The town of Nazreth is mentioned 17 times
in Gospels and is supposed to be the place where Jesus was raised. Thus, Jesus
is also called ‘Jesus of Nazreth’. Situated inside a bowl atop the Nazareth
ridge north of the Jezreel valley, Nazareth was a relatively isolated village
in the time of Jesus with a population less than two hundred. Today
Nazareth is home to more than 60,000 Israeli Arabs, and Upper Nazareth is home
to thousands more Jewish residents.
The
Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth is a modern Catholic church
built over the remains of Byzantine and Crusader churches. It incorporates the
cave in which the Virgin Mary received the news from Gabriel that she would
give birth to Jesus. The site has been a pilgrimage destination since earliest
times and remains an important stop for Holy Land pilgrims today. The cave that
is enshrined inside the basilica was identified no later than the 4th century as the place of the
Annunciation.
The modern Church of the
Annunciation is topped with a uniquely-shaped concrete dome. Its shape is based
on the Madonna lily, a symbol of the Virgin Mary. Inside, the basilica consists
of an upper church and a lower church. The vast upper church is decorated with mosaics of the Virgin donated by
communities from around the world.
The lower church centers on the Grotto or
Cave of the Annunciation, where the angelic announcement to Mary is believed to
have occurred. Also visible down here are remains of the Byzantine and Crusader
churches that preceded the present one.
The St. Joseph church is built where, according to tradition, used to
be the carpentry workshop of Joseph, father of Jesus. Some of the traditions
also claim this was Joseph's house.
This Franciscan church was
established in 1914 over the ruins of more ancient churches and is located in
the Basilica of Annunciation area. In the crypt (the lower level of the church)
there’s an ancient water pit, mosaics, caves and barns from ancient Nazareth
that has survived since the 1st and 2nd centuries B.C. One of the cave,
according to tradition, was used as Joseph's workshop.
The official symbol of Nazareth is Mary’s Well. Tradition has it that Mary
used to bathe young Jesus here, and both Muslims and Christians consider the
well and its water to have unusual healing properties. Above the spring that
feeds the well is St. Gabriel Church of the Annunciation.
The Sea of Galilee,
also Kinneret, Lake of Gennesaret, or Lake Tiberias is the largest freshwater lake in
Israel. Much
of the ministry of Jesus occurred on the shores of Lake Galilee. Jesus
recruited four of his apostles from the shores of Lake Galilee namely, the
fishermen Simon and his brother Andrew and the brothers John and James. One of
Jesus' famous teaching episodes, the Sermon on the Mount, is supposed to have
been given on a hill overlooking the lake. Many of his miracles are also said
to have occurred here including his walking on water, calming the storm, the
disciples and the boatload of fish, and his feeding five thousand people (in
Tabgha).
Jesus travelled from town
to town in the region of Galilee. He preached in the Jewish synagogues and
healed the sick. He became very popular with the people, and great crowds
followed Him wherever He went. One day Jesus went up a mountainside and spoke
to His disciples and the crowds of people. This "Sermon on the Mount" outlines the right ways for us to
approach God and to deal with other people. Jesus delivered this sermon on a
mountain near Capernaum. Tradition ascribes the site to an extinct volcano
named Karne Hittim. The mountains is also called mount of Beatitude.
The Sermon on the Mount is
the longest piece of teaching from Jesus in the New Testament. To most
believers in Jesus, the Sermon contains the central tenets of Christian
discipleship. The Sermon takes place relatively early in the Ministry
of Jesus, after he has been baptized by John the Baptist.
The baptismal site on the banks of the Jordan River, Qasr al-Yahud, is
the site where according to tradition, Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist.
Christian tradition marks this site as the place of the “spiritual birth” of
Jesus as opposed to his physical birth in Bethlehem. As such, the baptismal
site is of great sacred significance - the third holiest site in the Christian
world (after the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre in Jerusalem). Until 1967 this
site, under Jordanian control, saw visits by masses of tourists and pilgrims.
In 1968 access to the site was prohibited because of its location beyond the
border fence in a closed military zone. Yardenit, south of the Sea of Galilee,
was subsequently created as an alternative site for baptism. Here,
where the Jordan River flows from the Sea of Galilee southwards to the Dead
Sea, it is believed that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist (“Yardenit” is
the diminutive form of the name of the Jordan River in Hebrew). In modern
times, scores of pilgrims don white robes and get baptized in the same
spot.
Nearby Kibbutz Kinneret hosts a Visitors Center that
includes a place to rent or buy a white robe, shop for souvenirs, eat, shower
and change. Several baptismal pools can be reached by following the Wall of New
Life created by an Armenian artist from Jerusalem, which depicts the account
from the Gospel of Mark (1:9-11) about the original baptism.
Capernaum
is the fishing town that Jesus made his headquarters while he was in Galilee.
At Capernaum, there are the remains of an octagonal church which was built in
the fifth century. In 1968, archaeologists re-discovered the remains of a much
earlier church underneath the 5th century church. This earlier church had been
built around what was originally a private house. One room of the house showed
signs that it had been used as a meeting place from very early in the Christian
era - during the second half of the first century. From the earliest times,
followers of Jesus Christ believed that this house was the home of Simon Peter,
the leader of Jesus's disciples. The
walls of this room had been plastered, and visitors had scratched prayers
mentioning the name of Jesus on the plaster. The name of Peter is also
mentioned in the inscriptions. The remains that can still be seen today may be
the exact place where Jesus lived.
Capernaum
owes its fame to Jesus, who made it the centre of his activities in Galilee,
and to the numerous references in the gospels to things that happened there.
When Jesus left Nazareth he made Capernaum his home-town.
The fruitful garden of Tabgha, on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, is accepted
traditionally as the site where Jesus fed 5,000 people with five loaves of
bread and two fish (Matthew 14:13-21). The Church of the Multiplication of the
Loaves and Fishes was built here in the fifth century. Modern restoration
workers revealed and repaired intricate mosaic floors of the church. Also in
Tabgha is the Church of St. Peter’s Primacy, where Jesus is said to have
appeared to his disciples after the resurrection.
It was at Cana
of the Galilee, hometown of Nathaniel (later known as St. Bartholomew) that
Jesus was said to have turned water into wine at the wedding of a poor couple.
The Greek Orthodox Church of St. George was built in the late 19th century on
the site of the miracle. It houses two of the six stone jars that followers
believe Jesus used in performing the miracle.
Today the Arab village of Kafr Cana, this is a popular
place to hold weddings or renew wedding vows. The center of the village, which
boasts several churches, has been renovated with a promenade and small plazas.
Well,
the amazing experience as usual. The experience became all the more
unbelievable when I read about these places on my return . I wasn’t aware of
the importance of some of the places I visited .I felt so lucky and blessed
when I read about these places in details and came to know how important was
this for mankind in general and for
Christians in particular.
I
will talk about Jerusalem-the holiest site of Christianity in my net post.
