Luke 4:29 - the brow of the hill - mount of Precipitation - implausible, strange, puzzle (Sepphoris lacuna, Nazareth down Capernaum, Jesus corridor)

Steven Avery

Administrator
Luke 4:29 (AV)
And rose up, and thrust him out of the city,
and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built,
that they might cast him down headlong.


This is the first clear scripture verse that simply does not line up with modern Nazareth being the Bible city.

There is no synagogue by a steep hill, and there is no steep hill that really qualifies.
There are all sorts of hills that have been called the "Cliff of Precipitation".


"The present-day inhabitants of Nazareth can, of course, point out the "precipice.” On the spot, it is not very convincing."
Jesus (1935)
Charles Guignebert
https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.217154#page/n102/mode/1up
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Errancy Wiki
https://web.archive.org/web/20240225021230/http://www.errancywiki.com/index.php?title=Luke_4:29


Go ye forth unto the land of Google.com, in the country of Earth therein, that be at: http://earth.google.com, and download unto the the tablet of code that be called “Google Earth.” Installeth thee that tablet of code into thine computer which hath the Windows of the Firmament of Redmond, then causeth thou it to run. Thou shalt check the “Terrain” checkbox, that the hills might be plainly visible. Setteth thee the Options that the Terrain Exaggeration be set unto one, not unto three nor two nor any other number, that thou mayest see the hills as they do actually be.

Firstly searcheth thou for “San Francisco, CA”, and tilteth thou the angle of the camera, and rotate it round about, that thou might plainly see that the Tablet of the Earth of Google canst indeed show unto thee such hills as do truly exist.

Now pointeth thou the tablet of code towards “Nazareth, Israel”, and likewise tilteth thou the angle of the camera, and rotate it round about, that thou shalt see all the hills that be within and nearby Nazareth. Rememberest thou that Luke sayest of the hill that it hath a brow tall and steep enough that they that liveth there didst honestly believe that any man hurled therefrom wouldst surely die. Rememberest also that Luke sayest that, while they didst take Him outside the city, of the hill he didst say, “upon which their city was built.” This meaneth that at least part of the hill must needs lie within the ancient city limits of Nazareth.

And yet, seest thou any such hill, even within the much larger modern city limits which completely containeth the ancient? Nay, no such hill canst be found, neither in the Earth of Google, nor in any topographic maps available from any source, nor even in the aereal photographs of Nazareth that canst be found in the flyers and brochures made by the merchants of Bible tours sold to they who follow Christ, that they mayest Walk Where Jesus Walked (for a price of many shekels)! Surely, they that selleth such tours wouldst have reason to show such a hill, if indeed such a hill existed. And yet, none such hill hath ever been found, even though hundreds of learned and wise men hath searched for many centuries.


From A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to St. Luke by Alfred Plummer located here [2]

29. Tradition makes the scene of this attempt to be a precipice, varying from 80 to 300 feet in height, which exists some distance off to the S.E. of the town ; and we read that " they cast Him out of the town and led Him as far as the brow," etc. But modern writers think that a much smaller precipice close at hand is the spot. Van der Velde conjectures that it has crumbled away ; Conder, that it is hidden under some of the houses. Stanley says that Nazareth " is built ' upon,1 that is, on the side of, 'a mountain' ; but the 'brow' is not beneath, but over the town, and such a cliff as is here implied is to be found, as all modern travellers describe, in the abrupt face of the limestone rock, about 30 or 40 feet high, overhanging the Maronite Convent at the S.W. comer of the town"...Both AV. and RV. have "the brow of the hill whereon," which might easily be misunderstood. The town is on the hill, but not on the brow of it: the brow above the modern village.

International Critical Commentary
https://books.google.com/books?id=SGw4AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA129
Best


80 to 300 feet in height, which exists some distance off to the S.E. of the town ; and we read that " they cast Him out of the town and led Him as far as the brow," etc. But modern writers think that a much smaller precipice close at hand is the spot.

Van der Velde conjectures that it has crumbled away ;

Conder, that it is hidden under some of the houses.

Stanley says that Nazareth " is built ' upon,1 that is, on the side of, 'a mountain' ;
but the 'brow' is not beneath, but over the town, and such a cliff as is here implied is to be found, as all modern travellers describe, in the abrupt face of the limestone rock, about 30 or 40 feet high, overhanging the Maronite Convent at the S.W. comer of the town" (Sin. & Pal. p. 367).

So also
Robinson (Res. in Psa_2. PP. 325, 330),

Hacket (D.B. ii. P. 470), and

Schulz in Herzog Proverbs 2:10. P. 447).

The ἐφʼ οὖ, of course, refers to τοῦ ὄρους not to ὀφρύος Both AV. and RV., have “the brow of the hill whereon,” which might easily be misunderstood. The town is on the hill, but not on the brow of it: the brow is above the modern village. Nowhere else in N.T. does ὀφρύς occur. Comp. Hom. il xx. 151; and ὀφρυόεις, Il. xxii. 411, and Hdt. v. 92. 10, with other instances in Wetst. Supercilium is similarly used: Virg. Georg. i. 108; Liv. xxvii. 18, xxxiv. 29


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It was the fact that the New Testament does not line up with the purported Nazareth that led Kevin Kluetz to look for the real Nazareth.
 
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Steven Avery

Administrator
Rami Mansour
about 4 years ago
https://eriknmanning.medium.com/did-the-author-of-luke-make-a-geographical-blunder-in-luke-4-29-41d1bedf79ab

Very interesting insights. I am a Christian living in Nazareth, and this question has been bothering me for a while. While everyone seems sure about mount precipice as the cliff, for me it seems a bit too far away from the old city where the synagogue is. It is about a 40-minutes walk. Anyhow, I think there is another detail you didn't mention, the fact that right after this passage, it says Jesus went down to Capernaum, which is north-east of Nazareth, making mount precipice a more logical answer rather than the location of the Maronite Church which is in the exact opposite (west of Nazareth).
 

Steven Avery

Administrator
Robert A. Stein
Luke: An Exegetical and Theological Exposition of Holy Scripture (1993)
https://books.google.com/books?id=Rzq5AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA159

Excellent

Took him to the brow of the hill. It is difficult to know exactly what Luke meant in that Nazareth is built on a slope and no clear “brow” or cliff is nearby. He may have been less concerned here with the topography than with a desire to allude specifically to the

martyrdoms of Stephen (Acts 7:58) and

possibly James (cf. Eusebius, Eccl. Hist. 2.23.11-18) or in general to

the customary practice of throwing a person down from a height before stoning
(cf. John 8:59; Acts 7:54-60; Sanh 43a, 45a).

John 8:59 (KJV) Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.

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Steven Avery

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The Lion (1829)
Richard Carlisle
https://books.google.com/books?id=i19DAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA624

He had behaved himself in such an offensive manner, and had preached such damnable balderdash about the heavens being shut up for three years and six months, and every body being starved to death, that "all they of the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath," as well they might be," and rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong."-Luke iv. 29. Only the city of Nazareth does not happen to be built on the brow of a hill at all, but is situate in the valley of Nazareth, at the bottom by of a mountain.
 
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Steven Avery

Administrator
Life of Ch
Farrar

“The hill-side may have been far more steep and precipitous two thousand years ago”


ty was built, that they might cast him down headlong

========
Testimony of the Ages
Or, Confirmations of the Scriptures, from Modern Science and Recent Discoveries; Ancient Records and Monuments; the Ruins of Cities and Relics of Tombs ...
By Herbert William Morris, Enoch Fitch Burr · 1883

DR. F. W. FARRAR.—The little town of Nazareth nestles in the southern hollows of that hill; many a mass of precipitous rock lies imbedded in its slopes, and it is probable that the hill-side may have been far more steep and precipitous two thousand years ago. To one of these rocky escarpments they dragged Him, in order to fling Him headlong down. It may have been the cliff above the Maronite church, which is about forty feet high. When I was at Nazareth, my horse was hurt, and might easily have been killed, by sliding down a huge mass of rock on the hill-side.—Life of Christ, I., p. 227.
 
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Steven Avery

Administrator
Titus Kennedy 2022 · ‎
... Nazareth from which the people could have attempted to throw Jesus. Luke specifically calls this geographical feature a brow, crag, overhang, projection, or rim of a hill (Luke 4:29). Therefore, it was a hill with some type of steep ...
 

Steven Avery

Administrator
 
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