City
Joppa
JOP-uh · Modern Jaffa (Old Jaffa), Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel · Also called Jaffa
Joppa is a city of the biblical world, known today as Jaffa (Old Jaffa), Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel.
What is known
- Where Peter raised Tabitha (Dorcas) from the dead (Acts 9:36-42)
- Where Peter received his rooftop vision of the sheet with unclean animals, prompting him to preach to the Gentile centurion Cornelius (Acts 10:1-23)
- Peter stayed with a tanner named Simon here, whose house by the sea is still pointed out to visitors by tradition
History
- Founded
- An ancient Mediterranean port city, inhabited since at least the 18th century BC
- Population
- A significant port city, several thousand residents in the 1st century AD
- Industry
- Shipping and maritime trade — one of the few natural harbors on Israel's coast
- Coordinates
- 32.0504° N, 34.7522° E
Archaeology
Tel Yafo has yielded at least seven occupational strata, including a monumental Egyptian New Kingdom gateway (the "Ramesses Gate," bearing the name of Ramesses II) and Egyptian scarabs of Amenhotep III and Queen Tiy. A Hasmonean-era port and Hellenistic-period farmsteads have also been documented; the precise line of the 1st-century harbor remains debated among researchers.
Scripture references
- Acts 9:36-42 — Raising of Tabitha
- Acts 10:1-23 — Peter's vision
- Acts 11:5-13
On a modern map
Further reading
Reflect
In Joppa, Peter's rooftop vision stretched him past lifelong boundaries — which of your certainties might God want to loosen?
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