There is a strong case that a well-preserved first-century house excavated at Nazareth was the childhood home of Jesus, a British archaeologist has claimed. Source: The Times.
Ken Dark, professor of archaeology and history at Reading University, said a 19th century identification of ruins at the Sisters of Nazareth Convent as the house of Joseph had been dismissed out of hand by archaeologists in the 1930s and rejected by scholars ever since.
However, his findings, after 14 years of fieldwork and research at the site in northern Israel, confirm for the first time that the convent stands over a 1st century dwelling that was believed from at least the 380s to have been where Jesus grew up.
The house, of which significant portions survive — including a rock-cut staircase — probably included storage rooms around a courtyard and a roof terrace.
Professor Dark said the excellent craftsmanship and a structural understanding of rock were consistent with it having been built and owned by a tekton — a carpenter, stonemason or builder — which was the original Greek description of Joseph’s occupation in the gospels.
Professor Dark’s new book, The Sisters of Nazareth Convent: A Roman-period, Byzantine and Crusader Site in Central Nazareth, also indicates that a cave church decorated with mosaics was built in the hillside directly adjacent to the house’s remains in the 4th century.
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Archaeologist ‘has found childhood home of Jesus’ (By Mark Bridge, The Times)
