A historian believes he has found the site of Jesus Christ's first miracle — and has new evidence to back it up, Fox News reports.

The Holy Scriptures give limited details about Jesus' first miracle, which is said to have taken place in Cana. The Gospel of John states that Jesus turned water into wine during a wedding in the village.

“Nearby were six stone water jars, the kind the Jews use for ritual washing, each holding twenty to thirty gallons,” the Gospel says. "Jesus told the servants, ‘Fill the jars with water,’ and they filled them to the brim.

The passage continues: “Then he said to them, ‘Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.’ They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine.”

The prevailing theory is that Cana, an Israeli town in Galilee, is the real location of Cana. According to the 1914 Catholic Encyclopedia, pilgrims have long venerated this site.

But historian Tom McCulloch says that Cana was actually located five miles north of Kafr Kana.

The site, called Hirbet Cana, was a Jewish village from 323 BC to 324 AD.

McCollough taught religion and history at Centre College until his retirement in 2017. He told Pen News that Khirbet Qana presents the most compelling evidence to date.

“No other village has as much compelling evidence in favor of Khirbet Qana,” he said.

The main evidence is a series of tunnels used by Christians, marked with various crosses and references to Christ, dating back more than 1,500 years.

“We discovered a large complex of caves used for worship by Christian pilgrims who came to honor the miracle of the conversion of water into wine,” McCulloch said.

“This complex was used from the end of the 5th or early 6th century and continued to be used by pilgrims until the Crusades in the 12th century.”

During the excavations, McCulloch also discovered an altar and a shelf with a stone vessel.

He noted that there was room for five more vessels, in accordance with the biblical account of six stone vessels.

On the walls of the complex, his team of archaeologists also found references to Kyrie Iesou (Κύριε Ἰησοῦ), a Koine Greek phrase meaning Lord Jesus.

“The texts of pilgrims from that period describing what they did and saw when they came to Cana in Galilee correspond very closely to what we have discovered as a place of worship,” he said.

McCollough also used the work of Josephus, a first-century Jewish historian, to support his thesis.

“His references to Cana correspond geographically with the location of Khirbet Cana and logically with his movements,” he said.

“References to Cana in Josephus, the New Testament, and rabbinic texts indicate that the village was Jewish, close to the Sea of Galilee, and in the region of Lower Galilee.”

He added: “Khirbet Kana meets all these criteria.”

McCollough also argues that Kafr Kana was not recognized as a place of worship in Cana until the 18th century, which refutes the Catholic version of the site.

“At that time, the Franciscans were in charge of Christian worship and facilitated passage, but were not interested in historical accuracy,” he said.

Overall, McCulloch believes that his excavations can support the historical accuracy of the Bible and that his findings “at least warrant a reconsideration of the historical value of John's references to Cana and Jesus.”

“The excavations showed us that this was actually a thriving Jewish village located in the heart of much of Jesus' life and ministry,” he said.

McCollough added: “For John's Gospel, Cana [was] in a sense a safe place or operational center for Jesus. It is the place where he and his disciples return when they encounter resistance in Judea.”

Archaeologists from around the world are working to uncover sites from the Bible.

In March, an archaeologist working at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem reported finding evidence of an ancient garden at a site that matches descriptions in the Bible. | BGNES