Nazareth

From Tiberias westward to Cana and then to Nazareth--about an hour's drive.  The area is inhabited mostly by Arabs today.  First, past the site of one of the last stands of the Crusaders.  They had a fortified height.  Attacked by mobbish Bedouins in July.  All they had to do was stay in their castle and ride it out.  Instead, they went out in full armor, on horseback, as knights do.

Except with the heat, it didn't take long for the horses to dehydrate and falter.  That left armored knights on foot, in the heat.  The battle was lost as was the fortification and the Crusaders (those left alive) were no longer a factor in the history of this land. 

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Nazareth is a modern city, with probable/possible spots for the Annunciation, Joseph's home, and so on.

We didn't go to those churches.  Instead, we drove to the parking lot of a Super Target and climbed through a back fence, and walked up a hill to a tiny church:  The Lady of the Fright.

 Lady of the Fright?   That's an unusual church name!  But this is probably the hill where Jesus was taken to be "cast down", after he had read in the synagogue and the people were upset with him.

(And Mary, his mother, would definitely have been frightened.)

 The top of the hill leads to old quarries--the typical place for an execution, particularly for blasphemy.

"Stoning" goes a little differently than I had always supposed.  Instead of a crowd all throwing rocks at the accused (which seemed to me like a slow and painful way to die) that person is pushed off the edge of a cliff by one of the witnesses of his crime. The other witness then checks to see if he died in the fall, and if he hasn't, uses a large stone to either crush the chest or the head.  Death is very quick.

Finally, the body is covered in stones, for burial.  

Since the witnesses have to participate, that guards against frivolous charges!

Another note about Nazareth.  The village's major occupation throughout history has been stone work, as they had good quarries.  The people were nicknamed "rock warriors".   The word "carpenter" in the King James Version, means "craftsman, or home builder".  

In Europe, a home builder used wood.  In Nazareth, they use stone.

Thus, it was likely that instead of being a carpenter, Jesus grew up working with stone.

And maybe that's why there are references to Christ as "the stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner..." or, "the stone cut without hands..."

 From another hilltop in Nazareth, we looked at Mt. Tabor, the site some believe was the Mount of Transfiguration.  That was confirmed by President Kimball during a visit there.

Jesus, with Peter, James and John was there for the Feast of the Tabernacles--

when Israelites believed Moses and Elijah would return.

And they did!  That's why Peter said, "This is good!"  

 On the same hilltop, but looking southwest instead of southeast.

Overlooking the Jezreel Valley, sometimes called Armeggedon.

Lilies of the field.  I thought they were "just" wild poppies, but no,

these are the real thing.  And they were blooming everywhere because it is spring.