CAPERNAUM (Kairepvaovµ; probably, " the

See also:

• VILLAGE

village of

See also:

• NAHUM (Hebrew for " rich in comfort [is God] ")

Nahum ")  , an ancient city of Galilee . More than any other place, it was the home of Jesus after he began his mission; there he preached, called several of his disciples, and did many works, but without meeting with much response from the inhabitants, over whom he pronounced the heavy denunciation:—" And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell." The site of the city has been a matter of much dispute,—one party, headed by Dr E . Robinson, maintaining an identification with Khan Minyeh at the north-west corner of the Sea of Galilee, and another, represented especially by Sir C . W . Wilson, supporting the claims of Tell Hum, midway between Khan Minyeh and the mouth of the Jordan . Khan Minyeh is beautifully situated in a " fertile plain formed by the retreat of the mountains about the middle of the western shore " of the Sea of Galilee . Its ruins are not very extensive, though they may have been despoiled for building the great Saracenic Khan from which they take their name . In the neighbourhood is a water-source, Ain et-Tabighah, an Arabic corruption of Heptapegon or Seven Springs (referred to by Josephus as being near Capernaum) . Tell Hum lies about 3 M. north of Khan 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 . But it is doubtful whether Tell Hum can be considered as a corruption of Kefr Nahum, the Semitic name which the Greek represents: and there is not here, as at Khan Minyeh, any spring that can be equated to the Heptapegon of Josephus . On the whole the probabilities of the two sites seem to balance, and it is practically impossible without further discoveries to decide between them .

The sites of the neighbouring cities of Bethsaida and Chorazin are probably to be sought respectively at El-Bateiha, a grassy plain in the north-

east corner of the lake, and at Kerazeh, 2 M. north of Tell Hum . According to the so-called Pseudo-Methodius there was a tradition251 that Antichrist would be born at Chotazin, educated at Bethsaida and rule at Capernaum—hence the curse of Jesus upon these cities . On the site of Capernaum see especially W . Sanday in Journal of Theological Studies, vol . IT. p . 42 . (R . A . S .