Has the Childhood Home of Jesus Been Found?
Jesus’ home in Nazareth
The Sisters of Nazareth Convent
A Roman-period, Byzantine, and Crusader site in central Nazareth
Ken Dark
ISBN 9780367542191
Published September 16, 2020 by Routledge
284 Pages 18 Color & 147 B/W Illustrations
The childhood home of Jesus may have been found underneath the Sisters of Nazareth Convent in Nazareth, Israel, according to archaeologist Ken Dark.
This very well could be the childhood home of Jesus. It doesn’t look inviting, but this rock-hewn courtyard house was quite likely Jesus’ home in Nazareth. The recent excavation by Ken Dark and the Nazareth Archaeological Project revealed good evidence to suggest this is where Jesus was raised. Photo: Ken Dark.
The excavation site located beneath the convent has been known since 1880, but it was never professionally excavated until the Nazareth Archaeological Project began its work in 2006. In “Has Jesus’ Nazareth House Been Found?” in the March/April 2015 issue of BAR, Ken Dark, the director of the Nazareth Archaeological Project, not only describes the remains of the home itself, but explores the evidence that suggests that this is the place where Jesus spent his formative years—or at least the place regarded in the Byzantine period as the childhood home of Jesus.
The excavation revealed a first-century “courtyard house” that was partially hewn from naturally occurring rock and partially constructed with rock-built walls. Many of the home’s original features are still intact, including doors and windows. Also found at the site were tombs, a cistern and, later, a Byzantine church.
Is it possible to identify the first-century man named Jesus behind the many stories and traditions about him that developed over 2,000 years in the Gospels and church teachings? Visit the Jesus/Historical Jesus study page to read free articles on Jesus in Bible History Daily.
The remains combined with the description found in the seventh-century pilgrim account De Locus Sanctis point to the courtyard house found beneath the convent as what may have been regarded as Jesus’ home in Nazareth. Archaeological and geographical evidence from the Church of the Annunciation, the International Marion Center and Mary’s Well come together to suggest that this location may be where Jesus transitioned from boy to man.
Ken Dark also discusses the relationship between the childhood home of Jesus, Nazareth and the important site of Sepphoris. It has been thought that Sepphoris would have provided Joseph with work and Jesus many important cultural experiences. However, Ken Dark believes that Nazareth was a larger town than traditionally understood and was particularly Jewish in its identity—as opposed to the Roman-influenced Sepphoris. This is partially based on the result of his survey of the Nahal Zippori region that separates Sepphoris and Nazareth geographically.
For more on the childhood home of Jesus, read the full article “Has Jesus’ Nazareth House Been Found?” by Ken Dark in the March/April 2015 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.
The Sisters of Nazareth Convent
A Roman-period, Byzantine, and Crusader site in central Nazareth
Ken Dark
ISBN 9780367542191
Published September 16, 2020 by Routledge
284 Pages 18 Color & 147 B/W Illustrations
Read the full article “Has Jesus’ Nazareth House Been Found?” by Ken Dark in the March/April 2015 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.
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A version of this Bible History Daily article was originally published in March 2015.
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How did Jesus’ former neighbors respond to his teaching, and what did they fail to recognize about him?
The audience was stunned. The young man Jesus was standing before them in the synagogue and teaching. He was no stranger to them—he had grown up in their city,Nazareth and for years he had worked among them as a carpenter. Perhaps some of them lived in houses that Jesus had helped to build, or maybe they worked their land with plows and yokes that he had made with his own hands.* But how would they respond to the teaching of this former carpenter?
Most of those listening were astounded, asking: “Where did this man get this wisdom?” But they also remarked: “This is the carpenter the son of Mary.” (Matthew 13:54-58; Mark 6:1-3) Sadly, Jesus’ onetime neighbors reasoned, ‘This carpenter is just a local man like us.’ Despite the wisdom in his words, they rejected him. Little did they know that the wisdom he shared was not his own.
Where did Jesus get this wisdom? “What I teach is not mine,” he said, “but belongs to him that sent me.” (John 7:16) The apostle Paul explained that Jesus “has become to us wisdom from God.” (1 Corinthians 1:30) Jehovah’s own wisdom is revealed through his Son, Jesus. Indeed, this was true to such an extent that Jesus could say: “I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30)
Jesus was now called not only “the carpenter’s son” but also “the carpenter.” Evidently, Jesus had taken over his father’s business and had assumed the role of provider for the family, which included at least six children who were born after him. (Matthew 13:55, 56; Mark 6:3)
After figuring in an incident that occurred when Jesus was 12 years old, Joseph is absent from the Gospel record. Thereafter, Jesus’ mother and her other children appear but not Joseph. Jesus is once called “the son of Mary” with no reference to Joseph.—Mark 6:3.
http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1200273113
Perhaps the neighbours were used to Jesus ‘rattling on’ without particularly listening or taking any real notice. veryone’s different and there are plenty of people today who patiently accept and humour neighbours who are a little different to others. It could have been that Jesus’s neighbours were surprised when they suddenly started to take notice of him.
And just down the road from Jesus’ childhood home are the brick house that was the last refuge of the three little pigs and the house of Red Ridinghood’s grandma. The house where Goldilocks met the three bears is thought to be somewhere in the vicinity.
I am very upset that someone using my name has made such a bad comment. I respect and love archaeology and I am a believer with a Masters. This “MARK LAJOIE” would never say such a thing as this.
Mark Lajoie
@Mark (the real one!)
Perhaps the BAS webmaster could be asked to delete that silly, and unnecessary, comment posted in your name!
Blessings, and shalom.
All this is supposition. Their is no empirical proof that this was Jesus house or any Biblical persons house. Its more Byzantine relic seeking then anything else.
I find it difficult to believe that the BAS publishes stuff like this, more suited to the 11:00 Eyewitless News Teams and brainless media eager for startling headlines, whatever the story. You know as well as I do that the odds this is really the site of Jesus’ boyhood home are about as high as the chances I will win the mega-lottery. I assume the full story has the evidence that firmly establishes the provenance, and I will read it, but it’s going to have to be much more substantial than I anticipate to be convincing. I particularly look forward to the chain of events from the time Jesus died as a criminal, unheralded in Nazareth, to someone making sure his boyhood home was preserved as a shrine, to the time many hundreds of years later when institutionally-based Christians took over and built edifices over it.
This would be truly great news, but needs more proof. Still, it is wonderful that a house with original doors, windows and other details survives 2000 years. However, I do not quite understand Kurt’s comment regarding Jesus taking over Joseph’s business and providing “for the family, which included at least six children who were born after him.“ Born after Him?!? Certainly not by Virgin Mary. Matthew 13:55, 56 and Mark 6:3 do not mention children born AFTER Jesus, as there were none. The four boys and two girls were Joseph’s children, not Mary’s. Besides, Joseph was an old man and Mary was a very young girl married to him not in a sense of matrimony as we know it today. She could not reside at the Temple any longer and, as Jesus respected the laws and rules and observed the customs, He could not have been born out of the wedlock, He was circumcised, etc. Joseph and Mary did not consume their marriage, they married for a different purpose.
From the article in the current issue of BAR this house was typical of what a house in Nazareth was like and that the culture there in the 1st century was distinctly Jewish, in contrast to Sepphoris with its Greco-Roman influence. On page 63 is a typical drinking utensil carved from limestone that was not considered susceptible to ritual impurity through exposure to a dead body (Numbers 19:15) and thus would not have to be destroyed; perhaps an indication of what the holy grail looked like (that the action-figure Indiana Jones was after).
Finds from northern Israel in the 1st and 2nd centuries reveal that the Greek hero Heracles was venerated by the resident Romans, while the Jewish hero counterpart, Sampson, was venerated in the following centuries on Jewish synagogue mosaics.
http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/news/hercules-statue-found-in-northern-israel/
http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-artifacts/artifacts-and-the-bible/hercules'-labors-found-in-the-baths/
In a writing from the 2nd century Gnostic teacher Justin that was preserved by the orthodox Christian theologian Hippolytus in his “Refutation of All Heresies,” a convoluted mythological system involves God or “Elohim” sending the blessing or “Baruch” to the first parents, Adam and Eve, in order to redeem their souls, as well as the prophets, and “finally, Elohim chose a prophet from the uncircumcision, Heracles.” Having labored, however, Heracles succumbs to seduction and “thus the prophecy of Heracles and his works became ineffectual.” Finally, Elohim sends the blessing (Baruch) to Jesus in Nazareth and says to him, “All the prophets before you were seduced; but, Jesus, son of man, try not to be seduced but proclaim this message to men and tell them about the Father and about the Good and ascend to the Good and sit there with Elohim, the Father of us all” (“The Other Bible” by Willis Barnstone, p.640).
Did Jesus Have Siblings?The Bible`s answer is:
Yes, Jesus had at least six siblings. These included his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas as well as at least two sisters. (Matthew 13:54-56; Mark 6:3) Those siblings were natural children of Jesus’ mother, Mary, and her husband, Joseph. (Matthew 1:25) The Bible calls Jesus “the firstborn” of Mary, which implies that she had other children.—Luke 2:7.
http://www.jw.org/en/bible-teachings/questions/was-jesus-married/