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Courtesy Israel Antiquities Authority

A modest dwelling recently excavated in the heart of modern Nazareth is the first residential structure from the time of Jesus to be discovered at the site. The building consists of two rooms and a courtyard and contained fragments of Early Roman pottery (first–second century C.E.) and stone vessels that were used by Jews because they didn’t become ritually unclean, as pottery vessels do. Freyne believes that Jesus was most likely born in the same small Galilee village of Nazareth where he grew up. His family may have had ties to Judea, however, and the gospel writers may have made Bethlehem in Judea the location of the nativity as a theological construct linking Jesus with the messianic line and house of David.