[This resource contains footage gathered during Church of the Resurrection tours of the Holy Land and used as sermon support and illustrations. These are made available for others to use for sermons, studies or other illustrative purposes. Please note that the soundtrack has not been removed from these clips, so you’ll want to mute the background noise and other sounds that are present.]

Nazareth was a small village in the time of Jesus, living in the shadow of the city of Sepphoris. However, being the place where Jesus grew up has made Nazareth a thriving town while Sepphoris is an archeological ruin.

The Church of the Annunciation, also known as the Basilica of the Annunciation, stands over the cave which tradition holds to be the home of the Virgin Mary and where the archangel Gabriel told the young Mary that she would become the mother of the Son of God. When construction was completed in 1969, this became the largest Christian church in the Middle East.

Sepphoris was the affluent community known in the first century as “the Jewell of the Galilee.” According to tradition, it is where Jesus’ maternal grandparents, Anne and Joachim, lived and where his mother, Mary, was born. Joseph and Mary may also have worked in Sepphoris as Jesus was growing up.