Childhood home of Jesus? Maybe?
“And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth…” Luke 2:4
“And when they had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth”. Luke 2:39
In modern day Nazareth Israel, just a short walk from the church of the Annunciation, is the Convent of the Sister’s of Nazareth. In 1881 a group of French nuns established the Sisters of Nazareth on this site and discovered archeological remains during construction of their house. Archeologists have determined these findings are the remains of a 1st century house that was cut from the hillside rock and also had purpose built stone walls with mortar. Later the home seems to have been abandon and become part of a cemetery.
The Church of the Nutrition was built over this site to protect it in the byzantine era. Crusaders repaired the church in 1100’s because there was now a tradition that this was the home where Jesus was raised in Nazareth. In the 1200s the church burned down. There is no archeological evidence of this home being specifically where Jesus was raised, but it still is an example of a home from the right era and in a very small community at the time. Because of the churches built over the site, it has been very well preserved.
Since 2006 the Nazareth Archaeological Project has worked at the site and preserved the notes and findings from earlier excavations. Included in the typical housewares found here were limestone kitchen vessels - indicative of a Jewish home because the stone vessels could not become impure in the way clay vessels would. Several fully intact rooms are preserved, a stairway, doorways and courtyard.
Once the site was abandon as a home, the site was used as a quarry and a cemetery. There are intact tombs and a large rolling stone. You can also see the remains of a small chapel from the level of the Byzantine era. The convent itself is a beautiful complex with a peaceful courtyard and very few other tourists when we were there in 2020.
Remains of a 1st century home under the Convent of the Sisters of Nazareth
