Nazareth

Matthew 4:13-16: Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali, to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah: "Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, along the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles - the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned."

You know, March and April are the 'period of latter-day rains' in Israel, more colloquially known as 'sorta rainy.' Which means it should be 'sorta sunny' sometimes? But it should really be renamed: "The period of latter-day rains and omnipresent clouds." And I've never seen a great photograph with a cloudy sky. (Grumble grumble.)

A March day on the Galilee.

I confess, it does turn blue sometimes. If I tilt back my head and aim my camera straight up, I could frequently get a gorgeous photo of a big patch of sapphire.

The problem is, the sites don't fly.

I headed an hour west of Galilee to Nazareth, but after Sami's warning of Nazareth traffic being horrendous compared to Tiberias, which had me lost for two hours and sobbing, I ran low on durability and chickened out after half an hour of k-turns.

Nazareth: Its Own Character
We often think of Jesus' childhood village as Hicksville, Israel, but this was not an isolated prairie town. Galilee was a small area, and Nazareth was probably an integrated part of the regional system. It was roughly an hour outside of Sepphoris, the capital during Jesus’ childhood, and probably a satellite village of it. Sepphoris was rebuilt by King Herod Antipas in 19/20 A.D., and it's logical that Nazareth’s villagers played a key role in this rebuilding, and that Jesus worked on its carpentry - not necessarily by choice.

The suffix used for the word translated 'carpenter' in the Bible usually means woodwork but can also refer to masonry, and Nazareth may well have specialized in carpentry and stonework, using wood and limestone native to the area. If so their role in rebuilding Sepphoris may have contributed to the external framework of the major buildings as well as their internal woodwork.

It's possible that an aristocrat owned part or all of Nazareth - even that Nazareth had become part of his estate. While there was certainly strong animosity from the peasants toward the aristocracy, who taxed them brutally, this would have increased the resentment dramatically.

The Nazareth ridge, looking south across the Jezreel Valley to Judea.

Additional Information:
An Expanded Version of This Article: Nazareth
More Information: A Typical Village

Last Updated May 27, 2009