Omaha daily bee., 1910-01-03
Some Things You Want to Know
The Holy Land-Nazareth the Despised.

Can there any good thing come out Of
Nazareth" In this question Nathaniel, in
whom there was no guile, expressed con
tempt OF the Galileeans. for this little hill
village where Jesus spent thirty of the
thirty-three years of His life. Nazareth
was despised for its meanness, for the
crude manners of its people and for its
lack Of appreciation of the Roman civiliza-
ton Of the age Of Augustus. In fact
Nazareth was nineteen centuries ago what
'Podunk' is to American comic papers to-
day, and a Nazarene was a country jay.
1t was in this village that Jesus grew from
infancy to the age Of 80 years, that period
of His life of which nothing is known save
the incident of His visit to the temple In
Jerusalem when He was II years old. Here
it was that He was subject unto Joseph
and Mary and Increased in wisdom and
stature, and in favor with God and man."
And to Nazareth He came after His min
istry was begun and taught the people in
the synagogue, but His own townsmen re-
fused to receive Him, and upon their
threats to cast Him from the cliff He re-
moved His home to Capernaum. 1t was to
His old playmates and childhood COM
panions that Jesus said: "A prophet is
not without honor, save in his own coun-
try and in his own house"
But Nazareth, which was despised in that
ancient day. and which rejected its prophet,
and which gave It's name to the epithet
written on the cross where Jesus died, was
saved to the honor and sancuty of CEN
turtles by those very events. 1t is today,
perhaps, about the same size as it was in
the time of Jesus. 1t has about 10000 pop
~ulation, Of whom 1900 are M-ohammedans
and 5000 are Christians, mostly of the
creek orthodox faith. Nazareth Is visited
annually by about a half million devout
pilgrims, and after Jerusalem and Bethle-
hem it is the most sacred city In the Chris
tian world.
1t is remarkable that only Nazareth
Of al. the cities of Galilee has retained
through nineteen centuries it's population
and importance. In the time of Christ
it was a comparatively small town, resting
in a valley high on the side of the hills,
not far from the great highway which
crossed the plain of Esdraelon, and which
was a great avenue connecting the Greek
city of Ptolemais, now Acre. with the
prosperous Roman cities on the sea of
Ga.ilee. This country was then prosperous
and populous, 1t was cut by paved high
ways and dotted with busting cities. But
all the glory of that civilization has de-
pdIIChs <ASlO IL q 4 luIhlSn HuuQOlb,
the cities Of the Sea Of Gali.ee are re-
duced to shapeless heaps of broken stone,
and only Nazareth survives.
The town Is built on the slope Of one of
fifteen rounded peaks which enclose a semi
circular valley. Its white stone houses,
Its church towers and its minarets pre-
sent a most picturesque appearance to the
approaching traveller, and the wilderness
Of the picture gives promise of perfect
cleanliness. Once in the town, however,
the delusion is dispel,ed and there is the
natural and normal dirt and filth of Syrian
cities. But Nazareth, even more than other
cities of Palestine, seems to suffer the
ravages of ophthalmia. Almost everyone
In the streets has at least one blind eve.
and the number of the totally bind is ap-
palling. The mothers refuse to brush the
flies from the eyes of the babies because
they fear that should the children be too
clean and attractive they would attract
the evil eye of a stranger. Thus the poor
babies are condemned by superstition to
lives of darkness. The English Protestant
missions here are doing a great service in
combating these superstitions, in promul-
eating sanitary knowledge, n in the
care and treatment of those who's eyes
already are diseased.
" fNENN sNk9Ab HNSN IA On CNA lit SIIICL
sanitary laws of the Mosaic code were in
force, and 1t is not probable that the
people were so dirty as they are today,
just as 1t is probable that the Jewish
Nazarenes were superior in learning to
the Syrian Nazarenes of today. AT the
same time there is good reason to believe
that the ordinary, every day life of the
people of Nazareth in 1909 does not differ
materially from that OF the fellow towns
men OF Jesus, 1900 years ago.
All Nazareth gets water from one bounti-
full spring, which is now known as the
Fountain Of the Virgin. This fountain was
the source of water supply in Jesus day
and there can be no doubt that He came
here with Mary, His mother, hundreds of
times, just as the little boys today go to
the fountain with their mothers. The
fountain is the center of the busiest part
Of the ancient town and the most interest
ing place in Nazareth. The spring wells