A little more on Capernaum and the house...

For those who may want to learn more about Capernaum and its early Christian house church here's a few tidbits to launch you off on your own voyages of discovery.

You can find a really good website about Kaphar Nahum and the house that may have been the one mentioned in Mark here. This was the first site I found about Capernaum a few years back and it remains one of the best:
http://198.62.75.1/www1/ofm/sites/TScpmenu.html

There are many (MANY) other websites dealing with Capernaum and the house, far too many to list here, and probably many that are a little lacking in the quality department. You might try looking at these sites:

http://www.allaboutarchaeology.org/house-of-peter-at-capernaum-faq.htm

http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFAArchive/2000_2009/2000/3/Capernaum-%20The%20Church%20of%20the%20House%20of%20Peter

http://www.biblewalks.com/Sites/capernaum.html

http://www.ffhl.org/2006/Capernaum.asp

http://www.facingthechallenge.org/peter.php

I distinctly remember reading in a newspaper article years ago before I started seminary (like the early 1980's or late 1970's) about the Franciscan excavation at Capernaum and how graffitti on some part of the house contained words that we know today as part of the Kyrie: "Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy." Of course, I didn't save that article after all this time and the best references I can come up with on the internet at short notice merely acknowledge that graffitti in Aramaic, Syriac, Latin, and Greek references "Jesus," "Peter," "Christ," and "Lord." So if anyone comes across an actual reference to the "kyrie-like" lines, let me know. I also understand there is now some dispute among the scholars as to the actual reading of some of the graffitti. I also find the reference to 1st century fish hooks in the house to be somewhat interesting (Early Christian symbols of the faith? Long forgotten tools of the trade left behind by a historical Simon Peter? Both?)

May you keep thinking, keep asking questions, keep searching, and keep using your historical and spiritual imagination.

Pr. J