Nazareth - Sat., 4/5/08

We started out the day by going to the city of Nazareth. We first visited the Church of the Annunciation, which is a Catholic church built over the site where it is believed the angel Gabriel announced the coming birth of Jesus to Mary. As is the case with many sites like this, it has been built and rebuilt throughout the centuries. The first church was built over the site of Mary's house by Helena, the mother of Constantine, in the 300's AD. The remains of that church can be seen inside the church that stands there today.


That church was destroyed in the 600's by the Muslims. The church was rebuilt again around 1100 or 1200 AD by the Crusaders. That church was also torn down in the 1900's in order to build the basilica that stands there today.



This site was pretty from an artistic and architectural point of view but I have to admit I didn't get a whole lot of spiritual significance out of visiting the church. We enjoyed the next site we visited much more.


Nazareth Village is run by a Christian organization that bought some land in the Nazareth area. Before building, they excavated the site and about half of what you can see there today is from excavations they have done. Although in the heart of the city now, the area they bought would have been a farming area on the outskirts of the village 2,000 years ago when Jesus was running around as a little boy. Some of the ancient remains they found while excavating includes a threshing floor, three watch towers which had to be destroyed so a highway could be built, terracing walls which are evidence that this hillside was used as a farm, a quarry in an area that was to rocky to farm, and a wine press meaning the farm was probably used to grow grapes.

In this picture you can see the tour guide's feet. The bunches of grapes would have been laid in that area and the women would step barefoot on them to squeeze out the juice. The juice would run down the rock into the small channel leading down into the vat. The juice would be allowed to sit in the vat overnight to begin the fermenting process. It was then gathered in jars and finished the fermentation process.


Here is a picture of the quarry. Note how the stone terracing wall was built following the contours of the rock ground.


This water cistern was dug into the hillside for the village although the cover is authentic to the 1st century. A local family had it laying on their land and donated it to the Village.


The buildings that have been rebuilt are based on much study of archaeological evidence and remains from the first century that can be found in other parts of the country. They have built a synagogue, olive press, and a wealthy person's home. Here is the synagogue:



The home consisted of an outer court where the people in the first picture can be seen working. Stairs off the of court led to an upper room (not pictured), which would be similar to where Jesus and His disciples celebrated Passover before He was crucified. The room we saw was quite small and it's hard to imagine 13 men sitting around a table eating a meal but, in actuality, the room they were in was probably quite smaller and less elaborate than how we would picture it in our minds. The inside of the house had a small living area, seen in the picture, and in this case, two bedrooms. I'm assuming the larger one up front was for the children and the back one, which was barely the size of a full mattress (which they of course did not have), would have been for the parents. I don't have pictures of the bedrooms.





All of Nazareth Village was very interesting, not just from a historical perspective, but because such care was taken to be authentic, it helped to bring Scripture to life. Seeing a threshing floor out in the open made us picture Ruth and Boaz in a different context as she went to lay at his feet at the threshing floor (Ruth 3). Picturing the men constantly rotating through shifts on the watchtower to protect the village from wild animals and alert the people of coming soldiers reminded me of Ezekiel 33 where the watchman will be held accountable if he doesn't warn the people of impending danger. Likewise, we are to be watchmen to help people turn away from their sin. I could go on and on about the winepress, the olive press, the quarry, the home and everything else we saw but I think you get the idea.