town or village

Nazareth

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• Where was Nazareth?

History

Nazareth lies in a basin high in the hills of Lower Galilee, above the Jezreel Valley, about 6 km from the city of Sepphoris. Tombs and pottery show people here in the Middle Bronze Age, and silos and grinding stones in the Iron Age. The village of the Gospels was settled again in the late Hellenistic period, when Jews moved into Galilee under the Hasmoneans, and it stayed small: the estimates of scholars run to a few hundred people living from farming in houses partly cut into the rock.

Nazareth is not named in the Old Testament, in Josephus or in the Mishnah. In the Gospels it is the town of Mary and Joseph, where the angel Gabriel came to Mary, and where Jesus grew up after the family returned from Egypt; he is called Jesus of Nazareth. Luke tells how he read from Isaiah in its synagogue and how the townspeople drove him out to the brow of the hill, and Nathanael asked whether any good thing could come out of Nazareth.

Excavations by Bellarmino Bagatti from 1955 under the Church of the Annunciation found rock-cut houses, cisterns and storage pits of the Roman village. In 2009 Yardenna Alexandre excavated a house of the early Roman period nearby, and Ken Dark has studied another under the convent of the Sisters of Nazareth. A Hebrew inscription from Caesarea, found in 1962 and dated to the third or fourth century AD, lists Nazareth as the seat of one of the priestly courses, a list usually taken to show where they settled after the revolts against Rome.

In the early third century Julius Africanus wrote that relatives of Jesus, the desposynoi, came from Nazareth and Kokhaba. Epiphanius says that under Constantine Joseph of Tiberias had leave to build churches in Jewish towns, Nazareth among them. In the fifth century a church was built over the venerated cave of the Annunciation; Bagatti thought an earlier sanctuary lay beneath it, a reading other scholars dispute. The town itself remained largely Jewish through late antiquity.

Scripture: Luke 1:26–27; Matt 2:19–23; Luke 2:39; Luke 2:51; Mark 1:9; Luke 4:16–30; John 1:45–46

Checked against its sources; not yet read by a historian.

Verses (32)

Matt 2:23

And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene.

Matt 4:13

And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim:

Matt 13:54

And when he was come into his own country, he taught them in their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished, and said, Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works?

Matt 21:11

And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.

Matt 26:71

And when he was gone out into the porch, another maid saw him, and said unto them that were there, This fellow was also with Jesus of Nazareth.

Mark 1:9

And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan.

Mark 1:24

Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God.

Mark 6:1

And he went out from thence, and came into his own country; and his disciples follow him.

Mark 10:47

And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, and say, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me.

Mark 14:67

And when she saw Peter warming himself, she looked upon him, and said, And thou also wast with Jesus of Nazareth.

Mark 16:6

And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him.

Luke 1:26

And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,

Luke 2:4

And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judæa, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)

Luke 2:39

And when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own city Nazareth.

Luke 2:43

And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it.

Luke 2:51

And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart.

Luke 4:16

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.

Luke 4:34

Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art; the Holy One of God.

Luke 18:37

And they told him, that Jesus of Nazareth passeth by.

Luke 24:19

And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people:

John 1:45

Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.

John 1:46

And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see.

John 18:5

They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am he. And Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with them.

John 18:7

Then asked he them again, Whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth.

John 19:19

And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS.

Acts 2:22

Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know:

Acts 3:6

Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.

Acts 4:10

Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.

Acts 6:14

For we have heard him say, that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us.

Acts 10:38

How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.

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Tours through this place

• The childhood of Jesus, after Luke →
• Jesus in Galilee, after Mark →
• The life of Jesus →