Galilee · Town
Capernaum
- Ancient name
- Capernaum
- Modern location
- Kfar Nahum (Tell Hum) · Israel
- Region
- Galilee
- Location
- Identified site
Editorial summary
A lakeside town where Jesus lived after leaving Nazareth. The Gospels set teaching in its synagogue and many healings here.
What happened here
7Jesus makes his home in Capernaum
When Jesus heard that John had been delivered up, he withdrew into Galilee. Leaving Nazareth, he went to live in Capernaum by the sea, and from that time he began to preach that people should repent, because the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand.
The call of Matthew
Jesus saw Matthew sitting at the tax collection office and told him to follow him, and Matthew got up and followed. When many tax collectors and sinners ate with Jesus and his disciples in the house, Jesus told the Pharisees who objected that he came to call sinners, not the righteous.
Matthew places this as Jesus went on from his own city, which he had reached by boat (Matthew 9:1, 9); Matthew earlier says Jesus went to live in Capernaum (4:13). Mark and Luke call the tax collector Levi; Mark places the call beside the sea after Jesus returned to Capernaum (Mark 2:1, 13–14).
Woes on Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum
Jesus reproached Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum, the towns where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent.
Matthew and Luke do not say where Jesus spoke these words; the markers show the towns he addressed.
Teaching with authority in Capernaum
On the Sabbath Jesus taught in the synagogue at Capernaum. The people were astonished at his authority, especially when he commanded an unclean spirit to come out of a man.
Peter’s mother-in-law healed
Coming out of the synagogue in Capernaum, Jesus went with Simon, Andrew, James and John into the house of Simon and Andrew, where Simon’s wife’s mother lay sick with a fever. He took her by the hand and raised her up; the fever left her, and she served them.
Mark says they went from the synagogue in Capernaum (Mark 1:21) to the house of Simon and Andrew.
Lowered through the roof
When a crowd filled the house in Capernaum where Jesus was, four people opened the roof and lowered a paralyzed man to him. Jesus said to him, “Son, your sins are forgiven you,” then told him to take up his mat and go home, and he did.
The centurion’s servant
In Capernaum a centurion sent Jewish elders, and then friends, to ask Jesus to heal his servant. The elders said he had built their synagogue; the friends brought his message that Jesus need only say the word. Jesus marveled at his faith, and those who had been sent found the servant well.
People here
7On these journeys
Scripture
Nearby in the atlas
Location certainty
Scholarly consensus identifies this site.
- Coordinates
- 32.8811° N, 35.5750° E