Chorazin
Chorazin (Hebrew: Korazim כורזים today: Khirbet Karazeh ) was a village in northern Galilee in Israel, has acted in Jesus of Nazareth. It was three kilometers north-west of Capernaum on a hill on the banks of the Sea of Galilee. In rabbinic texts, it is listed as a medium- sized village with around 1000 inhabitants ( tMak 3.8 ). It remains of a synagogue were found from the 3rd century.
Archeology
Chorazin is now a national archaeological park, an " archaeological ruins ". Extensive excavations and a survey were conducted in the years 1962-1964. Further excavations were carried out from 1980 to 1987. The archaeologists have been able to find any settlement, which would be dated to the early 1st century AD. In the 16th century there were Jewish fishermen in the village.
Most remnants are made of black basalt, a local volcanic rock. The main settlement dated to the 3rd and 4th century. Also a mikveh was found, a pool for ritual cleansing. A handful of millstones for grinding the olives and pressing out the olive oil create a connection with the olive growing as an economic basis close as was also the case for a number of other villages in ancient Galilee.
The remains of the city are scattered over an area of 100,000 square meters, which is divided into five separate districts, with a synagogue in the middle. The large and impressive black basalt synagogue is decorated with Jewish motifs. It is also located near a ritual bath, surrounded by public buildings and residential buildings.
The synagogue
The synagogue was built in the late 3rd century, destroyed in the 4th century and rebuilt in the 6th.
Unusually for an ancient synagogue, the two -dimensional lion sculptures representing a pair. A similar pair of lions found in the synagogue in the village Bar'am. Other stone carvings, which are believed that they were originally painted in color, show images from the wine presses, animals, a Medusa, an armed soldier and an eagle.
An " other synagogue "?
1926 reported the archaeologist J. Ory, you have a second synagogue about 200 meters west of the first found. He described it very carefully. However, such a building would need to be found even by excavations.
Chorazin in the Bible and in the Talmud
Chorazin ( Χοραζίν ) is mentioned along with Bethsaida and Capernaum in the New Testament, in the Gospels of Matthew 11:20-24 Mt LUTH and slightly shorter of Luke Luke 10:13-15 LUTH as " cities " ( πόλεις ) in which Jesus great deeds accomplished, whose population then not nevertheless reversed ( according to Matthew ):
" 20 Then Jesus began to denounce the cities in which most of his mighty works were done; because they did not repent: 21 Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty done in Tyre and Sidon, as they were done in you, they had long ago done penance in sackcloth and ashes. 22 But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. "
Due to the condemnation of Jesus believed some early medieval authors, the Antichrist would be born in Chorazin.
The Babylonian Talmud mentions ( Menahot, 85a ) that the city of Chorazin was known for their grain.