Capernaum

Capernaum was the home of Jesus when he started his public ministry.

Matthew 4 tells us that when Jesus left Nazareth he moved to Capernaum. Mark 2 says that when Jesus enter Capernaum the people heard he had come home.

Jesus came into the synagogue and began to teach and he surprised the people because he spoke as one with authority and could drive out demons.

Here I am standing in Capernaum. Behind me you can see the ruins of a fourth century synagogue that was built on the ruins of a synagogue destroyed in the first century, very likely the ones Jesus preached in. Here we stood in the spot where Jesus amazed the crowd and read the scripture.

We are told in Mark 1 that he left the synagogue and immediately went into the house of Andrew. This is a picture of the excavated ruins, maybe a hundred yards from the synagogue, of an octagon shaped meeting house built around what may be that very house. It is called the house of Peter, because Andrew's brother was more popular than him, even in the Bible story.

This excavated house not only was renovated into a meeting space in the first century, an indicator of its significance, but the wall contained a mark of the name Peter, possibly indicating it was his original home.

The photo was taken through the floor of a modern construction that sits on columns over that ancient house, so you can see under the modern church and also through the floor from the inside.

Also, was Andrew a little bit of a loser that he lived in a house with his brother and his brothers family, including Peter's mother in law? No. Andrews are never losers.