Capernaum

“ Now when I saw this, I smote my hands together, for I saw that I could be of no avail to my Master. And by this time the houses of Capernaum, that is to say the quay and the houses near the quay, were in sight, and not far off. For one headland only remained between us and the headland whereon the town standeth; and when the Thracians should have passed round that first headland, there were but six furlongs between them and the market-place of Capernaum. But the sun was now nigh setting and the barbarians began to quicken their pace. ”

“ It is good for young ministers to accustom themselves to pious and edifying discourse in private, that they may with the better preparation, and greater awe, approach their public work. He did not stay long at Capernaum, because the passover was at hand, and he must attend it at Jerusalem; for every thing is beautiful in its season. The less good must give way to the greater, and all the dwellings of Jacob must give place to the gates of Zion. ”

“ Those cities are now left without an inhabitant, and their places covered with heaps of decaying stones and prostrate walls. Capernaum is so nearly annihilated that even the place it occupied is a subject of keenest dispute among travelers; and even now I see before me, in the vicinity of our tents, decaying relics, considered by some to designate the locality of that ancient city. ”

“ No mention, however, has before this been made of Capernaum, and no account has been given of any works done there; but, on the contrary, after escaping from the angry mob at Nazareth, Jesus goes for the first time to Capernaum, which, on being thus first mentioned, is particularized as "a city of Galilee," (7) where he heals a man who had an unclean spirit, in the synagogue, who addresses him as "Jesus of Nazareth;" (8) and the fame of him goes throughout the country. (9) He cures Simon's wife's mother of a fever (10) and when the sun is set they bring the sick and he heals them. ”

“ Facing the camp stood the quaint old temple of Capernaum, in which Jesus had been teaching for several days. Probably the sun never rose on a more curious throng than those who lodged in open air, under blankets, and [247] in tents along the western shore, while Jesus lingered in and about Capernaum. ”

“ Before the Exploration we had to be content with the vague statement that Capernaum was somewhere north of Tiberias. We are now able to point to two sites, and say that Capernaum was one or other of these, while these two places are but 21⁄2 miles apart. One of [316] these places is Tell Hum, at the head of the lake, about 2 miles west of the point where the Jordan enters the lake. Here we have ruins indicating the former existence of a town hardly smaller than Tiberias; we find a regular cemetery, and within an enclosure we have the remains of a synagogue. ”

“ Those who wish to go from Jerusalem to Capernaum, take the direct way by Tiberias, and from thence, along the Sea of Gennesareth, to the place where the loaves were blessed, from which Capernaum is at no great distance. Arculf saw this place from a neighbouring hill, and observed that it has no walls, but lies on a narrow piece of ground between the mountain and the lake. On the shore, towards the east, it extends a long way, having the mountain on the north and the water on the south. ”

“ But Capernaum was a Jewish city, and Jesus felt that his work was to be among the Jews. At least four of the early followers of Jesus lived in Capernaum; two pair of brothers, Simon and Andrew, the sons of Jonas; and James and John, the sons of Zebedee. These four men were partners with Zebedee in the fishing trade. They owned a number of fishing boats and had men working for them. The lake was full of fish, and many people all around it lived by fishing. The fish in the Sea of Galilee were good food, and were sent to all the nearby cities. ”

“ Thence floweth a current toward Capernaum, strong at all times; but in stormy weather it cannot be resisted. Falling into this current therefore, the wise mariner needeth but to row softly, or scarce at all, and, lo, he entereth into Capernaum as it were upon wings. Now even such a wise mariner doth Jesus seem unto me. ”

“ The people of Capernaum had not sinned so terribly as the people of Sodom, but they had more light and opportunity; they had better heredity, better environment; Jesus says that therefore the people of Capernaum shall be punished more severely than the people of Sodom. ”

“ But scarcely had we been in Capernaum five or six days, and the Feast of the Passover was still not ended, when we fled (upon some new rumor of danger) from Capernaum again to the eastern side of the lake. ”

“ In the neighbourhood is a water-source, Ain et-Tābighah, an Arabic corruption of Heptapegon or Seven Springs (referred to by Josephus as being near Capernaum) . Tell Hūm lies about 3 m. north of Khān Minyeh, and its ruins, covering an area of “half a mile long by a quarter wide,” prove it to have been the site of no small town. It must be admitted that if it be not Capernaum it is impossible to say what ancient place it represents. ”

“ All men seek for thee. They were proud that their Master was become so popular already, and would have him appear in public, yet more in that place, because it was their own city; and we are apt to be partial to the places we know and are interested in. "No," saith Christ, "Capernaum must not have the monopoly of the Messiah's preaching and miracles. Let us go into the next towns, the villages that lie about here, that I may preach there also, and work miracles there, for therefore came I forth, not to be constantly resident in one place, but to go about doing good." ”

“ Capernaum lay at the northern part of this sea, and they went along the Galilean or western coast, probably expecting Christ to come to them, on which account they might keep in close by the land. But there are great difficulties in fixing the places mentioned by the evangelists. By some writers Bethsaida and Capernaum are placed on opposite sides of this lake: by others on the same side. Sometimes when our translation speaks of passing over the sea, etc., a coasting voyage only is meant, as we find the disciples landing on the same side from which they had departed: see the note on [545] . ”

“ The Christine master disappeared; no one saw him go, and Peter, James and John set forth to search for him; they found him at his trysting-place out on the Hammoth hills.
2. And Peter said, The city of Capernaum is wild; the people crowd the streets and every public place is filled. ”

“ Though he was welcome at Capernaum, and had done abundance of good there, yet he is sent to preach the gospel to other cities also; and Capernaum must not insist upon his stay there. They that enjoy the benefit of the gospel must be willing that others also should share in that benefit, and not covet the monopoly of it; and those ministers who are not driven from one place may yet be drawn to another by a prospect of greater usefulness. Christ, though he preached not in vain in the synagogue at Capernaum, yet would not be tied to that, but preached in the synagogues of Galilee, v. ”

“ In that case they may have been trodden by the feet of Christ; and the ruins of Capernaum may be remains of the very building concerning which the Jewish elders said, the centurion is worthy—'for he loveth our nation, and hath built us the synagogue.' Yet Dr. Robinson, whose ears and eyes seemed to be open to hear and see all that was really to be heard and seen in connection with sacred topography, did not mention these various ruins till his second journey in 1852, giving then only a brief account of them, while previous to that year there had been no account of them at all. ”

“ The true solution of the difficulty is simple. Our Lord had already left Nazareth and made Capernaum His headquarters (comp. Luke iv. 30, 31) . But Augustin identifies that incident with a subsequent visit to Nazareth (see ch. xlii.) ”

“ Nazareth, a little city in the tribe of Zebulon, in lower Galilee, with Tabor on the east, and Ptolemais on the west. It is supposed that this city was the usual residence of our Lord for the first thirty years of his life. It was here he became incarnate, lived in subjection to Joseph and Mary, and from which he took the name of a Nazorean.
Capernaum, a city famous in the New Testament, but never mentioned in the Old. Probably it was one of those cities which the Jews built after their return from Babylon. ”

“ We know little or nothing of His movements save that He began to preach, and that the substance of His exhortation was, "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!" A great deal, however, is suggested here. Capernaum was Simon's home, and by piecing the narrative in John i. with that in Matthew iv. we are justified in thinking that after making acquaintance with Andrew and Simon in Bethabara beyond Jordan, Jesus went with them to Galilee and continued His association with them on terms of intimacy, vide John i. 43, John ii. et seq. ”

“ Were we in the presence of the remains of the famous Capitolium, or of one of the smaller temples within the Arx? To give this query a satisfactory answer, we must remember that the Capitoline Hill had two summits, one containing the citadel, or Arx, the other the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, the Capitolium. Ancient writers never use the two names promiscuously, or apply them indifferently to either summit or to the whole hill. The name of the hill is the Capitoline; not the Capitol, which means exclusively the portion occupied by the great temple. ”

“ When you lived at the Capuchin Convent, near to Rome, of which the Prior is my near relation, I believed that your penitence was genuine, and from the heart. Yet, in the city, you must have been actuated by very different motives. Above all, why did you seek to gain the Pope's attention by an incredible and marvellous story? Why accuse yourself of crimes which you had never committed? Were you, then, ever at the castle of the Baron von F——? ”

“ The Capitol is a rocky height rising precipitately above the Forum, and enormous substructures had strengthened it and formed a platform on which rose the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus that stood to Rome almost in the relation that the Temple did to Jerusalem, as the centre of its religious and civil institutions. ”

“ On the spikes of the railing round the fountain one set of nobles stuck the heads of others whom they hated, whom they slaughtered; and down those steps of the palazzo opposite,{110} the great procession of the Priori came on days of solemn ceremony, and up through the dark gateway of the Canonica the Pope and all his cardinals passed in when they arrived from Rome. Truly the spirit of the past history is not dead. It is painfully and supremely living. ”

“ But the present aspect of the Capitol is quite disappointing to one who comes to it seeking for evidences of its former grandeur. There is no trace of the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, to which the triumphal processions of the Roman armies led up, gorgeous with all the attractions of marble architecture, and the richest spoils of the world, the most splendid monument of human pride which the world then contained. Probably its remains were used up in the construction of the gloomy old church of the Ara Coeli, which is supposed by most archæologists to stand upon its site. ”

“ If popular manifestations count for anything, the dense throng in the Campidolgio and later the same afternoon before the Quirinal Palace demonstrated the enthusiasm with which the certainty of war with Austria was accepted.
There are few lovelier spots on earth than the little square of the Campidolgio on the Capitoline Hill and none more laden with memories of a long past. Led by a sure instinct the people of Rome crowded up the steep passages that led to the crest of the hill, by tens of thousands. ”

“ CAPPADOCIA, a large country in Asia Minor, between Cilicia the Euxine sea. Being made a Roman province, the inhabitants had an offer made them of a free and independent government; but their answer was, Liberty might suit the Romans, but the Cappadocians would neither receive liberty, nor endure it.
CAPREA, an island on the coast of Campania, about four miles in length from east to west, and about one in breadth. It stands opposite to the promontory of Surrentum, and has the bay of Naples in view. It was the residence of Tiberius for several years. ”

“ From the Porta del Popolo to the Capitol is a line ending in a steep ascent, one of the seven hills, the Capitoline: this long street is the backbone of Rome, from which its ribs more or less radiate. It is not gigantic with a broad stride, like the Via Larga (now Cavoura) at Florence; it is not [272] beautiful, like the Genoese Via Nuova; it is more of a Bond Street, but a long one, with some fine buildings, and, as all long streets should be, it is cut in half by a good big square, the Piazza Colonna. Here we stumble against a column, look up, and for a minute or two we are in ancient Rome. ”

“ For you the Campanian field shall be ploughed; for you the city of Capua shall be made populous; you shall be to us in the light of founders, parents, ay, even immortal gods. There shall be no colony of your own which shall surpass us in attachment and loyalty to you. Grant to the Campanians, conscript fathers, your nod, and your irresistible favour, and bid us hope that Capua will be safe. With what crowds of persons of all classes attending us do you suppose that we set out from thence—how, think you, did we leave every place full of vows and tears? ”

“ Capua fell in 211, and the seat of war, to the great relief of Rome, was removed to Lucania and Bruttium. The punishment inflicted upon Capua was severe. Seventy of her Senators were killed, three hundred of her chief citizens imprisoned, and the whole people sold as slaves. The city and its territory were declared to be Roman territory, and the place was afterwards repeopled by Roman occupants. ”