The Palestine of Jesus - Part I

The course began in ernest, yesterday, with a trip to Nazareth.  Previous introductory material was really helpful in laying out the trajectory of the course.  So far as it makes sense to do, the excursions and lectures will follow the chronolological events of Jesus' life, meaning that the Annunciation, which St. Luke says, took place in Nazareth, was our first stop.  Heading out of Jerusalem, down the present-day Jericho Road is a wierd experience.  In just about twenty-five miles the elevation drops from 1500 feet above sea level to 250 feet below.  It makes one glad to be riding down rather than walking up.  A left turn at Jericho takes one along the Jordan River Valley, past the all the intensive farming activity which the Jordan River makes possible, and all of this is fraimed by the absoute desolation of the Judean wilderness immediately behind it.  As the route travels further northward, the hills of Samaria replace the desolation of the sandy wilderness with the desolation of a rocky wilderness.  Only with the turn westward into the lower Galilee does the landscape dramatically transform into verdant, high intensity farming that looks similar to what we know and would recognise.

Nazareth, which historians tell us, had probably no more than 300 people at the time of Jesus' annunciation, is now a city of 125,000, with suburbs, no less.   It seems to be a rule in Israel and Palestine that all cities must be perched on the very top of the hill, and so it is with Nazareth.  The most prominant feature in Nazareth is the Church of the Annunciation.

 It is a twentieth century building standing on the foundation of a Byzantine church which was first build in the fifh century.  It contains the grotto which purports to be the remains of the house where Mary was living when she received that Ave from the Angel Gabriel, which changed her life, and I guess I should add, all of ours as well.  It is the largest church in Israel.

This was a return visit for me, and I believe I have already shared some of the pictures I took on previous visits to this magnificent shrine church.  It has pictures and artwork from all over the world depicting Mary in the manner which is more of less native to the country of origin.  I found the experience to be very moving, as I did on previous visits, and I was not at all bored while others viewed its many facinating exibits for their first time.

There were two or maybe three completely new sitess for me to take in.  The first was the Church of Saint Joseph, near the Church of the Annunciation, of which I had never heard.  Joseph often gets overlooked in the praise and adoration poured out on Mary.  But, especially in St. Matthew's Gospel, his role is absolutely essential.  It was nice to see that there was also a shrine chruch dedicated to him.  Some nice artwork, a lovely garden/plaza and a handsome church add a necessary acknowledgement of his considerable role in salvation history.

Our visit took a leap into Jesus' future and outside the course timeline so that we could see another site in Nazareth of importance to the Jesus narrative.  The synagogue in Nazareth where Jesus was rejected by his own townsfolk is only a fairly short trip through the Nazareth market, to what is, today, a Marcionite parish called the Synagogue Church, an active Christian congregation who have maintained this chapel for centuries.

Nazareth has one of the largest Arab Christian communiies in Israel, and is one of the Israeli cities which has an Arab majority, and an Arab member of the Kennesset (I don't seem to have any spell check, which is a problem, since I also have no dictionary!)

We left Nazareth for the archeological site of Sepphoris which is only about five miles from Nazareth, and which was the capital of the Galilee during the time of Jesus' childhood.  It is sometimes postulated that Joseph may have been working in Sepphoris, since there was a lot of building and construction going on at that time.  Perhaps even Jesus himself may have apprenticed there.  Unfortunately, the park was closed because it was the day before Rosh Hashanna.  This happens in Israel fairly often.  A Jewish holiday will close any site which is run by the state.  It was not planned, but since we were in the area and had the time, we diverted to Cana, of Galilee, another important location in the later part of Jesus' life.  Here is where Jesus turned the water which had been drawn into the stone jars for purification into top drawer wine.  A nice garden, still used for weddings, (in fact one was going on while we were there) two nice churches, one Roman Catholic, one Othodox, and replicas, or maybe original stone jars (but not wine, although the shops all around offered "Cana Wine" for sale to any wishing to partake.  (I don't think it is the same wine)

It was a long, hot and tiring day, and I was relieved to get back to St. George's and into a shower and some fresh clothes.  I know that I wasn't alone.

I can't seem to get this post out of Israel, so I'll have to scrap some pictures. More to come.