The Irish standard., 1907-01-12
CITY OF = cAPERMAuM
Existence Of Important Ruins
Leads to Investigation.

Leads to Investigation.
Extracts From Account of Their
Search Published.
For decades Christian arhaeologists
have been trying to locate the city
OF Christ, Capernaunl, but with no
concensus of conclusions, says the Lit
erary Digest. Within the last months
the Observation-Disclosures" has been
closely investigating, in the traditional
locality Of this city, the ruins of Tel
Hum, d little to the west of the north
ern extremity OF the sea of Gallilee,
with the result that not a few are con-
vinced that both Capernaum itself and
the synagogue in which Jesus taught
have been found. A complete account
Of this search is given in the Bote
aus Zion, u German quarterly pub
lished in. Jerusalem in the interest of
the famous Schneider Syrian orphans
home. From this source We CLEAN the
following data.
A new era. has begun for the Sea
of Galilee. Last October the rail-
road was formally opened which con-
meets this sea with Haifa and with
the great East Jordan railroad and
eventually will connect it with the
Bagdad southern part near the viii
lage Of Samach, from which it is pos
stble in two or three hours with a
boat to reach Tiberias. In this way
this historic lake is brought into con-
nection with modern traffic, and the
probabilities are that in the near fu-
ture there will be found along it's bor-
ders as great a population as was
found there in the first Christian CEN
turies.''
Contemporaneously with the build
ing Of this new railroad, another task
of equal interest in connection with
the Sea of Gallilee was being done;
namely, laying bare some of the mag
nificent ruins of grand structure
which had for decades attracted the
attention and inquiries of travellers.
These were the. probable foundations
Of that synagog, which had been built
for the Jews by that famous but un-
named centurion whose servant, "dear
unto him." wass sick and at the point
Of death, and whom Jesus was be.
sought by the elders to cure (Luke vii.
50. Further "details are as follows:
IF this proves to be the case then
we know the. scene where Jesus
preached his first sermon, where he
taught as one having authority, and
cast out the nnclean spirits mark j.
21-2S). The existence of these i'm
portant ruins at.Tel Hum was known
to older scholars, but it was only
about ten years ago that monks of the
Franciscan order began to protect them
against the depredations of the peas
ants, who ,plundered them to. get stones
| for the erection of their own houses
| Only recently have the Germans un-
covered enough of these remains to
show that there, once stood at this
place a rare and splendid synagog. The
outer walls are massive, the whole
constituting square, and within run
| two parallel rows of heavy columns tc
support the roof. A close examination
shows that this structure departs ma.
terially from that of a Christian
church and must have been a very an
cient synagog. a frieze Of consider
able size, facing the sea, has yet been
! preserved, covered with rich ornamen-
| tations, and in many respects suggests
Roman and Greek temple architecture
| Unfortunately only the east side of the
structure has been preserved. but here
| arc 1uuIlN also lNO sue pOitlCOS WlIl
a fight of stairs. In general the build
ing is covered with the sculptural work
Of the art of it's day, including espe-
cially images Of trees. leaves and
fruits, especially of grapes and palms
This extraordinary amount Of archi-
tectural decorations are all the more
interesting because they in part: go to
show that he structure is of Jewish
origin. The paim-trees, for example
are the exact reproduction of those
found on Jewish coins Of the Maccabe-
an period, sucl, as is found also on the
medal struck by Vespasian after the
destruction of Jerusalem in 20, and
which is used by the Jews to this
day as u symbol based OH Ps. xcii II
C'the righteous shall flourish like the
palm He shall grow like a ce-
dar in Lebanon"'). In addition there is
found on this temple so-called arms