vsop44

Among the many books about religion and Christianity ( both pro and anti ) that I have read , 2 of them mentionned that the town of Nazareth did not exist during Jesus ' time on earth . One mentions that the town was a settlement late in the 1st century A.D. and another gives an early 3rd century date for Nazareth to appear on a map .
A little googling confirmed what I had doubted for a while .

http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/nazareth.html
http://www.thenazareneway.com/nazarene_or_nazareth.htm

So the NT writers wants us to believe the story of a man who grew up in a city that did not yet exist, where his mother was visited by an angel named Gabriel and his "father" had a carpentry shop there and taught the young Jesus his trade . If I want fiction I can read Harry Potter or the star war epics.
And some people are going to Nazareth by the busload to visit the church of the annunciation and joseph's carpentry shop and buy little wooden crosses !
Talk about gullible ! :banghead:

Amaleq13

The existence of Nazareth has been discussed/debated here many times. Most recently in the thread "Open Challenge: Rebuttal to Doherty" starting with this post.

vsop44

thanks Amaleq13 . As you can see I am rather new on this board and I am sure most topics have been discussed on IIDB till the cows come home , but as there is always an influx of new members , we might get some new observations creating a new debate .

Amaleq13

I understand and welcome to BC&H! I didn't intend to discourage you from offering new observations but thought you should know about the recent, rather heated, discussion of the subject. IIUC, neither side in that discussion feels there is sufficient evidence to establish that Nazareth did exist in the early 1st century but disagreed on whether there was sufficient evidence to state conclusively that it did not. OTOH, even though Mr. Carrier feels there is not enough evidence to deny its existence, he strongly suspects that the author wasn't trying to assert a historical claim anyway but, consistent with the rest of his story, using symbolic language to "hide" a deeper meaning.

spin

The notion that Nazareth originated as a compromise between the artificial formation Nazara (based on gospel nazarhnos) and the Galilean town named NCRT, which should be Nasareth, but which bears even less connection to nazarhnos, seems to me to be the best fit, explaining all the manifestations involved.


spin

Answerer

Which makes me wonder. Why isn't any christians here willing to step out and join in that previous debate since many of them are so faithful (They declared this very often in GRD forum) and are ever convinced that Jesus and Nazareth existed? Where is Bede? Or even Magus? :rolling: