Capernaum - The town of Jesus

hi everyone and welcome back to the channel this is david hyman your tour guide in israel today we are touring at the site of farnachum capernaum so join me on this wonderful tour everyone to get here take road 90 north of tiberias then turn right onto road 87 and drive about five minutes until you see the sign leading you to kfanaju the sign says the town of jesus so let's enter and understand why the town was active from the first century until the 10th century for about a thousand years but then was abandoned and lost until the franciscans purchased the ruins back in 1894 and have been excavating and restoring the site ever since let's visit the two most important highlights of capernaum the synagogue and the house of saint peter so after jesus was rejected from nazareth he relocates and he chooses to move down here by the shore of the sea of galilee to this village of capernaum in hebrew it means the village of nachum why would he come down here there are probably many reasons one of them of obvious he has friends here peter and his brother andrew are residents of this area and the other couple of brothers james and john the sons of zebedee are also residents of this area they're all fishermen by the lake so by coming here he already has a group of friends that he can relate to they can protect him together they become a group and we also know that the town was on the highway on the main road the villa maris we know that because they found milestones here and we also read in the scripture that there was a centurion a roman officer there were tax collectors so it's on the highway and we also know that it is very close to what was then the border the border between galilee and judea where herod antepas is the governor to phillips parsh portion of the land is a few miles away and therefore by being close to the border it's possible for jesus to get on the boat and sail away from danger jesus chooses capernaum as his hometown for the two to three years of his life that we call the ministry of galilee most homes of the town are built out of the local black basalt rocks the one building that stands out is the synagogue built out of white limestone let's go into the ancient synagogue so this is the late 4th century white synagogue built upon the remains of the synagogue of jesus you can see the older synagogue was made out of basil's rock and then in the 5th century a renovation was made and the white synagogue was built on top the white synagogue was built in the basilica design with two rows of columns dividing the space into two naves the entrance is decorated with carved stone freezes with typical jewish symbols such as flower reefs palm trees and geometric designs i would like to mention the ongoing dispute whether this was really built as a synagogue those who oppose argue that the building looks more like a roman temple and that the orientation is reverse as the building is facing north instead of south towards jerusalem those who argue that it is a synagogue show that their seats on three sides and the symbols carved into the decorated stones are jewish symbols so the argument whether the old synagogue was a synagogue or not i think this display here gives the answer a star of david here's an amphora with grapes growing out of it here hebrew inscription and the menorah another star david grapes pomegranates another star of david this mobile arc on wheels could explain the orientation problem once the community is ready they would roll the ark into the building and the congregation would turn and face the holy ark there is a pit here where you can look down and see possibly the ruins of an earlier synagogue maybe even back to the first century to the time of jesus because they walked over to the house look how close the synagogue is to the house we're now we're in the synagogue and there's the house right underneath the church that's on the stilts very close to the synagogue the excavations revealed a house that looks very different than all the other homes of the town the house was enlarged and expanded three times and the final phase was a fifth century octagonal church with a mosaic floor the explanation is that this must have been the house owned by saint peter and his family and one room was jesus's room the early christians living in the town venerated this room then later turned it into a house church domus ecclesia and finally during the byzantine period a church was built on the exact location of jesus's room in saint peter's house and of course the modern church was built on top about 20 years ago it was built on stilts so the ancient ruins of peter's house could remain visible and there's a glass floor inside the church where you can look down and see the ruins [Music] [Music] [Music] before we walk down to the beach let's take a closer look at the statue of simon son of jonah the galilean fisherman from kfan home in his hands he is holding the keys to the kingdom of heaven and the shepherd's staff and at his feet is the fish named after him saint peter's fish and the new name peter the rock given to him by jesus it says copy of the mosaic floor of the 5th century church built above saint peter's house and in the center of the mosaic is a depiction of a peacock the peacock was used in the ancient christian art as a symbol of the resurrection and the afterlife we see the peacock symbol in many churches in the holy land walking here on the shores of the sea of galilee is where i would like to remind us all that one can argue over the location of a building or a house but the lake lake near it hasn't changed the scenery the smell the sound of the water they are all exactly the same as they were back in the first century next time you visit make time to sit here for a few minutes and just let the lake guide you and i really hope that you enjoyed this tour of capernaum the town of jesus so if you did please give me a big thumbs up please subscribe to the channel and write a comment let me know where you'd like to go on our next tour of wonderful israel bye everyone and take care you

Channel: Israel with David Hyman

Views: 33,444

Keywords: Israel, David Hyman, Bible, Israel travel, Israel history, Israel sites, tourguide, holy land, Israel with David Hyman, Israel tour guide, Israel video tour, Jewish, Israel archaeology, biblical archaeology, Experience Israel with David Hyman, capernaum, capharnaum, kfar nahum, capernaum the town of jesus, israel capernaum, capernaum synagogue, capernaum church, capernaum the house of peter, capernaum sea of galilee, holyland capernaum

Id: yURJfvnInAU

Length: 9min 43sec (583 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 22 2021