Endnote 2 – O Little Town of…Nazareth?

In the ancient Mediterranean, one’s ancestry was public business. Membership in the aristocracy was a condition of success in many spheres. City or town of origin was considered important, even if one had long since moved from the family home and birthplace. Unprecedented numbers of people traveled on the long Roman roads and relatively safe Roman seas; nevertheless, men from the eastern Mediterranean, who lacked the traditional three Roman names, were usually known as “X of Y,” where Y was the ancestral home (Greek, patris or oikos)—Justus of Tiberias, Ptolemy of Ascalon, Nicolas of Damascus and so on. Even villages could be important for identifying someone. In discussing events in Galilee, Josephus distinguishes those whose ancestry was in a particular town from those who were merely living there but had their family heritage elsewhere (Josephus, Life 16.126,142,162). For everyday purposes, Judea and Galilee were much like other Mediterranean locales in this respect.