Galilee West - Mount Arbel - Nazareth - Zipporah

Galilee West

Mount Arbel

Mount Arbel is located about 4km north of the city of Tiberius and looks down on the towns of Hamam, Migdal, and the ruins of Magdala, possibly the hometown of Mary Magdalene, and the coastal location where Jesus and his apostles may have arrived by boat following the miracle of the fish and loaves (Mt 15:39).

The hike up the valley begins near Hamam and winds past the fortress and caves where Maccabees supports had fought the Seleucids in the 2nd century B.C.E., where Herod the Great crushed Antigonus’s forces in the 1st century B.C.E. battle for the throne of Judea. The summit is the location where Saladin’s forces defeated the Crusaders in the 12th century C.E. and today give an unmatched 360 view of the Sea of Galilee, Golan and Mt. Hermon to the north east.

Nazareth

Today Nazareth is a busy city of over 70,000 inhabitants located in a natural hilltop basin on the south end of the Galalean hills overlooking the Jezreel Valley. In Roman times Nazareth appears to have been a small town but it was close to major trade routes and to the larger fortified city of Sepphoris to the north west. Nazareth is most famous as the boyhood home of Jesus, where he began his ministry Lu 4:16 and where an angry mob tried to throw him off the precipice Lu 4:29, and prior to those events as the home of Mary and and Joseph Lu 2:39 and the place where Mary met the angel Gabriel Lu 1:26, 27. Nazareth’s growth of a city is thought to have accelerated in the under Zahir al-Umar the powerful Sheik who controlled much of Galilee, and the north coast, in the 18th century. The walled Old Town section of Nazareth retains the charming Ottoman style markets and architecture starting from this period. Nazareth Village is a recreation of 1st century Nazareth with ancient archeological finds and carefully researched replicas of the buildings, trades and landscapes of the ancient town.

Zipporah (Sepphoris)

A little over 6 km from Nazareth are the extensive ruins of Zipporah (Sepphoris) formally a prominent city in Galilee. Shortly after the death of Herod the Great the citizens of Zipporah became a site of Jewish rebellion against Rome and in retaliation the Roman army destroyed the city burning it to the ground. When Herod Antipas became tetrarch over Galilee Zipporah was chosen as the capital of Galilee and was rebuilt in a grand Roman style, with large markets, public administration and armory buildings and wealthy residents - Josephus called it the “the ornament of all Galilee”. The capital later shifted to Tiberius on the sea of Galilee but Zipporah continued as a prosperous centre of wealth and commerce for centuries, escaping destruction from the Roman army by this time not participating in the great Jewish revolt of 66 C.E. Despite its close proximity to Nazareth the city is not mentioned in the Gospels by name although some scholars have speculated that Jesus would have passed through the city on his travels throughout Galilee and perhaps the illustration of Mt 5:14 is referring to Zipphoris, the name of the city, according the Babylonian Talmud, coming from the Hebrew word tsipor meaning bird referring to it’s bird’s eye view being situated on a hill.

The picturesque setting of the city gives a panoramic view of the surrounding hills and cities of Galilee, including Nazareth. An impressive ruin of a Roman Villa, thought to be from the 2nd century C.E. has the remains of an elaborate tile floor with a delicate image of a woman, perhaps the lady of the house, affectionately referred to today as the Mona Lisa of the Galilee.

daniel campbellMarch 27, 2020