NAZARETH, in Galilee, now al-Nasira, the city of Mary and Joseph, and the place where our Lord spent his youth, is pleasantly situated in a hollow on the south slope of the hills (J. al-Sikh) which bound the plain of Esdraelon on the north. Though it had a synagogue (Matt, xiii. 54; Luke iv. 16), and is called in the Gospels a city, Nazareth must have been an obscure place in the time of Jesus, for we find no mention of it outside of the New Testament till Eusebius and Jerome identify it with a “village” which undoubtedly occupied the place of the modern Nasira. In Jerome’s time it was already visited by pilgrims, but as yet we hear nothing of relics or places associated with special incidents in the life of Jesus. The population was mainly Jewish,—exclusively so, we are told by Epiphanius, down to the time of Constantine,—and the Jews, after their manner in modern as in ancient times, seem to have been the inventors of various marvellous relics and identifications which were palmed off upon Christian pilgrims in the 6th century. Such at least is the natural inference from what Antoninus Martyr tells of these wonderfully friendly and communicative Hebrews. A century later Arculphus describes two great churches corresponding to the modern Greek church over the Virgin’s Well and the Latin church of the Franciscan monastery over the Grotto of the Annunciation. The place has since passed through various vicissitudes; it was most flourishing in the time of the crusaders, who transferred to it the bishopric of Scythopolis. The Ottomans at length expelled the Christians; but the Franciscans established themselves under the protection of Fakhr al-Din in 1620. The town has now a Greek, a Latin, and a Moslem quarter, as well as a Protestant mission and orphanage. The ...

a little city in the tribe of Zebulun, in Lower Galilee, to the west of Tabor, and to the east of Ptolemais. This city is much celebrated in the Scriptures for having been the usual place of the residence of Jesus Christ, during the first thirty years of his life, Luke ii, 51. It was here he lived in obedience to Joseph and Mary, and hence he took the name of Nazarene. After he had begun to execute his mission he preached here sometimes in the synagogue, Luke iv, 16. But because his countrymen had no faith in him, and were offended at the meanness of his original, he did not many miracles here, Matt. xiii, 54, 58, nor would he dwell in the city. So he fixed his habitation at Capernaum for the latter part of his life, Matt. iv, 13. The city of Nazareth was situated upon an eminence, and on one side was a precipice, from whence the Nazarenes designed, at one time, to cast Christ down headlong, because he upbraided them for their incredulity, Luke iv, 29. The present state of this celebrated place is thus described by modern travellers:--Nassara, or Naszera, is one of the principal towns in the pashalic of Acre. Its inhabitants are industrious, because they are treated with less severity than those of the country towns in general. The population is estimated at three thousand, of whom five hundred are Turks; the remainder are Christians. There are about ninety Latin families, according to Burckhardt; but Mr. Connor reports the Greeks to be the most numerous: there is, beside, a congregation of Greek Catholics, and another of Maronites. The Latin convent is a very spacious and commodious building, which was thoroughly repaired and considerably enlarged in 1730. The remains of the more ancient edifice, ascribed to the mother of Constantine, may be observed in the form of ...