#MountPrecipice – Hope and Survive

We visited Nazareth, the place where Jesus was raised, on the first day of our Gate1 tour. That day dawned and stayed cold and wet! What an interesting start to my very first ever international tour!

Viewing Nazareth from atop Mount Precipice. (As you may be able to tell from the picture, it was very foggy and cold the day we visited.)

Nazareth lies in the center of Galilee in Northern Israel. It is a picturesque, hilly setting. The current city was built on top of the old village. Only a few archaeological remains from the time of Jesus have been discovered.

As of 2017, the population of Nazareth, known as the “Arab capital of Israel,” was over 75,000 people. Nearly 70% of those living in lower Nazareth today are Muslim; about 30% are Christian. The Jewish population lives in Upper Nazareth, known as Natzeret-Illitl.

In Jesus’ day, Nazareth was much smaller. The strongly Jewish population was estimated by American archaeologist James F. Strange as less than 500.

Nazareth is home to a number of Arab-owned high-tech companies, mostly in the field of software development. It is sometimes called the “Silicon Valley of the Arab community.” Another large employer is Israel Military Industries. About 300 people work there manufacturing munitions.

Souvenir shop. We didn’t take time to shop.

There are a lot of McDonald’s restaurants in Israel. Some are kosher, some are not.

There were times when I wasn’t sure I had ever really left America! McDonalds and Microsoft seemed much the same as here.

Shops like this lined the streets of Nazareth. Vendors called out to tourists, hawking everything from umbrellas to olive wood.

In Biblical Days

Mary, the young virgin betrothed to marry Joseph, of the House of David, lived in Nazareth when the angel Gabriel appeared to her, bringing her the news that God had chosen her to give birth to His Son. Can you imagine her shock?

The Basilica of the Annunciation, Nazareth, Israel

Luke 1: 26-33

²⁶In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, ²⁷to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

King Herod was very jealous when he heard that the King of the Jews had been born in Bethlehem. He sought to kill Jesus, but God had directed Joseph to take Mary and the baby to Egypt to escape Herod’s murderous plan.

The little family resided in Egypt until it was safe to return home to Nazareth. While not a lot was written about Jesus’ childhood, we know that He spent most of His childhood in the town of Nazareth.

Matthew 2:19-23

The Return to Nazareth

¹⁹After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt ²⁰and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”

²¹So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. ²²But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, ²³and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.

Basilica of the Annunciation

While we were in Nazareth, we visited the Basilica of the Annunciation, aka Church of the Annunciation. It was quite remarkable.

I apparently didn’t get a picture of the main doors through which you enter the church. They are worth a look. I did get some close-ups of some of the door.

The Church of the Annunciation has an interesting history. It was first built by Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine, in the mid 4th century. It might interest you to know that Helena also built the first Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

The original church was destroyed during an Arab invasion in 638 AD. In 1109, Crusaders arrive in Nazareth. They built the second church to honor the hometown of Jesus. Sometime between 1229 and 1263 AD, the church was destroyed again, this time by Mamluks (Azzahir Baibars).

In 1620 AD, the Franciscans purchased the ruins of the Basilica of the Annunciation and built the third church. In 1730, the church was rebuilt for the fourth time. In 1877, the church was enlarged.

Finally, the church that stands today was built during 1955-1969. Designed by Giovanni Muzio, it is a beautiful structure that features two levels, the Upper Church, which is decorated with mosaics and artwork gifted to the church by nations across the world, and the Lower Church.

The Lower Church enshrines a sunken grotto that contains what is believed to be the home of the Virgin Mary. It is said that it was here that the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, announcing that she would be the mother of the Messiah.

Upper Church

Rainy day at the Basilica of the Annunciation. The concrete dome stands 55 meters high. It is in the shape of a Madonna lily, a symbol of the Virgin Mary.

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Lower Church

In the background is the home (cave) where it is believed that Mary lived and where Gabriel is said to have announced that she would be the mother of Jesus. The grotto is found on the lower level of the Church of the Annunciation. Flanking the cave are remains from the earlier Byzantine and Crusader churches. The altar inside the cave is inscribed, “Here the Word was made flesh,” in Latin.

Simple altar in front of the cave home of Mary. Tiers of seats surround it on three sides.

The small altar in the Lower Church is situated directly under the Madonna lily-shaped cupola of the church.

Statue of Mary as the young girl to whom the angel Gabriel appeared and announced to her that she was chosen by God to be the mother of the Messiah.