Nazareth Then and Now

TOP IMAGE: Lithograph from original sketch by David Roberts in April 1839.
LOWER IMAGE: Photograph of Nazareth in July 2017.

Gregory C. Jenks

 

Ancient Nazareth^[1]

Ancient Nazareth lacked the critical advantages for its development as a significant settlement: abundant water supply, an elevated site for defensive purposes, and strategic location adjacent to a major highway. The most comprehensive recent study of the archeology of ancient Nazareth and its local region was completed by Ken Dark over several seasons between 2004 and 2008.^[2]

The earliest permanent settlement at Nazareth seems to have been established as an agricultural village populated byJews who had relocated from Judea during the Hasmonean and Herodian period.^[3] The village occupied an area around half of one square kilometer and was located about 500m southwest of a perennial spring, traditionally known as Mary’s Well. That spring was sufficient to sustain a population of up to 1,000 people, which was the maximum size of the village until the 1850s when it increased to around 5,000 people,^[4] before rising to 7,424 at the time of the first census undertaken during the British Mandate government in 1922.^[5]

British archeologist Ken Dark proposes that Nazareth was a small town serving a “distinctive Roman-period settlement system” in the Nahal Zippori area and extending to nearby Yafia.^[6] Dark suggests an economy that included agricultural and quarrying activities. The most plausible explanation for the extensive quarrying activity is to provide materials for substantial buildings within Nazareth itself, and that suggests a transition from the earliest phase of settlement when caves provided the nucleus of the housing structures to a more established settlement with solid houses.

Byzantine Nazareth

Subsequent to his comprehensive study of Nazareth and its hinterland from the Roman period through until the Byzantine period, Ken Dark has published a second volume on the evidence for Byzantine Nazareth from the excavations at the Sisters of Nazareth Convent, which lies between Christ Church and the Basilica.^[7] During the Byzantine period, Dark describes Nazareth with an emerging set of monumental sacred architecture, including at least the Church of the Nutrition (on the site of the Sisters of Nazareth Convent), the Church of the Annunciation (the present Franciscan site with its modern basilica), a third church understood by pilgrims as the synagogue from the time of Jesus, and another church where the current Greek Orthodox Church of St. Gabriel stands at Mary’s Well.

This complex of Christian pilgrimage structures, located above venerated caves, seems to have continued after the Muslim conquest in the seventh century, although they may have gradually fallen into disuse as the number of pilgrims diminished.^[8] There is some evidence to suggest these Christian sites were abandoned prior to the Crusader period. Dark notes this may have happened in 1010 CE when the Fatimid Caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah ordered the destruction ofthe Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth, following his order for the destruction of the Church of the Resurrection in Jerusalem the previous year.^[9]

Crusader Nazareth

There was brief revival of Christian presence in Nazareth during the Crusader period (1099–1187 CE). Dark suggests that the rebuilding process was intentionally rapid and indicative of the priorities of Tancred and his successors. We know from textual sources that the rebuilt Nazareth included churches and monasteries, a hospital for pilgrims and a library.^[10] Dark notes that Nazareth was also an administrative center of the principality, implying a palace or fortress, and the settlement was walled.

Islamic Nazareth

During the thirteenth century control of Nazareth fluctuated between the Ayyubid dynasty and the Frankish Crusaders, culminating in the capture of Nazareth by Sultan Baybars and his emir, Ala al-Din Taybars in April 1263. At that time the Church of the Annunciation was razed and the site remained a ruin for the next 400 years.^[11] The occasional pilgrim reaching Nazareth was only able to visit the Annunciation Cave below the ruins of the Crusader church and needed to pay a fee to the local Muslims.^[12]

Following the defeat of the Mamluks by the Ottoman empire in 1516, Christian pilgrims were banned from the key holy sites in the ancient village center. A sixteenth-century Ottoman financial record lists 253 Muslim households and 17 Christian households.^[13]

In 1620 the Franciscans were given permission by Fakr al-Din II, the Druze emir of Sidon, to repair the church above the Annunciation Cave. Friar Francisco Quaresmius described the initial repairs but also noted that they were again expelled from Nazareth in 1630 after the Bedouin emir, Tarabei, sacked the village and forced the Franciscans to leave.^[14] Only in 1730 were the Franciscans given permission by Daher al-‘Umar, the Bedouin ruler of Galilee, to reestablish themselves in Nazareth and rebuild the Church of the Annunciation. Twenty years later in 1750, the Greek Orthodox were able to build a new church above the ancient Crusader crypt at Mary’s Well.^[15]

This re-establishment of a permanent Christian presence in Nazareth was only one hundred years before a major transformation would occur as Nazareth transitioned from a remote village into a major town of interest to the European powers. Those foreign powers included the British who established an Anglican mission there in 1851.

Nazareth Today

The current population of Nazareth is estimated to be around 80,000 people, according to data from the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS).^[16] The population is evenly divided by gender and is almost 100% Arab. The age distribution is skewed towards a youthful profile, with almost half of the population aged below 30 years of age and only 9% aged over 65 years.

The population increased from 5,000 in the late 1800s, to 7,500 in 1922, 14,200 in 1945, and 20,300 in 1951 (reflecting an influx of internally displaced persons after 1948). The 1922 British census indicated 60% of the population were Christians. With the influx of displaced persons after 1948—partly offset by an exodus of around 20% of the nativeNazareth population during the war—there was a significant change in the religious profile of the city.

The adjacent city of Nof HaGalil (founded in 1959 as Nazrat Illit, or Upper Nazareth) occupies an elevated site overlooking the Arab city of Nazareth. It is built on land expropriated from Nazareth and surrounding villages by the Israeli government. Although designed as a Jewish city, it has attracted a significant number of Arabs from Nazareth. In 2021 its official population estimate was 42,657,^[17] of which 32% were Arabs. Significantly, almost one quarter of its total population are Arab Christians.

The 2009 Israeli census data reported religious demographics of 69% Muslim and 31% Christian in Nazareth, but the 2025 annual Christmas media release on Christians in Israel indicates a Christian population of 18,900 in Nazareth as well as another 10,800 Christians in Nof HaGalil.^[18] This suggests Nazareth is now 77% Muslim and just 23% Christian. Anglicans comprise 2% of the Nazareth Christian population (378 people).

Development of the Nazareth municipality has been restricted by the failure of any Israeli administration to approve changes to the city’s town plan since the previous approvals by the British Mandate authorities in 1942. The city infrastructure is notably inferior to the facilities available in Nof HaGalil, and the basic operations of the municipality are problematic. There are major problems with garbage collection, road maintenance, and general civic services. Violent crime is a serious issue in Nazareth as it is in many Arab communities across Israel due to systemic discrimination against Palestinian citizens. In mid-2025, the Council was dismissed and an Israeli administrator appointed.^[19]

© 2026 Gregory C. Jenks

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Bibliography

Alexandré, Yardenna. Mary’s Well, Nazareth: The Late Hellenistic to the Ottoman Periods. IAA Reports, 49. Israel Antiquities Authority, 2012.

Bagatti, Bellarmino. Excavations in Nazareth. I: From the Beginning till the XII Century. II: From the XII Century until Today. Translated by E. Hoade. 2 vols. Franciscan Printing Press, 1969.

Dark, Ken. Roman-Period and Byzantine Nazareth and Its Hinterland. The Palestine Exploration Fund Annual XV, edited by Chiara Fiaccavento, XV. Routledge, 2020.

Dark, Ken. The Sisters of Nazareth Convent: A Roman-Period, Byzantine, and Crusader Site in Central Nazareth. The Palestine Exploration Fund Annual XVI, edited by Chiara Fiaccavento. Routledge, 2021.

Fiensy, David A., and James Riley Strange. Galilee in the Late Second Temple and Mishnaic Periods: 2. The Archaeological Record from Cities, Towns and Villages. Fortress Press, 2015.

Jenks, Gregory C. “The Quest for the Historical Nazareth.” In Bethsaida in Archaeology, History and Ancient Culture. A Festschrift in Honor of John T. Greene, edited by J. Harold Ellens. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014.

Mansur, Asaad Al She’aeri. The History of Nazareth from its Earliest Times to our Present Days (Arabic). Al Hilal Press, 1924.

Strange, James F. “Nazareth.” In Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary, edited by David Noel Freedman, vol. 4. Doubleday, 1992.

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^[1] This material was initially prepared for a chapter on Nazareth Anglicans in the book, The Anglican Church and Palestine, edited by Kwok Pui Lan (Church Publishing, 2026). As it could not be included in the final edited form of that chapter, it is published here for anyone who may be interested in a brief summary of current research on Nazareth prior to the Late Ottoman period.

^[2] Ken Dark, Roman-Period and Byzantine Nazareth and Its Hinterland, The Palestine Exploration Fund Annual XV, ed. Chiara Fiaccavento, XV (Routledge, 2020). For other significant recent studies see Yardenna Alexandré, Mary’s Well, Nazareth: The Late Hellenistic to the Ottoman Periods, IAA Reports, 49 (Israel Antiquities Authority, 2012); Bellarmino Bagatti, Excavations in Nazareth. I: From the Beginning till the XII Century. II: From the XII Century until Today, trans. E. Hoade, 2 vols. (Franciscan Printing Press, 1969); and Gregory C. Jenks, “The Quest for the Historical Nazareth,” in Bethsaida in Archaeology, History and Ancient Culture. A Festschrift in Honor of John T. Greene, ed. J. Harold Ellens (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014), 252–67.

^[3] David A. Fiensy and James Riley Strange, Galilee in the Late Second Temple and Mishnaic Periods: 2. The Archaeological Record from Cities, Towns and Villages (Fortress Press, 2015), 5–6.

^[4] Alexandré, Mary’s Well, 148 & 151.

^[5] James F. Strange, “Nazareth,” in Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary, ed. David Noel Freedman, vol. 4 (Doubleday, 1992) 1050–51) suggests a population of 480 in the time of Jesus. My own estimate suggests a figure closer to 250 people in the early decades of the first century.

^[6] Dark, Roman-Period and Byzantine Nazareth, 87.

^[7] Ken Dark, The Sisters of Nazareth Convent: A Roman-Period, Byzantine, and Crusader Site in Central Nazareth., The Palestine Exploration Fund Annual XVI, ed. Chiara Fiaccavento (Routledge, 2021).

^[8] Asaad Al She’aeri Mansur, The History of Nazareth from its Earliest Times to our Present Days (Arabic) (Al Hilal Press, 1924), 44.

^[9] Dark, Roman-Period and Byzantine Nazareth, 21.

^[10] Dark, Sisters of Nazareth Convent, 191.

^[11] Mansur, History of Nazareth, 44–56.

^[12] Alexandré, Mary’s Well, 145.

^[13] Alexandré, Mary’s Well, 145.

^[14] Cited with extended quotations in Alexandré, Mary’s Well, 145–46.

^[15] Alexandré, Mary’s Well, 148. See also Mansur, History of Nazareth, 44–56.

^[16] https://www.citypopulation.de/en/israel/admin/hazafon/7300 nazerat/ [accessed November 6, 2025]

^[17]  https://www.citypopulation.de/en/israel/admin/hazafon/1061__nof_hagalil/ [accessed November 6, 2025]

^[18] https://www.cbs.gov.il/en/mediarelease/Pages/2025/Christmas-2025-Christians-in-Israel.aspx [accessed January 1, 2026]

^[19] https://www.israelnationalnews.com/flashes/660734 [accessed November 9, 2025]