Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck
Archaeologists have discovered what may have been the childhood home of Jesus – a house in Nazareth that dates back to the first century and is located underneath an Israeli convent.
According to Gizmodo, the house was excavated by University of Reading archaeologist Dr. Ken Dark and his colleagues and was built into the limestone face of a hillside, beneath a convent that itself was built atop a Byzantine church believed to be approximately 1,500 years old.
Sparse, yet intriguing evidence
Nazareth was controlled by the Byzantines until the seventh century, the website explained, and the civilization likely placed a church atop the house because local Christians have long believed that it was where Jesus had spend his infancy. While it is impossible to verify that Jesus himself had ever lived there, the researchers state that it reveals much about life during that era.
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“What was Nazareth like when Jesus lived there? The evidence is sparse but intriguing,” Dark wrote in a recent edition of the Biblical Archaeology Review. “Surprising as it may seem, very little archaeological work has been done in Nazareth itself. However, a site within the Sisters of Nazareth Convent, across the street from the Church of the Annunciation, may contain some of the best evidence of the small town that existed here in Jesus’ time.”
Tomb within the house. (Credit: K.R.Dark copyright 2010)
The house itself had stone walls and a courtyard, as well as several rooms with chalk floors. In addition, Dark and his colleagues found the remains of a stairway, and limestone dishware was found among the other regular household items. Dark said that the presence of this dishware is evidence that the home belonged to a Jewish family, as Jews of that era believed that limestone could not become impure and was ideal for holding food, Gizmodo explained.
Abandoned but still used
The archaeologists believe that the home was abandoned at some point during the first century, according to LiveScience. It was later used as a burial ground, and two now-empty tombs were build beside the abandoned structure, with the forecourt of one cutting through the home itself. The Byzantine Church of the Nutrition would have been built centuries later, and after it was no longer used, it was rebuilt by Crusaders in the 12th century and burned down in the 13th.
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“Great efforts had been made to encompass the remains of this building within the vaulted cellars of both the Byzantine and Crusader churches, so that it was thereafter protected,” Dark wrote, according to LiveScience. “Both the tombs and the house were decorated with mosaics in the Byzantine period, suggesting that they were of special importance, and possibly venerated.”
“The tomb cutting through the house is today commonly called ‘the Tomb of St. Joseph,’ and it was certainly venerated in the Crusader period, so perhaps they thought it was the tomb of St. Joseph,” he told the website. “However, it is unlikely to be the actual tomb of St. Joseph, given that it dates to after the disuse of the house and localized quarrying in the first century.”
A great insight into life during Jesus’ time
Whether or not it was the actual home of Jesus, the house reveals much about what life would have been like during his lifetime, the archaeologists explained. Despite the growing influence of Rome during the first century BC, Dark’s team reportedly found evidence suggesting that people living in and around Nazareth rejected that empire’s culture.
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A survey conducted at the nearby valley of Nahal Zippori found that people who lived on the northern end of that valley (closer to the Roman town of Sepphoris) were more likely to embrace Roman culture than those living to the south (closer to Nazareth), Dark said. The “strength” of the “anti-Roman sentiment” and the “Jewish identity” in Nazareth was “unusual,” he added.
“We will never know if this is the home where a Jewish rebel named Jesus grew up, before challenging the Roman government and founding one of the most popular religions in the west. But we can be certain that the home dates to the time when Jesus is said to have been born,” Gizmodo said. “It offers us a window on the past, and a glimpse of what Jewish villages were like under the Roman Empire.”
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