Nazareth – the ‘sticks’, the ‘hood’, the
city?
Let’s zoom the lens back in time once more and take a quick shot of the
town of Nazareth, the place where Jesus grew up. Will we find a small rural
town out in the middle of nowhere? Or is it something else? Well, let’s see
what ‘the hood’ of Jesus’ formative years was really like.
Picture
a rural community of about five hundred people. Adobe homes, local market, a
meeting place for a synagogue and Sabbath worship. Now walk barely fifteen feet
beyond the houses and find the town circled by farms and vineyards. Sounds like
what you expected, right? Let’s take that first snapshot. But, wait. Let’s open
up the view lens wider and take another shot.
Just
three miles north, a pleasant walk through the farms and vineyards, begins the
sprawling, elegant, sophisticated Greco-Roman city of Sepphoris. Herod the Great’s son, Herod Antipas began
transforming the small town of Sepphoris, the birthplace of Jesus’ mom Mary,
into a virtual showplace. He started this ambitious project when Jesus was just
a baby and by the time Jesus was grown it was not only one of the capital
cities of the Galilee but touted as the “Jewel of the Galilee” with requisite
Roman aqua ducts, baths and amphitheatre, and all this seductive culture was just
‘around the corner’ from Nazareth.
Here
was a city populated by moneyed Jews who were pro-Roman. The population
included besides Jews, Romans, Greeks and various peoples from as far west as
Egypt and beyond, and as far to the east as Persia and India. In fact, get this! The Romans had been
importing silk from China for at least a hundred years already. The Silk Road was constantly being trampled. And
Sepphoris was a crossroads through which much of this trade passed. How many
languages where spoken? Definitely Greek, the language of trade, and also Aramaic,
the common language of the surrounding Jewish population. Hebrew was fluently spoken in the synagogue
by all Jews. The Roman rich and the Roman soldier would have spoken Latin. And then
there would have been a smattering of all the other languages represented in
this vibrant cosmopolitan city. In order to be able to function in the family
business Jesus, like any member of this extended community had to have spoken and
perhaps written at the very least Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, with a little bit
of Latin thrown in.
The years of on-going building brought artisans into Sepphoris by the
hundreds. This workforce was not made up
of moneyed Jews, nor were they pro-Roman. This disgruntled group lived apart,
outside the city, but within walking distance -- in towns just like Nazareth. Here
our lens shows up the great divide, both financial and political. Just a mere
three miles across farms and vineyards and we find to the south poor workers
and farm laborers, and there just to the north ‘within shouting distance’ lived
the land owners, the tax collectors and the ‘rich and famous’. You can almost hear the complaints and
grumbling in the south carrying over the fields into the homes of the snobs and
conquerors to the north.
Jesus and his family lived as artisans, probably carpenters, to the
south in Nazareth and commuted six days a week for years helping build the
‘Jewel of the Galilee’. Carpenters would
have been in great demand with guaranteed work for a lifetime. Joseph was well
positioned to provide for his family and bring his sons into the family
business. And every evening they walked
home to their village after being subservient to the citizens of Sepphoris all
day.
So, what was Nazareth like, the small village where Jesus grew up? Here was a bedroom suburb filled with the
poor workers and farm laborers, who supplied the needs of the rich and hated,
the conquerors and collaborators, next to a major Greco-Roman city and world
crossroads. . .
. . . In other words, Nazareth was a small village of family, friends,
spiritual support, and a hotbed of political unrest.
Questions to Contemplate and Discuss and share on Facebook if you wish
1. Did you grow up in a small town or a large
city? What was it like?
2. How has your background as a small town
kid or a city kid colored your thinking of the others who grew up in the
opposite lifestyle?
3. What are your present day feelings about
the large percentage of lower to middle classes at odds with the small
percentage of the high income class?
4. Looking at the flow of history what has inevitably
occurred when there is a major difference between economic groups in one
region?
You can always order the paperback or ebook if you wish to have the whole course.
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