Lenten Journey with Jesus

Week 3: Capernaum

This is a long view of the ancient synagogue at Capernaum. You can see the beautiful detailed columns with header. Some of the pillars have been replaced (they are replicated) or portions are missing. A

typical synagogue would have allowed men to worship on the lower floor and there was a gallery above for women. In Jewish worship the men and women worshipped in separate areas.

This is a cross-view look of what the Capernaum synagogue probably looked like and it is drawn to scale. As you see there are porticoes alongside of the interior of the synagogue and people would have

sat on low benches.

This is a portion of the synagogue floor. As you can see the tile pieces are extremely small. The handwork is very intricate and there are colors too, some yellow, blue, green, and orange.

Another view of the synagogue floor, again the detail is exquisite.

This is an interior picture of the so-called “house of Peter.” I say so-called because archeologists have argued back and forth, but we do know that the house is from the first century. The basalt stone walls are still in tack as well. From the house you can literally throw a stone to the Sea of Galilee, it is not

that far away, perhaps a few yards. The ancient synagogue was the center of the village and the houses were located close-by. The village was not that large and most villagers were somehow connected to

either farming or fishing.

This is a somewhat closer picture of the same house. Notice the rock wall which is the outline of the original house.

Picture of the Sea of Galilee at early morning from a hotel in Tiberias which is about four miles due west of Capernaum. Across the sea is the village of Gergasa where Jesus drove out the demons from

the possessed man and the pigs drowned in the sea.

This is a first century ancient boat which was actually found in the bottom of the Sea of Galilee. The wood was mostly intact and this is a typical size of a typical fishing boat. You can see that they were

quite small, only 2-4 men would fit, 3 probably would be a tight fit. The boat was found in January 1986 by a team of archeologists. The boat was sitting in a vat of mud near the shore of the Sea of Galilee.

What an amazing discovery!

This is a model of what the boat would have most likely have looked like.

This is a photo of pottery which was found next to the boat in the Sea of Galilee. To the right are some nails that were found. The piece of pottery is most likely a storage container for olive oil which was a

precious part of the economy during the time of Jesus.

A detailed look at the top of a column. The whitish part is a reconstructed or reconfigured column of what it originally looked like. The Romans loved beauty and their buildings were really works of art.

Can you guess what these are? Okay, I’ll tell you---anchors! Metal was very expensive so fishermen used these anchors in their boats, when they went out fishing they’d tie some rope on the end of these

and voila, they’d be anchored for a while so that they could go fishing.