Matthew 11:23An Understandable Version (2005 edition)And Capernaum, do you think you will be lifted up toward heaven [as a proud city]? [No indeed], you will [surely] go down to the place of the unseen [i.e., become obscure or obliterated as a city]. For if the powerful miracles had been performed in Sodom which were performed in your presence, it would have remained [even] until today. See the chapter |
And I also tell you, [although] you are Peter [i.e., a stone], it is on this rock [i.e., the truth you have just confessed] that I will build my church and [not even] the gates of the unseen place of departed spirits will win out over it [i.e., all efforts to stamp out the church by killing Christians will fail].
When Jesus and His disciples came to Capernaum, the collectors of the [Temple] tax [Note: This was the annual tax used for meeting the expenses of the Temple service and consisted of two twelve hour days’ worth of a farm laborer’s pay, or about $216 in 2005] came to Peter and said, “Does not your teacher [also] pay the [Temple] tax?”
So, I looked and before me [stood] a pale green horse, and the name of the man riding on it was “Death,” and the unseen place of departed spirits followed along behind him. And they were [both] given authority over one fourth of the earth, to kill people with swords, with famine, with terrible judgments and by wild animals of the earth.