the Romans they

eventually left the site the area belonged to what was known as LIGIO

and the Hebrew name was Kefar Uthnai and the L. E. G. I. O. G. I. O'G. I. And the community there, they say, knew Jesus in the earlier period.

...