{"id":470630,"date":"2026-06-01T12:36:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T12:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/470630\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T12:36:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T12:36:12","slug":"12-year-old-finds-ancient-gemstone-in-galilean-jewish-village-cursed-by-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/470630\/","title":{"rendered":"12-year-old finds ancient gemstone in Galilean Jewish village cursed by Jesus"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 12-year-old schoolboy recently discovered a precious gemstone dating back at least 1,500 years in the Korazim National Park<\/a> in the Upper Galilee, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority said Monday. Korazim was an ancient Jewish village that, according to the New Testament, was cursed by Jesus for rejecting his teachings.<\/p>\n

The stone, a prestigious variety of agate known as \u201cNicolo,\u201d which was probably set in a piece of jewelry from Roman or Byzantine times (1st \u2013 6th centuries CE), was found by Alon Horowitz during a community excavation carried out by the Parks Authority in cooperation with Ariel University in the West Bank.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter three days of excavations, about 10 minutes before we finished, I was digging with a pickaxe and suddenly saw something blue, round, and special,\u201d Horowitz, who is attending Ramat Korazim Regional Elementary School, said, according to a statement by the Parks Authority. \u201cI picked it up and showed it to the archaeologist. When I realized it was something rare, I felt really happy and proud.\u201d<\/p>\n

Located a few kilometers north of the Sea of Galilee, Korazim was the site of a Jewish village for about a millennium, starting from the end of the Second Temple Period around 2,000 years ago until the 11th century CE.<\/p>\n

The town is mentioned in both the gospels of Matthew and Luke as one of the locations that did not heed his teachings.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThen [Jesus] began to rebuke the cities in which most of His mighty works had been done, because they did not repent: \u2018Woe to you, Chorazin!\u2019\u201d reads a passage from Matthew (11:20-21, New King James Version).<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tSchoolchildren taking part in a community excavation at the Korazim National Park in the spring of 2026. (Hadar Quint Nature and Parks Authority)<\/p>\n

Remains from the Byzantine period, when the Talmudic sages lived, include an impressive synagogue, a ritual bath, a winepress, an olive press, and other agricultural installations.<\/p>\n

According to Director of Excavation Achia Cohen Tavor of Ariel University, the Nicolo stone was popular in Roman times as a clear status symbol of prestige and high social standing, suggesting that Korazim was also home to wealthier individuals.<\/p>\n

\u201cSmall finds like this open a large window into the personal lives of the residents of ancient Korazim, not only its buildings and streets, but also to their world of beauty, personal status, and connections,\u201d he said in the statement.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tThe site of an excavation at the Korazim National Park, where a winepress and mosaic have been unearthed in March 2019. (Achia Cohen-Tavor\/Israel Nature and Parks Authority)<\/p>\n

The recent find does not mark the first time a young visitor has come across a rare artifact by chance at the Korazim National Park.<\/p>\n

In 2021, a girl found a 1,500-year-old bronze coin<\/a> on the ground.<\/p>\n


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\t\t\tAlready a member? Sign in to stop seeing this<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 12-year-old schoolboy recently discovered a precious gemstone dating back at least 1,500 years in the Korazim National…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2520,204685,71134,85,46,7497,218767,43,218766],"class_list":["post-470630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-archaeology","tag-archaeology-in-israel","tag-ariel-university","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-jesus","tag-new-testament","tag-news","tag-upper-galilee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}