former, being so near, might easily come to be regarded as the avenue, by which the fish of the Nile (and the like species certainly exist here) were supposed to have found their way into these waters.'

Taking into account all these circumstances, I am disposed to rest in the conclusion, that the source 'Ain et-Tîn is the fountain mentioned by Josephus as Capharnaum; and that the ancient site near by, is the Capernaum of the New Testament. This conclusion is further strengthened by one or two other notices. Josephus relates in his Life, that in a skirmish near the Jordan, where it enters the Lake of Tiberias, his horse sunk and fell in the marshy ground; by which accident his wrist being dislocated, he was carried to the village of Kepharnome, and thence the next night to Tarichaea at the south end of the lake.2 This village without much doubt was Capernaum; and Josephus was naturally carried on the great road along the shore, first to this place and then to Tarichaea; the distance of the former from the entrance of the Jordan being about two hours.

Most of the later notices are indefinite and of little value. Eusebius and Jerome merely speak of Capernaum as existing in their day, on the borders of the lake; Epiphanius says it was inhabited only by Jews, and that under Constantine, the Jewish convert Josephus obtained permission to erect there a church.3 Antoninus Martyr, in the sixth century, mentions only the house of Peter as converted into a church. But Arculfus, at the close of the seventh century, is more definite. He appears to have proceeded from Tiberias northwards along the lake, and then ascended the

1) See above, p. 261.

2) Joseph. de Vita sua § 72. In this later work, the writer gives to the Hebrew name a more regular Greek form, Κεφαρνώμη.

3) Euseb. et. Hieron. Onomast. art. Capharnaum. Epiphan. adv. Haer. pp. 128, 136. Par. 1622. See above, p. 270.

mountain to the reputed place of feeding the five thousand,' whence he saw Capernaum without visiting it. He describes the town as without walls, stretching along the shore from West to East in a narrow tract between the mountain and lake, having the mountain on the North and the lake on the South.2 This description applies well enough to Khân Minyeh, and to no other place along the lake; for no other spot is thus shut in by a mountain on the North.3

During the nine subsequent centuries, Capernaum is indeed several times mentioned, but so indefinitely, that it is impossible to discover, whether the writers had any correct knowledge respecting the place; or even to tell, where they supposed it to be situated.1 Quaresmius, as we have seen, is the first to connect definitely the site of Capernaum with the present Khân Minyeh. That all traces of larger edifices have now disappeared, may be accounted for by the vicinity of Tiberias; since the stones may easily have been carried off by water, and swallowed up in the walls and other structures of the latter city.

On a fair consideration of all these particulars, they seem to me to give great strength to the foregoing

1) See above, pp. 240, 241. 2) Adamnanus II. 25, Quae (Capharnaum), ut Arculfus refert, qui eam de monte vicino prospexit, murum non habens, angusto inter montem et Stagnum coartata spatio per illam maritimam oram longo tramite protenditur, montem ab aquilonali plaga, lacum vero ab australi, habens, ab occasu in ortum extensa dirigitur." The whole account is copied in full by Reland, Pal. pp. 683, 684.

3) So especially the ruins at Tell Hûm, as we shall hereafter

see.

4) Thus St. Willibald merely speaks of a house and wall, Hodoepor. § 16. Brocardus describes

Capernaum as "vicus humilis, vix septem habens casas piscatorum ;" but no one can tell exactly where he would place it, though most probably at Khân Minyeh, or a league (as he says) from the foot of the Mount of Beatitudes; meaning probably a point on the shore not far from Mejdel; c. IV. p. 173. With this position Marinus Sanutus likewise apparently coincides; since he seems to make Capernaum two leagues distant from the northern extremity of the lake; p. 247. See further under Tell Hûm. More indefinite still are: Anselmus in Basnage Thesaur. IV. p. 784. Fürer von Haimendorf p. 275. Nürnb. 1646. Cotovic. Itin. p. 359.

conclusion, that the ancient Capernaum was certainly situated in the land of Gennesareth, the present elGhuweir; and that the fountain so called by Josephus, was probably the present 'Ain et-Tîn. This latter point is perhaps the only one, as to which a question can fairly be raised. At any rate, the facts here brought together, if they do not absolutely determine the position of Capernaum to have been at Khân Minyeh, do yet conclusively show, that it could not have been at another place often pointed out as its site; namely Tell Hûm, which lies on the shore further N. E. an hour distant from any part of the tract of Gennesareth.

The Bethsaida of Galilee, the city of Andrew and Peter and Philip, we have seen above, must have lain very near to Capernaum, and probably in the same tract Gennesareth. The same is true of Chorazin, which is mentioned only in immediate connection with Bethsaida and Capernaum; and which according to Jerome lay on the shore of the lake, two Roman miles distant from the latter place. In all probability Bethsaida and Chorazin were smaller villages, on the shore of the plain Gennesareth, between Capernaum and Magdala.3 I am not aware, however, that there is any historical notice of them since the days of Jerome; and it is therefore in vain to assign at hap-hazard the position of towns, every trace of whose name and site has long since been obliterated. By this remark, I would be understood as expressing the deliberate conviction, that the various points fixed on by travellers and others as the definite sites of Bethsaida

1) John xii. 21. i. 44.-The Bethsaida of Gaulonitis, later Julias, we shall have occasion to speak of further on.-See above, p.

290.

2) Matt. xi. 21. Luke x. 13. Onomast. art. Chorozain. In the

same article the text of Eusebius has been corrupted to 12 Roman miles.

3) Hieron. Comm. in Esa. ix. 1, "Lacum Genesareth, in cujus litore Capernaum et Tiberias et Bethsaida et Chorozaim sitae sint."

and Chorazin, can have no better foundation than the conjecture of the moment.'

I have said that the very names of Capernaum, Bethsaida, and Chorazin, have perished; and such was the result of our minute and persevering inquiry among the Arab population, both Fellâhîn and Bedawîn or Ghawârineh, along all the western shore of the lake, and around its northern extremity. No Muslim knew of any such names, nor of any thing which could be so moulded as to resemble them. Yet the Christians of Nazareth are of course acquainted with these names from the New Testament; and especially, both the Latin and Greek Catholics in Nazareth and also Tiberias, are still more likely to be familiar with them, through their intercourse with the Latin monks. They have thus learned to apply them to different places, according to the opinions of their monastic teachers; or as may best suit their own convenience in answering the inquiries of travellers. In this way I would account for the fact, that travellers have sometimes heard these names along the lake. Whenever this has not been in consequence of direct leading questions, which an Arab would always answer affirmatively, the names have doubtless been heard either from the monks of Nazareth, or from Arabs in a greater or less degree dependent on them.3

1) Thus, as we have seen, Pococke finds Bethsaida at Irbid, and Seetzen at Khân Minyeh. Nau places it at Mejdel, Voyage p. 578. Quaresmius apparently between Khân Minyeh and Mejdel, 11. p. 866; others at Tâbighah, etc. etc. 2) See the remarks on p. 165 of Vol. I.

3) Turner relates that Burckhardt told him in Cairo, there was

a village in this vicinity called "Kafer Naym;" but Burckhardt in his Travels makes not the slightest allusion to any such name; nor could Turner himself hear of any such name or place along the lake; Tour etc. II. p. 143.-Parthey also gives the name Capernaum in Arabic letters, as being still extant; but it appears on inquiry, that he obtained it at Nazareth; Berghaus

From Khân Minyeh and the plain el-Ghuweir, the coast along the lake runs in a general direction N. E. quite to the entrance of the Jordan. The high rocky ground on the North of the plain, extends out as a promontory quite into the lake; so that only a narrow and difficult path, hewn in the rock, leads around its point above the water. The great Damascus road passes up the hill directly from the Khân, and keeps along on a more northerly course over the high ground, by the Khân Jubb Yûsuf, and so to the Jisr Benât Ya'kôb, the bridge over the Jordan south of the lake el-Hûleh.2

We set off at 11h 55'; our muleteers choosing to ascend the hill on the Damascus road, as the easiest; whence we again descended without a path to the shore on the other side of the promontory, about fifteen minutes distant from the Khân. After a few minutes more, we came at 12h 20' to 'Ain et-Tâbighah. Here is a small village in a little plain or Wady, with a very copious stream bursting forth from immense fountains, slightly warm, but so brackish as not to be drinkable. The stream drives one or two mills; and

Memoir zu s. Karte von Syrien p. 45.-Richardson professes to have heard from Arabs, in reply to a direct question, that Capernaum and Chorazin were quite near, but in ruins. There may be here some doubt as to the correctness of the report; or, if such a reply was actually made (as he says) by persons asking for charity, they of course gave such an answer as would be likely to propitiate the travellers and open their purses. Travels, etc. II. p. 443.-Pococke, as we have seen, heard the name Bethsaida at Irbid; see above, p. 251. Seetzen heard it at Khân Minyeh; for which I am unable to account, except on the supposition, that he was so much off his guard as to ask leading questions. Zach's

Monatl. Corr. XVIII. p. 348. The spot however had long before been held to be Bethsaida; so Radzivil in Reissb. II. p. 154.-Pococke says he inquired for Chorazin, but could only hear of a name Gerasi ; Vol. II. p. 72. fol. I am not aware that even this has been found by others.

1) Nau p. 571. Berggren II. p. 250. Monro II. p. 5.

2) This great road between Egypt and Syria, thus leading along the lake, might, if necessary, not inappropriately be taken as the 66 way of the sea,” Isa. ix. 1. [viii. 23.] Matt. iv. 15. But this expression in the sacred text probably implies nothing more than the region along the sea, the territories of Zebulun and Naphtali.