NAZARETH

IMPRESSIONS

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The history of Nazareth is a history of its communities. Canaanites, Is­raelites, Jews, Judeo-Christians, Christians, and Muslims have come and gone, and some have come again. Because its history has been so influenced by religion and religious communities, it seems fitting that the first known reference to Nazareth comes from a religious text. In the New Testament, Nazareth enters the pages of history as the town of Gabriel's annunciation to Mary, and the town where Jesus "increased in wisdom and stature." From that point on it has been primarily the religious pilgrims, scholars, and skeptics whose written accounts of vis­its to and studies of Nazareth's holy places have left a chain of refer­ences about the town and its communities (LeHardy 1905). Many of these references were only incidental to religious purposes and as such reveal prejudices, inaccuracies, and rough estimates. Still they provide a fragmented history that is more complete than that of the many other obscure Galilean villages.

Nazareth's existence before its first mention in written text is ver­ified by excavations in the vicinity of the Latin churches of the Annun­ciation and St. Joseph. The original village must have been located here because excavations have revealed pottery dating from the Middle Bronze Age (2200-1500 B.C., during the time of the Patriarchs); ceram­ics, silos, and grinding mills from the Iron Age (1200-586 B.C., after the conquest of Israel and before the Babylonian exile); and tombs and homes built of masonry, with back rooms of natural or rock-hewn caves from the Roman era (63 B.C.-A.D. 324) (Ludwig 1986, 112). In light of the archaeological data gathered, it seems that the earliest inhabi­tants of Nazareth would have included first Canaanites, then Israelites (part of the tribal allotment of Zebulun), and then Galilean Jews during the Roman period.

For the first few centuries A.D., little is known of Nazareth other than that relatives of Jesus lived here as well as Christians and Jews. The Jewish community is mentioned in reference to Nazareth until the seventh century (Bagatti 1969, 18). Nazareth became known as a Jewish center in the second century when, following the Barkochba revolt, the priestly family of Hafizaz moved to Nazareth along with other Jew­ish families who sought refuge in the north (Stendel 1973, 5). Scholars have suggested that the Christians living in Nazareth during the first centuries were more specifically Judeo-Christians, who, as former Jews, still adhered to the Mosaic Law in varying degrees (Briand 1982, 10). Ar­chaeological evidence suggests that before the building of the Byzantine basilica at the site of the house of Mary in the middle of the fifth cen­tury, there existed a pre-Byzantine synagogue church with Judeo-Christian symbols carved into the stone and plaster (Ludwig 1986, 28). Since the Jews of Nazareth were not expelled until the seventh century, they most likely were still using the original synagogue of Nazareth, whereas the Judeo-Christians would have needed to build their own place of worship, most likely at the site of Mary's house.

The Persians invaded Palestine in 614, but there is no mention of their attacking or passing through Nazareth. Throughout the land, Samaritans and Jews allied themselves with the Persians in opposition to Byzantine Christian rule. When Emperor Heraclius reestablished Byzantine control in 629-30, he expelled the Jews from Nazareth, per­haps because such Jews might have turned upon the Christians and Christian shrines during the Persian invasion. The expulsion of the Jews, and perhaps the Judeo-Christians, turned Nazareth into a Chris­tian village, but not for long.

Muslim invaders conquered the land of Palestine in 638, but had no immediate impact upon the Christians of Nazareth. When the Gal­lic Bishop Arculf visited Nazareth during a pilgrimage thirty-two years after the invasion, he noted two large churches in the unwalled vil­lage, one at the site of the house of Joseph where Jesus was reared, and one at the site of the house of Mary where the Annunciation took place. Arculf does not mention a synagogue, which may by then have been taken over as a mosque.

When the crusaders, under the leadership of Tancred, entered Naza­reth in 1102, they found the city and its churches in ruins, as recorded by the traveler Saewulf, who writes: "The city of Nazareth is entirely laid waste and overthrown by the Saracens; but the place of the An­nunciation is indicated by a very noble monastery" (Wright 1848, 46). The city had been destroyed, then abandoned, by its Muslim inhabi­tants (Mansur 1924, 41). Within a decade, Daniel of Russia wrote that the Church of the Annunciation was being rebuilt by the Franks (i.e., Europeans) and that a "very rich" bishop lived at the monastery (Mansur 1924, 164). During this same period the Greeks built the Church of St. Gabriel near Mary's well (Meistermann 1923, 481). Nazareth became the seat of an archbishop in the mid-twelfth century, and by the 1170s it was described by travelers as a large village or even a town.

In 1730, sheikh Dahir al-Umar, the regional ruler, granted the Franciscans permission to build a small church dedicated to the Annunciation. Al-Umar also allowed the Franciscans to buy in 1741 the traditional site of the synagogue where Jesus taught and in 1754 the traditional site of Joseph's work­shop. In 1767, Dahir al-Umar also granted permission to the Orthodox bishop of Akka to reconstruct the Church of St. Gabriel over the ruins of the octagonal crusader church at Mary's well (Colbi 1988, 89).