Northwest of the Sea of Galilee lies the ancient town of Chorazin, a place where Jesus once walked,
but today a home for the hyrax.
This place was denounced by Jesus, and what archaeologists have discovered
in the rubble of this ancient city might surprise you.
Discoveries that make a valuable connection between faith and fact.
Chorazin, as described in the New Testament, was one of three cities where Jesus
did most of His mighty works.
Bethsaida, Capernaum, and Chorazin were all a part of what some have called the 'Missionary Triangle'--
places where Jesus performed many of His miracles and taught numerous lessons.
And, yet, all three towns were denounced by Jesus.
Chorazin--which existed during Bible times-- has yet to be excavated,
but its ruins from the 3rd and 4th centuries offer for us a glimpse into the past
and a plausible explanation as to why it was rejected by Jesus.
Chorazin was built on a steep sun-exposed hillside, which possessed an abundance of black basalt stones
and dark volcanic soil, excellent for agriculture.
The earliest evidence of settlement at this site comes from the northern part of the city,
where a beautifully preserved olive oil press was discovered and where houses were constructed
using basalt beams and arches that allowed for an open area of up to 12 feet.
Further east, most of the ruins visible today are from the 3rd and 4th centuries A.D.
and possessed houses whose internal walls were fenestrated to allow for the flow of light and air.
This area also contained a public building equipped with a courtyard
and mikvah--or large ritual bath-- with a roof still intact.
Adjacent to the mikvah is a large cistern which was probably used to
provide live or living water for the demands of Jewish bathing rituals.
Nearby, on an elevated area at the center of the town,
a large and elaborate house of worship was discovered, measuring 70 feet in length.
It faced south toward Jerusalem and possessed a broad staircase
leading up to its entrance with an ornately decorated gable.
Inside the synagogue, a large hall existed with stone benches or seats around the exterior walls.
Near the entrance, an elaborately decorated chair was discovered,
used, perhaps, by those who publicly read from the Torah at a synagogue service.
A chair referred to by Jesus as the seat of Moses.
Others suggest that because of the dedicatory inscription honoring its donor,
it might have been one of the chief seats in the synagogue.
However, the most surprising and striking find associated with the synagogue
were hundreds of fragments of decorated stonework, one of which was a Medusa--
a well-known talisman or lucky charm from Greek mythology used to ward off evil spirits.
A Medusa was a mythological female monster with snakes for hair,
and its presence in a Jewish house of worship should have been an abomination.
What, then, do all of these facts have to do with Jesus denouncing the city?
The Bible tells us only that the citizens would not repent.
So if the Jewish city of the biblical times was anything like that of its descendants,
then maybe they refused to disassociate themselves from pagan influences.
Maybe they had become complacent with their comfortable lifestyle
situated on the peaceful and beautiful Galilean hillside.
Or maybe, they were enslaved to Jewish traditionalism
and willingly rejected the real essence of a Messianic kingdom
that elevated the poor instead of the prominent.
Whatever the reasons, their condemnation by Jesus
and the ultimate demise of this community resulted because of their disobedience.
Perhaps a hard pill to swallow for some, but sometimes the connections between faith and fact
found here in the land of the Bible surprise us.
And they certainly can present us with some uncomfortable, yet undeniable truths.