An archaeologist from has made an extraordinary claim to have discovered the childhood home of Jesus Christ himself. The home was uncovered beneath a convent in Israel.
After a 14-year study in Israel’s Nazareth, Archaeology Professor Ken Dark is convinced that Jesus grew up in ruins beneath Sisters of Nazareth Convent.
The home apparently dates back to the first century and believed to be built by Saint Joseph who was married to the Virgin Mary and Jesus’ legal father.
This is not the first time someone has carried out excavations on that particular site. The first attempt made by the nuns of the Sisters of Nazreth Convent. This was carried out after biblical scholar Victor Guerin in 1888 asserted that it was Jesus’ home. On his suggestion, the excavation went on till the 1930s. After that another set of excavations were done at the same place between 1936 and 1964.
These explorations didn’t turn up anything and that the location fell dormant until Professor Dark started a new project there in 2006.
He published the article in 2015 suggesting it was the home of Mary and Joseph.
The professor said that the excellent craftsmanship and a structural understanding of rock were consistent with it having been built and owned by a tekton- a carpenter, stonemason or builder.
Professor Dark also found fragments of pottery at the site which were commonly used by Jewish families of the era.
In the Bible, Joseph is carpenter but was also referred to in the New Testament as tekton- a craftsman who would have been capable of building the home.
Dr Dark also explained that the house became part of the crypt below a Byzantine church that pre-dated the convent. He identified it as the ‘Church of the Nutrition’, described in the seventh-century pilgrim account ‘De Locis Sanctis’. The house was so-called because it was built to encapsulate the house where Jesus was brought up.
While there is no solid conclusion, all evidence suggests this could have been the place where Jesus Christ spent his childhood years.
