Sepphoris – Tzippori, a few hours’ walk from Nazareth, was a prosperous town in Jesus’ day that would become known as the “ornament of all Galilee.” Today, it is a national park where fascinating ruins enrich your understanding of New Testament times.
Joanna, a follower of Jesus and the wife of Cuza (Luke 8:3), may have hailed from Sepphoris, the regional capital of Herod Antipas, whose steward Cuza was.
Considering the town was under construction when Jesus was growing up, and Joseph’s profession, according to the Greek, was actually “builder,” some say Joseph, and even Jesus himself, could have worked here. A reconstructed villa with its gorgeous “Mona Lisa of Galilee” mosaic, a theater, market streets and other finds showcase daily life in Roman times.
At Sepphoris, where the biblical commentary known as the Mishnah was codified in the third century, Christian visitors are also fascinated by the scriptural symbols of its sixth-century synagogue mosaic, which tell a story of faith and redemption.
Sepphoris, Diocesaraea (Ancient Greek Διοκαισάρεια) and Saffuriya (Arabic: صفورية, also transliterated Safurriya and Suffurriye) is located in the central Galilee region, 6 kilometers (3.7 mi) north-northwest of Nazareth, in Israel. The site holds a rich and diverse historical and architectural legacy that includes Assyrian, Hellenistic, Judean, Babylonian, Roman, Byzantine, Islamic, Crusader, Arabic and Ottoman influences.
Interest on the part of Biblical archaeologists is related to the belief in Christian tradition that the parents of the Virgin Mary, Anna and Joachim, were natives of Tzippori, at the time a Hellenized town. Notable structures at the site include a Roman theater, two early Christian churches, a Crusader fortress that was renovated by Daher El-Omar in the 18th century, and upwards of forty different mosaics.
Tzippori once served as a center of Jewish religious and spiritual life in the Galilee; remains of a 6th-century synagogue have been uncovered in the lower section of the site. In the 7th century, the town came under the rule of the Arab caliphates like much of the rest of Palestine. Successive Arab and Islamic imperial authorities ruled the area until the end of the first World War I, with a brief interruption during the Crusades.
Recommended for Christian and non-Christian tours in Israel.
Tourism
Archaeological sites in the National Park
The history of Tzippori as presented in the modern day national park covers the periods up to Roman and Byzantine rule, with a brief mention of the Crusades. The period of rule under the Arab caliphates, Ottoman Empire and the rest of the modern history of the site is not mentioned at all.
The Crusader/Ottoman tower sits high atop the hill, overlooking both the Roman theater, the majority of the Jewish city and the destroyed Palestinian village. It was built in the 12th century, on the foundation of an earlier Byzantine structure. The tower is built as a large square, 15m x15m, and approximately 10 m. high. The lower part of the walls are built of reused antique spolia, including a sarcophagus with decorative carvings. The upper part of the tower and the doorway were constructed by Zahir al-Umar in the 18th century. Noticeable features from the rebuilding are the rounded corners which are similar to those constructed under Daher in the fort in Shefa-‘Amr. The upper part of the building was converted for use as a school during the reign of Abd al-Hamid II in the early 1900s (decade), and used for this purpose until 1948.
Much of the town itself has been excavated, revealing Jewish homes along a main cobblestone street. Several images have been found carved into the stones of the street, including that of a menorah, and another image that resembles some ancient game reminiscent of tic-tac-toe. Mikva’ot (pl. of Mikvah ), or Jewish ritual baths, have been found as well, identified by the steps leading to the bottom, carved out of the earth along with the rest of the bath. The Roman theater sits on the northern slope of the hill, and is about 45 m in diameter, seating 4500. Most of it is carved into the hillside, but some parts are supported by separate stone pillars. The theater shows evidence of ancient damage, probably from the earthquake in 363, but also quite possibly from the Arab conquest.
A modern structure stands to one side of the excavations, protecting the remains of a 5th-century public building, with a large and intricate mosaic floor. Some believe the room was used for festival rituals involving a celebration of water, and possibly covering the floor in water. Drainage channels have been found in the floor, and the majority of the mosaic seems devoted to measuring the floods of the Nile, and celebrations of those floods.
Finally, a Roman villa is arguably the centerpiece of the discoveries, containing one of the most famous mosaics in all of Israel. It was built around the year 200, and destroyed in the earthquake in 363. The villa is in the traditional form of a triclinium; seats would have been arranged in a U-shape around the mosaic, Roman villa mosaic floor and people would have reclined while dining and drinking, talking and contemplating the mosaic images. The mosaic, for the most part, is devoted to Dionysus, god of wine, and of socializing. He is seen along with Pan and Hercules in several of the 15 panels.
The centerpiece of the mosaic floor, however, at least for the archaeologists, is an image of a young lady, possibly meant to be Venus, which the researchers have dubbed “The Mona Lisa of the Galilee.” Smaller mosaic tesserae were used to allow for greater detail and a more lifelike result. The image is certainly more lifelike, and more detailed (as in the shading and blush of her cheeks) than most expect mosaics to be.
Synagogue
The remains of the ancient Tzippori Synagogue have been uncovered in the lower section of the city. It was built in the late 5th or early 6th century, at a time when the town’s Christian population was increasing and the strength of the Jewish population was diminishing. Measuring 20.7 meters by 8 meters wide, it was located at the edge of the town.
The mosaic floor is divided into seven parts. Near the entrance there is a scene showing the angels visiting Sarah. The next section shows the binding of Isaac. There is a large Zodiac with the names of the months written in Hebrew. Helios sits in the middle, in his sun chariot. The last section shows two lions flanking a wreath, their paws resting on the head of an ox.
The most interesting are the central sections of the mosaic. One shows the “tamid” sacrifice, the showbread, and the basket of first fruits form the Temple in Jerusalem. Also shown are a building facade, probably representing the Temple, incense shovels, shofars, and the seven-branched menorah from the Temple. Another section shows Aaron dressed in priestly robes preparing to offer sacrifices of oil, flour, a bull and a lamb.
An Aramaic inscription reads: May he be remembered for good Yudan son of Isaac the Priest and Paragri his daughter Amen Amen.
Early history
Although the date of the city’s founding is a point of some dispute, it is at least as old as the 7th century BCE, when it was fortified by the ancient Assyrians. It subsequently served as an administrative center in the region under Babylonian, Hellenistic and Persian rule.
In 104 BCE, the Hasmoneans settled there under the leadership of either Alexander Jannaeus or Aristobulus I. The city was called Tzippori and may have derived from the Hebrew word for ‘bird,’ tsippor, perhaps because of its bird’s-eye view the hilltop provides. The Hasmonean Kingdom was divided into five districts by the Roman pro-consul Gabinius, and Sepphoris came under the direct rule of the Romans in the year 37 BCE, when Herod the Great captured the city from Mattathaias Antigonus, reportedly at the height of a snowstorm.
Tzippori of the time of Jesus was a large, Roman-influenced city and a hotbed of political activism. Archaeological evidence give credence to the idea that Jesus, while living in Nazareth, would have done most of his business in Tzippori.
After Herod’s death in 4 BCE, the Jewish inhabitants of Tzippori rebelled against Roman rule and the Roman army moved in under the command of the Roman Governor in Syria, Varus. Completely destroying the city, the Roman army sold many of its inhabitants into slavery. Herod’s son, Herod Antipas was made Tetrarch, or governor, in 1 CE, and proclaimed the city’s new name to be Autocratis, or the “Ornament of the Galilee.” An ancient route linking Tzippori to Legio, and further south to Sebaste-Samaria, is believed to have been paved by the Romans around this time.
The inhabitants of Autocratis did not join the resistance against Roman rule in the Great Jewish Revolt of 66 CE. Rather, they signed a pact with the Roman army and opened the gates of the city to the Roman general Vespasian upon his arrival in 67 CEThey were rewarded for this allegiance by having their city spared from the destruction suffered by many other Jewish cities, including Jerusalem. Coins minted in the city at the time of the First Revolt carried the inscription Neronias and Eirenopolis, “City of Peace.” After the revolt, symbolism used on the coins was little different from other surrounding pagan city coins with depictions of laurel wreaths, palm trees, caduceuses, and ears of barley.
Just prior to the Bar Kokhba revolt, the city’s name was changed to Diocaesarea. Following the Bar Kokhba revolt in 132–135, many Jewish refugees settled there, turning it into the center of religious and spiritual life in the Galilee. Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi, one of the compilers of the Mishnah, a commentary on the Torah, moved to Tzippori, along with the Sanhedrin, the highest Jewish religious court. Before moving to Tiberias by 150, Jewish academies of learning, yeshivot, were also based there. Diocaeserea, so named in honor of Zeus and the Roman Emperor, became not only a center of spiritual and religious study, but also a busy metropolis of trade because of its proximity to important trade routes through Galilee.
Diocaesarea was destroyed by the Galilee earthquake of 363, but rebuilt soon afterwards, and retained its importance in the greater Jewish community of the Galilee, both socially, commercially, and spiritually. Jews and pagan Romans lived peacefully alongside one another during the Byzantine period, and the city welcomed a number of Christians as well.
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