Yesterday was such a busy day; I'm going to end up doing three separate posts about it and that's with combining some of the stops! It's only been a day and I already honestly don't remember the order that we did everything, so I'm just going to group things that go together. Due to scheduling logistics we ended up driving back and forth around the sea several times. That's amazing when you think that before the Six Day War in 1967 we would have been entering Syria if we went around the lake and that wouldn't have been possible.
We went to Capernaum which is well known in Scripture as "Jesus' base camp" as Joel called it. Jesus' ministry wasn't responded to very well in Nazareth, considering they tried to drive Him off a cliff (see Luke 4:14-29), so in Matthew 4:13 we see, "leaving Nazareth, He went and lived in Capernaum." While we were there, Joel did some teaching in the ancient ruins of the synagogue
There are ancient ruins all over this country and hundreds, if not thousands, of sites waiting to be excavated. And the stuff isnt' behind glass in a museum! It's just there for you to walk through, in and around! There are literally "column graveyards" almost everyplace we go. Carved column capstones will be just laying on the ground in the grass. I told Jimmy today, "What's the monetary value of a first century column or capstone? Absolutely nothing...there's too many of them." They don't even bother to pick up many of the pieces of pottery out of the sites. Small pieces are so prevalent that they just don't mess with them.
After leaving the synagogue we "crossed the street" to Peter's house. According to Matthew 8:14, it was here that Jesus healed Peter's mother-in-law of a fever. Of course, it has a Catholic church built over it but it is fascinating to see how they build things on top of ancient sites while still preserving the original site. In this picture, the square shaped ruins in the middle are what remains of the house. You can see a wall behind it, which goes all the way around the house. These are remains of a 4th century church that was built on the site. Built over the site is what honestly looks like a spaceship landing on earth. The structure at the top of the picture is the modern Catholic church.
Also on Sunday we went to Tabgha where Jesus fed the 4,000 (Matthew 15:29-39). It is also believed to be the site where Jesus appeared to Peter and some of the other disciples while they were fishing after He had resurrected. He was on the seashore, had a fire started, and after performing a miracle helping them to catch more fish than they could carry, they came onto the shore and ate with Him. Christ went on to reinstate Peter as one of His disciples with the well known story of Christ asking Peter three times, "Do you love Me?" to which Peter answered affirmatively, and Christ then told him to "Feed His lambs." (John 21) Of course there is a Catholic church just off the beach but I like this picture better...
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1 comment:
Totally fascinating!
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