Gathering Stones In Nazareth
Luke 2:39-40
39 And when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own city Nazareth.
40 And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.
If anyone has visited ancient Nazareth, it usually comes as a surprise to learn that in Nazareth, some of the oldest dwellings there are subterranean caves. Nazareth was a very small community, usually thought to be about 20-24 families in a clan, a much closed, close-knit community. And many in the community lived underground in the caves hewn out of the rock base.
Some caves were used as cisterns for water storage, others for storing grains.
All the above-ground structures were removed when the basilica was built in Nazareth, but that did destroy some of the evidences of the society in Nazareth. One understanding is that the subterranean pits were not carved until the third century, but with the evidences of inscriptions (also subterranean) in the third century, recording the name of Mary, the mother of Jesus, there must be an argument for earlier occupation.
Nazareth contains a rock quarry, not a forest as a source of building materials. The possibility is that Jesus, being raised in Nazareth, that he lived his childhood in a cave underground. The excavations in 1955 revealed many of the underground cavernous living spaces. For a peek at ancient Nazareth during the reconstruction of the church there...
http://198.62.75.1/www1/terras/TSnzsilo.jpg
Critics will discredit any caves as dwelling places, citing that Jews will not live in caves because of their similarity to tombs, but that simply is not the case. Cave dwellings are found all over ancient Israel from Jericho to Bethlehem, Bethshean, and even ancient Cana.
Can you see the image of the Christ child growing in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and man while living subterranean in a cave which would double as a workshop? The image of a darken room lit by several small lamps with few windows for light. The average temperature of a cave is usually the mean temperature of the surface, and the mean temperature of Nazareth, Israel today, is 67 degrees--not too hot nor too cold.
... or at least a haven from the heat of summer and a comfortable home with the hearth or oven heating it in the winter. Deforestation made trees quite scarce in Israel, so one cannot think that heat was easy to attain in the ancient homes.
Assuredly, homes would be damp and cold in the winter months.
Troglodyte may be a term that could/would apply to Jesus, it means one who lives underground.
troglodyte \TROG-luh-dyt\, noun: (dictionary.com)
1. A member of a primitive people that lived in caves, dens, or holes; a cave dweller.
2. One who is regarded as reclusive, reactionary, out of date, or brutish
Could it be that Jesus the Christ was one of the original cavemen?
From archaeology, we may estimate the population of the village of Nazareth. The lower spectrum is two dozen families in a clan or about 120-150 people. The critics will argue that Nazareth did not exist during the first century since there is no written record of the town of Nazareth outside the biblical text, but the land tells us that there were occupation levels in the first century.
Archaeology and the New Testament, McRay, page 158, Baker Book House“The location of twenty-three tombs several yards to the north, west, and south of the Annunciation Church indicates the limits of the town during the Hellenistic and Roman periods, for tombs were built outside towns.” The places of these tombs give us an outline of the city limits of Nazareth as they are Jewish tombs and Jews were buried outside the city. (EAEHL III, pp 911-922, Bagatti, B. in Dictionnaire de la Bible, Supplement vi, col. 318-321, Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly, 1923, p. 90, Quarterly of the Department of Antiquities in Palestine 1, 1931, pp 53-55.)There were kokim type tombs and four of the "rolling stone" type no later than 70 CE
The Archaeology of the New Testament, Jack Finegan, Princeton University Press, 1992. Page 46-47, 48
More recent studies in Nazareth have uncovered a crusader bathhouse and indications are that there is an earlier structure under that bathhouse. The information from that study can be read online
http://users.drew.edu/csavage/Nazareth.pdf
~serapha~
39 And when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own city Nazareth.
40 And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.
If anyone has visited ancient Nazareth, it usually comes as a surprise to learn that in Nazareth, some of the oldest dwellings there are subterranean caves. Nazareth was a very small community, usually thought to be about 20-24 families in a clan, a much closed, close-knit community. And many in the community lived underground in the caves hewn out of the rock base.
Some caves were used as cisterns for water storage, others for storing grains.
All the above-ground structures were removed when the basilica was built in Nazareth, but that did destroy some of the evidences of the society in Nazareth. One understanding is that the subterranean pits were not carved until the third century, but with the evidences of inscriptions (also subterranean) in the third century, recording the name of Mary, the mother of Jesus, there must be an argument for earlier occupation.
Nazareth contains a rock quarry, not a forest as a source of building materials. The possibility is that Jesus, being raised in Nazareth, that he lived his childhood in a cave underground. The excavations in 1955 revealed many of the underground cavernous living spaces. For a peek at ancient Nazareth during the reconstruction of the church there...
http://198.62.75.1/www1/terras/TSnzsilo.jpg
Critics will discredit any caves as dwelling places, citing that Jews will not live in caves because of their similarity to tombs, but that simply is not the case. Cave dwellings are found all over ancient Israel from Jericho to Bethlehem, Bethshean, and even ancient Cana.
Can you see the image of the Christ child growing in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and man while living subterranean in a cave which would double as a workshop? The image of a darken room lit by several small lamps with few windows for light. The average temperature of a cave is usually the mean temperature of the surface, and the mean temperature of Nazareth, Israel today, is 67 degrees--not too hot nor too cold.
... or at least a haven from the heat of summer and a comfortable home with the hearth or oven heating it in the winter. Deforestation made trees quite scarce in Israel, so one cannot think that heat was easy to attain in the ancient homes.
Assuredly, homes would be damp and cold in the winter months.
Troglodyte may be a term that could/would apply to Jesus, it means one who lives underground.
troglodyte \TROG-luh-dyt\, noun: (dictionary.com)
1. A member of a primitive people that lived in caves, dens, or holes; a cave dweller.
2. One who is regarded as reclusive, reactionary, out of date, or brutish
Could it be that Jesus the Christ was one of the original cavemen?
From archaeology, we may estimate the population of the village of Nazareth. The lower spectrum is two dozen families in a clan or about 120-150 people. The critics will argue that Nazareth did not exist during the first century since there is no written record of the town of Nazareth outside the biblical text, but the land tells us that there were occupation levels in the first century.
Archaeology and the New Testament, McRay, page 158, Baker Book House“The location of twenty-three tombs several yards to the north, west, and south of the Annunciation Church indicates the limits of the town during the Hellenistic and Roman periods, for tombs were built outside towns.” The places of these tombs give us an outline of the city limits of Nazareth as they are Jewish tombs and Jews were buried outside the city. (EAEHL III, pp 911-922, Bagatti, B. in Dictionnaire de la Bible, Supplement vi, col. 318-321, Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly, 1923, p. 90, Quarterly of the Department of Antiquities in Palestine 1, 1931, pp 53-55.)There were kokim type tombs and four of the "rolling stone" type no later than 70 CE
The Archaeology of the New Testament, Jack Finegan, Princeton University Press, 1992. Page 46-47, 48
More recent studies in Nazareth have uncovered a crusader bathhouse and indications are that there is an earlier structure under that bathhouse. The information from that study can be read online
http://users.drew.edu/csavage/Nazareth.pdf
~serapha~
posted by ~serapha~ at 3:27 AM
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