Related Papers
The Galilean Economy in the Time of Jesus
Revisiting Jesus' Capernaum: A Village of Only Subsistence Level Fisher and Farmers?
2013 •
Sharon Mattila
Galilee in the Late Second Temple and Mishnaic Periods. Vol. 2
Capernaum, Village of Nahum, from Hellenistic to Byzantine Times
Sharon Mattila
Judaïsme ancien
A First-Century Synagogue in Capernaum? Issues of Historical Method in the Interpretation of the Archaeological and Literary Data [Uncorrected Proofs]
2021 •
Wally V. Cirafesi
The question with which I am centrally concerned in this article is whether a first-century synagogue, understood as both a purpose-built structure and a formal institution of assembly, once stood in Capernaum beneath the site of its later limestone synagogue. I assess the question anew by providing methodological reflection from the perspective of Collingwoodian critical historiography. In section 2, I briefly present some of the most important aspects of Collingwood’s historical method, as well as a model of first-century synagogues based upon recent synagogue scholarship. I then use the method and the model to weigh the archaeological evidence in section 3 and the literary evidence of the Gospels in section 4. In section 5, I present my conclusion, which, while not novel in and of itself, emerges from the application of a method that, I suggest, helps to reset the terms of the debate over the presence of a first-century synagogue in Capernaum.
Capernaum: Jesus' Mission Base
Hanh Kieu, Sarah Grace Lawagan
Jews, Christians and 'MiniM': who really Built and used the synagogue at Capernaum – a stirring appraisal
Benjamin Arubas
Scandinavian Jewish Studies
The Socio-Economic Context of Capernaum’s Limestone Synagogue and Jewish – Christian Relations in the Late Ancient Town
2021 •
Wally V. Cirafesi
Adopting a late fifth/sixth century dating for Capernaum's limestone synagogue, I consider in this article a set of contextual questions related to the social and economic influences on the synagogue’s construction and use, and ask what these influences might tell us about Jewish – Christian relations in Capernaum during this period. After a survey of current scholarship, I turn to issues of method and engage the relevant primary sources, some of which are only very recently discovered, some of which have been overlooked in discussion of the question, and some of which are deserving of reinterpretation. Building further upon, and in places revising, previous proposals, I conclude with a new historical construction concerning the limestone synagogue’s place in our historical imagination of Jewish – Christian interaction in the town.
Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus
Capernaum: A ‘Hub’ for the Historical Jesus or the Markan Evangelist?
2017 •
Christopher B Zeichmann
One of the less controversial points among Jesus scholars is the importance of Capernaum to the historical Jesus, variously described as his ‘hub,’ ‘headquarters,’ ‘centre,’ etc. This article instead suggests that the importance of Capernaum may be understood as a specific to Mark’s depiction of Jesus and that Mark’s redactional interest in Capernaum prematurely treated as a datum concerning the historical Jesus. Indeed, exegetical insights about Mark’s interest in Galilee have more recently developed into arguments that the Second Gospel was composed somewhere in that region. This article will survey Mark’s characterization of the region to not only argue that Capernaum is a distinctively Markan point of interest, but that there is ample reason to believe that the Gospel was composed in that village.
Novum Testamentum
In Search of the City of the Apostles
2021 •
Mordechai aviam
The authors present the results of four years of investigation (2016-2019) in their search for Bethsaida-Julias. They bring historical, geographical, and archaeological evidence to argue that Khirbet el-Araj should be considered the leading candidate for the New Testament home of the Apostles. Unlike the remote location of the alternate candidate at et-Tell, their excavations at el-Araj have demonstrated a significant Roman period settlement on the lakeshore of the Sea of Galilee, a much more likely location for a fishing village. In addition, their discovery in 2017 of a Roman bathhouse at el-Araj is characteristic of Herod Philip's urbanization of the village of Bethsaida, which Josephus reports was transformed from a village into the polis of Julias. After the Roman period, the site was abandoned for two centuries (4th-5th cent. ce), and then resettled with a monastery and Byzantine basilica, reportedly built over the house of Peter and Andrew.
Bethsaida: A City on the North Shore of the Sea of Gaillee
Eusebius of Caesarea and the Fate of Bethsaida
1999 •
Mark D Smith
Capernaum
Mordechai aviam
