The Synagogue of Capernaum

(I originally wrote this a little over four years ago and according to blogger it has been seen over 700 times since then, which tells me it must have, somehow, shown up in searches at least for awhile. I re-post it now because I think it is still good information and helps to better set the scene in Luke 4.)

The city of Capernaum is now mainly an archeological site and attraction for tourists and pilgrims. Once it was the adopted home town of Jesus of Nazareth.

According to Matthew:

Matthew 4:[12] Now when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. [13] And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali,

First century Capernaum was a sleepy little fishing village of about 1500 people. Houses would have been one-story structures made of basalt rock and thatched roofs. Walls would have been several feet thick with dirt floors and scant furnishings. The people would have eked out a meager existence from the village's main trade--fishing. From this town Jesus chose his first four disciples, Peter, Andrew, James, and John. It is very likely that Jesus lived in Peter's house while staying here.

The town had one synagogue, built by a Roman centurion. According to Luke:

Luke 7:[1] After he had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. [2] Now a centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death, who was highly valued by him. [3] When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and heal his servant. [4] And when they came to Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly, saying, “He is worthy to have you do this for him, [5] for he loves our nation, and he is the one who built us our synagogue.”

This strongly implies they had only one synagogue and the archeological evidence bears this out.

To the right is a photo of the remains of a later synagogue that was used in Capernaum, built on the same spot as the one that Jesus would have worshiped in in the first century.

Synagogue worship was both formal and informal. There was a dress code. There were strict rules of decorum. The congregation would have been seated, probably on benches, and always situated so as to be facing Jerusalem. Men were separated from women by a partition and separate entrances. Beyond the middle of the synagogue was a platform and upon the platform was a lectern made of wood. Scripture was read from behind the lectern and prayers were offered. According to Edersheim, readers stood, while preachers sat. In other words, a man would stand behind the lectern to read a passage, then sit down to explain it. Witness this passage which takes place in the synagogue at Nazareth at the very beginning of Jesus's ministry:

Luke 4:[16] And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. [17] And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,

[18] “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
[19] to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”

[20] And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. [21] And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” [22] And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth.

Jesus stands to read a passage from the prophets, then sits to preach his sermon. "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing" can be seen as a title or a summary of the sermon he preached.

Here I should point out that the reading of the Scripture was seen as something of primary importance in the synagogue. With no printing press and only hand-copied editions of the Scriptures available you can imagine that these were strictly cared for and handled by only a select few. Many of the people did not have the Scriptures in their homes. The synagogue was the place where the people went to hear them read aloud. The Torah was divided up into portions and read systematically over a period of time, probably three or three and a half years at the time of Christ. While one man would read the Scripture aloud in Hebrew, another individual would stand by and give a running translation into Aramaic--the language of the people. Following this was a reading of the Prophets and then a sermon as described in the passage above. I will give more details on this in my next post.

In fact, I think in my next post I will attempt to take us into a synagogue worship service and have us go through the entire liturgy to see what it would have been like to attend "church" with Jesus as a boy or young man in first century Galilee.