Capernaum in Jesus' Time

The walls are basalt fieldstones laid in rough courses, with mud and small stones packed into the joints; the floor is basalt cobbles set in beaten earth.

Why: V. Corbo (Cafarnao I, 1975) and S. Loffreda (Recovering Capharnaum, 1993) describe the insula’s walls as unworked or roughly shaped basalt fieldstones set in mud, without lime mortar, and its floors as basalt cobbles and beaten earth. Basalt is the local stone. The size and colour of each stone in the model are illustrative.

The standing white limestone synagogue dates to the late 4th–5th century, not to Jesus’ day.

Why: Thousands of late Roman coins and pottery sealed under its floor (Corbo, Loffreda). Earlier scholars dated it to the 2nd–3rd century on stylistic grounds.

Capernaum roofs were beams covered with reeds or branches and packed earth, reached by outside stairs.

Why: No roof tiles were found in the excavated houses, and their light fieldstone walls could not carry heavy stone roofs. This fits Mark’s description. Luke’s “through the tiling” (5:19) is usually read as Luke describing the scene for readers who knew tiled roofs.

This was the house of Simon Peter.

Why: The tradition is attested by the 4th century and the site was venerated earlier still. Its location fits the Gospels, which put the house next to the synagogue. Nothing on the site names its first-century owner, and readings of the graffiti are disputed.

The roof is wooden beams across the room, a layer of branches and reeds, and packed mud on top, reached by an outside stone stair, with a low parapet.

Why: No roof tiles or stone roof slabs were found, and the light fieldstone walls could not carry a heavy roof. Mark says the friends “uncovered the roof” and “had broken it up” to let the mat down (Mark 2:4), which fits branches and mud. The stair, the parapet (Deuteronomy 22:8) and the stone roller for re-packing the mud follow other Galilean houses and the Law; where they stand here is reconstruction.

Inside: oil lamps, storage jars and a cooking pot, a basalt hand mill, sleeping mats, and fishing gear: a net with floats and sinkers, and bronze hooks.

Why: Wheel-made oil lamps, storage jars, Galilean cooking pots and basalt grinding stones are common finds at Capernaum, and the excavators report fishhooks from the floors of the insula sacra. The Gospels place fishermen in this household (Mark 1:16–20, 29). Which things stood where is reconstruction.

With the later layers on, room 1 is shown as it was venerated: plastered walls with a painted dado and scratched graffiti (late 1st–4th century), a plastered floor, and the arch set across the room in the 4th century.

Why: Corbo found the walls and floor of room 1 plastered several times over, and many graffiti scratched into the plaster, mostly in Greek with some in Syriac and Latin: crosses, a boat and invocations of the Lord Jesus Christ (published by E. Testa, 1972). When the house became a church in the 4th century an arch was built across the room to carry a higher roof. The dating of the earliest plaster is debated; the colours and the individual marks drawn here are illustrative.

Basalt walls and a cobbled floor beneath it belong to a first-century synagogue.

Why: The walls roughly follow the later plan, and first-century pottery was found beneath the floor. Some scholars question whether the walls are a separate earlier building or just the later foundations.

The later white synagogue is drawn in translucent dressed limestone: its raised platform, its hall with columns on three sides, and three doors in the south facade, facing Jerusalem.

Why: After the standing remains excavated by Kohl and Watzinger and by Corbo and Loffreda; its heights and roof are reconstruction.

Capernaum had stone harbour works: a quay along the shore, piers and breakwaters.

Why: Mendel Nun recorded a long promenade and piers along the shore. Their date (Roman to Byzantine) is uncertain, and the first-century harbour may have been smaller. The model’s layout is illustrative.

A single mast with a square sail, oars and a steering oar.

Why: The hull has a mast step. The rig follows the 1st-century Magdala mosaic of a boat and contemporary Mediterranean practice.

The hull is drawn plank by plank over oak frames, with small decks at bow and stern, four oars, a steering oar and pitch below the waterline.

Why: The Galilee boat preserves its cedar planking, oak frames and mast step; the decks, pitch, oars and fittings follow it and Mediterranean boats of the time.

He served Herod Antipas rather than a Roman legion.

Why: No Roman legions were stationed in Galilee in Jesus’ time. Antipas’s troops used Roman ranks, and many were non-Jews. A small Roman or auxiliary post is also possible.

The village had perhaps 600 to 1,500 people.

Why: Estimates from the excavated extent and house density (e.g. J. L. Reed; Crossan and Reed). Earlier figures of 10,000 or more are no longer accepted.

A hall with stepped benches on three sides, two rows of columns and a flat earth roof.

Why: Only the foundations survive. The form is modelled on first-century synagogues at Gamla and Magdala.

This happened in Peter’s house.

Why: Mark says only that Jesus “was in the house” (Mark 2:1). Many readers link this with Simon’s house (Mark 1:29), but the text does not say so. The opened roof is placed in Peter’s insula for illustration.

Wall heights, doors and window openings in the model.

Why: Walls survive only a metre or two high; the rest is estimated from their thickness and from other Galilean villages.

The arrangement of rooms, doors and stairs in the model.

Why: Based loosely on the published plan; the heights, roofs and furnishings are reconstruction.

The street grid and the number and placement of houses.

Why: The model follows the general pattern of the excavated quarters: blocks divided by a north–south street and cross streets. The rest of the village is extrapolated.

A soft extra light falls on the place each stop is about, so it reads on a phone or a projector.

Why: A teaching aid, not part of the reconstruction.