Jesus Christ 'crippled' a man's son claims Biblical expert
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As families gather to celebrate this Christmas, it can be very easy to forget the true meaning of the festive season. For two millennia, people across the world have observed the sacred religious holiday with a wide range of traditions. Christians celebrate Christmas Day as the anniversary of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, the figurehead of Christianity.
Though the Bible does not mention a specific date for Jesus’ birth, the gospels of Matthew and Luke both agree that Christ was born in Bethlehem.
They both describe Jesus’ birth to a virgin named Mary, but their respective accounts are rather different besides that.
However, the various gospels are in agreement that Jesus’ childhood home was in the town of Nazareth in Galilee, modern day Israel.
English archaeologist Professor Ken Dark spent 14 years studying the remains of a 1st Century dwelling beneath a modern-day convent in Nazareth.
He published his findings in the book ‘The Sisters of Nazareth Convent: A Roman-Period, Byzantine, and Crusader Site in Central Nazareth’.
A group of nuns first stumbled upon the dwelling in 1881.
Prof Dark told Artnet News last year: “In many ways, they were way ahead of their time. They conducted a perfectly reasonable rescue excavation, or salvage excavation.”
He described the discovery as “one of the first examples of an archaeological project directed by a woman”.
The idea that this was Jesus’ home was dismissed by archaeologists in the Thirties, and remained largely forgotten until 2006.
The site contained a 1st Century building, partly cut out of rock, that could possibly have been a dwelling.
A Byzantine church was built on the ground above, which Prof Dark suspects could be the previously lost Church of the Nutrition — built to commemorate the place where Jesus was raised, and mentioned in historian Adomnán’s 7th Century book ‘De Locis Sanctis’.
He told the BBC last year: “We know from written evidence this church was believed in the Byzantine period to have been built on the site of Jesus’ home and the dwelling preserved in its crypt.
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“It’s almost certainly the Church of the Nutrition, which was dedicated to the upbringing of Christ, and mentioned in a 7th Century pilgrim’s account.”
The church is believed to have burned down around the year 1200, not used for religious purposes again until the Sisters of Nazareth started to build their convent there almost 700 years later.
Prof Dark told Artnet News: “The Byzantine church Sisters of Nazareth seems as though it was almost certainly the building described by Adomnán. It was very large, very elaborately decorated, and probably from the 5th Century.
“It overlays a crypt, which is also described in his book.
“In the crypt, just as he says, there are two Roman-period tombs, and between them there’s a house.”
Adomnán said that house is the place where Jesus was raised.
Prof Dark added: “So, we found the church, we found the crypt, we found the house.”
Whoever built the house, Prof Dark said, had excellent knowledge of stone-working.
Joseph was described as a “tekton” in Matthew 13:55. Though this has traditionally been translated into English as “carpenter”, it is a rather general word that could cover makers of objects in various materials — including builders.
Jesus was also called a “tekton” in Mark 6:3.
While these factors do not definitely prove that it was Jesus’ home, Prof Dark said various factors contribute to the conclusion that it might have been. He said: “If this is the childhood environment of Jesus, there’s no reason to believe he grew up in anything other than a very typical Galilean rural home of its time.
“By itself, that’s not got flashing lights saying, ‘this is where Jesus lived’. But it’s underneath a fifth to seventh century Byzantine church.”
He added: “This is about as close as we will probably ever get to being able to say it was.”
“But it’s underneath a fifth to seventh century Byzantine church.”
He added: “This is about as close as we will probably ever get to being able to say it was.”
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