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TODD BOLEN / BIBLEPLACES.COM

SEASIDE SYNAGOGUE. Capernaum’s striking synagogue, made of white limestone, dates to the fourth century CE. Its main room has stone benches along its two long walls, and its side room served as an all-purpose community center: school, court, dining room, and even hostel. The white synagogue sits overtop basalt walls and a platform that might belong to a first-century synagogue. The earlier synagogue possibly appears in the New Testament as a public synagogue where Jesus preached, worked miracles, and debated the assembled Jewish community (John 6:22–59), though some scholars question this identification.