Nazareth: The Hometown of Jesus in Modern Translation

posted on: Feb 15, 2015

Although I’ve been to Israel many times, it wasn’t until this past December that I made my way to Nazareth, hometown of Jesus, center of Christian pilgrimage, and, depending on how you cipher the archaeological record, some 3,000 years old. Today, the agricultural village of Jesus’s time, thought to have a population of 500 or so, is a modern, primarily Arab city of steeples and domes and the hurly-burly of commercial enterprise. It is home to the largest Arab community in Israel (both Muslim and Christian), with a secondary, smaller Jewish community in nearby, newer and slightly suburban Upper Nazareth.

And herein lies just one of the conundrums that confront even the most casual visitor to modern-day Israel: who lives where, and why, and at what social, economic, religious or cultural cost?

But this is to get into a debate that has no end, when the pleasant reality is that the modern city of some 60,000 — sprawling, business driven, and nestled within a natural bowl of steep Galilean hills — presents itself as a place that primarily wants everyone to go along and get along. And if, while you’re at it, you can promote cultural understanding and sell religious tchotchkes to tourists, so much the better.

Source: www.vnews.com