Where was Chorazin?

Question

Where was Chorazin?

Accepted Answer

Chorazin stood on the black basalt hills above the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, at the ruin of Khirbet Karazeh, where the old name survives, today the Korazim national park in Israel; the map point stands on it. It lies about 3.5 km north of Capernaum, about 6 km west of Bethsaida and about 130 km north of Jerusalem, all in a straight line. With Capernaum and Bethsaida it made the small triangle of towns at the head of the lake where much of Jesus' Galilean ministry took place. Chorazin is named only in one saying, kept by Matthew and Luke. Matthew writes: “Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not: Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.” So the Gospels imply many miracles there, yet describe none. Medieval writers drew a grim conclusion from the curse: Adso of Montier-en-Der, about 950, taught that the Antichrist would be raised in Bethsaida and Chorazin. What visitors see today is mostly the town of the third and fourth centuries AD, excavated by Ze'ev Yeivin in 1962–1964 and 1980–1987: basalt houses, a ritual bath, olive presses and a synagogue carved with reliefs, whose dates are still debated. In it was found a basalt chair with an Aramaic dedication, often called the “seat of Moses” after Jesus' words that “the scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat”; the original is in the Israel Museum. In the early fourth century Eusebius knew Chorazin as a deserted village two miles from Capernaum.