Bethsaida Excavations Project

Archaeology of the First Century

The nature of the question of asking for evidence of a first century Bethsaida incorporates a lot of the surrounding presumption of what the first century looked like in the Galilee region. To quote Mark A. Chancey on the matter: "Indeed one wonders if some scholars have started with the view that Galilee's population was mixed and then searched for reasons to explain why it was so." Chancey also makes the point that “the presence of Hellenism at a site does not necessarily indicate the presence of pagans, and the presence of pagans does not necessarily of Hellenism.” That observation contravenes many earlier studies that pick up on the language that F.E. Peters employs. Namely that “since the days of the Greek colonization in the wake of Alexander they lived in an atmosphere dominated by Hellenism and the Hellenized Syrians who ruled the cities. Peters' comments are echoed or presaged in many studies that may fall into two basic categories, those of bucolic Galilee or those of urbanized Galilee. The varying views include a kind of “ghettoized” division between Urban Hellenism and rural Judaism, one which expects “Athens-on-the-Kinneret” nearby to Talmudic villages. These perspectives, albeit caricatured representations of them, represent the influence of religious and literary restorations of what life must have been like in the first century. All may have to accept another reality, that perhaps Philip Herod's “second city” was one filled with unrealized delusions of grandeur appearing only in imagination and not actualized in the humble basalt structures at et-Tell. more

Religion, Ethnicity and Identity in Ancient Galilee
A Region in Transition
Edited by Jürgen Zangenberg, Harold W. Attridge and Dale B.Martin, 2007. http://www.mohr.de/v/pdf/MohrKurier3-2006.pdf

What is a Galilean? What were the criteria of defining a person as a Galilean – archaeologically or with
respect to literary sources such as Josephus or the rabbis? What role did religion play in the process of identity formation? Twenty-two articles based on papers read at conferences at Cambridge,Wuppertal and Yale by experts from 7 countries shed light on a complex region, the pivotal geographic and cultural context of both earliest Christianity and rabbinic Judaism. Contents include: Identity at Ground Level:
New Evidence from Sites and Regions of Galilee-- Carl Savage: Supporting Evidence for a First-Century Bethsaida

The Archeology of Worship in Biblical Israel
Baltimore Hebrew University April 22-23, 2007
The interdisciplinary interplay of Biblicists, archaeologists, and other scholars will illuminate not only the ideology and practice underlying Biblical literary depiction of worship, but will also demonstrate how archaeological evidence helps to create meaning and leads to a richer understanding of worship as depicted in the Bible. Presented a poster on The Sacred Precinct of Bethsaida/Et-Tell. poster

Narrative Research in Ministry: A Postmodern Research Approach for Faith Communities
by Savage and Presnell

"I know of no work like the one you are about to read. Its richness and rarity comes from an uncommon combination of the particular and the universal.The particular is a laser-like focus on the D.Min. project and the authors' proposed shift from a problem-solving methodology to a conversation-starting, metaphor-exegeting, story-catching/story-telling, systems-thinking, preferred-futures approach, or what they call a A postmodern narrative approach to ministry research.The universal is a wide-angle view of the changes taking place in culture today and the need to reinvent the ways in which theological education delivers ideas, information, and best practices to the tens of thousands of religious leaders who have the closest day-to-day contact with people." --Len Sweet
Review: http://journal.oates.org/current/105-review-nrim

The book is now available from the Wayne Oates Institute. Savage, Carl and William Presnell, Narrative Research in Ministry: A Postmodern Research Approach for Faith Communities. (Louisville: Wayne E. Oates Institute, 2008). ISBN: 978-1-892990-28-0

BIO

Dr. Carl E. Savage is the Director of the Drew DMIN program. His educational background is in biblical interpretation as well as sociology of religion, the origins of Christianity and archaeology. He is a registered professional archaeologist and serves as the Assistant Director of Excavations for the Bethsaida Excavations Project. Dr. Savage is a member of the steering committee for Association of Doctor of Ministry Education (ADME).

He began teaching at Drew's Theological School in the Fall of 1999. He received his A.B.(1975) in Sociology and Religion from Princeton University, his M.Div. (1978) and D.Min. (1983) from The Wesley Theological Seminary (Washington, D.C.), and his M.Phil. (2001) from the Caspersen School of Graduate Studies at Drew. He received his Ph.D. with distinction in October 2007..

 

 

Carl E. Savage  ¦  12 Campus Drive  ¦  Madison, NJ 07940  ¦  (973) 408-3586  ¦  csavage@drew.edu