Nazareth—Luk_1:26
Six months had not expired before the angel Gabriel again made his appearance; and this time his visit was to Nazareth.
This was an obscure place in Galilee, which owes all its renown to that event which the angel went there to announce. It is not mentioned in the Old Testament; nor does its name occur in the ancient non-scriptural writings of the Jews, except to mention it as the birth-place of Jesus. Yet it had a sort of notoriety—in fact, it was infamous. This we gather from the Gospel itself; for when the Jews were told that Jesus “the Prophet of Galilee” was of that place—“Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” was the prompt and contemptuous answer—showing, more expressively than any detailed explanation, the evil fame which Nazareth had acquired.
What was the character of this ill-repute we know not precisely. Perhaps it merely showed the sovereign contempt with which the people of Judea and Jerusalem looked down upon all the inhabitants of Galilee, in which district Nazareth was situated. As the public morality of the country was in that age low, the stigma was probably not one of moral degradation, but perhaps such as resulted from the turbulent and refractory character which the inhabitants bear to this day.
The place lay about six miles north-west, from Mount Tabor, and about twenty-five miles from the south end of the lake of Tiberias, and was within the ancient limits of the tribe of Zebulun. The place is still, as probably at the time of the angel’s visit, a large village or small town, situated upon the slope of one of the hills which enclose a hollow, or valley. This vale, which is about a mile long, by half a mile broad, resembles a circular basin shut in by mountains. It is a pleasant spot, and one might almost think that the fifteen mountains which enclose it had risen around to guard it from intrusion. It is as a rich and beautiful field in the midst of barren mountains, abounding in fig-trees, and showing many small gardens with hedges of the prickly pear, while the rich dense grass affords an abundant and refreshing pasture. The town stands at the left or western end of the vale, and commands a view over the whole of its beautiful extent. The town itself, as beheld from the valley, or from the enclosing hill, is very picturesque, backed as it is by high cliffs, and approached from under the shade of spreading oaks, with substantial-looking houses of stone, the square massive wall, of the church and monastery, and the graceful minarets of two mosques, interspersed with, and here and there overtopped by, the tall spiral forms of the dark green cypress trees.
The Prickly Pear
The stone-built houses are mostly two stories high, and flat roofed. The streets are necessarily steep from the inclination of the hill; narrow from local custom, and dirty from the looseness of the soil. The convent just mentioned belongs to the Latins (Roman Catholics), and is one of the largest and most commodious in the Levant. The church of the annunciation, connected with it, is also the finest in Syria, after that of the Holy Sepulcher at Jerusalem. The Greeks, too, have a church, and the Maronites have another—two-thirds of the inhabitants (2,000 out of 3,000) being Christians. The Moslem mosque is, however, the most conspicuous building, sending its tall minarets, surmounted by the crescent, aloft from the center of the town, as if to announce the triumph of its dominion to those approaching from afar.
Such, then, was the spot to which the angel repaired; and it was amid these scenes that our Lord spent the first thirty years of his life on earth. “The principal outlines of the picture cannot have greatly varied since it was the earthly residence of Him, ‘who, though he was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, that we through his poverty might be made rich;’ thirty years sanctifying it with his presence, as He now fills all worlds with his essential glory.” Note: Beldam, Italy and the East, ii. 177.
A distinguished German, who travelled for the purpose of seeking and examining manuscripts of the Holy Scriptures, has given us a very interesting record of the impressions made upon his mind at Nazareth. It was difficult, he remarks, to find the most beautiful view of Nazareth, as it had from all parts a picturesque and beautiful effect. He delighted most, however, in the view which he obtained in wandering over the eastern heights opposite the city. “Two thousand years,” he observes, “may possibly have changed much; but as much as I saw today must also have been spread out before the divine eye of the son of Joseph of Nazareth. How often may He not have wandered where I was now wandering; his sacred heart full of his great future work—full of the conception of his doctrine, which, from the narrow mountains of his little home, should fill all the mountains and all the seas of the earth, and every land and every heart!”
He goes on to inform us, that opposite to him on the west lay the crown of all the heights about Nazareth. From the Turkish sepulcher upon it, it is called by the name of the Moslem saint or prophet (Neby) Ismael. Thither he went, knowing beforehand what splendor awaited him there, especially as, that day, the shy was almost cloudless, and the atmosphere perfectly clear.
“A few months before I had stood upon the loftiest pyramid, with the desert, the Nile, and Cairo at my feet. I had since stood upon Sinai, the majestic mountain of the Lord, and had thence petitioned Heaven itself, like a bosom friend; from the minaret at the summit of the Mount of Olives, I had viewed at once the Holy City, with Bethlehem’s heights and the mountains of Samaria, the wonderful sea of Sodom, and the mountains of Moab; yet today I felt as a child who had yet seen nothing but his own home, and knew nothing of the world. I was thus overwhelmed by the view from Neby Ismael, which crowns the heights of Nazareth. I looked towards Tabor in the east, the lesser Hermon and Gilboa peered upwards in its vicinity, and guided me to the mountains of Samaria in the south. Thence I looked towards the west, and beheld the forelands of Carmel; and, in the blue distance, Carmel itself. Amid all these mountain heights, the broad plains of Esdraelon reposed before me, as if encircled by eternal walls. But beyond Carmel, to its left, as well as to its right, lay, like a festal day in glittering beauty, the mirror of the Mediterranean. In the north a second extensive plain spread forth, with Canna, the little town of the marriage, and the ‘Horns of Hattin,’ where the army of Saladin trampled under foot all the conquests of the Crusaders. In the northeast lastly, shone down, like a divine eye, behind desert groups of mountains, the summit of the great Hermon, enveloped in its eternal snows; and withdrawing my gaze from those distant scenes, I looked down upon Nazareth, which clung, like a darling child, to the hill above which I stood.
“What were the feelings of my soul during this survey? The admiration and devotion then felt have no words to express them; but a psalm of the inspired David was rushing to the lips, to resound to the depths of the unfathomable ocean: and to ascend to the snowy summit of Hermon. What may this watch-tower have been to our Saviour? A symbol of his kingdom upon earth, of the Gospel of redemption, as it embraced heaven, earth, and seas, with the arms of maternal affection; as it compressed together both the past and future, in the one great hour upon Golgotha. The snow of Hermon looks like the gray head of Time—like the past; the sea, pregnant with mystery, like the future, Between both reposes the present, this dew-drop, reflecting infinitely rich images from the rays of the morning sun.” Note: Travels in the East. By Constantine Tischendorff. London. 1847.
Autor: JOHN KITTO