Hirschfeld (1993:354) reported significant reconstruction evidence from the Monastery of Euthymius which likely followed destruction during the Jordan Valley Earthquakes of 659/660 CE, consistent with the seismic destruction mentioned in the Maronite Chronicle. Hirschfeld (1993:354) explained that the severity of damage was apparent during excavation: most of the monastery—except the crypt, whose vaults remained intact, and another vault at the north end of the church—had to be rebuilt after the earthquake.

Hirschfeld added that the basilical church was reconstructed over these surviving vaults, which he clarified “are not Byzantine, as Chitty suggests, but early Muslim.” The new church floor was decorated with fine mosaic patterns dated stylistically to the early Muslim period, confirming that the reconstruction occurred soon after the 659 CE earthquake, probably in the second half of the 7th century. Chitty had previously dated the church to 482 CE even before beginning excavation, but this was contradicted by Père Savignac, who dated the mosaics to the 7th–8th centuries. Chitty later reiterated his early date despite this evidence.