Jesus Era House Discovered in Nazareth

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Did you ever wonder who sort of home Jesus grew up in?

Take a good look at that picture because it’s the best answer we have. Today Israeli archeologists reported on the discovery of the first-ever “Jesus era” home found in Nazareth. 

“The building that we found is small and modest and it is most likely typical of the dwellings in Nazareth in that period,” Yardenna Alexandre, excavation director for the authority, said in the statement.

“Until now a number of tombs from the time of Jesus were found in Nazareth; however, no settlement remains have been discovered that are attributed to this period.”

Here’s another report on this discovery that emphasizes what Nazareth was like in the first century:

The dwelling and older discoveries of nearby tombs in burial caves suggest that Nazareth was an out-of-the-way hamlet of around 50 houses on a patch of about four acres (1.6 hectares). It was evidently populated by Jews of modest means who kept camouflaged grottos to hide from Roman invaders, said archaeologist Yardena Alexandre, excavations director at the Israel Antiquities Authority.

Today’s announcement reminds us that Jesus didn’t grow up in a big city but in an “out-of-the-way hamlet,” raised by parents of modest means. We have no way of knowing if the home the archeologists discovered actually belonged to Mary and Joseph, but in a tiny town it is very likely that Jesus knew the people who lived there and they knew him. 

This is a happy reminder, coming four days before Christmas, that Jesus grew up in a small town in a forgotten corner of the Roman Empire, raised by godly parents of modest means, living among people who knew him very well. 

“He went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: ’He will be called a Nazarene’” (Matthew 2:23).

PS After writing the above, I did a quick concordance check on the word “Nazareth” in the gospels. I discovered that the phrase “Jesus of Nazareth” occurs 10 times. It was a way of saying, “This is Jesus who grew up in a certain town at a certain time in a certain place.” This is not “Jesus from nowhere” but this is Jesus who had a hometown called Nazareth. If you have a hometown, then you know what this means. It’s like saying “Sharon from Tupelo” or “Caleb from San Marcos.”

The last occurrence of the phrase comes in John 19:19 where we are told that the sign above Jesus’ head when he was  crucified read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” To the very end, they knew where he came from.