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To: Pollster1
...so I find it hard to imagine that the town would not have existed at that time.


Did historical Jesus really exist? The evidence just doesn't add up.

There are clearly good reasons to doubt Jesus' historical existence.

"Numerous secular scholars have presented their own versions of the so-called "Historical Jesus" - and most of them are, as biblical scholar J.D. Crossan puts it, "an academic embarrassment." From Crossan's view of Jesus as the wise sage, to Robert Eisenman's Jesus the revolutionary, and Bart Ehrman's apocalyptic prophet, about the only thing New Testament scholars seem to agree on is Jesus' historical existence. But can even that be questioned?"

"The Washington Post"
By Raphael Lataster

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/12/18/did-historical-jesus-exist-the-traditional-evidence-doesnt-hold-up/


Jesus was an Essene and Nazareth did not Exist.


So yes, it is VERY important to disprove claims Nazareth never existed. If not for those who believe, then for those led astray - "The truth shall set [them] free."

23 posted on 12/22/2015 4:56:42 PM PST by amorphous
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To: amorphous
So yes, it is VERY important to disprove claims Nazareth never existed. If not for those who believe, then for those led astray - "The truth shall set [them] free."

In addition to Matthew (possibly 55-70 AD, with surviving sections dated to 50-99 AD), Mark (possibly 55-60 AD, with possible sections found in a mummy's mask from 80-90 AD), Luke (possibly 55-63 AD, with sections dated at 175-225 AD), John (possibly 80-90 AD, with a surviving fragment from 125 to 135 AD), and Acts (possibly 60-70 AD, with fragments from about 350 AD), all naming Nazareth (even in the Greek), Justin Martyr [110-165 AD] wrote in Chapter LXXVIII of his "Dialogue with Trypho" (written in about 155-165 AD, considered "undoubtedly genuine" even by critics) that:

And Joseph, the spouse of Mary . . . went up from Nazareth, where he lived, to Bethlehem, to which he belonged . . .

The idea of writing at a time when people could and did visit Nazareth and claiming dishonestly that the town had existed a mere 50 or 150 years earlier, without the lie being discovered, is absurd. Anyone led astray by such absurd claims wants to be deceived - a category that includes an unfortunately large fraction of today's population.

Anyone who thinks Nazareth didn't exist in 4 BC probably reads this quote from Lincoln (taken from his daily blog entry just after the Gettysburg Address) and misses the humor. It's like claiming the My Lai massacre or the Battle of Gettysburg could not have happened because the towns didn't exist in 1968 or in 1863 - we know they existed 50 and 150 years ago. Most people have a good idea what was happening 50 or even 150 years ago, at least in high-profile areas, and Nazareth was high profile once the Gospels were circulated.

28 posted on 12/22/2015 6:55:03 PM PST by Pollster1 ("Shall not be infringed" is unambiguous.)
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