For centuries, scholars believed that the words of Jesus were fully captured within the canonical Gospels, leaving no room for missing teachings.

However, a remarkable find at Elor, near the Sea of Galilee, is challenging that certainty.

Archaeologists uncovered a Byzantine-era mosaic floor preserved under layers of mud and silt, containing an ancient inscription that includes a direct command from Jesus to Peter—words never before recorded in any Gospel.

Bethsaida, the hometown of Peter, Andrew, and Philip, has long been debated as a biblical site.

This fishing village, central to Jesus’ ministry, was known for miracles such as the healing of a blind man and the feeding of the 5,000.

Yet it was also one of the few cities Jesus openly cursed for its unbelief, and by the fourth century, it had vanished from maps and records, swallowed by time and nature.

The excavation at Elor began under difficult conditions—waterlogged soil and persistent flooding made progress slow and challenging.

Initial digs yielded little but mud and pottery shards until a volunteer’s trowel struck a solid structure.

Beneath Byzantine ruins stood the remains of a first-century house—humble fishermen’s homes consistent with the era of Jesus’ ministry.

A Byzantine church was built directly atop this house, an extraordinary choice reflecting the builders’ conviction that this was the very home of Simon Peter.

The church’s mosaic floor bore an inscription dedicating the site to a bishop but also included a striking passage referring to Peter as “chief and commander of the heavenly apostles,” affirming his supreme authority—a point long debated among Christian denominations.

The most astonishing part was a hidden medallion within the mosaic, revealed only through infrared imaging.

It contained a previously unknown saying of Jesus: “Guard my house, for I go to prepare the heavens.”

Unlike the canonical texts, this message commands Peter not only to lead but to protect a specific “house,” possibly Peter’s own home, which might represent a spiritual gateway or sacred threshold.

This phrase “guard my house” is unprecedented in scripture and suggests a deeper, more mystical role for Peter as a sentinel standing watch over a crucial point where the earthly and heavenly realms intersect.

The notion aligns with early Christian and Gnostic writings about guardianship of spiritual boundaries—texts later suppressed by institutional Christianity.

The discovery forces a reevaluation of early Christian authority and tradition.

It hints at lost teachings and a version of Christianity that embraced cosmic and mystical dimensions, now buried beneath centuries of orthodoxy and silence.

Bethsaida itself emerges as a unique locus where miracles defied natural laws—healing the blind, feeding thousands, walking on water—suggesting the physical space was more than a backdrop but a spiritual nexus.

This mosaic, preserved by generations of believers through persecution and upheaval, carries a message waiting to be heard by a generation ready to question established narratives.

It opens the door to reconsidering how much of early Christian history remains hidden and what revelations might yet come.