Jesus of Capernaum
Below, for the upcoming Sunday, is our gospel reading,
What am I obsessing over? That at some point, and the significance of it varies by which evangelist is telling his tale (both Mark 70 AD, and John at least a generation later, making almost nothing of it) Jesus' assumed place of residence seems to move from Nazareth to Capernaum. Seems significantly to matter to Matthew and Luke, whose explanations differ. Mark first below, then Matthew, then Luke.
Mark 9:30-37
Jesus and his disciples passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it; for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.” But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him.
Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”
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Nobody cares, gives a hoot, but odd things about this intrigue at least me. Lead me not into temptation to just give it up, toss it all aside to look out the window and read Robert Louis Stevenson, I'm deciding to keep on keeping on just a little bit longer. So here it is for my moment.
What am I obsessing over? That at some point, and the significance of it varies by which evangelist is telling his tale (both Mark 70 AD, and John at least a generation later, making almost nothing of it) Jesus' assumed place of residence seems to move from Nazareth to Capernaum. Seems significantly to matter to Matthew and Luke, whose explanations differ. Mark first below, then Matthew, then Luke.
Mark (1:9, 14, 16, 21-22) reports, sort of just the facts:
9 In those days Ἰησοῦς ἀπὸ Ναζαρὲτ τῆς Γαλιλαίας Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. ... 14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. … 16 As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. … 21 They went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. 22 They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.
Maybe Jesus was wary of Herod, wanted to get as far as possible from where Herod was the authority?
Matthew (4:12-18), with his agenda to persuade his Jewish audience and Jewish-Christian church that Jesus is/was the prophesied and long-awaited messiah (anointed by God) to reconstitute the throne of David, by squeezing out what he, Matthew, understands as Hebrew Bible (Matthew uses the LXX) messianic prophecy to prove his point, says this:
12 Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. 13 He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, 14 so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: 15 “Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—16 the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.” 17 From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." 18 As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, …
Matthew's sometimes, as here, strained explanations, framed as prophecy being fulfilled, example above regarding his rationale for a supposed move from Nazareth to Capernaum, are, my reading only, sometimes somewhat “share a little tea with Goldie” as he scrapes together his tenuous prooftext to convince his audience.
Luke (4:16-32) is more practical with his explanation:
16 When he (Jesus) came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” 20 And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” 22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” 23 He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’” 24 And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown 25 But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; 26 yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. 27 There were also many lepers[d] in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” 28 When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. 29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. 30 But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way. 31 He went down to Capernaum, a city in Galilee, and was teaching them on the sabbath. 32 They were astounded at his teaching, because he spoke with authority.
What’s my point? Well, there isn't one. I was looking at the peculiar explanations for why Jesus would move from his hometown where he grew up to another place miles away. Why are the explanations at odds? What kind of village was Nazareth, and how big was it?
Same with Capernaum (pic above): what was the draw to relocate there? What do I find out? Ruins now, a tourist draw and the usual squabbling of Christian sects over bits and pieces of real estate, Capernaum seems to have been a fishing village of some 1,500 residents, right on the freshwater Sea of Galilee, great setting for a story where Jesus walks along the beach and calls fishermen to be his disciples. But the storytellers have to get him to Capernaum.
Nazareth? maybe a town of three-or-four hundred, inland, reportedly hometown of Joseph’s wife, Mary Mother of Jesus, who is more significant in some gospel writers' stories than in others; so the Holy Family settles in Nazareth; again, got to get Jesus to Capernaum though, just as some had to get him to Bethlehem. What am I suggesting? Work it out to suit yourself. But Nazareth? Trying to find it’s size (in our day a city of some 70k people of which 70% Muslim, 30% Christian) I read that maybe Nazareth didn’t even exist in Jesus day, or at least not until after Judeans fled the Romans from Jerusalem and Judea from 70 AD and after, and that maybe the reference “Nazareth of” at Mark 1:9 “Nazareth of Galilee” was edited to add “Nazareth,” or something about Matthew’s (2:23) sourceless prophecy that “he shall be called a Nazarene” (or “Nazorean”) (hyperlink below). What? Looking just a couple places, so far I found nothing to substantiate the notion that Nazareth didn’t exist until Mark’s writing or later. Why is all this bugging me? It isn't. But I like it when I add up 2+2 and get 5 or 7 and so have something to explore, which happens frequently in Bible study.
Someone wrote “a faith that can’t be examined is worthless.”
I never heard of Dick Harfield, the supposed scholar who wrote the piece linked, and couldn't find much online to commend him to me.