NAZARETH, Israel, April 19, 2005 — A not-for-profit organization that illustrates the Bible by recreating Nazareth as Jesus would have known it, is helping to build bridges of peace in the Middle East.
Financed by contributions from people from around the world, Nazareth Village opened in October 2000 and has attracted thousands of tourists from all backgrounds and faith traditions every year since.
The peaceful, pastoral, meticulously-researched, full-scale recreation of the small, remote first-century village Jesus and his family inhabited, offers a stark contrast to contemporary Nazareth; a city of approximately 70,000 people where religious and political tensions often run high. Seventy percent of the modern population is Muslim while 30 percent is Christian.
More than a tourist attraction
But Nazareth Village is more than a tourist attraction according to executive director, Michael Hostetler. Combining archaeology and reconstruction, the village is a "living laboratory," says Hostetler, which offers "the unique opportunity to experience how life was lived at the time of Jesus."
Situated less than 500 metres from where scholars believe Jesus grew up, the village sits on one of the last remaining pieces of virgin farmland used in the area at the time of Christ. It contains authentic agricultural features uncovered during archaeological excavations, such as three watchtowers, a rock quarry, terraces and a wine press.
Full-size homes, a synagogue and a working olive press are also located on the 20-acre site. Villagers dressed in first-century costume work the land, cultivating biblical crops such as grapes, olives, wheat, almonds and figs.
PHOTO: Patricia Paddey
A carpenter’s bench at Nazareth Village gives visitors a look at the types of tools that Jesus and Joseph – themselves carpenters – would have used in Biblical times.
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Visitors touring the site can experience what life would have been like in New Testament times; observing the villagers tending to the day's tasks; plowing, harvesting, threshing, weaving, building, etc., and can then enjoy a typical first century meal.
"As we study the world that Jesus knew, we get a better understanding of what He was trying to say," Hostetler says. He cites the example of the narrow terraces used for farming that line the village hills, and says seeing their width helps illuminate Christ's parable of the seed and the sower by illustrating how the scattered seed could easily have fallen in places other than the terrace path.
Challenge; tell the story and respect all traditions
Hostetler says one of the challenges of the village is telling the story of first century Nazareth in a way that respects all traditions.
People from all traditions are listening. Tours are conducted in English, German, French, Italian, Arabic, Russian and Hebrew. According to the project website, www.nazarethvillage.com, the first time the village presented a program in Arabic, "four people drove over an hour from a conservative Muslim community in the central part of [the] country just to participate. In the same group, we had a local Christian banker and doctor, three priests from Cana, Reine, and Nazareth, a hospital administrator, a Muslim journalist and his wife, an evangelical pastor and his wife, four people from Scotland, and two travel specialists from Belgium among others at the same event. This diversity is typical of the people who come to the program."
The child of Mennonite missionary parents, Hostetler gave up a career as a film producer, and moved to Israel with his Canadian wife and two children in 1996 to work with the project. Now 51, Hostetler says the goal of the village is, "to find ways to build bridges; to help find ways that lead to peace."
Nazareth Village was the idea of ninth-generation Nazarene and Arab Christian, Dr. Nakhle Bishara, medical director of the modern-day Christian medical mission, Nazareth Hospital.
Former U.S. President, Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn serve as honorary chairs of the project.
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