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In the shadow of Sepphoris:
growing up in Nazareth
growing up in Nazareth
Jesus grew up in Nazareth of Galilee – of that there is little doubt. He was known as ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ (Matt. 21.11; Mark 1.24; Luke 18.37; John 1.45; Acts 2.22; also Matt. 4.13; Mark 1.9; Luke 2.39) – not, for example, ‘Jesus of Capernaum’ or ‘Jesus of Bethlehem’. Nazareth was a small village with a population somewhere between 200 and 400. The Synoptic Gospels refer to a synagogue in Nazareth (Matt. 13.54; Mark 6.2; Luke 4.16). There were no pagan temples or schools. In all likelihood not a single non-Jew lived in Nazareth at this time.
Nazareth is located in the Nazareth Mountains in lower Galilee, about 500 metres above sea level. The name ‘Nazareth’ appears inscribed on a stone tablet that lists the priestly courses (1 Chron. 24.15–16). The second line reads: ‘The eighth course [is] Happizzez of Nazareth.’ The tablet was found in the ruins of a third- or fourth-century synagogue in Caesarea Maritima.
Recent excavations in and around Nazareth – which today is a city of about 60,000 – suggest that the village in the time of Jesus may not have been a sleepy, isolated place, as many have imagined it. The old, quaint notion that the inhabitants of Nazareth had to look for work in nearby villages and cities is now quite obsolete. The economy of Nazareth was more than sufficiently active to keep her inhabitants fully occupied. There is evidence of vineyards and grape presses, of terrace farming, of olive presses and the manufacture of olive oil and even of stonemasonry. We should also assume the presence of livestock and perhaps also tanning.
The few remains of private dwellings that reach back to first-century Nazareth attest to simple, rustic construction. No public buildings have been found, nor a paved street. There is no evidence of aesthetics or artwork, such as mosaics or frescoes. Private dwellings were made of fieldstones and mud, with roofs supported by poles and overlaid with reeds and mud. These homes were small in size, often subdivided into four small rooms. Sometimes a set of steps alongside an outer wall led to the roof, where lightweight items could be stored or dried in the sun. The story of the men who climb to the roof of the house and then lower their paralysed friend to the spot where Jesus sat teaching (Mark 3.32) provides a vivid example of this kind of private dwelling (Mark 2.1–12). It would not take a large crowd to pack a small house, so that men transporting a sick friend would have no chance to enter the door or even pass through a window. We should imagine many people trying to press forward to hear Jesus, if not to touch him. Those unable to get inside the house would be crowded at the door and struggling to peer through the windows.
The smallness of the private dwellings, along with small windows, is probably presupposed in a saying like this: ‘What I tell you in the dark, utter in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim upon the housetops’ (Matt. 10.27; Luke 12.3). We should imagine Jesus and his disciples seated or reclining in a small house, dimly lit, discussing the rule of God and what it will mean for Israel. Soon, Jesus tells his disciples, the things they now hear spoken quietly in the dark will be shouted from rooftops in the light of day.
The first-century village of Nazareth probably occupied no more than four hectares. Mostly buried beneath a modern city and built over throughout history, Nazareth presents a challenge to archaeologists. Thus far only small portions of the original village have been unearthed. The remains of a first-century house and other remains can be seen in the lowest levels of the Church – or Basilica – of the Annunciation. Whether any of these remains were part of the home of Mary cannot be confirmed, but they do exemplify the modest nature of these simple dwellings.1
Nazareth was not isolated from the rest of Galilee. This was another popular myth, still held by some, who speak of Jesus growing up in a place-bound, isolated village.2 Nazareth is only a few kilometres from Sepphoris, a major city, and is near a main highway that connects Caesarea Maritima (on the Mediterranean) to the southwest to Tiberias (on the Sea of Galilee) to the northwest. Sepphoris, Caesarea Maritima and Tiberias were the three largest and most influential cities in or near Galilee. Jesus grew up near one of them and not far from the highway that linked the other two. How well-travelled these roads were is shown by the pottery evidence. Pottery produced in Kefar Hananya, some 16 kilometres from Sepphoris, has been found everywhere Jews lived in Galilee, and in fact represents some 75 per cent of the pottery used by Jews in Galilee.3 Because pottery was subject to contamination and therefore had to be replaced frequently, an uninterrupted supply was very important. That one village could serve as the principal supplier in a region the size of Galilee testifies to the network of roads and the active commerce in the time of Jesus. Not too many villages in Galilee were ‘isolated’ – certainly not one only a few kilometres from Sepphoris.
Although there was probably enough work in Nazareth to keep Joseph and his sons sufficiently occupied, it is possible that they took part in the expansion of nearby Sepphoris during the early years of the administration of Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee (from 4 BCE to 39 CE). Whether or not Jesus ever worked in Sepphoris, the city’s close proximity to Nazareth encourages us to assume that he visited the city from time to time.
A visit to nearby Sepphoris
The Jewish reality of Jesus’ upbringing and later public ministry is not always properly appreciated in some of the books published in recent years. Most writers, of course, do acknowledge that Jesus was Jewish, but they propose strange contexts and settings in which they think Jesus should be interpreted. Some of these simply did not exist in the Galilee of Jesus’ day. One of the most talked-about theories has been the proposal that Jesus was a Cynic. What encouraged this idea was Nazareth’s proximity to Sepphoris, which in the time of Jesus exhibited, at least in appearance, Greco-Roman trappings.
In a popular book on the historical Jesus, one scholar argued that Jesus was a ‘peasant Jewish Cynic’ and that he and his followers were ‘hippies in a world of Augustan yuppies’.4 Although this book is in places quite helpful and sometimes very insightful, most find the Cynic proposal misguided and misleading. Given the notoriety and influence of the book and the fact that at least a few other scholars support the Cynic hypothesis in one form or another, it is necessary to give some attention to it. We shall begin with a review of the most important literary evidence and then take a look at what the archaeology of Sepphoris suggests.
Jesus and the Cynics: the literary evidence
Who were the Cynics (the ancient ones, that is)? What did they believe and how did they live? Cynicism was founded by Diogenes (c.412–321 BCE). The nickname ‘Cynic’ comes from the Greek word kynikos, meaning doggish or dog-like. Cynics earned this dubious sobriquet because of their ragged, unkempt appearance. Attractive apparel and grooming meant nothing to them. And – like dogs – Cynics would urinate and defecate, even copulate in public.
The Cynic typically carried a cloak, a beggar’s purse, a staff, and usually went barefoot. In a letter to his father, Diogenes says: ‘Do not be upset, Father, that I am called a dog and put on a double, coarse cloak, carry a purse over my shoulders, and have a staff in my hand.’ It was this dress code of sorts that has encouraged a few scholars to see significant parallels between Jesus and Cynics. After all, so goes the argument, Jesus gave his disciples similar instructions:
He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; nor bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics.
(Mark 6.8–9)
‘Take no gold, nor silver, nor copper in your belts, nor purse for your journey, nor two tunics, nor sandals, nor a staff; for the labourer deserves his food.’
(Matt. 10.9–10)
‘Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not have two tunics.’
(Luke 9.3)
‘Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and salute no one on the road.’
(Luke 10.4)
Are Jesus’ instructions in step with the Cynic dress code? No – they do not agree with Cynic dress and conduct; in fact they contradict them. The very things Jesus tells his disciples not to take with them – no bag, no tunic – and no staff either, if we follow the version in Matthew and Luke – are the characteristic markers of the true Cynic, as one observer from late antiquity put it: ‘What makes a Cynic is his purse and his staff and his big mouth’ (Epictetus 3.22.50; see also Lucian, Peregrinus 15; Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 6.13; Ps.-Diogenes 30.3). There is nothing Cynic in Jesus’ instructions to his disciples.
The only parallel with Jesus is simply in giving instructions with regard to what to wear and what to take on one’s journey. The only specific agreement is taking the staff (if we follow Mark; if we do not then there is no agreement at all). The staff, however, is hardly distinctive to Cynics. On the contrary: in the Jewish context the staff has a long and distinguished association with the patriarchs, such as Jacob and Judah (Gen. 32.10; 38.18) and the great lawgiver Moses and his brother Aaron (Exod. 4.4; 7.9). Moreover the staff is also a symbol of royal authority, figuring in texts that in later interpretation take on messianic and eschatological significance (for example Gen. 49.10; Isa. 11.4; Ezek. 19.14).
Jesus and the Cynics
We may compare Jesus’ instructions to the Cynic instructions.
Jesus to his disciples
Take no gold, nor silver, nor copper in your belts, nor purse for your journey, nor two tunics, nor sandals, nor a staff (Matt. 10.9–10).
Crates to his students
Cynic philosophy is Diogenean, the Cynic is one who toils according to this philosophy, and to be a Cynic is to take a short cut in doing philosophy. Consequently, do not fear the name [Cynic], nor for this reason shun the cloak and purse, which are the weapons of the gods. For they are quickly displayed by those who are honoured for their character (16).
Diogenes to Hicetas
Do not be upset, Father, that I am called a dog [that is ‘Cynic’] and put on a double, coarse cloak, carry a purse over my shoulders, and have a staff in my hand (7).
Diogenes to Antipater
I hear that you say I am doing nothing unusual in wearing a double, ragged cloak and carrying a purse (15).
Diogenes to Anaxilaus
For a sceptre I have my staff and for a mantle the double, ragged cloak, and by way of exchange, my leather purse is a shield (19).
The full texts of these letters, and on which these translations are based, are in A. J. Malherbe, The Cynic Epistles (SBLSBS 12; Missoula, MT: Scholars Press, 1977). Numerical references are Malherbe’s.
Besides the question of dress, some scholars suggest that Jesus’ worldview is Cynic. Instead of being caught up with materialism and vanity, the Cynic lives a life of simplicity and integrity before God. According to one ancient writer, the ‘end and aim of the Cynic philosophy . . . is happiness, but happiness that consists in living according to nature’ (Julian, Orations 6.193D). Living according to nature als...