Tabga and Capurnum

From the Mount of the Beatitudes we went down the mountain to the spot where Christ performed the miracle of the loaves and the fishes (it is called Tabga, or Seven Springs.) In front of this was a baptismal font. The font was a cylinder with a cross cut out of the middle. I asked how baptisms were done, and George explained that the person being baptized would climb inside and the Priest would stand on the outside of the font and after saying the appropriate prayers would push your head under — full immersion. This church was really plain inside, too. Interestingly, there was a mosaic on the floor depicting 2 fishes and 4 loaves. George asked where the fifth loaf was. I said, Someone ate it? He said, sort of. It would be in the priest's hand during communion. Also on the floor was a mosaic of some flora and fauna from Egypt, and a Nile-ometer, which, when we asked George explained was how people in Egypt were taxed — when the Nile was higher, the taxes were higher. I asked what Egyptian artwork was doing in Israel. Good question! He exclaimed. The artist was an Egyptian who had converted to Christianity and had come up to do the art work there. Pictures of that mosaic would have been impossible to get, due to being roped off, and my towering height! Unfortunately.

We left there and made our way down to Capurnum. There was a sculpture out front done by Charles Madden — a famous American artist. I was quite surprised, but it was interesting. The sculpture depicted Peter with the keys (which were shown as literal keys) and some fishes at his feet. This place housed yet another church which was build over the top of Peter's house.

Archaeologist think it's quite possibly the right place for that. The interesting thing was, it is build over the top of that house, as in: the building is built on stilts and has a glass floor so you can look down into it. If you look closely in the picture above you can see the top of the church above George's head.

There is a synagogue right next to the house (well, ruins, actually) which was neat to see. Here are Aunt and I standing in the middle of the ruins. We're probably standing in the men's section. Oh well!

Out in front of the church (well, actually, just to the right of St. Peter if you're facing him) is this stone. George claims that archaeologists believe that it may be a depiction of the Arc of the Covenant. George believes that it is. None of the rest of us really bought that idea. After all, what is the Arc doing on wheels? George's answer was completely unsatisfactory. So unsatisfactory, actually, that I can't remember what it was.