Jesus' Ministry - Capernaum

We will call it Capernaum in a day. 

Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Yes.

Jesus' family was from Nazareth. Yes. 

Jesus was drove out of Nazareth and spent his ministry in Capernaum, 

We spent the whole day in Capernaum while staying in the sisters of Nazareth. [There will be some overlap with this blog and the last one.]

Jesus found the Apostles in Capernaum - Fishermen Simon (Peter), Andrew, James, and John and tax collector Matthew.

There were many miracles performed here, and as Wendy liked to say: "Jesus picked a beautiful place to have his Ministry." We got out of the city of Jerusalem and outside the "areas/ zones" and it felt like a breath of fresh air -- literally.

Unlike Jerusalem, this area was much more preserved and much more accessible than the sights in Jerusalem because Jerusalem has only been destroyed a couple of times. Most of Capernaum had large amounts of "roman stone" which would have been first Century "Jesus' time". 

We started by the Jordan River... Jordan might mean stinky river in Aramaic, because it was small and smelly.... but so are we went we enter into our baptismal covenant (and every time we repeat it, for that matter) - We were given the opportunity to collect some water to bring back, we both passed on that.

The synagogue was the first place I saw while in Capernaum -- it was destroyed and rebuilt in 200AD, so it wasn't the walls that Jesus saw, but it was 1800 years old. 

Jesus preached there: John 6:59, Luke 4:33

Jesus expelled a demon possessed man: (Mark 1:21-27)

Then we walked by the Sea of Galilee. But the use of the term sea seems a slight exaggeration.  Based on this Minnesota can also be the land a several seas.  

Then we went to the Church of the Beatitudes. Blessed are the... well you know the jist...It was up on a hill.... Jesus probably preached from a Cave to amplify his voice.

A short walk away, we went across the road and down to the sea to Tabgha where the multiplication of the loaves and fishes.  At the edge of the sea was a chapel to commemorate the site.  There are a lot of Rocks in the Middle of Churches in the Holy Land. 

There was also a very strict Monk that yelled at some people for uncovering their shoulders by the beach....

Then we went for Lunch and had "St. Peter's Fish".... aka Tilapia. It wasn't caught in the sea of Galilee, was fried, and still had it's eyeball in it. That was the most diverse meal we had the whole time. Not that I am complaining about the food,  it was amazing!

In the afternoon we went on a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee 

 We then finished at a museum  at Kibbutz Ginsar with an Ancient boat that was found a few years ago when the sea was very low.  They explained what needed to be done to preserve the boat once it was discovered since exposure to the air would destroy it. -- Maybe Jesus saw that boat during his day.

The evenings in Nazareth were long. We got done at a reasonable time and went on walks through the city or had happy hour with the group. 












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