NAZARETH (naz'a-reth), (Gr. Naraple,nad-zar eth').
A town in Galilee, in which the parents of Jesus were resident, and where in consequence he lived till the commencement of his ministry. It derives all its historical importance front this circumstance, for it is not even named in the Old Testament or by Josephus ; which suffices to show that it could not have been a place of any con sideration, and was probably no more than a vil lage.
(1) History. Nazareth is not mentioned in the Old Testament nor by any classical author, nor by any writer before the time of Christ. It was for some unknown reason held in disrepute among the Jews of Judwa (John 1:46). It was situated in a mountain (Luke iv :29) within the province of Galilee (Mark i :9), and near Cana, as John ii :1, 2, i seems to imply. There was a precipice near the town, down which the people purposed to cast Jesus (Luke iv :29). It is men tioned twenty-nine times in the New Testament At Nazareth the angel appeared to Mary at the home of Joseph (Luke i :26 ; :39), and to that place Joseph and Mary returned after their flight into Egypt (Matt. ii :23). The hills and places about the town possess a deep and hallowed inter est to the Christian as the home of Jesus during his childhood and youth, until he entered upon his ministry, and had preached in the synagogue, and was rejected by his own townspeople. Even after Capernaum became "his own city" he was known as "Jesus of Nazareth" (Matt. xxvi :7i-73; Mark xvi :1-6 ; Acts ii :22 ; :6 ; iv :to ; vi :14), and his disciples were called "Nazarenes." In the days of Constantine, Nazareth was peopled by Samari tan Jews, but in the sixth century Christian pil grimages began to be made to the town. In I in Tancred held Galilee, and Nazareth became the seat of a Christian bishopric. In 116o a council was held at Nazareth, which made Alexander III pope of Rome. During the Middle Ages Christian pilgrims frequently visited Nazareth. When the Turks conquered Palestine, in 1517, the Chris tians were driven from the town. In 162o the
Franciscan monks gained a foothold there, and began to rebuild the village. At the battle of Mount Tabor, in mg, Napoleon with his army encamped near Nazareth.
(2) Present Conditions. The town is now called En-Niisirah, or Nasrah, and has from 5,000 to 6,000 population, though the Turkish officials estimate it at to,000. There are about 2,000 Mo hammedans, 2,5oo Greeks, 800 Latins, and too Protestants. The inhabitants pursue farming, gardening and various handicrafts, and the village is quite a center of trade for the adjoining dis tricts. The houses are well built. There are a large Latin church and monastery, a synagogue, a Greek church, a fine Protestant church under the care of the English Church Missionary So ciety, a Protestant hospital, and a large female orphanage (completed t874). The synagogue is claimed by tradition to be the one in which Christ taught, but cannot be traced to a date earlier than A. D. 57o. Near the Greek Church of the Annunciation is a spring called "Mary's Well," to which the women resort every evening with their water-jars for their daily supply, and to which Mary with her holy Child may have gone. The women of Nazareth, like those of Bethlehem, are distinguished for beauty above their sisters in the East. The brow of the hill over which the enraged Nazarenes threatened to cast Jesus is probably near the Maronite church, though tra dition places it at the "Mount of Precipitation," two or three miles south of the town (Schaff, Bib. Diet.) The streets are narrow and crooked, and after rains are often choked with mud and filth. From the top of the hill behind the town a most wonderful panorama of Northern Palestine may be seen. To the north is Lebanon, and high above all, the white tops of Hermon. In the west may be seen Carmel and glintings of thc Mediterra nean Sea, the bay and the town of Akka ; cast and south are Gilead, Tabor, Gilboa and the grcat plain of Esdraelon.