 Interior of the octagonal church built over the House of St. Peter |
Capernaum (Kefar Nahum)
(Matthew 4:13)
“And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the seacoast, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali:”
The site of ancient Capernaum is on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee, 4 km. southwest of the mouth of the Jordan River. Capernaum was located alongside the ancient highway from the Holy Land to the kingdoms of the Fertile Crescent.
Here Jesus began his preaching career.
One Jewish tradition believes the town to have been named after the prophet Nahum. It was well known during the Second Temple, Roman and Byzantine Periods. Its residents participated in the Jewish Revolt against Rome.
For Christians, it is important as the birthplace of Peter, and where Jesus once lived, preached and performed miracles. (It is related in the New Testament that when the town’s residents disapproved of Jesus’ preaching, he cursed them.) In the 4th century a Jewish apostate, Joseph of Tiberias, built………
