Synagogue Church (Nazareth)
Christian Church in Nazareth, Israel
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Synagogue Church (Hebrew: כְּנֵסִיַּת בֵּית הַכְּנֶסֶת) is a small Christian church in the heart of Nazareth, Israel, known by this name due to a tradition claiming that it is the location where the village synagogue stood in Jesus' time. Above its doorway is an embedded sign in Arabic and English: "Synagogue". The tradition is doubted by archaeologists.[citation needed]
The structure is administered by the Melkite Greek Catholic Church.[citation needed]
History
In 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.[citation needed]
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.[citation needed] In 1887, the Melkite Greek Catholic parish church of the Annunciation was built adjacent to the Synagogue Church.[citation needed]