Nazareth Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Byzantine period=== [[Epiphanius of Salamis|Epiphanius]] in his ''[[Panarion]]'' ({{Circa|AD 375}}) numbers Nazareth among the cities devoid of a non-Jewish population.<ref>[[Epiphanius of Salamis|Epiphanius]], [[Panarion|Panárion]] 30.11.10, cited Andrew S. Jacobs,''Remains of the Jews: The Holy Land and Christian Empire in Late Antiquity,'' Stanford University Press, p.50 n.124, p.127.</ref> Epiphanius, writing of [[Joseph of Tiberias]], a wealthy Roman Jew who converted to Christianity in the time of [[Constantine I (emperor)|Constantine]], says he claimed to have received an imperial rescript to build Christian churches in Jewish towns and villages where no gentiles or Samaritans dwell, naming [[Tiberias]], [[Diocaesarea]], [[Sepphoris]], Nazareth and [[Capernaum]].<ref>Frank Williams,''The Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis,'' Book I (Sects 1–46)'' E. J. Brill (1897), rev.ed. 2009, p.140.</ref> From this scarce notice, it has been concluded that a small church which encompassed a cave complex might have been located in Nazareth in the early 4th century",<ref>Taylor, J. ''Christians and the Holy Places''. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993, p. 265.</ref> although the town was Jewish until the 7th century.<ref>Taylor 229, 266; Kopp 1938:215.</ref> The Christian monk and Bible translator [[Jerome]], writing at the beginning of the 5th century, says Nazareth was a ''viculus'' or mere village.<ref name="Kopp">C. Kopp, "Beiträge zur Geschichte Nazareths." Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society, vol. 18 (1938), p. 215. Kopp is citing the Byzantine writer Eutychius (''Eutychii Annales'' in Migne's ''Patrologia Graeca'' vol. 111 p. 1083).</ref> In the 6th century, religious narrations from local Christians about the [[Blessed Virgin Mary|Virgin Mary]] began to spark interest in the site among pilgrims, who founded the first church at the location of the current [[Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation]] at the site of a freshwater spring, today known as [[Mary's Well]]. Around 570, the [[Antoninus of Piacenza (pilgrim)|Anonymous of Piacenza]] reports travelling from [[Sepphoris]] to Nazareth. There he records seeing in the Jewish synagogue the books from which Jesus learnt his letters, and a bench where he sat. According to him, Christians could lift it, but Jews could not, since it disallowed them from dragging it outside.<ref>Andrew S. Jacobs, ''Remains of the Jews,'' p.127.</ref> Writing of the beauty of the Hebrew women there, he records them saying St. Mary was a relative of theirs, and notes that, "The house of St. Mary is a basilica."<ref>P. Geyer, ''Itinera Hierosolymitana saeculi'', Lipsiae: G. Freytag, 1898: page 161.</ref> Constantine the Great ordered that churches be built in Jewish cities, and Nazareth was one of the places designated for this purpose, although construction of churches apparently only started decades after Constantine's death, i.e. after 352.<ref name="Emmett 1995, p. 18">Emmett 1995, p. 18.</ref> Archaeologists have unearthed evidence that previous to the erection of the Byzantine-period church at the site of Mary's house in the mid-5th century, Judeo-Christians had built there a synagogue-church, leaving behind Judeo-Christian symbols.<ref name="Emmett 1995, p. 17"/> Until being expelled in c. 630, Jews probably kept on using their older synagogue, while the Judeo-Christian needed to build their own, probably at the site of Mary's house.<ref name="Emmett 1995, p. 17"/> The Jewish town profited from the Christian pilgrim trade which began in the 4th century AD, but latent anti-Christian hostility broke out in AD 614 when the [[Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628|Persians invaded Palestine]].<ref name="Kopp"/> The Christian Byzantine author Eutychius claimed that Jewish people of Nazareth helped the Persians carry out their slaughter of the Christians.<ref name="Kopp"/> When the [[Eastern Roman Empire|Byzantine or Eastern Roman]] emperor [[Heraclius]] ejected the Persians in AD 629-630, he expelled the Jews from the village, turning it all-Christian.<ref name="Emmett 1995, p. 18"/> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page