Nazareth is the largest city in the Northern District of Israel. In its population was . Known as "the Arab capital of Israel", Nazareth serves as a cultural, political, religious, economic and commercial center for the Arab citizens of Israel. The inhabitants are predominantly Arabs, of whom 69% are Muslim and 31% Christian. The city also commands immense religious significance, deriving from its status as the hometown of Jesus, the central figure of Christianity and a prophet in Islam and the Baháʼí Faith.
Findings unearthed in the neighboring Qafzeh Cave show that the area around Nazareth was populated in the prehistoric period. Nazareth was a Jewish village during the Roman and Byzantine periods, and is described in the New Testament as the childhood home of Jesus. It became an important city during the Crusades after Tancred established it as the capital of the Principality of Galilee. The city declined under Mamluk rule, and following the Ottoman conquest, the city's Christian residents were expelled, only to return once Fakhr ad-Dīn II granted them permission to do so. In the 18th century, Daher al-Umar transformed Nazareth into a large town by encouraging immigration to it. The city grew steadily during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when European powers invested in the construction of churches, monasteries, educational and health facilities.
Since late antiquity, Nazareth has been a center of Christian pilgrimage, with many shrines commemorating biblical events. The Church of the Annunciation is considered one of the largest Christian sites of worship in the Middle East. It contains the Grotto of the Annunciation, where, according to Catholic tradition, angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and announced that she would conceive and bear Jesus. According to Greek Orthodox belief, the same event took place at the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation, also known as the Church of Saint Gabriel. Other important churches in Nazareth include the Synagogue Church, St. Joseph's Church, the Mensa Christi Church, and the Basilica of Jesus the Adolescent.
Etymology
Hebrew One view holds that the name 'Nazareth' is derived from one of the Hebrew words for 'branch', namely , , and alludes to the prophetic, messianic words in Book of Isaiah 11:1: "from (Jesse's) roots a Branch [] will bear fruit". One view suggests this toponym might be an example of a tribal name used by resettling groups on their return from exile.Bargil Pixner, cited in Paul Barnett, Jesus & the Rise of Early Christianity: A History of New Testament Times, InterVarsity Press, 2002 p. 89, n. 80. Alternatively, the name may derive from the verb , , 'watch, guard, keep","...if the word Nazareth is be derived from Hebrew at all, it must come from this [Hebrew] root [i.e. 'to watch']" (Merrill, Selah, (1881) Galilee in the Time of Christ, p. 116. Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, Charles A. Briggs, The Brown–Driver–Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (1906/2003), p. 665. and understood either in the sense of 'watchtower' or 'guard place', implying the early town was perched on or near the brow of the hill, or, in the passive sense as 'preserved, protected' in reference to its secluded position.R. H. Mounce, "Nazareth", in Geoffrey W. Bromiley (ed.) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Vol. 3 Eerdmans Publishing 1986, pp. 500–501. The negative references to Nazareth in the Gospel of John suggest that ancient Jews did not connect the town's name to prophecy.Bauckham, Jude, Jude, Relatives of Jesus in the Early Church, pp. 64–65. See and
Greek from an Aramaic/Semitic root Another theory holds that the Greek form (), used in the Gospel of Matthew and Gospel of Luke, may derive from an earlier Aramaic form of the name, or from another Semitic language form.Carruth, 1996, p. 417 . If there were a tsade (צ) in the original Semitic form, as in the later Hebrew forms, it would normally have been transcribed in Greek with a sigma (σ) instead of a zeta (ζ). This has led some scholars to question whether "Nazareth" and its cognates in the New Testament actually refer to the settlement known traditionally as Nazareth in Lower Galilee.T. Cheyne, "Nazareth", in Encyclopaedia Biblica, 1899, col. 3358 f. For a review of the question see H. Schaeder, "Nazarenos, Nazoraios", in Kittel, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, IV:874 f. Such linguistic discrepancies may be explained, however, by "a peculiarity of the 'Palestinian' Aramaic dialect wherein a sade (ṣ) between two voiced (sonant) consonants tended to be partially assimilated by taking on a zayin (z) sound".
Arabic The Arabic name for Nazareth is , and Jesus () is also called , reflecting the Arab tradition of according people an attribution, a name denoting whence a person comes in either geographical or tribal terms. In the Qur'an, Christians are referred to as , meaning "followers of ", or "those who follow Jesus of Nazareth".
New Testament references In the Gospel of Luke, Nazareth is first described as "a town of Galilee" and home of Mary. Following the birth and early epiphanial events of chapter 2 of Luke, Mary, Joseph and Jesus "returned to Galilee, to their own city, Nazareth".
The phrase "Jesus of Nazareth" appears seventeen times in English translations of the New Testament, whereas the Greek original contains the form "Jesus the " or "Jesus the ." One plausible view is that () is a normal Greek adaptation of a reconstructed, hypothetical term in Jewish Aramaic for the word later used in Rabbinical sources to refer to Jesus. "Nazaréth" is named twelve times in surviving Greek manuscript versions of the New Testament, 10 times as or ,Textual evidence suggests this form is an emendation made during the secondary process of synoptic standardization. Shawn Carruth, James McConkey Robinson, Christoph Heil, Q 4:1–13,16: The Temptations of Jesus: Nazara, p. 395 and twice as . The latter two may retain the 'feminine' endings common in Galilean toponyms. The minor variants, and are also attested. Within the New Testament, Nazareth is called () after the Aramaic form in Matthew 4:13 and Luke 4:16. However, the Textus Receptus clearly translates all passages as , leaving little room for debate there.
Many scholars have questioned a link between "Nazareth" and the terms "Nazarene" and "Nazoraean" on linguistic grounds,Cheyne in 1899 Ency. Biblica, "Nazareth"; Lidzbarski [Kittel p. 878]; Kennard [JBL 65:2,134 ff.]; Berger [Novum Test. 38:4,323], et multi. while some affirm the possibility of etymological relation "given the idiosyncrasies of Galilean Aramaic."S. Chepey, "Nazirites in Late Second Temple Judaism" (2005), p 152, referring to W. Albright, G. Moore, and H. Schaeder.
Extrabiblical references
The form Nazara is also found in the earliest non-scriptural reference to the town, a citation by Sextus Julius Africanus dated about AD 221Eusebius Ecclesiastical History, 1, vii,14, cited in Carruth, ibid. p. 415. (see "Middle Roman to Byzantine Periods" below). The Church Father Origen (c. AD 185 to 254) knows the forms Nazará and Nazarét.Comment. In Joan. Tomus X (Migne, Patrologia Graeca 80:308–309. Later, Eusebius in his Onomasticon (translated by St. Jerome) also refers to the settlement as Nazara. The nașirutha of the scriptures of the Mandeans refers to "priestly craft", not to Nazareth, which they identified with Qom.E. S. Drower, The Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran, Oxford University Press, 1937 reprint Gorgias Press, 2002 p. 6
The first non-Christian reference to Nazareth is an inscription on a marble fragment from a synagogue found in Caesarea Maritima in 1962. This fragment gives the town's name in Hebrew as נצרת (n-ṣ-r-t). The inscription dates to c. AD 300 and chronicles the assignment of priests that took place at some time after the Bar Kokhba revolt, AD 132–35.R. Horsley, Archaeology, History and Society in Galilee. Trinity Press International, 1996, p. 110. (See "Middle Roman to Byzantine Periods" below.) An 8th-century AD Hebrew inscription, which was the earliest known Hebrew reference to Nazareth prior to the discovery of the inscription above, uses the same form.
Nazarenes, Nasranis, Notzrim, Christians
Around 331, Eusebius records that, from the name Nazareth, Christ was called a Nazoraean, and that, in earlier centuries, Christians were once called Nazarenes.Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies: Volume 65, Issue 1 University of London. School of Oriental and African Studies – 2002 "... around 331, Eusebius says of the place name Nazareth that ' from this name the Christ was called a Nazoraean, and in ancient times we, who are now called Christians, were once called Nazarenes ';6 thus he attributes this designation ..." Tertullian (Against Marcion 4:8) records that "for this reason the Jews call us 'Nazarenes'." In the New Testament Christians are called "Christians" three times (in Acts 11:26; 26:28; and 1 Peter 4:16), but never directly by the Apostle Paul. They are called "Nazarenes" once by Tertullus, a lawyer representing Jews. The Rabbinic and modern Hebrew name for Christians, notzrim, is also thought to derive from Nazareth, and be connected with Tertullus' charge against Paul of being a member of the sect of the Nazarenes, Nazoraioi, "men of Nazareth" in Acts. Against this, some medieval Jewish polemical texts connect notzrim with the netsarim "watchmen" of Ephraim in Jeremiah 31:6. In Syriac Aramaic Nasrath (ܢܨܪܬ) is used for Nazareth, while "Nazarenes" (Acts 24:5) and "of Nazareth" are both Nasrani or Nasraya (ܕܢܨܪܝܐ) an adjectival form.Bruce Manning Metzger The early versions of the New Testament p. 86. 1977 "Peshitta Matt, and Luke ... nasraya, 'of Nazareth'."William Jennings Lexicon to the Syriac New Testament 1926 p143Robert Payne Smith Compendious Syriac Dictionary 1903 p349 Nasrani is used in the Quran for Christians, and in Modern Standard Arabic may refer more widely to Western people. Saint Thomas Christians, an ancient community of Christians in India who trace their origins to evangelistic activity of Thomas the Apostle in the 1st century, are sometimes known by the name "Nasrani" even today.Bindu Malieckal (2005) "Muslims, Matriliny, and A Midsummer Night's Dream: European Encounters with the Mappilas of Malabar, India"; The Muslim World Volume 95 Iss. 2 p. 300
History Archaeological evidence shows that Nazareth was occupied during the late Hellenistic period, through the Roman period and into the Byzantine period.
Stone and Metal Ages Archaeological researchers have revealed that a funerary and cult center at Kfar HaHoresh, about two miles () from current Nazareth, dates back roughly 9,000 years to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B era.Goring-Morris, A.N. "The quick and the dead: the social context of Aceramic Neolithic mortuary practices as seen from Kfar HaHoresh." In: I. Kuijt (ed.), Social Configurations of the Near Eastern Neolithic: Community Identity, Hierarchical Organization, and Ritual (1997). The remains of some 65 individuals were found, buried under huge horizontal headstone structures, some of which consisted of up to 3 tons of locally produced white plaster. Decorated human skulls uncovered there have led archaeologists to identify Kfar HaHoresh as a major cult centre in that era.
The Franciscan priest Bellarmino Bagatti, "Director of Christian Archaeology", carried out extensive excavation of this "Venerated Area" from 1955 to 1965. Fr. Bagatti uncovered pottery dating from the Middle Bronze Age (2200 to 1500 BC) and ceramics, silos and grinding mills from the Iron Age (1500 to 586 BC) which indicated substantial settlement in the Nazareth basin at that time.
Roman Empire