44. Inscription from Caesarea Mentioning Nazareth

The findings in excavations already referred to (No. 43) provide positive evidence for the existence of a town at Nazareth in the time of Jesus. Fragments of an inscription found at Caesarea in 1962, in the excavations of the Hebrew University assisted by the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, now provide the first known occurrence of the name Nazareth in an inscription and the earliest occurrence of the name in Hebrew. Two fragments were found at this time and a third, found some years previously, was recognized as evidently belonging with them. The first fragment, with which we are here specifically concerned, shown in the photograph, is of dark gray marble, 153 by 124 mm. in size, and inscribed in square Hebrew characters with portions of four lines remaining. Form the three fragments together and by comparison with materials in Talmudic and liturgical sources, it has been possible to show that the complete inscription was a list of twenty-four priestly courses 9cf. 1 Ch 24:7-19; Neh 12:1-21), giving the name of each course (or family) in its proper order and the name of the town or village in Galilee where it was settled. This transfer of the course of priests to residences in Galilee must have taken place after the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem in A. D. 70 and the subsequent expulsion of the Jews form the territory of Aelia Capitolina by Hadrian (cf. No 184). The inscription fragments were found in the northern part of Caesarea where the Jewish synagogue was located, and the whole stone tablet was probably once fixed on the synagogue wall. In the ruins of the Caesarea synagogue a hoard of 3,700 bronze coins was found which was apparently hidden in 355/356, and it is believed that the synagogue was built at the end of the third or beginning of the fourth century (cf. No. 132). The inscription is judged to be of about the same date. In the fragment shown in the photograph the name Nazareth (נצרת) is to be seen in line 2; also in line 4 assuming only that the initial Mem is missing, we have the name Migdal ([מ]גדל), probably referring to Midgal Nunaiya or Magdala (No. 73).