Nazareth, The Lord’s Childhood Village

There is a verse that bothered me before I did some research on it, “And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene.” Matthew 2:23. As you read the Gospel of Matthew you will notice that Matthew is very focused on the fulfillment of Old Testament scripture. Yet there is no prophecy that the Messiah would be a Nazarite. Could it mean something else?

Hebrew words are all derived from a three letter root word. In the case of Nazareth, the root is NZR (pronounced Nazar) which means “branch.” The Matthew 2:23 verse makes sense if we reference it to Isaiah 11:1, “And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch [NZR] shall grow out of his roots.” And also reference it to Jeremiah 23:5, “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch [NZR], and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.” Now Matthew 2:23 makes sense to me. The Lord was a descendant of Jesse through King David. Nazareth, a small village at the time, was meant to be where the Lord came from. The prophecy was fulfilled twice over.

Today in Nazareth there are several Bible related sites to see.

1. The Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation (also called St. Gabriel’s Church). This is only one of two sites we can be sure the Lord visited.

This is one of the most important sites that many tourists miss. Under this church flows the natural spring that gave water to the village of Nazareth. Without this spring, the village would not have existed. Here Mary and all the women of Nazareth would have come daily; and the Lord as well as the other men would have visited though maybe not as frequent as the women.

The Greek Orthodox Church believes the angel Gabriel’s annunciation of the Savior’s birth happened here when Mary was visiting the spring.

2. The Old Synagogue Church. It is likely the correct location for the village synagogue. The current building is of Crusader construction (1099-1291 AD) and is built over the synagogue of the Lord’s time. Here the Lord declared himself by Quoting Isaiah 61:1-2,

“And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.” Luke 4:16-21.

As a result of his declaration, the men of Nazareth rejected him:

“And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. But he passing through the midst of them went his way” to Capernaum. Luke 4:28-30.

3. Today tourists are taken to a very picturesque overlook, called the Mount of Precipitation, a few miles from the original village. The village has become a city of about 78,000 people, and there is no way of knowing if this is the correct spot or if the spot has been covered by urban sprawl.

4. The Roman Catholic Basilica of the Annunciation. This is a site that every tourist is taken to. The basilica is the largest in the Middle East and was built in 1969. The lower grotto of the annunciation is where a Byzantine and Crusader church previously stood, and their ruins are still visible. It is the traditional site of Mary’s parents home where the annunciation took place and where the holy family lived in Nazareth. Many archaeologists believe at the time of Christ it was likely a basement used for grain storage. In any case, Joseph as a builder/carpenter would have lived in a house and not a cave/grotto/basement. Joseph could have made a good living working at the nearby city of Zippori. Further, if they had lived in a relative’s home, by the custom of the period it would have with been Joseph’s family, not Mary’s.

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