December 15, 2010—Wednesday
It was leaking in the hall again when we got up this morning. There was no breakfast provided; Logan thought it was because we are the only ones in the place.
It took us about three hours to drive to Capernaum. Along the way, we saw two small herds of camels with their shepherds (?) riding a donkey with them. We also saw thousands of hothouses during those three hours—not that they are everywhere, most of the way was desert. We were right on the border with Jordan, and in one valley, we saw at least a thousand hothouses and many lush farms.
At one barrier (as they call the checkpoints), the guards asked us to pull over and be inspected. This was a Palestinian checkpoint. We did not go into lands under control by the Palestinian Authority, but some places are Palestinian. One town was theirs; we could tell by the people on the street and unfortunately, the amount of garbage on the road.
We had no problem at the barrier. We had to take all of our luggage out and run it through a scanner while they looked over the car, under the hood, and had a drug dog sniff it out. It was actually a nice break on the drive so we could stretch.
To get to Capernaum, we drove through Tiberias which is a resort town on the Sea of Galilee. It has nice beach areas and modern hotels. There were very few people in Capernaum, which was nice. It is amazing the number of miracles and things that happened there. The Savior healed a man with an evil spirit in the synagogue there. (The remains of the synagogue there now was built on top of that synagogue.) The Savior healed the Centurion’s servant from there and then went to Peter’s house and healed his mother-in-law. (There are ruins about 30 yards from that synagogue that are said to be Peter’s house. It is octagonal in shape, and there is a church literally built over it on steel beams so you can walk up to the fence surrounding the house and look in. The church also has a glass floor in the center so you can look down into the remains of his house. I would think Peter was a successful fisherman with a house that big and that close to the synagogue.) The Savior also identified himself as “the Bread of Life” here, and He told his disciples they must eat his flesh and drink his blood while at this place, and many of them followed Him no more. He asked the Apostles if they would leave, too, and Peter replied, “Where will we go? Thou hast the words of life.”
Many miracles were performed here, yet the Savior cursed Capernaum for not believing in Him. Today, there is only a church there and a building used by the officials of the church.
The Savior spent so much time there that Capernaum is referred to as “His town” or “Jesus’ town.” You have to wonder where he slept while he was there. Perhaps in Peter’s house.
From there, we went to the Church of the Multiplication, the traditional place where the Savior fed 5,000. A group from Lagos was there also. It was a small church with a bedrock formation for the altar. There is a statue out in the garden area of the Savior telling Peter to feed His sheep.
We drove up a couple of hillsides to get to the Mount of the Beatitudes. We were the only ones there until we left and the group from Lagos arrived. After touring the church built there in 1935, we went out to the hillside to look out on the Sea of Galilee. There is a banana tree orchard right beside this area, so you have to look to the side of it to see the sea. There was also a huge banana tree orchard beside the road driving in, and the workers were stacking boxes of green bananas they had harvested.
We read most of the Beatitudes on the hillside down from the church and spent some time pondering.
I mentioned to Logan how close together these three places are: Capernaum, the place of the feeding of the 5,000, and the Mount of the Beatitudes—a couple of miles at the most separate them all, although much is uphill.
Another geographical note, there is a range of mountains that run parallel to Tiberias to the south and to the east. Walking to Jerusalem from here was an arduous trip of either going over or around them.
The drive back to Tiberius was easy, and it was a relief to check into a modern hotel.
Tomorrow is Nazareth, Caesarea, and Mt. Carmel if we have time. Then the flight is at 11 pm.
( I will add pictures when they send me some new ones)