the Levite, the son of Levi, put up this lintel. A blessing rest upon his work." At the synagogue ruins of Nebartein, north-east of Safed, on the lintel of the main entrance, is a representation of the seven-branched candlestick, similar to those in the catacombs at Rome and on the rocks in the wilderness of Sinai. Here, again, is an inscription in Hebrew. During the excavations at Tell Hum synagogue a lintel of one of the side entrances was found, and on its face a vase—perhaps the pot of manna—and on either side a rod or reed. Along the head is a scroll of vine leaves and grapes. The dimensions of this synagogue were 74 feet 9 inches by 56 feet 9 inches. The material was white limestone, brought from a distance, while the stone used at Kerazeh was the hard black basalt of the neighbourhood.
As already remarked, Kerazeh (Chorazin), north-west of Tell Hum, has sometimes been confounded with Khersa, which was on the eastern side of the lake. Khersa is Gergesa, where Christ was met by the two demoniacs coming out of the tombs (Matt. ix. 1). It is situated on the left bank of Wady Semakh, and at the point where the hills end and the plain stretches out towards the lake. Sir C. Wilson is of opinion that there is only one spot where the herd of swine could have run down a steep place into the lake. It is a place about a mile south of Khersa, where the hills, which everywhere else on the eastern side are recessed from a half to three quarters of a mile from the water's edge, approach within 40 feet of it, and there do not end abruptly but descend in a steep, even slope. Some time after Sir C. Wilson's survey, the eastern coast was carefully examined by Mr Macgregor in his canoe, and he came to exactly the same conclusion.
A difficulty has arisen with regard to this locality in consequence of the different readings in the three Gospels. In Matthew Christ is said to have come into the country of the Gergesenes; in Luke and John into that of the
