13 And having come to the parts of Caesarea Philippi, Jesus was asking his disciples, saying, ‘Who do men say that the Son of man is?’
14 And they said, ‘Some John the Baptist, others Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’
15 He says to them, ‘And who do you say that I am?’
16 And answering Simon Peter said, ‘You are the Christ, the son of the living God.’
In 1998 Dr Andrew Overman discovered the ruins of a large Roman temple at Horbat Omrit. He believes that the temple was built by Herod in Caesarea Philippi to honour Augustus at the time when the emperor was coming to be worshipped as a living God. He suggests that the phrase ‘the son of living God’ in Peter’s confession (not found in Mark 8:29) reflects a conscious challenge to the divinity of Augustus. See the BBC article ‘Searching for the historical Jesus’; and Gabi Mazor, ‘Horbat Omrit - A Roman Temple at the Foot of Mount Hermon’.
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