Capernaum: the black basalt under the white synagogue
Capernaum has a first-century synagogue foundation beneath its later one, and a first-century house that was venerated from very early on.
Fakapapau'i 'e he keliFeitu'u kuo keli1st century AD foundations
The white limestone synagogue at Capernaum is later, but it sits directly on black basalt walls of a first-century building of the same footprint. A short walk away, an ordinary first-century house was singled out early on: its main room plastered, then enclosed by an octagonal church.
And they went into Capernaum; and straightway on the sabbath day he entered into the synagogue, and taught.
- Na'e 'ilo'i
- Capernaum, Sea of Galilee, Israel, 1905 — Kohl and Watzinger; later Franciscan excavations
- 'Oku tauhi 'i
- In place
- Na'e a'u mai fēfē kiate kitautolu
- Na'e keli hake, pe 'oku kei tu'u 'i he potu na'e langa ai.
Ko e me'a 'oku ne fakahā
The basalt foundation is first-century; that it is the synagogue of the Gospels is a reasonable inference, not a demonstrated fact. The house was treated as significant early, but nothing in it names anyone.
Founga hono ngāue'aki 'e he kau hisitōlia
Standard sites in Galilean archaeology; the veneration sequence of the house is discussed on its own terms.
'I he Folofola
Fekau'aki mo
Ngaahi ma'u'anga fakamatala
- Corbo, Cafarnao I (1975); Loffreda, Recovering Capharnaum (1993)
'Oku 'i he lea faka-Pilitānia 'a e ngaahi fakamatala ko 'eni he taimi ni. 'E muimui mai 'a e liliu.