The village of Capernaum, located near the entrance of the Jordan River into the Sea of Galilee, served as a home base for Jesus when he was ministering in that region. As Reisner says, “The roles played in Matthew by Capernaum as the “city of Jesus (ct. Mt 9:1) and the house in which Jesus sometimes lived are striking (Mt 4:13-17; 9:1; Jn. 2:12).” It is almost universally accepted that this house was the one occupied by Peter's family.
In 1838, the site of Capernaum was identified by an American explorer Edward Robinson. In 1866, Captain Charles Wilson of the Palestine Exploration Fund found the synagogue, later shown to be a 3rd century AD structure but probably built over the site of an earlier first-century synagogue, traces of which were later identified. When Bedouin tribesmen began to demolish the site looking for treasures, the Franciscan Fathers bought it in 1894 and built a fence around it for protection.
In 1968, the Franciscans began excavating the site a few yards beyond the synagogue and found the remains of a group of small one-room houses. But built over one of them were the remains of a fifth-century Byzantine church in the form of an octagon. Generally, octagonal-shaped buildings were reserved for venerated sites by Christians, such as the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
Further excavations to lower strata uncovered an ordinary 1st century AD home with pillars too small to support a second story. It had been expanded in the fourth century to accommodate a house church with heavy paving, oil lamps and storage jars. Graffiti in both Latin and Greek on the walls included “Lord Jesus help thy servant,” Christ have mercy,” and “Peter.” The only find whatsoever retrieved from the lowest occupation level was significant considering Peter's occupation: fish hooks found between the cracks in the floor. Both these inscriptions and early church tradition make it highly likely that this particular dwelling was that of Peter's family in which Jesus stayed when he was in town.
“If so, the word 'immediately' in [Mark] 1:29 may be literally correct; people exiting from the synagogue might find themselves at the door of Peter's house almost at once.” (Marcus) If you recall, this is the episode in which Jesus and his disciples left the synagogue and immediately entered the house of Peter and Andrew where Jesus healed Peter's mother-in-law.
The most famous story associated with Peter's house is the healing of the paralytic, whose friends cannot get in due to the crowd around Jesus, and so they lower their friend through a hole they make in the roof. Reisner points out that archeological evidence indicates that there was indeed a large open area in front of the door big enough to accommodate the crowd.
All the sources I consulted were in agreement that the roof would have been flat and readily accessed through an outer stairway. However, there was no such consensus regarding the materials of construction for typical roofs at that time:
H. Anderson: “beams overlaid with a matting of branches and hardened mud”
Grassmick: “a composite of grass, clay, clay tiles, and laths”
Short: “matting, covered with earth and twigs, suspended over rafters”
Reisner: “a building method utilizing clay roofs”
Marcus: “wooden beams covered with reeds, matted layers of thorns, and several inches of clay”
Mann: Mark's version implies an earth covering while Luke 5:19 indicates a tiled roof.
In any case, it would have been relatively easy to tear apart in order to let down the pallet.
Alternatively, but less likely, Chilton proposes that the “house” in which that healing took place might have been the nearby synagogue instead. That is indeed a physical possibility since Schwank points out “that the synagogue with which Jesus was familiar was of a simple house style, an assembly hall without columns or [a second-story] gallery.”
In any case, as Reisner says, “The tradition reflected in Mark 1:29-39, which probably goes back to Peter, is characterized by notable local color.”
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