Sepphoris Theater

A 4,000-seat theater was first excavated at Sepphoris in 1931 and has been the subject of considerable academic debate ever since. Some scholars believe that Jesus himself may have sat on the theater’s semicircular limestone benches. But Chancey and Meyers doubt that the theater was constructed before the end of the first century C.E. If Jesus did walk the streets of Sepphoris, he would have encountered a bustling city, but one that lacked many of the architectural hallmarks of a Hellenistic urban center.