CAPERNAUM (Gr. Karepvao6,u, a city on the side of the Lake of Gennesareth, and on the border of the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali.
(1) Prophecy. The infidelity and impenitence of the inhabitants of this place, after the evidence given to them by our Saviour himself of the truth of his mission, brought upon them this heavy denunciation:—'And thou. Capernaum. which art exalted unto heaven, shalt he brought down to hell ; for if the mighty works which have been done in thee had been done in Sodom. it would have remained unto this day,' etc. (Matt. xi :23).
This seems to have been more than any other place the residence of Christ after he commenced his great mission; and hence the force of the denunciation, which has been so completely ac complished, that even the site of Capernaum is quite uncertain. Dr. Robinson (Bib. Researches, iii, 288-294) exposes the errors of all previous travelers in their various attempts to identify the site of Capernaum; and, from a hint in Quares mius, he is rather inclined to look for it in a place marked only by a mound of ruins, called by the Arabs, Khan Minyeh. This is situated in the fertile plain on the western border of the Lake of Genncsareth, to which the name of 'the land of Gennesareth' is given by Josephus (De Bell. iii, 10, 8).
(2) Fountains. In this plain Josephus places a fountain called Capharnaum ; he says nothing of the town; but, as it can be collected from the Scriptural intimations that the town of Caper naum was in this same plain, it may be safely con cluded that the fountain was not far from the town, and took its name therefrom. In this plain there are now two fountains, one called 'Ain el Madauwarah, the 'Round Fountain'—a large and beautiful fountain, rising immediately at the foot of the western line of hills. This Pococke took to be the Fountain of Capernaum, and Dr. Robinson was at the time disposed to adopt this conclusion. There is another fountain called 'Ain et-Tin, near the northern extremity of the plain, and not far from the lake. It is overhung by a fig-tree, from which it derives its name.
(3) Ruins. Whichever be the Capharnaum, we should look for some traces of an ancient town in the vicinity, and, finding them, should be justi fied in supposing that they formed the remains of Capernaum. There are no ancient remains of any
kind near the Round Fountain, which is one of the reasons against its claim to indicate the site of ancient Capernaum. But near the 'Ain et-Tin is a low mound of ruins, occupying a considerable circumference, which certainly offer the best prob ability which has yet been offered of being the remains of the doomed city ; and if these be all its remains, it has, according to that doom, been brought low indeed. Near the fountain is also a khan, which gives the name of Khan Minyeh to the spot. This khan is now in ruins, but was once a large and well-built structure. Close on the north of this khan, and of the fountain, rocky hills of considerable elevation come down quite to the lake, and form the northern termination of the plain. It is important to add, that Quares mius expressly stales that, in his day, the place called by the Arabs Minyeh, was regarded as marking the site of Capernaum (Elucid. T. S. ii, p. 864).
Capernaum is not mentioned in the Old Testa ment, and perhaps did not arise till after the cap tivity. The Rev. J. L. Porter, A. M., says: "I reached the brow of a bluff promontory, which dips into the bosom of the lake. Below me now opened np the fertile plain of Gennesaret. At my feet. beneath the western brow of the cliff, a little fountain burst from a rocky basin. A fig-tree spreads its branches over it, and gives it a name.— 'Ain-et-Ttn. "the fountain of the fig." Beside it are some massive foundations, scarcely distin guishable amid the rank weeds, and away beyond it. almost covered with thickets of thorns, briars, and gigantic thistles. I saw large heaps of ruins and rubbish. These are all that now mark the site of Capernaum. Christ's words are fulfilled to the letter." (The Buried Cities of Bastian, t8gi, p. 107.) CAPH (kaf),:, the eleventh letter of the Hebrew alphabet. English K comes from the sante source; hut C and, especially before e and i, or when final, Ch are employed as its representative in an glicized Hebrew names. Caph stands at the head of the eleventh section of Ps. cxix, in which section each verse begins with this letter in the original.