Click picture, Nazareth Village, 2 m. 17 s. video clip
What did Jesus usually work with as a carpenter in Israel? What is so special about Olive trees? Who were the people that made Nazareth Village so special?
Poet & Peasant and Through Peasant Eyes, by Kenneth Bailey, was a book that opened my eyes to Christ’s parables in the same way Nazareth Village did. The people in his parables were peasants. They lived their lives so simply compared to what we know today.
I learned in Israel that Jesus was himself affected by an agricultural-based culture as much as traffic affects us today. Even if you don’t have a car, you must get rides, use public transit, or at least be careful as a pedestrian. And you see them everywhere. Even though fisherman spent most of their time fishing, they’d have to either buy produce or be involved in gathering it themselves, at times.
So why would this matter to us? And how would the parables have more significance to us if we got their context better? Here’s a better glimpse into this world, for you to find out for yourself.
Click picture, Nazareth Village, 2 m. 38 s.
Click picture, Nazareth Village, 3 m. 14 s.
What was involved in terrace farming of the first century? How would that affect the lives of farmers in hilly land versus a flat valley? The implications reach into the parables and numerous other aspects of their lives.
How did they make wine? What seems gross now that back then was as necessary as machinery and technology is to us today? And why was it necessary?
What do we learn about the hill that local tradition in Israel says is where the mad mob was about to throw Jesus down headlong? What do we learn from the Torah about stoning?
How did they make olive oil? Gethsemane was a place where olive oil was in mass production. What parallel would the disciples think of in hindsight, looking back at Gethsemane, after Jesus rose again?
Click picture, Nazareth Village, 4 m. 2 s.
Did you read your Bible lately?
Heather, May 2023
