Capernaum

Capernaum.

Fishing port, crossroads of routes and Roman garrison.

Inhabitants or Natives

Matthew (Levi) the tax collector turned apostle, Jairus, the synagogue leader, his wife and Miryam their daughter resurrected, the Pharisees Eli and his grandson Elisha healed by Jesus, Simon, Joachim, Uriah, Samuel, The Roman Centurion with such firm faith. Aggaeus the possessed healed, Thomas and his wife, hosts of Jesus, Alphaeus the child beaten and rejected by his mother Meroba, Peter’s mother-in-law, Benjamin the boy, Benjamin the elder, Levi the centenarian believer and his great-grandson, Johanna the young child and her brother Toby, Mary of Benjamin, Rebecca of Micah, Joanna, Saltida, Adina, poor but courageous mothers, Levi who forgets the Good Deeds received, Micah the young and Micah the elder, favorable to Jesus, Sarah of Aphek.

Description

The village closest to the Jordan on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee, near a spring that watered the Gennesaret Plain. Today a mound known as Tell Hum.

Significant Events

One of Jesus’ major places of residence. Many deeds and miracles were performed here including:

View of the archaeological site of Capernaum

• The healing of Aggaeus, the first of the possessed
• The healing of Peter’s mother-in-law
• The healing of the paralytic
• The calling of Matthew
• The healing of the centurion’s servant
• The resurrection of Jairus, the synagogue leader’s daughter
• The Bread of Heaven, the breaking discourse-
• Be wise as serpents

Name

Capernaum, םכפר נחו. Capernaum, Kefar Nahum, Kafarnaum, Kefar Tanhum. Today Tell Hum.

Capernaum means “Village of Nahum”. In the Middle Ages there was a pilgrimage to the supposed tombWater of the prophet.

Where is it mentioned in the work?

EMV 58 EMV 59 EMV 60 EMV 61 EMV 62 EMV 64 EMV 94 EMV 95 EMV 96 EMV 97 EMV 98
EMV 123 EMV 124 EMV 161 EMV 162 EMV 163 EMV 177 EMV 178
EMV 230 EMV 231 EMV 233 EMV 235 EMV 236 EMV 237 EMV 239 EMV 240 EMV 263 EMV 265 EMV 266 EMV 268 EMV 269 EMV 270 EMV 271
EMV 348 EMV 351 EMV 354 EMV 355
EMV 446 EMV 447 EMV 449 EMV 458 EMV 459 EMV 460
EMV 562 EMV 577

Learn More About This Place

Octagonal stone house church, Capernaum, in 2022.

Street, Capernaum, in 2022.

View of the lake, Capernaum, in 2022.

Located near a political border, it had a customs post and a military detachment. It was a prosperous Jewish city. During excavations, a synagogue was found consisting of a large hall with columns connected to a courtyard. A 4th-century sanctuary was found there, using older plastered walls decorated with bright colors. Among the graffiti discovered on detached pieces of plaster from the walls were the words: Amen, Lord, and Jesus. It was certainly the traditional house of Peter visited by pilgrims. The excavated houses in this area revealed a village measuring 800x250 m. A block of houses could accommodate 15 Families (130-150 people) and consisted of small rooms opening onto several inner courtyards. The remaining steps probably led to earth and straw flat roofs, as basalt and mud walls could not have supported an upper floor. This corresponds to the incident concerning the paralytic in Mark 2:4. The block in question was continuously occupied from the 1st century BC and the original walls survived until the 7th century AD.

Excerpt from the Geographical Dictionary of the Gospel Salton Maria Valtorta, by Jean-François Lavère:

Jesus stayed many times in this lakeside village. He performed many miracles here, some of which are mentioned in the Gospels: the healing of a possessed man; the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law; the healing of the paralytic; the healing of the centurion’s servant; the resurrection of Jairus’ daughter; the healing of the woman with the hemorrhage, etc.

Not all the inhabitants of Capernaum knew how to appreciate the gift of God, which earned them a sharp rebuke from Jesus. “And you, Capernaum, do you think that only for having given me hospitality you will be exalted to Heaven? You will descend to hell. For if the miracles I gave you had been done in Sodom, it would still be flourishing, because it would have believed in Me and repented”.

Maria Valtorta’s text contains very many rigorous details about this village. While the location of the synagogue was already identified during the mystic’s lifetime, it was quite otherwise with the house of Peter’s mother-in-law, which she perfectly located more than twenty years before its rediscovery! She also mentioned repeatedly the Fig Tree Well, whose existence is confirmed by archaeology.

Capernaum is located on the northeast edge of the Sea of Galilee, 16 km north of Tiberias, and 5 km from the mouth of the Jordan River. Mentioned sixteen times in the Gospels, it is the place mentioned the most after Jerusalem. The city was active from the 2^nd century BC until the 7^th century AD. It had up to 1500 inhabitants. From the Middle Ages, the exact location of Capernaum was completely forgotten. Partially identified during the 19th century, the site was subject to more systematic excavations from 1968 to 1984, leading to the discovery of the “House of Peter” and the remains of the 1^st-century synagogue under the ruins of a later synagogue.

Explore

• 32°53’ N / 35° 34’ 30’’ E

• -210m

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