Capernaum, Home of Jesus’ Public Ministry
Capernaum, the place in Mark’s Gospel where Jesus “was at home” during his public ministry, has been the site of much Christian activity and, also, of recent archaeological excavations (Mark 2:1). Archaeologist and Christians can differ in their conclusions about biblical sites, while offering insights facilitating the search for truth in the area being investigated. The town of Capernaum has in it a synagogue, a village and a house church all within the distance of 84 feet. The strata reveal two synagogues one on top of the other, and a Byzantine octagonal church built over two structures: a house church and a 1st-century C.E. house. In a unique way Mark’s Gospel depicts Jesus’ public ministry taking shape among these historic sites; and in Mark the house of Peter becomes the central location for those who seek to meet Jesus, to hear his word, and to find healing in him. The story of Jesus’ teaching and healing told in Mark 1-9:50 reflects the very life of an early Christian community worshipping in Peter’s house during Peter’s life-time and after his death. Archaeological evidence suggests that the house, 84 feet south of the façade of the synagogue could in fact be the house of Simon Peter, which then became a center of Christian worship which was later turned into a house church. Eventually this site became a highly decorated octagonal shrine commemorating by the 5th-century C.E. the house of Peter. Mark 1:1-9:50 and archaeological finds lend evidence to the belief that this is Peter’s house. They offer valuable evidence to the likeliness of the excavated house church of Capernaum being the home of Peter and consequently the place of lodging for Jesus during his public ministry. Both the historical-critical method and narrative criticism will be used to interpret the text of Matthew’s Gospel.
A Time of Exploration
Nineteenth-century explorers gave new life to the forgotten sites of the town of Capernaum. A noticeable structure was seen in desolate ruins by the American explorer Edward Robinson in 1838, who identified it as a synagogue. The same synagogue discovered in 1866, by Captain Charles Wilson, was identified by him as the one mentioned in Mark 1:21 (cf. John 6:59), where it states “Then they came to Capernaum, and on the Sabbath [Jesus] entered the synagogue and taught.” The synagogue of Jesus’ time was one built by the Roman centurion who admired the Jews of kfar nahum literally translated “village of Nahum” (Luke 7:5), meaning “village of compassion”. The first excavations of Friar Gaudentius Orfali in the 1920s C.E. dated this synagogue to the 1st-century C.E. and concluded Jesus taught there just as Wilson thought. However, he did not discover the next strata of ruins before his death in 1926, which may have altered his conclusion about the site. Yet the later excavations by Friars Virgilio Corbo and Stanislao Loffreda, in 1968, unearthed the layer of an earlier synagogue just beneath the one standing on the site. The later synagogue was made of beautifully and elaborately decorated imported white lime stone, which would have been stunning among the black basalt of the surrounding village homes giving it significance and importance. In all of Israel this synagogue is the most beautiful one found. Corbo and Loffreda dated this latest synagogue to the 4th or 5th-century C.E. Part of the confirming evidence which gave greater certainty to the date of the white stoned synagogue were the 10,000 coins dating to the 4th-5th century, which were found under the synagogue floor. However, some have also thought that the synagogue dates to the 3rd-century and that the coins where sealed beneath the cement floor while being repaired, possibly after the 363 C.E. earthquake.
Below this exposed synagogue was another one made of large black basalt blocks with a thickness of 47-51 inches, leaving a much smaller interior space for worship and prayer than the 4th-5th-century C.E. synagogue. This lower strata yielded ceramics of Middle Bronze Age, Late Bronze Age, Persian, Hellenistic and first Roman periods. It is this which I will follow in this study of the ruins of Capernaum as we move 84 feet south from the synagogue’s façade facing Jerusalem to a house with three layers of archaeological history, and enter the debate over whose house this was that made it a special place to so many Christians throughout the centuries.
Hence, turning to of the Gospel of Mark’s text where the story from Mark 1:21 states that, “on leaving the synagogue [Jesus] entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John.” (Mark 1:21, 29). These two scenes placed one after the other in Mark’s Gospel seem to indicate that the historical house of Simon and Andrew was in Capernaum near a synagogue, a place where Jesus performed his public ministry of healing and teaching. Later history, both in writings and in architecture seems to show that once Jesus entered the house of Peter this place never ceased being a place of worship and of devotion to Jesus, until the Islamic invasion of Palestine in 638 C.E. At this time the site seems to have been abandoned and forgotten until the 19th-century C.E. Now in the 21st-century, a modest yet beautiful glass church commemorates this site as the home of Simon Peter and the central place for Jesus’ public ministry –the place that was called Jesus’ “home” after he left Nazareth (Mark 2:1).
Life of the Early Church in the Excavations and in Mark’s Gospel
The excavations of the synagogue and of the house church give valuable insights into the Gospels and the life of the early Church. Archaeology, by unearthing the ruins of the two locations, gives historical data by which those seeking to understand the Scriptures can find in antiquity glimmers of light shining upon the darkened past. While specific details of ownership cannot be determined, including the certitude that the house is that of Peter, the archaeological site is still valued for understanding the scenes in the first part of Mark 1-9.
In Mark, Capernaum, the town, is central to Jesus’ public ministry from which he goes out to the surrounding towns in the northern part of Israel, until he makes his journey to Judea in chapter 10 and begins his journey to Jerusalem. The historical town of Capernaum corresponds to the story as told by Mark and the ruins serve to bring the story to life. One can readily see the scenes being described in chapters 2 and 3 with the paralytic, the crowd, and the argument with the Jerusalem scribes when viewing a map of the early house structure.
If the evangelist Mark was correct in the central location of Jesus’ ministry as Capernaum at the home of Simon and Andrew, and that their home was situated in close proximity to the synagogue, then further findings about Christian worship evolving from this location could indicate that the house excavated 84 meters south of the synagogue is the house of Simon Peter. In Mark there is textual support for the probability of this claim in 9:33. The verse simply states that upon coming to Capernaum they were “inside the house.” The naming of the location by the narrator with a direct statement of “the house” with the use of the definitive article, in the Greek text: th/| oivki,a,| , suggests that in Capernaum there was a particular house where Jesus and his disciples stayed when there. Previously in chapters 1 and 2 this house is identified as the home of Peter (1:29; 2:1).
Yet there are two other areas to consider regarding “Peter’s house.” One interpretation sees in the text that the home is Peter’s mother-in-law’s home. It reads: following the arrival of Jesus to “the house” (1:29), Jesus heals Peters’ mother-in-law and she begins to dihko,nei, literally to “serve” or “minister” to them (1:31). A woman serves only in her own home, and therefore that this is her home which raises a question as to why Peter would be staying in his wife’s mother’s home. This coupled with the fact that Bethsaida was called “the city of Andrew and Peter” in John (1:44) leads one to wonder if the house in Capernaum is the house of Peter or was it really his mother-in-law’s home.
The second area of concern is taken from Matthew’s Gospel which is known for quoting Hebrew Scripture in order to show how Jesus fulfills prophecy. In this case it is the prophecy of Isaiah that Matthew explains when he states that Jesus has left Nazareth and moved “to live in Capernaum” (Matt 4:13), which is the region of Zebulun and Naphtali, in order to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah which says that the people of these regions “sit in darkness” and now they “have seen a great light” (Matt 4:15-16; cf. Isa 9:1). Could Jesus have resided in the house of Capernaum in order that prophecy would be seen as fulfilled? It seems unlikely given the importance of public gathers that this house in Capernaum had for hundreds of years beginning in the middle of the 1st-century C.E. The archaeological evidence indicates that a faith community of early followers of Jesus came out of the house. Would the community have developed the home of Peter’s mother-in-law? Maybe that is a possibility, especially given the fact that Peter was out following Jesus. It could have been that his wife returned to her mother’s home and her mother’s home was Peter’s home. Either way, the house would be associated with Peter.
Another point worth contemplating is the way Peter’s mother-in-law is introduced in the text. She is healed and then begins to “minister” to all. This may have significance from the perspective of Mark as reflecting a historical reality of the early church, which had those who dihko,nei, “ministered” as the diakonous or diakonos the deacons as ministers in the community. These people had authority within the church to “serve” the needs of the church (1 Tim 3:8; Rom 16:1), and possibly Mark is implying this in his text with the irregular role of Peter’s mother-in-law “ministering to [all] of them” (Mark 1:31). The NAB translates it as “she waited on them.” Both the NRSV and the NJB translate the verb as “serve,” and the REB as “attended.” The verb conveys a meaning that goes beyond simple service, although service is included in the meaning. Rather it encompasses a sense of carrying out duties for the larger good of the community, being an intermediary or even an official minister at the altar. This same verb has just been used in Mark 1:13 to describe the activity of the angels and it was translated as “to minister” to Jesus after he was tempted in the desert by Satan. According to the text the typical social norm which guard male honor by separating women from men is broken when Jesus approaches the mother-in-law and touches her. Then she responds by ministering to them all. If Mark is narrating the life of Jesus, what is the point of this nonconventional behavior. Could it be that Peter’s mother-in-law played a ministerial role in the early Christian community? If so, then it is unlikely that the home was intended in the narrative to be the home of Peter’s mother-in-law, especially since the text specifically states, “he entered the house of Simon and Andrew (1:29),” but rather it brings to light how through her healing many were brought to Jesus to be healed.
Furthermore, excavations have revealed a private home with special features, which Corbo dates between 63 B.C.E. to 70 C.E., a time frame that suits the historical Simon Peter mentioned in the Gospels. Yet still there is no solid archaeological evidence that the house unearthed belonged to Peter. However, there are some unique features about this home which are evidence for this belief. It was the only home in Capernaum which was plastered; being plastered perhaps as early at 50 C.E. a feature which marked it off from the rest of the ordinary 1st-century C.E. homes in Capernaum. One of its large living room court yards had its floors, walls and ceiling plastered not only once, but a number of times over the years. These home additions were unusual for an ancient Capernaum home. The lime plaster used in the remodeling was the same that was found in the triclinia of Herod’s Palace at Macheron and it was painted with designs. Also, the walls of this home were painted with decorations that would be unlike the surrounding homes; in fact, no other home had plastered and painted walls in Capernaum. The buildings that did get plastered were usually used for public use and were not private homes. At the time of the plastering, the form of pottery used within the building changes from cooking pots, bowls, pitchers, with a few storage jars to only storage jars and lamps. However, John Crossan and Jonathan Reed claim that the fewer cooking wares could indicate that the families ate simply off of bread and not plates. Yet, there was household cookware before it changed so the change would still remain unexplained.
Written Attestations and the House Church
By the 4th-century, writings identified the house in Capernaum as a Christian place of worship. Two pilgrims recorded their impressions of Capernaum: a Spanish nun named Egeria who visited sometime between 381 – 395 C.E and also an anonymous 6th-century C.E. Italian traveler referred to as the Pilgrim of Piacenza. By the time of Egeria’s visit the house had become a house-church and was being visited by pilgrims. Egeria after visiting the site wrote in her diary, “‘In Capernaum a house-church (domus ecclesia) was made out of the home of the prince of the apostles, whose walls still stand today as they were.’” The Pilgrim of Piacenza came after the octagonal shrine was constructed and wrote: “‘We came to Capernaum to the house of St. Peter, which is now a basilica.’” There were also over 100 graffiti scratched in the soft plaster wall referring to Jesus as “Lord” and “Messiah.” One reads, “Lord Jesus Christ help thy servant…” (The proper name was unreadable); and another was “Christ have mercy.” There were also crosses etched on the walls as part of the graffiti. One of the most disputed graffiti left on the wall was thought by some to spell out the name “Peter” and another that was translated by some to read “Peter, the helper of Rome.” The translations that are derived from what is called a “mare’s net”, a mixture of lines and letters scratched onto the wall, are very ambiguous and so provide little solid proof of the name of Peter existing there, although, it was Emmanuele Teste, an epigrapher for the Franciscan expedition that gave the translation “Peter, the helper of Rome.” Furthermore if the name Peter was written on the wall it cannot be assumed that it was more than a pilgrim leaving his mark. However, the numerous references and petitions to Jesus do provide evidence enough that by the 4th century the building was venerated as a Christian site of worship. This is significant because it shows that the house in Capernaum, dating to the time of Jesus, has been consistently marked for a special communal purpose, and as early as the 4th-century this place has been called the “House of Peter.”
Literary Criticism of Mark and the Excavations
The dating of the house which by the 4th century C.E. was named “Peter’s House” corresponds not only to the time of the early Christian community, but also to the composition of Mark’s Gospel sometime after 64 C.E. A dating of the Gospel shortly after Peter’s death would place its composition during the time of Nero’s persecution. The text world of Mark may signal the function of the house as a place of Christian worship during the middle of the 1st-century, as it was likely that the Christians at the time of Mark’s writing were gathering in the home of Peter and that the real Peter’s house could have most likely been a center for Christian worship during Peter’s life, a worshipping community which would have continued even after his death. The narrative which has Peter’s house as the gathering place for Jesus dates around the 60s C.E. and the tradition about the house at Capernaum being a place of meeting for early Christians dates to the 60s C.E. as well. The spatial orientation of the narrative may reflect the life of the early church, especially of those members in Mark’s audience. Mark was thought to have been a disciple of Peter and Paul and to have written his Gospel from Rome, far from the place of Jesus’ activities. Mark relied mostly on traditions that he gathered, arranged, and edited; he did not know Jesus personally. Therefore to look at Mark’s arrangement and to see a story which gathers Jesus and his followers into Peter’s house may serve as another kind of historical evidence if looking at the historical and implied audience. It does not have to be assumed that Mark was writing to a community living in Rome, only that he was familiar with the Roman world and he had a special interest in it. The audience probably was near Jerusalem and even thought to be in the vicinity of southern Syria, but it still is impossible to speak with certainty about the historical community’s exact location.
Mark’s Narrative as Historical Evidence
The Gospel of Mark is written as a unified whole delivering a message. The narrative speaks of large crowds that sought out Jesus gathered in the home of Peter at the time (2:1-12) of the call of Simon and his brother Andrew (1:16) who eventually “came to Capernaum” (1:21) and entered the synagogue there. Then upon leaving the synagogue the text says that they “entered the house of Simon and Andrew” (1:29). The narrative describes Jesus returning “to Capernaum after some days, it became known that he was at home” (2:1); “while he was at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners sat with Jesus and his disciples; for there were many who followed him” (2:15).
While Jesus goes out to neighboring villages to preach, in Mark’s Gospel he always comes back to Capernaum as the headquarters of his ministry until he departs for Jerusalem to die. The narrative in the first part of Mark 1:16 – 9:50 focuses on two localities: Peter’s house and the synagogue. These two locations are the bases for all of the other instances of teaching and healing in the surrounding country. The first episode takes place the morning after Jesus stays the night in Peter’s house and goes off to a deserted place to pray. Then he teaches in the nearby villages (1:29,35-37), before he “returned to Capernaum,” his home (2:1). After another healing in the house of Peter, Jesus again goes out along the sea (2:13) only to return to the synagogue (3:1). He then went up on the mountain to teach (3:13) and when he “came home” the crowds made it impossible for him to eat (3:20). The same pattern can be found in the crossing of Lake Gennesaret, as the text reads: “on that day as evening drew on, he said to them, ‘Let us cross to the other side’” (4:35); Jesus later returns to Capernaum so a synagogue official, named Jairus can come to him (5:22). This same pattern continues until the end of chapter 9 (6:1; 7:17, 24; 9:33; 10:1). From Capernaum Jesus sets out for his final departure to Jerusalem. The pattern is established of Jesus’ coming and going. While it is likely that Jesus would have a home base to renew himself, it is also necessary for his preaching the good news that he not remain in one place. This going out is consistent with the theology of Mark that Jesus came to proclaim the kingdom of God. The narrative can reveal an aspect of the historical community in the way the story is told. In this case, one can see where Christians had a central place of meeting, but that they went out to evangelize and spread the good news about the kingdom. It was likely that Peter’s house was already the place of Christian worship and gathering for years before the evangelist wrote his Gospel. Mark creates in the text the reality of the early Christian community in Capernaum.
Furthermore, just as the narrative presents Jesus at home in Capernaum, so the details of the stories place him in a house the structure of which can be seen in the framework of the Capernaum house’s ruins. Take the healing of the paralytic, for example, in Mark 2. It describes an event where there were “many gathered together so that there was no longer room for them, not even around the door” (v. 2). The excavations of the house in Capernaum, stratum I, unearthed a building made from large rounded black basalt stones from the surrounding fields which were not cut or shaped in any way. Only the thresholds and jambs have been cut and shaped. There is one entrance on the eastern side of the house. The way Mark tells the story of the paralytic, the house had to have only one door, for they could not get into the courtyard because it was over crowded. Therefore they had to open the roof to let down the paralytic to Jesus (2:4). The roofs of that time used thatch made from mud, straw and branches. In the house called “Peter’s House” there were clusters of rooms structured around two courtyards with a center courtyard serving as a family kitchen and an animal enclosure. The floor was made of more basalt stones not fitting too well together, but leaving large gaps between them. In the scene involving the paralytic they could not get through the door so they broke through the roof to let down the paralytic to Jesus (2:4). Even if this house at Capernaum is not the house of Peter, Mark’s Gospel describes vividly the scenes that can serve still in apprehending the world behind the text.
The Byzantine Shrine
Thus far the 1st-century dwelling, stratum I of the excavations, can be seen as relating to the narrative in Mark’s Gospel. Stratum II, the house-church, indicates a place of Christian worship, and the writing from Egeria and the Pilgrim of Piacenza witness to its being a Christian site honoring “Peter’s House.” Then, lastly, turning to the 4th to 5th-century octagonal structure on stratum III, more remains of a Christian community are present. The octagonal church is similar to many other churches of its time marking holy sites, remembering Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and ascension. The first layer excavated in stratum III of the house at Capernaum is a Byzantine shrine, made of three concentric octagons, which was found by Fr. Orfali who discovered the ruins in 1921 C.E. During the Byzantine period (4th-century C.E.) the octagon building was used by Christian architects to mark holy sites, such as the Ascension of Jesus on the Mt. of Olives, the birth place of Jesus over the cave in Bethlehem in the Church of the Nativity, the tomb of Christ’s resurrection in the Holy Sepulcher and also the house at Capernaum referred to as “Peter’s House.” The early dating of these buildings is evidence in itself that the site is likely the place of the event commemorated, especially when Christian veneration to preceded the shrine’s construction in the earliest communities of Christianity. The octagonal structures were built rather than a basilica when a smaller building was better suited to pilgrim worship. The basilica was a Greco-Roman architectural form used for large communal gatherings of commerce, politics, or other activities such as worship and was not well-suited to many of the holy sites.
The octagon over the house-church of Capernaum was made with three concentric octagons. The central octagon, 26 feet across, was built over the “venerated room” of the original house, and was paved with beautifully decorated mosaic iconography. A Christian symbol representing immortality, the peacock, was at the center of the floor’s mosaic in full fan. A band of lotus flowers in the form of a chalice surrounded the peacock in the center. Eight square pillars surrounded the center octagon which supported eight arches to hold the roof. The middle octagon was 57 feet across and the outer octagon extended to 75 feet. Usually these kinds of octagonal structures were intended to simply mark the location of an event in the life of Jesus, but this one is different in that it also included a baptistery and an apse, which indicates that it was active in performing parish functions. In the basilica the altar would be placed in front of the apse with the clergy seated around it. Some churches added smaller apses on either side to allow for a space for vesting, and preparing the gifts of bread and wine for the Eucharistic celebration. Therefore, it is likely then that a community of Christians was associated with the octagonal church venerating the home of Peter and thus the presence of Jesus during his public ministry.
The layers of architecture which rise from a 1st century C.E. home to a house church to a Byzantine shrine commemorating a Christian holy site provide reasonable evidence that this is the home of Simon Peter mentioned in Mark’s Gospel. The narrative of Mark, as well, reflects a kind of early Christian community which fits into the archaeological space of Capernaum. The text contains details of events which indicate an awareness of the original stories of Jesus’ ministry, and the centrality of Peter in the Gospel argues for a community that worshipped Christ gathered around the “prince of the apostles.” The written attestations of Egeria and the Pilgrim of Piaccenza also give historical information that from the 4th-century this site was believed to be the house of Peter. Therefore, although without absolute certainty, Capernaum becomes as Crossan and Reed assert, “one of the very few credible localizations of a New Testament tradition” that both Jesus and Peter lived and ministered in “the house” (9:33).