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(Rhoda) In the last two episodes,
we've been to two towns that Jesus had cursed:
Chorazin and Bethsaida.
But there is a third town.
The town which was the center of Jesus' ministry in Galilee.
The town where Peter's mother-in-law lived.
The town of Capernaum.
Located on the northwest side of the Lake of Galilee,
the ruins of Capernaum are divided into two sites:
The Franciscan and the Greek Orthodox.
Unlike Jerusalem and other touristy ancient places in Israel,
Capernaum seems to be untouched,
still in its raw form.
Just by walking here
and looking at the lake, the hills, the mountains,
we felt connected to its history.
It is as if we could almost see Jesus
walking on these shores, looking at the same hills.
It is so serene and quiet.
It's the perfect place to bring a Bible
and just read in the morning.
And besides the breathtaking nature,
Capernaum has fascinating ruins.
A 4th century synagogue
built on top of the original one where Jesus taught.
A house which is believed to be
the house of Simon Peter, the Apostle.
The ruins of the old city,
and much more.
So join us in this episode
as we explore this fascinating place.
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When Sergio and I started to date,
this is the first place he took me to.
And we walked here.
It was beautiful.
And, uh...
I loved it.
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(Sergio) Capernaum is divided into two parts
with an entrance point.
This, behind me,
is the Israeli National Park of Capernaum.
This is the meeting point for tourists.
They built a nice park with benches, restrooms,
and an Information Center
where tourists can come, either by boat or by car,
and start their journey and exploration
of the ancient ruins of Capernaum right from here.
But the ancient town of Capernaum
is divided into two parts:
the Franciscan and the Greek Orthodox.
They purchased the land back in 1908.
The Franciscans own two-thirds of the ancient ruins,
and the Greek Orthodox own the rest of the land.
(Rhoda) We start our journey at the Franciscan site
where archaeologists discovered the ancient synagogue
and the house of Apostle Peter.
Capernaum goes pretty far back.
There are ruins that date to the times before Abraham.
However, it wasn't until the 4th century BC
that it was expanded.
And later, the Romans built its streets in straight lines,
like we see in other Roman cities,
parallel to the main Roman imperial highway,
which ran by the shore of the Sea of Galilee.
By the 5th century,
this place became pretty big.
About 1,500 people lived here,
and they had a beautiful synagogue.
And today, from the ruins,
what we see is actually only a third of what used to be here.
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I'm standing by the 4th century synagogue
that is built on top
of the synagogue where Jesus taught.
He did a lot of miracles here.
He healed the centurion's servant.
He healed Peter's mother-in-law.
He healed the man possessed with demons.
One of Rhoda's favorite passages comes from this place.
When many of the followers of Jesus
find His teachings hard to accept
and they leave Him,
Jesus turns to His disciples and He asks:
"Are you gonna leave me too?"
And Simon Peter answered:
"Lord, to whom shall we go?
You have the words of eternal life."
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(Rhoda) Every visitor who comes here
is told that this is the house of Peter,
but how do we know for sure?
We know that this was a famous fishing village.
We know that it was a central place.
We know Jesus came and preached here
from the Gospels.
But how do we know this is the exact place
of Peter's house, in fact?
When they started excavating this place,
they actually found walls that belonged to the 1st century
to the times of Jesus.
And they also found that these walls
have been turned into a church.
So it was a house that was turned into a church later.
Now, during the excavations,
they found hundreds of graffitis on the walls
dedicated to the Lord,
and some even say they found the name of Peter as well.
So based on all these findings
and all this information,
we come to the conclusion that this is the house of Peter.
(Sergio) So when the Franciscans bought this property,
they wanted to continue the tradition
of converting Peter's house into a church,
building an even bigger church and a bigger church and decided,
we're gonna build a church here, where the house of Peter was.
But how do you do it without destroying the...
ruins?
Well, it's actually a pretty cool construction.
It's a hanging building, on the pillars, on the top,
and it's also an octagonal church
that you can walk inside of it
and then look down into the house of Peter
from a glass in the middle of the church.
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So this section belongs to the Greek Orthodox Church.
What's interesting about it is that they've got this
eight dunams of land
that has not been excavated.
All these untouched ruins from the times of Jesus
are still to be excavated.
I wonder if we can go to the church
and ask anybody if we can
get into the field and see the ruins.
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(priests singing prayer)
(inaudible whispering)
(Sergio) So after speaking to the Orthodox priest,
he explained to us why they didn't excavate the ruins here.
He said they didn't excavate them
because they want to keep this site a church.
And they not only want to keep it humble,
they want to keep it more conservative.
They want to keep it for prayer
and not a public tourist place.
So, it does make sense in what he was saying,
and we'll respect that.
But, man, too bad.
I wish we could just go there and see what's here.
He said the houses are the same as on the other side,
but I'm sure there's some treasure buried here to be excavated.
(Rhoda) On our first date, we walked from the park to here
because it's so close.
It's just a minute away of walk.
And from the souvenir shop here,
Sergio bought me a ring on the first day.
A bit quick, wouldn't you think?
I wasn't saying anything.
Sergio is trying to catch dinner.
It's not working. I don't think they like me.
(Rhoda) You do for me.
Ooh.
(Sergio) So behind the church, you got this nice location
where you can sit on the bench,
read your Bible, look at the lake.
And here's a tip that you won't find on any other channel.
This is a great place for swimming.
An uninhabited beach, perfect, clean water.
Let's go and take a dive.
(sighs)
Rules are only a recommendation for Sergio.