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The Holy Land in a week · Stop 17 · Day 6

Capernaum

Fallen columns and carved stones among the ruins of Capernaum, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, c. 1890–1900.
Fallen columns and carved stones among the ruins of Capernaum, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, c. 1890–1900.Photochrom, Library of Congress · no known restrictions on publication

In the Bible

Jesus made His home in Capernaum: He taught in its synagogue on the Sabbath, and here four men lowered a paralyzed man to Him through a roof.

Mark 1:21Then Jesus and His companions went to Capernaum, and right away Jesus entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and began to teach.
Mark 2:1–4A few days later Jesus went back to Capernaum. And when the people heard that He was home, they gathered in such large numbers that there was no more room, not even outside the door, as Jesus spoke the word to them. Then a paralytic was brought to Him, carried by four men. Since they were unable to get to Jesus through the crowd, they uncovered the roof above Him, made an opening, and lowered the paralytic on his mat.

Tradition

By a tradition kept by the town's Christians, Jesus stayed in Peter's house here; a house church and later, in the 5th century, an octagonal church were built over it.

Here today

Excavations with a white limestone synagogue of the 4th–5th centuries, a modern church of 1990 raised over Peter's house, and a red-domed Greek Orthodox church.

Through the eyes of old pilgrims

We had left Capernaum behind us. It was only a shapeless ruin. It bore no semblance to a town, and had nothing about it to suggest that it had ever been a town. But all desolate and unpeopled as it was, it was illustrious ground.Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad, 1869

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Land outlines: Natural Earth (public domain).