Before I let any of them slip my mind I want to write and share my impressions of Nazareth, which I finally visited today. During my trip to Jerusalem I felt like I had stepped into the past--if not 2,000 years, then at least several centuries. On this trip I remained firmly rooted in the present--Nazareth is a modern city, with all the shops, buses, advertisements, and so forth you could expect to find in any other modern city. Our driver warned us on the way in that we would read a lot of interesting signs and we should not comment on any of them until we regrouped and could have a private discussion. Actually, that wasn't so bad. Despite all this there was still an atmosphere of otherworldliness to be felt, with some effort.
Our first visit was to a church that was somewhat small but reminded me strongly of some of the cathedrals in Spain with its old-church scent, intricate carvings, lit taper candles, and sometimes crumbling paintings. Large churches, even with artificial light added, are dim throughout and this too creates a certain consistent old-church atmosphere. The church's name is St. Gabriel Greek Orthodox church and according to that branch's tradition it is built over the site where, according to tradition, the angel Gabriel told Mary that she would give birth to Jesus as she was collecting water from a well. It's quite small and there is a spring inside believed to be Mary's well. After 2,000 years I don't think anyone knows anymore but the legends that have grown up around the spot have value in themselves.
Then we went to the excavation site of an ancient Roman bathhouse, believed by some to have been used by Jesus. Apparently the time period and the location do fit. The visit was very strange and possibly the first time I've walked through a gift shop at the beginning in order to reach to the main attraction instead of the shop being planted at the exit. According to the shop owners, a couple, they met while the husband, Elias, was living abroad in Belgium. When Elias returned to Nazareth he took his new Belgian wife, Martina, back with him and they bought some property to set up a shop. When they began doing construction work on the site they found some exiting piping. They continued excavating and eventually found the bathhouse. Investigation yielded the conclusion that what they were uncovering was a Turkish bathhouse, and so they could do whatever they wished with the remains. Eventual further investigation led to the determination that the bathhouse was actually an ancient Roman one, and, for reasons not well understood by me, they continued excavating by themselves. In spite of so many indications to the contrary, it does not seem to be a tourist trap, as several books and studies treat the subject of the bathhouse. There seems to be an element of politics involved--which I'll explain.
Our next visit was to the Church of the Annunciation across town, built in 1969 by the Roman Catholic church, over the site believed by Catholics to be the place where the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she would give birth to Jesus while she collected well water (which may sound familiar). The location of the Roman bathhouse substantiates the Greek Orthodox church's claim to be built over the site of the Annunciation, as it was logical to build a large bathhouse in close proximity to a water source. Thus, the Catholic church shall not be funding the excavation of the bathhouse, despite its possible historical significance. The Church of the Annunciation is huge, and empty, and modern, and an exterior structure as well as the upper floor are filled with beautiful mosaics donated by countries all over the world. I enjoyed this church too thoroughly despite its newness. I could spend an entire day or longer visiting another and another old church, although I know some people don't have patience for that. Some of my strongest memories of Spain and Israel are the interiors of such churches.
We finished the day with some coffee, a mild sunburn and happy tiredness. I'm excited to share the pictures I've taken in the Holy Land, of Haifa, Akka, Jerusalem and now, just before Easter, of Nazareth.
