Ancient Chorazin Comes Back to Life

“Woe unto you, Chorazin!” So says Jesus of this town in the Galilee (Matthew 11:21; Luke 10:13).

Chorazin is one of several Galilean towns condemned because they did not repent:

“Woe to you, Chorazin! woe to you Beth-saida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it shall be more tolerable on the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You shall be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you it shall be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you” (Matthew 11:21–24).

Chorazin gets a better press in references to it in later rabbinic writings, from the third and perhaps fourth centuries. Then it is identified as one of the many “medium-size towns” in Palestine (Tosefta Makot, 3:8). Its characteristic features, as we shall describe them, are typical of these “medium-size towns.”