Fishing Boat

Episode 1

We know that the Sea of Galilee was a good place to fish but how big were the boats?

Actually it is very difficult to know what these boats looked like as only a small part of one, the hull (its bottom), has been found by historians. So we had to design a first century boat ourselves. We understand that the boat would have been made of oak and cedar and rigged with a square sail.

There were three types of fish in the Sea of Galilee at the time of Jesus. One is now called St Peter's Fish although it does have the name Musht as well. The others are the Barbel and a type of Sardine. People think that's the fish that was brought to the feeding of the five thousand.

Jesus sought followers from amongst the fishermen and not amongst farm workers. People think that most fishermen were 'freemen' not slaves like many farm labourers who weren't free to move.

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