ST. PETER'S HOUSE IN CAPERNAUM AMONG TOP TEN

Top ten lists abound. David Letterman takes great delight with his upside-down lists. You, no doubt, have used this popular format.

In regards to my travel and study in the land, I am often asked as to my favorite places to visit. While I certainly have my favorite sites and vistas, I am hard pressed to limit them to ten.

Among the ten would be Capernaum by the sea of Galilee and often referred to as "the hometown of Jesus." Therefore, I was pleased to see Capernaum occupying a position of prominence on Biblical Archaeology Review's "Ten Top Discoveries." This popular magazine recently published its 200th issue with this article on favorite finds throughout the years.

Just sample a part of the article which highlights Capernaum:

"As first reported in BAR more than 25 years ago, Italian excavators working in Capernaum may have actually uncovered the remnants of the humble dwelling Jesus once called home while in Capernaum.
Buried beneath the remains of a Byzantine martyrium church, excavators found the ruins of a rather mundane dwelling dating to the first century B.C. Although slightly larger than most, the house was a simple structure supported by coarse basalt fieldstone walls and roofed with nothing more than earth and straw. Like most early Roman-period houses, it consisted of a few small rooms clustered around two open courtyards. In a word, the house was ordinary. According to the excavators, however, it is what happened to the house after the middle of the first century A.D. that marked it as exceptional and most likely the home of Peter.
In the years immediately following Jesus’ death, the function of the house changed dramatically. The house’s main room was completely plastered over from floor to ceiling—a rarity for houses of the day. At about the same time, the house’s pottery, which had previously been basic domestic wares such as cooking pots and bowls, now consisted entirely of large storage jars and oil lamps. Such radical alterations indicate that the house no longer functioned as a residence but instead had become a place for communal gatherings, possibly even Christian gatherings.
More important, the excavators found that during the ensuing centuries, the plastered room from the original house had been renovated and converted into the central hall of a rudimentary church. The room’s old stone walls were buttressed by a newly built two-story-high arch that, in turn, supported a new stone roof. The room was even replastered and painted over with floral and geometric designs of various colors.
The Christian character of the building was confirmed by more than a hundred graffiti scratched into the church’s walls. Most of the inscriptions, according to the excavators, say things like “Lord Jesus Christ help thy servant” or “Christ have mercy.” They are written in Greek, Syriac or Hebrew and are sometimes accompanied by etchings of small crosses or, in one case, a boat. The excavators claim that the name of St. Peter is mentioned in several graffiti, although many scholars now dispute these readings."

For the entire article and this special edition of BAR, visit your favorite bookstore or order online at www.biblicalarchaeology.org.

Also, for more as to Capernaum's place among the towns of Galilee in the time of Jesus, let's talk back in subsequent blogs.