Mount Precipice (Hebrew: “Har HaKfitsa”; Arabic: “Jebel al-Qafzeh”, “Mount of the Leap”), also known as Mount of Precipitation, Mount of the Leap of the Lord, and Mount Kedumim – is a mountain that is located in the south of the city of Nazareth, just 2 kilometers from the modern city center, overlooking the Jezreel Valley, Mount Tabor, the Sea of Galilee and the Golan Heights.
The mountain rises 397 meters above sea level and received its informal name due to the belief it was the location of the rejection of Jesus, as described in the Gospel of Luke, describing how Jesus jumped from the mountain to the valley below.
Archaeological excavations in the Qafzeh Cave in the mountain found human remains, whose estimated age is 100,000 years old. This is one of the earliest examples in the world of humans with modern anatomy. Excavations at the site were conducted in 1933 and with breaks between 1965 and 1979. Human and animal bones were both discovered at the site, indicating that the cave was used both as a residence and as a burial site.
The findings included 13 complete skeletons, six of which belonged to adults and the rest to children. Five humans were neatly buried in the cave ground, and two of them were buried for some reason with deer antlers. It was associated with red ochre which was found only alongside the bones, suggesting that the burials were symbolic in nature. Previous to this discovery, scientists believed that human symbolic reasoning evolved much later, about 50,000 years ago.
Mount Precipice and the Rejection of Jesus
In the New Testament, it is said that Jesus angered the worshipers of the synagogue in Nazareth when he hinted that he was the Messiah. The location where the village synagogue stood in Jesus’ time is traditionally identified with the Synagogue Church – a small Christian church in the heart of Nazareth. Above its doorway is an embedded sign in Arabic and English saying: “Synagogue”.
According to Christian tradition, the ancient Nazareth synagogue is where Jesus studied and prayed. In addition, it is where one Sabbath day Jesus went to preach. In two Gospels (Matthew 13:54-58, Mark 6:1-6), his fellow townspeople became angry with him. Because he was one of them, they did not trust him to have the authority to preach in that way and to perform miracles. Amazed at the community’s lack of belief in him, Jesus observes that “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.”
In Luke 4:14-30, the account differs: there, Jesus reads from Isaiah 61:1,2 and the worshippers are pleased. But then, he tells them that “no prophet is accepted in his hometown”. In doing so, he implicitly declares himself as the Messiah. This sermon infuriates the listeners, who drag him to a cliff on Mount Precipice to throw him over, but he simply walks through the crowd and leaves: “he passed through the midst of them and went away.”
This tradition that Jesus jumped from the mountain to the valley is no longer accepted, both because of the distance of the mountain from the historic center of the city and because the sources do not hint at it. After those events, Jesus continued his work closer to the Sea of Galilee, in a place where a Byzantine monastery was, on the lower slopes of the mountain.
Mount Precipice Today
On the mountain north of Mount Precipice, on the other side of Route 60, are the remains of another 19th-century church known as the “Church of the Bishop’s Palace.”
According to tradition, the Virgin Marry hurried after Jesus and the crowd, but when she reached the Mount of Precipitation she was struck with fear. This place was identified as Tel Deir al-Banat (Women’s Monastery Hill), about a kilometer and a half northwest of Mount Precipice (across Highway 75), also known as “Fear Mountain.” A Greek Orthodox church was erected on the hill to commemorate the event. In 1876 a Franciscan church was added to it, but today it is abandoned, and the monastery of “St. Claire” is using it, in it a chapel dedicated to Mary’s fear, “Our Lady of the fright” (Notre-Dame de la frayeur).
On 14 May 2009, Pope Benedict XVI celebrated a Mass on this mountain, during his visit to the Holy Land. 40,000 people participated, in a new outdoor amphitheater that was constructed to support the event.
View From the Top
Putting the historic and religious values of the mountain aside, a visit to the top of it is worth it even just for the fantastic view.
To the east, is an amazing view of the Jezreel Valley, Mount Tabor, and more, and to the south is the city of Afula. The west side of the hill faces the old city of Nazareth, and a vantage point just below the peak of the mountain allows for a lovely panoramic view.
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