SEA OF G

After the awe of the initial view of the Sea of Galilee, we had the chance to explore the cities around it. It is amazing to actually see what we have been learning about. The whole day was saturated with and events from the life of our Messiah. We went from Capernaum, Hepta Pagon, Tiberius, Ginnosar, Tell Bethsaida, and the Upper Jordan River.
One of the first stops that we made was in between Capernaum and Hepta Pagon. This was no official spot where Jesus ministered or anything, but we stopped there so that Bill could make a point. If we look at the gospel of Mark, in chapter four Jesus was teaching beside the Sea of Galilee, and a very large crowd gathered about Him, so that He got into a boat and sat in it on the sea and the whole crowd was on the beach listening. With such a great number of people listening in on Jesus’ teaching, Christ must have had a strong voice. But what really helped was the natural theater type affect that the bank of the sea made. There is not a lot of effort needed to make yourself heard. So Bill had someone read Mark 4:1-9, the parable of the sower, and he was about 75 yards away, and with a quick synchronization with the passing traffic, we could all hear the parable clearly. When Jesus told the parable He didn’t have to contest with automobiles, airplanes, or motor boats, so there would be no problem with having a huge crowd on the beach listening to His teaching.
Next place we hit was up to Capernaum to the traditional site of Peter’s house. This has a octagonal shaped church built on top of it, with a synagogue right next to it. This synagogue can be dated to the Roman times. It was built with limestone, a distinctly white stone, on top of all of the basalt, which is a black rock. Capernaum was the site where the Centurion, who asked Jesus to heal his son, help fund the building of the synagogue. We know that the Centurion had great faith because he was at least a days walk from his son, and Jesus recognizes it, and He tells the people around that there is no greater faith in the land than this Centurion. This causes a rejection of Christ because they were Jews and they didn’t have more faith than a Gentile? Unbelievable!
In between Tavgha and Capernaum is the Catholic site for the Sermon on the Mount. This monastery was built by Mussolini in 1939 and is a late tradition, but the site was probably closer to Bethsaida. We learn again that the “disagreement” in the gospels between Matthew and Luke, concerning the place of the Sermon on the Mount can easily be solved. In Luke, he says that they were on a flat place, but in Matthew says that it is on a mount. This can be solved by saying that there was a flat place on the mountain. This works but there is another possibility: Jesus wanted some privacy with His disciples, so He talked to them first on the flat place, and then moved to the masses on the mountain. We know that the Bible is the word of God and that it can not lie, because His word is true, so there must be an explanation.
We then went to Ginnosar, the place where there is a boat from the days of Jesus. This was amazing to see for a couple of different reasons. First off was the amazing amount of work that went into preserving this. It took 14 years for it to be on display. It was discovered in the 80’s and in 2000 it was put on display. They are not sure if it was a fishing boat or a transport boat, but either way it was amazing to see. And not coincidently the capacity of the boat is 12-13 people, so it can be presumed that this was the type of boat that Jesus and His disciples traveled in when they were on the Sea of Galilee.
After a long day, we had a lot of fun floating in inner tubes down the Upper Jordan River. All of us floated down probably for 45 minutes down the river enjoying the cool water and it was refreshing. It was the perfect way to end a great day of reviewing the Life of Christ. To actually think about where these miracles actually took place still blows my mind every time I think about it.