writings of Josephus.5 A rancorous notice and certain vile insinuations  6 of the Rabbis,7

connecting it with 'heresy,' presumably that of Christianity, seem also to point to Kephar

Nachum as the home of Jesus, where so many of His miracles were done. At the time it

could have been of only recent origin, since its Synagogue had but lately been reared,

through the friendly liberality of that true and faithful Centurion.  8 But already its

importance was such, that it had become the station of a garrison, and of one of the

princ ipal custom-houses. Its soft, sweet air, by the glorious Lake of Galilee, with snow-

capped Hermon full in view in the North - from a distance, like Mount Blanc over the

Lake of Geneva;9 the fertility of the country - notably of the plain of Gennesaret close by;

and the merry babble, and fertilising proximity of a spring which, from its teeming with

fish like that of the Nile, was popularly regarded as springing from the river of Egypt -

this and more must have made Capernaum one of the most delightful places in these

'Gardens of Princes,' as the Rabbis interpreted the word 'Gennesaret,' by the 'cither-

shaped lake' of that name.10 The town lay quite up on its north-western shore, only two

miles from where the Jordan falls into the lake. As we wander over that field of ruins,

about half a mile in length by a quarter in breadth, which in all probability mark the site

of ancient Capernaum, we can scarcely realise it, that the desolateness all around has

taken the place of the life and beauty of eighteen centuries ago. Yet the scene is the same,

though the breath of judgement has long swept the freshness from its face. Here lies in

unruffled stillness, or wildly surges, lashed by sudden storms, the deep blue lake, 600 or

700 feet below the level of the Mediterranea n. We can look up and down its extent, about

twelve miles, or across it, about six miles. Right over on the other side from where we

stand - somewhere there, is the place where Jesus miraculously fed the five thousand.

Over here came the little ship, its timbers still trembling, and its sides and deck wet with

the spray of that awful night of storm, when He came to the weary rowers, and brought

with Him calm. Up that beach they drew the boat. Here, close by the shore, stood the

Synagogue, built of white limestone on dark basalt foundation. North of it, up the gentle

slopes, stretched the town. East and south is the lake, in almost continuous succession of

lovely small bays, of which more than seventeen may be counted within six miles, and in

one of which nestled Capernaum. All its houses are gone, scarce one stone left on the

other: the good Centurion's house, that of Matthew the publican,  11 that of Simon Peter,12

the temporary home which first sheltered the Master and His loved ones. All are

unrecognisable - a confused mass of ruins - save only that white Synagogue in which He

taught. From its ruins we can still measure its dimensions, and trace its fallen pillars; nay,

we discover over the lintel of its entrance the device of a pot of manna, which may have

lent its form to His teaching there13 - a device different from that of the seven-branched

candlestick, or that other most significant one of the Paschal Lamb, which seem to have

been so frequent over the Synagogues in Galilee.14