The Myth of Nazareth: The Invented Town of Jesus (62 page)

"late I or early II CE to mid-IV CE”

Appendix 7:
Nazareth Timeline From c. 135 CE

After 135 CE
       The priestly course of
Hapizzez
go to Nazareth sometime after the the Second Jewish Revolt, when the Emperor Hadrian (117–138 CE) expelled Jews from the whole of Judea.

II CE      
               
Hegesippus
writes five books of memoirs against the Gnostics (included in passages preserved in the writings of other Church Fathers). He does not mention Nazareth.

Late II CE
             The
synagogue
at nearby Japhia is rebuilt.
^[810]

c
. 160–
c
.240
      
Julius Africanus
, a native of Jerusalem, is the first to mention Nazareth apart from the Pauline Gospel tradition. The citation is preserved by Eusebius (
Eccl. Hist
. I.7.14).

c.
185–254
         
Origen
, who lived for quite a long time at Caesarea Maritima, never visits Nazareth (50 km away).

III–IV CE
            
The Caesarea Inscription

Three fragments of an inscription were discovered in 1962 in the ruins of the Jewish synagogue of Caesarea. This inscription is the first reference to the town of Nazareth outside of Christian sources. The spelling of the name is not with
zayin
but with
tsade
. It confirms the view (known from other sources) that Nazareth was a thoroughly Jewish settlement at the time.

c.
260–
c.
340
     
Eusebius of Caesarea

                [See above entry under ‘Julius Africanus” and ‘Hegesippus.’]

Eusebius mentions Nazareth in his
Onomasticon
138.24–140.2. He seems to know where it is, for he locates it “opposite Legio, about 15 miles to the east near Mt. Tabor.”

312
                       
Battle of the Milvian Bridge
,  which Constantine fights under the Christian banner.

313
                      
Edict of Milan
whereby Constantine establishes the toleration of Christianity.

324
                       
Constantine
becomes sole Roman emperor of East and West.

326
                       
St. Helena
, the mother of Emperor Constantine and a devout Christian, visits the Holy Land but has nothing to say about Nazareth, where she may have been singularly unimpressed (or even irritated) by the antipathy of the locals. Helena founds basilicas on the Mount of Olives and at Bethlehem, but none at Nazareth. The latter task, apparently, was soon delegated to Count Joseph of Tiberias (see below).

c.
335
                   
The Bordeaux Pilgrim
visits Palestine but does not mention  Nazareth.

c.
335
                    Under imperial edict,
Joseph of Tiberias
probably constructs “a small and unconventional church [in Nazareth] which encompassed a cave complex.” (Taylor 1993:265).

373
                       
Melania the Elder
hastens to bring alms to Christians who had been exiled from Egypt to Sepphoris. She bypasses Nazareth (as did the Christian refugees) which is in the vicinity (Molinier 69
f
.)

c. 315–403
          
Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamis
gives an extensive report in his
Panarion
(30.4.1–30.12.9) regarding the activities of Count Joseph of Tiberias (see above). He writes that “Until the reign of Constantine Nazareth had only Jewish inhabitants” (
Adv. Haer.
1.136).       

c.
383
                   
Egeria
visits Nazareth and notes the presence there of a simple Christian shrine. This is our first indication that the tradition had by this time settled upon the place as the hometown of Jesus, and also that someone (presumably Joseph of Tiberias) had erected a Christian monument there.

386
                       
Paula
visits Nazareth “where our Lord grew up,” but nothing there appears to have drawn the pigrim’s attention.

390
                       
Jerome
(
c
. 342–420) notes that Paula visited Nazareth. He has no comment concerning a modest ecclesiastical structure there. Jerome writes that Nazareth is a mere village (
viculus, Onom
139).

460
                        The
Descriptio Parochiae Jerusalem
offers
indirect evidence of a church in Nazareth
(Tobler-Molinier 325).

Early V CE
            A
Byzantine basilica
is erected at the site of the present Church of the Annunciation. This is the first verifiable Christian structure in Nazareth, which continues to be thoroughly Jewish.

V CE                       The Conon Mosaic

A floor mosaic was created in the Byzantine Church of the Annunciation which includes the words, “From Conon, deacon of Jerusalem.” 10th century tradition linked this mosaic with a legendaryChristian  martyr Conon, said to have died in the persecution under the Roman emperor Decius (249–251). In her book
Chistians and the Holy Places
(p. 223) Joan Taylor shows this martyr to have been legendary.

V–VI CE                
A
church
is built over the
“house of St. Joseph”
(Viaud:141, 146).

530
                       
Theodosius
records the name
“Nazareth”
with no ancillary information (
De Situ
iv).

570                        The Piacenza Pilgrim
(“Anonymous of Piacenza”). This Christian pilgrim noted a Christian structure in Nazareth: “The house of St. Mary is a basilica.”
^[811]
  He also noted the beauty of the Hebrew women of the town and the general fertility of the area. He is shown the Virgin’s garments, and remarks on their healing powers. This is the first of a number of stories suggesting the gullibility of Christian pilgrims visiting Nazareth. The pilgrim writes: “Though there is no love lost between Jews and Christians, these women are full of kindness” (
CCSL
175 [1965],
Itin
. v).

614
                       The
Persians
under their king Chosroes II
invade the country
from the north. “When he was heading for Jerusalem, the Jews, all there were in Tiberias, the hills of Galilee, Nazareth and the adjoining country-side, joined him, made for Jerusalem, and helped the Persians to destroy churches and murder the Christians.”
^[812]
  Kopp writes: “In all the history of the land, this was the worst campaign of annihilation ever directed against everything Christian” (Kopp 1938:215).

622–630
              The
Emperor Heraclius
vanquished the Persians and entered Jerusalem in triumph. He reluctantly singled out Nazareth for special punishment. “At all events, 629–30 saw the
end of Jewish Nazareth
. Its people died by the sword or were scattered abroad in flight.” (Kopp 1963:55–56). Thus ended the first (Jewish) period of Nazareth history.

638
                        The
Arabs conquer Palestine
and occupy Nazareth.

670                   Arculf
, bishop of Gaul, visited the Holy Land during nine months in 670
CE
. According to his amanuensis, Nazareth was situated on a hill with two quite large churches. The one, in the middle of the town, rests on two arched supports over a limpid spring
(i.e
., the present Church of St. Gabriel).
^[813]
 

723–26
                 
St. Willibald
traveled in the Holy Land between 723 and 726. He relates that the church marking the site where Mary received the annunciation had to be repeatedly purchased from the Saracens who threatened its destruction (Tobler 1974:25).

IX–X
CE
                An anonymous author of the lives of St. Helena and Constantine ascribes the building of the
Church of the Annunciation
to the empress.

808
                         The
Commemoratorium de casis Dei
of
Charlemagne
mentions “12 monks” in Nazareth.

943
                         The Arab
Al Mas’udi
visits Nazareth and sees the same church as Willibald.

c
. 1100
                 
Tancred
refurbishes the Church of the Annunciation and transfers the bishopric to Nazareth from Scythopolis. “Under the rule of the Crusaders, Nazareth was a purely Christian settlement with a bishop, later an archbishop” (RPTK 678).

1102
                       The English visitor
Saewolf
writes that “Nazareth is completely razed to the ground except for the place of the Annunciation, where there is a nice monastery.”

1107
                      
Daniel the Prior
(Fr.
l’Higoumène Daniele
) visits the Holy Land and writes that “A large and high church with three altars rises up in the middle of the town…. Entering by the western door, on the right is a cell whose entryway is very narrow (
exiguë
) and in which the Holy Virgin lived with the Christ. He was raised in this little holy cell which contains the bed on which Jesus lay. It is so low as to appear practically on the same level as the floor. On entering the same grotto by the western door, on the left one has the tomb of St. Joseph [
i.e
., T. 29], the fiancé of Mary, who was buried by the most pure hands of Christ. From the nearby wall of his tomb oozes – like some holy oil – a white water collected to heal the sick…” (Baldi-Bagatti 246).

1137
                      
Peter the Deacon
writes: “The grotto in which (Christ) lived is large and full of light, where also an altar has been placed; and there in the same grotto is the place from where water was raised up.” This evidently refers to the church above Mary’s Spring.

1172
                      
Theodoric
visits Nazareth and comments on the grotto under the Church of the Annunciation. Like Daniel the Prior (see above), he notes the tomb there of Joseph, husband of Mary. (Baldi-Bagatti 249 n.1.)

1177
                      
Phocas
, a Greek pilgrim writes: “The house of St. Joseph has been transformed into a very beautiful church.” This apparently identifies the domicile of Joseph with the Church of the Annunciation, an identification consistent with that of Daniel the Prior (above) which makes Joseph and Mary already man and wife at the moment of the annunciation.
^[814]
 It also conforms to the very popular story in the
Protevangelium
of James
(II
CE
).

1108
                      
Saladin
conquers many sites in the Holy Land, including Nazareth.

1197, July 4.
     At the
Battle of Hattin,
Nazareth is conquered, “its population killed or imprisoned,” and the sanctuary “renowned in all the world” is profaned, according to the medieval writer
Raul of Coggeshall.

1251, March 24.
King
Louis IX of France
celebrates mass at the CA.

1263
                    
Baybars
retakes Nazareth and orders the complete destruction of the town, including the
Church of the Annunciation
(
Annals of Abu el-Feda
). The Church remains in ruins for 400 years.

1283                     Burchardt of Mount Sion
writes of Nazareth.

1294                     Ricoldo di Monte Croce
writes of no Christian presence in Nazareth, except for permission given the Franciscans to pilgrimage there. A small chapel is over the grotto of the annunciation.