Saturday, April 11, 2020

Jesus and Nazareth

NEW BOOK FROM ROUTLEDGE: Biblical story of Jesus possibly explained by excavations in his hometown of Nazareth (Owen Jarus, Live Science).
Nazareth's opposition to Roman cultural practices and objects would have stood in stark contrast to its neighbor, a city called Sepphoris, which embraced Roman culture, including imported objects. "Cultural separation may have created what was, in effect, an invisible barrier between Nazareth and Sepphoris," wrote study author Ken Dark, director of the Nazareth Archaeological Project, in his recently published book "Roman-Period and Byzantine Nazareth and Its Hinterland" (Routledge, 2020).
The book is not about Jesus and Nazareth, it's about the archaeology of Nazareth. But possible (somewhat speculative) connections with Jesus are the hook for this article. And it has some interesting information about Nazareth in general.

I don't see a lot on the archaeology of Nazareth in the PaleoJudaica archives, but here is one post. And, of course, there's the Nazareth inscription, which quite possibly is not from Nazareth. By contrast, the archaeology of Sepphoris ( Tzipori/Tzippori/Zippori) is well represented. Start here and follow the links.

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