COROZAIN

Image from page 343
Image from page 343

COROZAIN. - A city of Galilee visited several times by the Saviour, but which did not accept His message; it is included together with Capernaum and Bethsaida in the condemnation referred to in Mt. 11:20–24; Lk. 10:12–15. The topographical indication given by Eusebius (Onom., 175, 24): “a deserted village two miles from Capernaum” corresponds precisely to the desolate site, in the midst of a basaltic landscape, of Hirbet Kerâzeh, 3 km north of Tell Hûm (Capernaum).

In the German archaeological exploration of 1905, among the ruins of the buildings, a synagogue was uncovered, built of very hard black basaltic stones, similar in structure and decoration to that of Tell-Hûm and to others found in Galilee dating from the 2nd–3rd century. Notable among the ruins is the entire chair of the archisynagogue, with a Hebrew-Aramaic inscription recalling Iudan, son of Ismael, the builder of the edifice.

BIBL.: L. Heidet, s. V. in DB. II, cols. 1016; H. Kohl–C. Watzinger, Antike Synagogen in Galilea, Leipzig 1916, pp. 41–58.