Galilee — Capernaum and the Sea
Dear Friends,
Here is the missing blog post! I don’t know why it didn’t post and just reappeared now. Technology is so strange. Capernaum is one of my top favorite spots. Enjoy!
DS
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Dear Friends,
As I’m sure you know, Jesus grew up in Nazareth and spent much of his public life around the Sea of Galilee and in the Galilean region. So, naturally, I wanted to spend some time there. However, due to our old friend COVID-19 only one church was open. Nevertheless, I have seen the landscape that Jesus walked through and taught in; moreover, I am not dead of plague. Therefore, it was a successful two days.
As per usual, my historical and archaeological information comes from either the readings available on site or Come and See by Fr. Charles Samson.
Capernaum (meaning: Town of Nahum)
This town was Jesus’ home base during His public ministry. It is where the apostles Peter and Andrew lived. The town was also a tax outpost for the Via Maris; therefore, there was a Roman presence in the town that included the centurion that built the synagogue for the town (Lk 7:5).
The large white ruins area a limestone synagogue that was built over the basalt synagogue where Christ taught and scandalized people by teaching “with authority” (Mk 1:21–22), casting out an unclean spirit (Mk 1:24), and gave the Bread of Life discourse (Jn 6:26–59).
The limestone synagogue was built by Jewish Christians during the Byzantine period on top of basalt synagogue from Christ’s time. Researchers are pretty sure this is the case because the expensive limestone was cut to go around the basalt.
This indicates that it was a “demonstrative synagogue” intended to preserve the synagogue beneath it. The Jewish Christians of the Byzantine period wanted to preserve the remains of the synagogue where Jesus actually prayed, so they very carefully built on top of it.
Only a little ways away under the spaceship church is the house of Peter. The Byzantine (a.k.a. Gentile Christians) worshiped in Peter’s house. Apparently, the two groups didn’t get along very well until several centuries later.
Peter’s house was Christ healed many sick people (Mk 1:34) including the paralytic who was lowered through the roof by his friends (Mk 2:2–12).
Only a short walk away is the Sea of Galilee.
The sea was very peaceful on the day I was there. But, I’ve been around big lakes (bigger than this sea) during storms, so I can imagine it gets pretty rough with the right wind.
About 2.5km down the lake is Tabgha whose name derives from a long Greek word meaning “seven springs” which was adopted into Arabic and lost several syllables to become Tabgha. The place where the springs come together and dump into the Sea is called Ein (“spring” in Hebrew) Eyov. This is probably where James and John were washing their nets when Christ called them to follow Him (Mk 1:19–20). Peter and Andrew were also called somewhere in this area (Mk 1:16–18).
The Sea of Galilee is very full at the moment — a fact which makes the Israeli people happy because it was their major source of water before they developed their desalination plants. Because it is full, the water comes all the way up under the waterfall and there were people swimming around and under the waterfall. In other years, you can walk to the waterfall without getting wet. I suspect it was lower during the year that Christ called James and John because it isn’t really possible to walk along the shore at the moment and reach the waterfall.
The other places around Tabgha were closed due to COVID-19. But in this vicinity is the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves (Lk 9:10–17) and Church of the Peter’s Primacy (Jn 21:1–25).
The Galilee region reminded me a lot of the more arid areas of Montana except without the dramatic mountains. The hills were large and rolling with golden brown grass and random trees scattered throughout.
Pax, Friends, until next time!
DS
