FROM ACRE fO NAZARETH. 
log the form of this building; but bis account is avowedly de- 
rived from a survey of its ruins. Speaking of the city, he ex¬ 
presses himself to the following effect :* “ It now exhibits a scene 
of ruin and desolation, consisting only of peasants’ habitations, 
and sufficiently^manifests in its remains, the splendour of the 
ancient city. Considered as the native place of J oachim and 
Anna, the parents of the Virgin, it is renowned, and worthy of 
being visited. U pon the spot where the house of Joachim stood 
a conspicuous sanctuary, built with square stones, xvas after¬ 
ward erected. It had two rows of pillars, by which the vault 
of the triple nave was supported. At the upper end were three 
chapels; now appropriated to the dwellings of the (.drabs) 
Moors.” From the allusion here made to the nave and side 
aisles, it is evident Q^uaresmius believed its form to have been 
different from that of a Greek cross: yet the four arches of the 
center and the dome they originally supported rather denote 
ibis style of architecture. The date of its construction is in- 
cidently afforded by a passage in EpiphaniusJ in the account 
given by him of one Josephus , a native of Tiberias, who was 
authorized by Constantine to erect this and other edifices of a 
similar nature, irHhe Holy Land. Epiphanius relates, that he 
built the churches of Tiberias, Diocaesarea, and Capernaum; 
and Diocresarea w r as one of the names given to Sepphoris.;}— 
This happened toward the end of the life of Constantine; there¬ 
fore the church of Sepphoris was erected before the middle of 
the fourth century. “ There was,” says he,§ u among them one 
# “ JSTunc dirutaet desolata jacet, rusticanas dumtaxatcontinens domos, et multas 
objiciens oculis ruinas; quibus intelligitur quam eximia olim extiterit urbs. Celebris? 
est, et digna ut visitetur, quod credatwr patria Joachim et Anhge, sanctorum Dei 
•geuitricis parentum. Et in loco ubi Joachim domus erat fuitpostea illustris asdificata 
ecclesia ex quadratis lapidibu3:: quos habebat ordines columnarum,'quibus triplicis 
navis testudo fulciebatur •. in capite tres habebat capellas, in praesentia in Maur.prum 
domunculas accommodatas.” Quaresmii Elucid. Ten. Sand. lib. vif. cap. 5. tom. II. 
p. 852. 
f The testimony of Epiphanius concerning this country is the more valuable, as he 
was himself a native of Palaestine, and flourished so early as the fourth century. He 
was born at the village of Besanduc, in 320; lived with Hilarion and Hesy chins; was 
made bishop of Salamis (now Famagosta) in Cyprus, in '366; and died in 403, at the 
age of eighty, in returning from Constantinople where he had been to visit Chrysos¬ 
tom. 
As it appears in the writings of Socrates Eeelesiasticus and Sozomen. Vid . 
Sacral. Hist. xi. 33. Sozomen. Histor. lib. iv. c 7. 
§ v Hv 5t tis auTtov ’IcicrOTror, ou% o cro 77 pa(p 8 J, xai fcrr« 3 p 107 Potepos - , xai 7 ra\aios 
ixtivos, aAA’ 6 aith T?[3fptco5oy, 6 tvxpowis Toupiaxa^frou KcovcrravriVou rou BatriAtucraV" 
tos, rou 7 iOovtosvos xai 7rpos aurou rau (BacriA'ttos, df iw/jaTOS •Kom'/twi? Itux? xai *£s.cri«v 
sTXnepjv tv rrj aurp, TijStpiouSt txx.Vncnav Xpicrrcp idpucrai, xai tv Atoxaicrapti'a xai tv 
KaTrjpvaotjR, xai raft dHai s. “ Fuit ex iiloram numero Josephus quidam, non histo¬ 
ric ille scriptor antiquus, sed Tiberiadensis alter, qui beatee memorise Constantin! 
Senioris Iraperatoris ctate vixit: a quo etiam comitivam accepit, cum ea potestate 
nt cum in urbe ipsa Tiberladis, turn Diocesarese, Capharnaumi, ac vicinis allis in 
oppidis ecclesias in Christ! honofem extrueret.” Epiphanii Opera, Par, 3G2 2,(om, 
XI. lib. L Adv■ Haer. p. 128. 
