Capharnaum (Capernaum)

From GotQuestions:

Capernaum is featured in the New Testament but never mentioned in the Old. Capernaum was a city located on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee. It is significant in Scripture because Capernaum was the chosen home city of Jesus after He was driven from Nazareth by the religious officials (Luke 4:16, 28–30). Capernaum was also the home of Peter and Andrew and where Jesus called them to follow Him (Matthew 4:18–20). Jesus also found Matthew, a tax collector in Capernaum, and called him to follow (Matthew 9:9).

Jesus referred to Capernaum often and did many of His miracles there (Matthew 8:5; John 6:17–21). He also taught in the synagogue (John 6:59; Mark 1:21). Although Capernaum had been the site of so many proofs of Jesus’ identity, the people there refused to believe, and He included it in a denunciation of several cities: “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted to the heavens? No, you will go down to Hades” (Luke 10:13–15).

It was in Capernaum that Jesus healed the centurion’s son (Matthew 8:5–13), the nobleman’s son (John 4:46–53), Simon Peter’s mother-in-law (Mark 1:30–31), and the paralytic (Matthew 9:1–2). In Capernaum, Jesus cast out an unclean spirit (Mark 1:21–25), raised Jairus’s daughter to life, and healed the woman with the bleeding issue (Mark 5:21–42).

Image Credit: Fallaner, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons