Last Judgment Detail

View looking west, at the upper portion of the west wall of the single nave of the Church of the Twelve Apostles at Capernaum.

At the top of the wall, Jesus Christ sits in judgment with Mary on the left and John the Baptist (obscured by candelabra) praying for humanity (the "Deisis" [Deesis]).  To view a classic image of the Deisis, Click Here.

Below Jesus is what looks like a Cross, surrounded by two Seraphim and the Ark of the Covenant.

A trail of blood flows from beneath the throne of Jesus to the bottom right of the painting.  It divides the painting into two unequal parts—say a third on the right and two-thirds on the left.   On the right are scenes from the Book of Revelation depicting evil and the damned.  On the left are scenes of judgment and salvation and bliss.

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Between 1995 and 2000 the church was renewed and decorated with iconography by Constantine Dzumakis, a Greek iconographer.  The iconography shows saints who lived in the Holy Land and scenes from the Gospels: the quieting of the storm, the walking on water, the miraculous catch of fish, the healing of the paralytic, the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ, the Last Judgment, and others.

The Greek Orthodox Church purchased the property in the nineteenth century.  In 1925 the "Church of the Twelve Apostles" was built.  After the founding of Israel in 1848, the monastery turned out to be in "no man's land"—and thus not accessible.  It fell into decay.  In 1969, after the Six Days War of 1967, the monastery became accessible and in the 1990s the church was refurbished.