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Chorazin ( gr, Χοραζίν ; also Chorazain) or Korazim ( he, כורזים; also Chorizim) was an ancient village in the Roman and Byzantine periods, best known from the Christian
Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...
s. It stood on the
Korazim Plateau The Korazim Plateau ( he, רמת כורזים, ''Ramat Korazim'', also spelled Corazim), is a volcanic plateau, located in northern Israel. The plateau is bounded between by the Hula Valley in the north, Sea of Galilee in the south, the mountains ...
in the
Upper Galilee The Upper Galilee ( he, הגליל העליון, ''HaGalil Ha'Elyon''; ar, الجليل الأعلى, ''Al Jaleel Al A'alaa'') is a geographical-political term in use since the end of the Second Temple period. It originally referred to a mounta ...
on a hill above the northern shore of the
Sea of Galilee The Sea of Galilee ( he, יָם כִּנֶּרֶת, Judeo-Aramaic: יַמּא דטבריא, גִּנֵּיסַר, ar, بحيرة طبريا), also called Lake Tiberias, Kinneret or Kinnereth, is a freshwater lake in Israel. It is the lowest ...
, from Capernaum in what is now the territory of modern
Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
. Khirbat Karraza (also Karraza, Kh. Karazeh, Kerazeh) was a Palestinian village established at the site of the ancient village and depopulated during the
1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine The 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine was the first phase of the 1947–1949 Palestine war. It broke out after the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a resolution on 29 November 1947 recommending the adoption of the Pa ...
on May 4, 1948, by the Palmach's First Battalion during
Operation Yiftach Operation Yiftach ( he, מבצע יפתח, ''Mivtza Yiftah'') was a Palmach offensive carried out between 28 April and 23 May 1948. The objectives were to capture Safed and to secure the eastern Galilee before the British Mandate ended on 14 May ...
. It was located 8.5 km southeast of Safad. The nearby Israeli town of Korazim is named for this location.


History

Two settlement phases have been proposed based on coin and pottery findings. The town was partially destroyed in the 4th century, possibly as a result of an earthquake.Stemberger, 2000, p
141-142
/ref> The settlement of Khirbat Karraza subsequently developed on the site. During Ottoman control, Khirbat Karraza was populated by the Zanghariyya Bedouin tribe and the village contained a shrine for a local Muslim saint, al-Shaykh Ramadan. The villagers used to store grain close to the shrine, certain that nobody would steal it and thereby violate the sanctity of the shrine. The Palestinian historian
Walid Khalidi Walid Khalidi ( ar, وليد خالدي, born 1925 in Jerusalem) is an Oxford University-educated Palestinian historian who has written extensively on the Palestinian exodus. He is a co-founder of the Institute for Palestine Studies, establish ...
described the site in 1992: "Some village houses still stand, together with the remains of other houses. One of the old houses has been renovated. Also remaining is the tomb of Shaykh Ramadan, around which the village shrine had been built. The tomb is collapsing and the building in which it was housed no longer exists. It is surrounded by large carob trees."Khalidi, 1992, p. 462


Archaeological excavations

Extensive excavations and a survey were carried out in 1962–1964. Excavations at the site were resumed in 1980–1987. In 2004, a small-scale salvage excavation was conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority along the route of an ancient road north of Moshav
Amnun Amnun ( he, אַמְנוּן) is a workers' moshav in the Upper Galilee in northern Israel. Located on the Korazim Plateau, it belongs to the Mevo'ot HaHermon Regional Council and HaOved HaTzioni, a part of Hanoar Hatzioni. It is located in the Kor ...
. In the literature, the road is referred to as "the way through Korazim." It crossed the Chorazin plateau from west to east, branching off from the main Cairo–Damascus road that ran northeast toward
Daughters of Jacob Bridge Daughters of Jacob Bridge ( he, גשר בנות יעקב, ''Gesher Bnot Ya'akov''; ar, جسر بنات يعقوب, ''Jisr Benat Ya'kub''). is a bridge that spans the last natural ford of the Jordan at the southern end of the Hula Basin between ...
. The main settlement dates to the 3rd and 4th centuries. The majority of the structures found were made from
basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90 ...
, a black volcanic rock found locally. The town's ruins are spread over an area of , subdivided into five separate quarters, with a
synagogue A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of wor ...
in the centre. Close by is a ritual bath (
mikvah Mikveh or mikvah (,  ''mikva'ot'', ''mikvoth'', ''mikvot'', or (Yiddish) ''mikves'', lit., "a collection") is a bath used for the purpose of ritual immersion in Judaism to achieve ritual purity. Most forms of ritual impurity can be purif ...
), surrounded by public and residential buildings. The handful of olive
millstone Millstones or mill stones are stones used in gristmills, for grinding wheat or other grains. They are sometimes referred to as grindstones or grinding stones. Millstones come in pairs: a wikt:convex, convex stationary base known as the ''be ...
s used in
olive oil extraction Olive oil extraction is the process of extracting the oil present in olive drupes, known as olive oil. Olive oil is produced in the mesocarp cells, and stored in a particular type of vacuole called a lipo vacuole, i.e., every cell contai ...
found suggest a reliance on the olive for economic purposes, like a number of other villages in ancient Galilee.


Synagogue

A
synagogue A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of wor ...
whose ruins are still visible today was built in the late 3rd century, destroyed in the 4th century, and rebuilt in the 6th century. The large, impressive synagogue which was built of basalt stones and decorated with Jewish motifs is the most striking of the surviving structures. An unusual feature in an ancient synagogue is the presence of three-dimensional sculpture, a pair of stone lions. A similar pair of three-dimensional lions was found in the synagogue at
Kfar Bar'am Kafr Bir'im, also Kefr Berem ( ar, كفر برعم, he, כְּפַר בִּרְעָם), was a former village in Mandatory Palestine, located in modern-day northern Israel, south of the Lebanese border and northwest of Safed. The village was s ...
. p.190 Other carvings, which are thought to have originally been brightly painted, feature images of wine-making, animals, a Medusa, an armed soldier, and an eagle. p.92 In 1926, archaeologists discovered a "Seat of Moses," carved from a basalt block. According to the New Testament, this is where the reader of the Torah sat to deliver his message to the congregation (). :Second synagogue? Jacob Ory, who excavated the site in 1926 on behalf of the British Mandate Department of Antiquities, wrote about a second synagogue ca. 200 m west of the first one, and he described it in detail. Later excavations, however, have not been able to find the remains noted by him.


Appearance in religious texts


New Testament

Chorazin, along with
Bethsaida Bethsaida (; from gr, Βηθσαϊδά from Hebrew/ Aramaic ''beth-tsaida'', lit. " house of hunting" from the Hebrew root ; ar, بيت صيدا), also known as Julias, is a place mentioned in the New Testament. Julias lay in an administrative ...
and Capernaum, was named in the
Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι� ...
gospels of
Matthew Matthew may refer to: * Matthew (given name) * Matthew (surname) * ''Matthew'' (ship), the replica of the ship sailed by John Cabot in 1497 * ''Matthew'' (album), a 2000 album by rapper Kool Keith * Matthew (elm cultivar), a cultivar of the Chi ...
and Luke as cities in which
Jesus of Nazareth Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religiou ...
performed his mission. However, because these towns seemingly rejected his message ("they had not changed their ways"), they were subsequently cursed (
Matthew 11 Matthew 11 is the eleventh chapter in the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament section of the Christian Bible. It continues the narrative about Jesus' ministry in Galilee. Text The original text was written in Koine Greek. This chapter is d ...
:20-24; Luke 10:13-15). Due to this condemnation, the influential but non-canonical Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius predicted that the
Antichrist In Christian eschatology, the Antichrist refers to people prophesied by the Bible to oppose Jesus Christ and substitute themselves in Christ's place before the Second Coming. The term Antichrist (including one plural form)1 John ; . 2 John . ...
would be conceived in Chorazin.


Babylonian Talmud

The
Babylonian Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cent ...
(redacted until c. 475) mentions that Chorazin was a town specifically known for its grain (Menahot, 85a).


Identification


Doubts

The English theologian
John Lightfoot John Lightfoot (29 March 1602 – 6 December 1675) was an English churchman, rabbinical scholar, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge and Master of St Catharine's College, Cambridge. Life He was born in Stoke-on-Trent, the son of T ...
writing in the 17th century suggested that Chorazin might have referred to a wider area around Cana in Galilee, rather than a single city/village: :''What if, under this name, Cana be concluded, and some small country adjacent, which, from its situation in a wood, might be named "Chorazin", that is, 'the woody country'? Cana is famous for the frequent presence and miracles of Christ. But away with conjecture, when it grows too bold.''Lightfoot, J.
A Commentary on the New Testament From the Talmud and Hebraica: Matthew
accessed 6 January 2017
In his '' Biblical Researches in Palestine'' in the mid-nineteenth century, Edward Robinson visited Khirbat Karraza, but concluded it was not the Biblical Chorazin, because the ruins were not significant enough and the site was not near the shore of the
Sea of Galilee The Sea of Galilee ( he, יָם כִּנֶּרֶת, Judeo-Aramaic: יַמּא דטבריא, גִּנֵּיסַר, ar, بحيرة طبريا), also called Lake Tiberias, Kinneret or Kinnereth, is a freshwater lake in Israel. It is the lowest ...
, as stated by
Jerome Jerome (; la, Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος Σωφρόνιος Ἱερώνυμος; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was a Christian priest, confessor, theologian, and historian; he is co ...
(''Lacum Genesareth, in cujus litore Capernaum et Tiberias et Bethsaida et Chorozaim sitæ sint''):
The ruins we had been told of lie on the west side of this same valley, a quarter of a mile southwest, near its entrance into the main Wady. They consist simply of a few foundations of black stones ; the remains evidently of a poor and inconsiderable village. They are known as Khirbet Kerâzeh. We did not go to them, as there was no path; and because they were in full view. Their distance from Tell Hùm must be reckoned at about three miles. We had come to this spot, because the name Kerázeh bears a degree of resemblance to the Chorazin of the New Testament; and we hoped to find, in the ruins or the situation, something which might determine the position of that ancient place. In this we felt ourselves disappointed. The remains are too trivial to have ever belonged to a place of any importance. Chorazin, too, according to Jerome, lay upon the shore of the lake; but this site is an hour distant. shut in among the hills, without any view of the lake, and remote from any public road whether ancient or modern.


In popular culture

The writer
M.R. James Montague Rhodes James (1 August 1862 – 12 June 1936) was an English author, medievalist scholar and provost of King's College, Cambridge (1905–1918), and of Eton College (1918–1936). He was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridg ...
mentions "Chorazin" as a place of ill-repute and a location on "the black pilgrimage", in his 1904 ghost story, "
Count Magnus "Count Magnus" is a ghost story by British writer M. R. James, first published in 1904. It was included in his first collection '' Ghost Stories of an Antiquary''. Plot A traveller in Sweden stumbles upon the history of a mysterious and ominou ...
".


See also

* Ancient synagogues in the Palestine region ** Ancient synagogues in Israel * Archaeology of Israel *
Jesus trail The Jesus Trail ( he, שביל ישו, ''Sh'víl Yeshú'') is a hiking and pilgrimage route in the Galilee region of Israel that traces the route Jesus may have walked, connecting many sites from his life and ministry. The main part of the ...
* National parks of Israel *
Oldest synagogues in the world Historic synagogues include synagogues that date back to ancient times and synagogues that represent the earliest Jewish presence in cities around the world. Some synagogues were destroyed and rebuilt several times on the same site. Others we ...
* Woes to the unrepentant cities, pronounced by Jesus and which included Chorazin Former and current villages inhabited by the Zanghariyya Bedouin tribe: * Al-Zanghariyya *
Tuba-Zangariyye Tuba-Zangariyye or Tuba az-Zanghariyya ( ar, طوبه زنغرية, he, טוּבָּא-זַנְגָרִיָה) is a Bedouin town in the Northern District of Israel. Located in the Korazim Plateau, it achieved local council status in 1988. It wa ...


References


Bibliography

* * * * Z. Yeivin, ''The Synagogue at Korazim; The 1962 - 1964, 1980 - 1987 Excavations,'' Israel Antiquities Authority Reports, Israel Antiquities Authority, 2000. * ''New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land'' vols. 1–5. Ed. E. Stern; Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society and Carta (1993-2008).


External links


Welcome To Khirbat Karraza Khirbat Karraza
Zochrot
Karraza
at Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center
Chorazin—Sitting in the Seat but Missing the Message
from waynestiles.com
Strong's G5523Pictures of Chorazin
from a Jewish tourism site

University of Notre Dame, New Testament Professor David E. Aune
Ancient Chorazin Comes Back to Life
by Ze’ev Yeivin of the Biblical Archaeology Society. {{New Testament places associated with Jesus Archaeological sites in Israel Gospel of Matthew Gospel of Luke New Testament places Populated places established in the 3rd century Former populated places in Israel Roman sites in Israel Ancient synagogues in the Land of Israel 3rd-century establishments in the Roman Empire Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War District of Safad Sea of Galilee Upper Galilee