Bob K

Here is a Reply posted on <a href="http://iidb.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=6&t=000458&p=" target="_blank">http://iidb.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=6&t=000458&p=</a>

While there is little doubt that there was in Jesus' time SOMETHING THERE at the site of the current Israeli town of Nazareth, THE question is: What in Jesus' time was the NAME of the site/location/place/settlement/town/city now occupied by the present Nazareth?

Since the NAME Nazareth appears many times in the Xn NT, what is of importance is whether the NAME Nazareth was used in Jesus' time for ANY settlement/town/city.

For example, one of the critical NT prophecy fulfillments is Matthew 2:19-23, which contains these words: [Joseph] came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He [Jesus] shall be called a Nazarene.

If there was no city by the NAME Nazareth in Jesus' time, then the Xn NT certainly screws up one more time for historical errancy.

Thomas Paine, in THE AGE OF REASON, said: "Here is circumstantial evidence that Matthew dreamed, for there is no such passage [containing such prophecy that J shall be called a Nazarene] in all the Old Testament ..."

Thus, it is the NAME Nazareth that is important to biblical criticism, not whether or not there was a town/city/etc. [possibly by another name] at the site of the current Israeli Nazareth.

CX

2 - "It is not unlikely that the first christians were called Nazarene so
meaning "Nazirite", rather than "coming from Nazareth", an ethimology
that is scarcely credible and was probably substituted for the first one
only when the ancient origin from the Essene tradition begun to be
forgotten" (Rabbi Elia Benamozegh [Italy 1823/1900, Jewish philosopher],
"Gli Esseni e la Cabbalah", 1979);

This seems to confirm my original hypothesis yes? Which explains better what GMt is referring to in the previously mentioned passage namely Judges 13. I would still like to know what the Hewbrew word for Nazirite is. It's transliterated as NZRT? Couldn't that then be the same as the Greek NAZORAIOS? I'm not sure, but it bear further investigation I think.

Suspended Ninth

.<a href="http://www.atheists.org/church/ozjesus.html" target="_blank">Here's</a>an article from Atheist.org on that very subject. It basically says that the city now known as Nazareth didn't become a city until a hundred or so years after Jesus' death.

Josh

RyanS2

It should also be noted that the Discovery Channel scrapped a project they were going to do on Nazareth because they couldn't find any confirmation of evidence that Jesus actually lived there. (This was in 1998).

Vorkosigan

In Archaeology and the Galilean Jesus, which I just bought and have on my to-read list, there is only 1 page on Nazareth. There is little remaining from the first century, the writer says, because later Christian construction obliterated all traces of the village. Nevertheless, he says despite the scantiness of the evidence, there are indications of wine making and storage pits. The village seems to have supported 400 at the most. By comparison, Capernum seems to have hosted 1,700.

Reed co-wrote Excavating Jesus with Crossan. <a href="http://www.bibleinterp.com/articles/excavating_Jesus.htm" target="_blank">Article by Reed</a>

I thought this was useful information, so I did a quick search on his references, and on the book's publishing company, Trinity Press International. The cite for the size of Nazereth comes from the Anchor Bible Dictionary article by James F. Strange, who led the dig at Sepphoris and sits on the Board of Bib Arch Rev. Committed Christian? You make the call....except that he is also a member of the <a href="http://it.utsi.edu/~spsr/index.html" target="_blank">Planetary Society for SETI Research</a> and sits on its board and therefore that makes him another kind of nut, the one who thinks that there are structures on Mars. Get an expert out of his milieu.......

Trinity Press International publishes a huge range of books, from obscure and deadly serious books on archaeology to fruitcake works on New Age stuff.

Anyway, this book would seem to settle the question of whether there was a village there in the first century, but the brevity of the discussion in it -- it entirely fails to mention Jesus in connection with Nazareth, but NEVER fails to mention him in connection with other locales -- has my bullshit detector signalling a five-alarm fire.

There was an article on the Web at the Bib Arch Rev site on Sepphoris that discussed Nazareth...

Michael

[ February 07, 2002: Message edited by: turtonm ]

[ February 07, 2002: Message edited by: turtonm ]</p>