Ken Dark, an archaeologist out of the United Kingdom, studied the remains of a home found in Nazareth, Israel. He thinks the home could have been owned by Joseph, Mary, and baby Jesus.<\/p>\n
Dark, a professor of archaeology and history at the University of Reading, said that there is a “strong case to be made” about the site’s ties to Jesus Christ. He began to study the area in 2006, and wrote his findings in the book “The Sisters of Nazareth Convent: A roman-period, Byzantine, and Crusader site in central Nazareth.”\u00a0The home lies beneath the Sisters of Nazareth Covent.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn’t go to Nazareth to find the house of Jesus, I was actually doing a study of the city’s history as a Byzantine Christian pilgrimage center,\u201d he told the BBC. \u201cNobody could have been more surprised than me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know from written evidence this church was believed in the Byzantine period to have been built on the site of Jesus’ home and the dwelling preserved in its crypt,\u201d Dark told the BBC. \u201cIt’s almost certainly the Church of the Nutrition, which was dedicated to the upbringing of Christ, and mentioned in a Seventh Century pilgrim’s account.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whoever constructed the house had excellent knowledge of stone-working as well. In the Bible, Joseph is called a “craftsman” and “builder”, strengthening the theory. However, it is by no means a closed case.<\/p>\n
\u201c[It\u2019s] by no means a conclusive case,\u201d he said in an interview with CBS. \u201cOn the one hand, we can put forward a totally plausible case that this was Jesus\u2019s childhood home. But on the other hand, actually proving that is beyond the scope of the evidence. It\u2019s debatable whether it would ever be possible to prove that.\u201d<\/p>\n