1After six days, Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John his brother, and brought them up into a high mountain by themselves. 2He was changed before them. His face shone like the sun, and his garments became as white as the light. 3Behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them talking with him.
4Peter answered and said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you want, let’s make three tents here: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
5While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them. Behold, a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him.”
6When the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces, and were very afraid. 7Jesus came and touched them and said, “Get up, and don’t be afraid.” 8Lifting up their eyes, they saw no one, except Jesus alone.
9As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, “Don’t tell anyone what you saw, until the Son of Man has risen from the dead.”
10His disciples asked him, saying, “Then why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?”
11Jesus answered them, “Elijah indeed comes first, and will restore all things; 12but I tell you that Elijah has come already, and they didn’t recognize him, but did to him whatever they wanted to. Even so the Son of Man will also suffer by them.” 13Then the disciples understood that he spoke to them of John the Baptizer.
14When they came to the multitude, a man came to him, kneeling down to him and saying, 15“Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is epileptic and suffers grievously; for he often falls into the fire, and often into the water. 16So I brought him to your disciples, and they could not cure him.”
17Jesus answered, “Faithless and perverse generation! How long will I be with you? How long will I bear with you? Bring him here to me.” 18Jesus rebuked the demon, and it went out of him, and the boy was cured from that hour.
19Then the disciples came to Jesus privately, and said, “Why weren’t we able to cast it out?”
20He said to them, “Because of your unbelief. For most certainly I tell you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will tell this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. 21But this kind doesn’t go out except by prayer and fasting.”
22While they were staying in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is about to be delivered up into the hands of men, 23and they will kill him, and the third day he will be raised up.”
They were exceedingly sorry.
24When they had come to Capernaum, those who collected the didrachma coins came to Peter, and said, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the didrachma?” 25He said, “Yes.”
When he came into the house, Jesus anticipated him, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth receive toll or tribute? From their children, or from strangers?”
26Peter said to him, “From strangers.”
Jesus said to him, “Therefore the children are exempt. 27But, lest we cause them to stumble, go to the sea, cast a hook, and take up the first fish that comes up. When you have opened its mouth, you will find a stater coin. Take that, and give it to them for me and you.”
Capernaum is about 2.5 miles from where the Jordan River enters the Sea of Galilee on the northwest shore of the lake. It was a busy fishing center, was the home of the local Roman garrison, and was a toll stop on the road from Damascus to the Mediterranean [1]. It is almost universally accepted that Jesus made Capernaum the headquarters of His Galilean ministry. It was also the home of Peter. The text of Mat 4:13 seems to indicate that after the rejection he encountered in his hometown of Nazareth (Lk 4:16-30, but not in Mat 4:13), Capernaum became His new hometown, from which he ministered throughout the Galilee (Lk 4:44).
Excavations were conducted at Capernaum several different times, starting in 1838 and going on sporadically until 1982. Among the finds at the site are a large public building, a jetty with a pier on the lakeshore, and several first-century houses of the Roman insulae style.[2] Perhaps the most interesting finds are the fourth-century synagogue built on top of the foundations of a first-century synagogue and what is widely believed to be Peter’s House nearby.
[1] Merrill F. Unger, Archaeology and the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1962), 126.
[2] Jack Finegan, The Archaeology of the New Testament: The Life of Jesus and the Beginning of the Early Church (ebook), (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992), 98.