Where in Israel is Pastor George? : Capernaum, Zippori, Nazareth, St Josephs

This was a VERY full day and included some genuine surprises – things about the life of Jesus and his mother that I’d never even heard, and elements of daily life in the time of Jesus that will rock you back on your heels!

We started in Capernaum. This is the hometown of Peter, and a place where Jesus lived (Matthew 4:13). It is north of Jerusalem, on the northern edge of the Sea of Galilee. This is the site of St Peter’s Basilica, a church built above the ruins of Peter’s own home.

If you look at the center of the church you can see a black railing surrounding glass windows in the floor. If you look down through these windows, you can see the walls of what was once Peter’s house.

Until recently, this view didn’t exist, but there was a church here that “tradition” said had been built above Peter’s home. Some foundation problems required excavation beneath it, and back in the 1980s the house was found. It had plaster walls (implying it had been fixed up for meetings), fishing gear going back 2000 years, and early Christian graffiti. Even the secular archeologists concluded it was indeed Peter’s home.

The gospels report that Capernaum was also the home of James, John, Andrew and Matthew! It was the main place of Jesus’ ministry after he left Nazareth, and is where he healed Peter’s mother-in-law, the servant of a Roman centurion, and the paralytic lowered through the roof for healing.

The local synagogue is just a few feet from Peter’s home and the remains of many other homes can be seen in the distance between the synagogue and Peter’s home.

“They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law.... As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. Simon's mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told Jesus about her. So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up.” (Mark 1:21-22, 29-30)

Here’s a diagram of what the synagogue looked like. This synagogue is one of my favorite places in Israel.

Next we went to Zippori. Ever hear of it? It’s not in the Bible. It has only recently been excavated. But it is likely that Joseph and Jesus both worked here. It was a huge city just a couple of miles from Nazareth. Nazareth at the time was a tiny village with perhaps 6-8 buildings and a small population. Zippori was the home of Mary and her parents, traditionally Joachim and Anna. Joachim was apparently the rabbi of the synagogue there, and it could well be where Joseph met her.

Here’s a model of what the city looked like after Herod Antipas renovated and expanded it, making it his capital city until perhaps 18 AD. It would not be surprising if both Joseph and Jesus worked on the building of the city: the timing is right, their skills were right, and they lived nearby.

It contained a huge main market, a theater that sat 4-5,000 people, and a luxurious residence at the apex. The main street (the Cardo) followed Roman norms for design (like the one in Jerusalem several days ago). It ran north-south, had a wide center road for vehicles, and a wide covered sidewalk on each side, with many stores. It was an ancient outdoor covered mall!

At right angles to the Cardo was the Decumanus Maximus, the large street that ran east-west. Click the picture to see it in detail. In the center is the road for vehicles, and on either side are sidewalk inlaid with mosaic tiles (about 1” square each), and large columns that supported the roof over the sidewalk. Lining the sidewalk were many stores.

One of the stores was the mosaic tile store , and it had several rooms of sample mosaic floors that local home owners could see before they ordered.

These could also include artistic designs or custom designs.

Also present in one corner of the mall was a map of the mall! If you look carefully, you can see symbols that indicate the kinds of stores. One of the symbols is for woodworking (just below and to the left of the two ugly brown spots toward the bottom right). This could have been Joseph’s store, or a co-op store for many local carpenters.

The theater could seat up to 5000, and the stage was 156x27 feet. I crawled underneath it (not a common tourist spot) and found the area that used to be dressing rooms and work areas for actors and stagehands.

Up above the theater and overlooking the whole town was a magnificent residence. It was built after the time of Jesus but well reflected the importance of the city. It even included a flush toilet with an inscription in the mosaic floor that says, “God bless you.”

The main living room had a complex and detailed mosaic floor (perhaps purchased from the mall store?) with one especially beautiful woman’s face, nicknamed the “Mona Lisa of Zippori.”

Down the hill a bit from this residence and the theater was the synagogue. Though the remains that are there now are probably slightly later than Jesus’ time it is believed that Mary’s father was the local rabbi of the synagogue.

Zippori was a thriving international city, with strong Greek and Roman culture mixed with the local Jewish population. Jesus would have been exposed to the best and the worst of all of this from a very young age.

Zippori later became the home of the Sanhedrin and was the place where the Mishnah was canonized.

Finally we went to Nazareth, the boyhood home of Jesus. In his day it was tiny, but today it is quite a large city with both Arab and Jewish residents. Both are Israeli citizens. The Arabs are divided between Christians and Muslims, and all live together, though with some tensions.

Nazareth has a huge church that is traditionally the site of the annunciation to Mary by the angel that she would bear a son.

Inside the church is a small altar and grotto where this was believed to have taken place.

Up above on a second level – some 30 feet higher – is a huge new church built from funds raised all over the world.

Each contributing country also gave a huge painting or sculpture to adorn the walls.The United States produced one of Mary, celebrating her immaculate conception.

After visiting the Basilica, we went over to the Greek Orthodox church of St Joseph. Elections were underway in Israel, and so there were political banners for candidates everywhere. We even saw a car with a sign and a blaring loudspeaker advertising the local Communist Party candidates. Across the street from St Joseph’s we saw their headquarters, and they had a drum corps out in front, pounding away noisily. They did not succeed in the elections.