Capernaum was a fishing village on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee, at a crossroads of trade routes between Damascus and the Mediterranean coast. It had its own customs post and a small Roman garrison.
A Roman centurion stationed there loved the Jewish people so much that he funded the construction of the town’s synagogue. It was in that same synagogue that Jesus taught and cast out unclean spirits.
After leaving Nazareth, Jesus went to live in Capernaum and made the town the center of his ministry in Galilee. There he healed the sick, taught the crowds, and called disciples to follow him.
No other place gathers as many episodes from Jesus’ ministry as Capernaum: the healing of the paralyzed man lowered through the roof, the calling of the tax collector Matthew, the discourse on the Bread of Life. The Gospels even call it his own town.
Despite so many miracles, the town did not turn to God, and Jesus warned that its judgment would be harsher than Sodom’s. Capernaum shows that witnessing a miracle is not the same as believing.
