Capernaum

Faith Lesson:

Dvora talked about things that happened in Capernaum:

• Jesus healed a lame man who was brought to him by four of the man's friends.
• Peter's mother in law was healed.
• Jairus daughter rose from the dead.
• A women who had been bleeding for 12 years was healed. People who were bleeding were "untouchable".

In the Jewish setting, girls have their Bat Mitzva at 12 years of age.
Two women were healed in one day, one was physically dead (Jairus' 12-year-old daughter) the other spiritually dead (woman bleeding for 12 years).

This stone has an inscription:
"Alpheus the son of Zebidah the son of John made this column. May it be for him a blessing."

It is from the fifth century, and gives proof that those names were still around hundreds of years after Jesus' disciples James and John lived there.

The people of Capernaum were not poor.

A Gethsemane or oil press. The crushed olives would have been put in bags made from grasses(see Nazareth olive oil) . They would then be put underneath the big stone. The oil would go into the basin in front.


The big industry in Capernaum was olives. The crushers were made of basalt. It makes a good grinding stone because it doesn't get smaller during grinding. If you would make a mill stone out of limestone you would have stone dust in your food all the time.


This is very likely the ruin of the apostle Peter's house, where a Messianic church met. They believe it to be Messianic because early sources say that there were no Christians in Capernaum. A Christian was a gentile. Someone who was Messianic was a Jew who believed Yeshua (Jesus) was their Messiah.

The houses were built out of black basalt. They were small houses for multiple families around a courtyard. These houses are called insulas.

The synagogue is white on a black base. The limestone (white) was most likely rebuilt on top of the old synagogue. The base is likely from the synagogue that was there in Jesus' time. It has a great room beside it for study of the Torah.