jjramsey

Let's see. We have an association with John the Baptist, whose message is basically, "Shape up or burn at the final judgment." We have parables of Jesus which have a similar message: wheat and tares, sheep and goats, Dives and Lazarus, etc. We have indications both in and out of the gospels that there was an expectation that the end of the world would come soon. Looks pretty coherent to me.

A prophet who, though he's supposed to be a messiah, had his hometown in Galilee. A prophet who makes his home away from home in a fishing village on the Sea of Galilee and condemns to hell two towns within walking distance--something which looks suspiciously like something a would-be prophet who wasn't quite right in the head might do. A prophet who could work a placebo effect in his hometown.

One would thing that a wholly make-up legend would fit more neatly with the hopes and desires of its makers.

I doubt the prophecy is lost; it probably didn't exist in the first place. Nazareth is an inconvenience, and there was no point in making it up. Matthew 2:28 shows an attempt to alleviate that inconvenience. And contra jakejonesiv, this is not "A blatant contradiction in the Bible" offered as evidence that the Bible is true, but rather as evidence that Jesus of Nazareth was historical. Not the same thing.

The author of the site is a member of the Jesus Seminar. Also, I did look through the two books at the end of that article, and neither of them go for inerrancy. We're not dealing quite "My church sez" stuff.

One well is good enough for a small village, though not much more than that.

Julian

Well, if Nazareth was built after the lifetime of Jesus then it wouldn't invalidate Jesus but it would invalidate that part of the gospel story. At best it is possible for achaeology to corroborate some of the incidental details of the NT environments, which has happened on some occasions. This is hardly surprising since the gospels were after all written close to those times. Even so they still manage to get stuff wrong, such as Luke seeming to misread Josephus, more details here: http://www.infidels.org/library/mode...djosephus.html

Julian

Sheshbazzar

This comes up often, and reminds me of a certain small local village of my youth, a thriving "cross-roads" in the 19th century with homes, a "General Store", a school, and perhaps a church, it has appeared on our state maps for well over 100 years, yet all that remained of the "village" by the seventies was a "village" sign on the side of the road, and a single home on one corner, and today, occupied by two people, that original General Store has been so remodeled and modernized that it's origin is entirely obscured, and to all appearances it may have been constructed last year.
But none the less every long time resident still refers to the location by its long-standing appellation, and the "village" population presently is only two, however, with the present building boom in that area, a larger community may again arise, and unless a deliberate change (unlikely) is made, the "village" will thrive again under its long recognized name.
Of course the corollary here is that "Nazareth" to locals would have continued to be known as Nazareth regardless of the size of the settlement or its population.

jjramsey

The July 2005 thread seems to have responded to it with speculation that there was a sect called the Nazoreans headed by JtB. In the August 2005 thread, spin seems to put too much weight on a distinction between Nazareth and Nazara and on how the tzade was supposed to be transliterated by a sigma rather than a zeta. andrewcriddle pointed out some exceptions to the tzade -> sigma rule in an old October 2004 thread. I would also point out that a tzade sounds more similar to a zeta than to a sigma. As you can imagine, I'm not too impressed.

andrewcriddle

At face value the reference in 2 Corinthians 11:32 to King Aretas who died c 40 CE would imply a date for Paul in the mid 1st century CE.

Andrew Criddle

Toto

We've been round this before. King Aretas IV was never in control of Damascus. There are so many difficulties with this passage that it does not seem to give a firm date for Paul's letters.