The Synagogue Church is a small Christian church in the heart of Nazareth known by this name due to a tradition claiming that it the location where the village synagogue stood in Jesus' time. Above its doorway is an embedded sign in Arabic and English: "Synagogue".
The structure is administered by the Melkite Greek Catholic Church.
History
editIn 570, an Italian visitor described Nazareth's synagogue, and reported that the original Bible was still there, including the bench where Jesus used to sit.[1]
The floor of the Synagogue Church is sunken about 1.5 meters underground, possibly built atop a Crusader church dating from the 12th century.
The church was under the control of the Franciscans until the 18th century, when the ruler Zahir al-Umar passed it to the Greek Catholics. In 1887, the Melkite Greek Catholic parish church of the Annunciation was built adjacent to the Synagogue Church.
Christian tradition
editAccording to Christian tradition, the church is built on the ruins of the ancient Nazareth synagogue where Jesus studied and prayed.
Significance
editLittle is known of the years Jesus spent in Nazareth, leading scholars[2] to describe this time as "the hidden life" or "the silent years". It is thus all the more significant for Christian visitors to find a lone place where such silence is broken – the Synagogue Church.