In Arabic, it is called Talḥūm, and it is assumed that this refers to the ruin (tall) of Ḥūm (perhaps an abbreviated form of Nāḥūm).

[6] The rare English word capharnaum means "a place with a disorderly accumulation of objects" and is derived from the town's name.

On a Sabbath day, Jesus taught in the synagogue in Capernaum and healed a man who was possessed by an unclean spirit (Luke 4:31–36 and Mark 1:21–28).

Capernaum is the location of the healing of the paralytic lowered by friends through the roof to reach Jesus, as described in Mark 2:1–12 and Luke 5:17–26.

Most traditional biblical commentators (e.g. Bengel, Benson and the Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary) assume that in Matthew 9:1–7 "his own city" means Capernaum, because of the details that are common to the three Synoptic Gospels.

[9] According to the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus selected this town as the center of his public ministry in Galilee after he left the small mountainous hamlet of Nazareth (Matthew 4:12–17).

Archaeological evidence demonstrates that the town was established in the 2nd century BC during the Hasmonean period, when several fishing villages sprung up around the lake.

The cemetery zone is found 200 meters (660 ft) north of the synagogue, which places it beyond the inhabited area of the town.

The historic site of Capernaum is 2.5 kilometers (1.6 mi) from Tabgha,[10] an area which appears to have been used for agricultural purposes, judging by the many oil and grain mills which were discovered in the excavation.

Fishing was a major source of income; the remains of an ancient harbor were found to the west of the modern one built by the Franciscans.

In 1838, American explorer Edward Robinson discovered ruins which he identified as those of a synagogue, but he did not relate this to ancient Capernaum.

[citation needed] The most extensive part of the typical house was the courtyard, where there was a circular furnace made of refractory earth, as well as grain mills and a set of stone stairs that led to the roof.

A study of the district located between the synagogue and the octagonal church showed that several extended families clustered together, communally using the same courtyards and doorless internal passages.

[citation needed] According to Luke's Gospel, the Capernaum synagogue at the time of Jesus' ministry had been built or funded by a Roman centurion based there.

Watzinger, like Orfali, believed that there had been an upper floor reserved for women, with access by means of an external staircase located in the small room, but this opinion was not substantiated by the later excavations of the site.

The work was interrupted by his death in a car accident in 1926 (which is commemorated by a Latin inscription carved onto one of the synagogue's columns), and was continued by Virgilio Corbo beginning in 1976.

[citation needed] Ancient Capernaum consisted of a grid of typical compounds of a type called by the Franciscan archaeologists "insula" (Latin for island) - a block of homes around a courtyard.

One large and roughly square room in particular, near the east side and joining both courtyards, had walls about 7.5 metres (25 ft) long.

[24] One explanation suggested for this treatment is that the room was venerated as a religious gathering place, a domus ecclesiae or house church, for the Christian community.

First, a thick-walled, slightly trapezoidal enclosure was built surrounding the entire insula; its sides were 27–30 metres (89–98 ft) long.

In the zone of the external octagon, the mosaics represented plants and animals in a style similar to that found in the Basilica of the Feeding of the Five Thousand in nearby Tabgha.

[28] The disk-shaped structure stands on eight concrete stilts, ensuring visibility to the venerated ancient building, both directly, at ground level (which allows for a sideways view), and through a glass floor located at the centre of the stilt-raised church (which allows a direct view of the excavated remains below).