UPDATE: Nazareth scholar: ‘No house from Jesus’s time found there’
With their usual impeccable timing to coincide with “Christian” holidays, archaeologists in Israel announced today that they had found the “first home from Jesus’ [sic] time in Nazareth.” Before we get all excited about this purported discovery, let us recall a number of facts, including the glaring one that prior to this moment in time, for almost 2,000 years there has been no other evidence of habitation in Nazareth during the era in question. What this fact means is that there has existed no evidence whatsoever that Nazareth was a town during Jesus’s alleged time, as it is depicted in the New Testament, leading not a few to cast doubt on the historicity of the gospel tale overall.
Over a decade ago, in my book The Christ Conspiracy I related this research concerning the lack of evidence of a town in Nazareth during Jesus’s purported era, concluding that Christ was made to come from Nazareth because in reality he was a product in part of the Nazarene brotherhood. Indeed, it has been argued that Nazareth appears to have been a necropolis during the time Jesus supposedly lived there, a fact that would preclude its habitation by people, especially Jews, who would not live so near to the buried dead.
Past dubious discoveries
Another fact which needs to be kept in mind before jumping to unwarranted conclusions – in this case that, since Nazareth obviously was a town, therefore Jesus must have existed as a historical character – is that archaeologists, scholars and others, along with the media, have in the past made terrific blunders concerning biblical-era finds, not the least of which were the so-called James Ossuary and Jesus Family Tomb. As I reported in 2006 regarding the “James Ossuary” – in a three-part article published in Secular Nation – the artifact, which was widely touted in the press as “the first proof of Jesus’ existence,” was later deemed bogus, as concerns its historical value vis-a-vis Jesus and his supposed brother James. Ditto with the Jesus Family Tomb, which, although certainly ancient and apparently from the right era, could in no way serve as evidence of the existence of the gospel Jesus as a historical personage.
Moreover, these various finds, including also the Judas Gospel – which likewise did not serve to provide any credible, scientific evidence of Christ’s existence as a historical figure – are oddly timed to be reported to the media at major “Christian” holidays, such as Easter and Christmas, as if to bolster the faith at those important times. This sort of propagandistic Church PR has been quite common over the centuries.
When the dust settles on this find, it will be interesting to see what “Nazareth myth” experts such as Frank Zindler, James Randi and Rene Salm have to say about the subject.
First home from Jesus’ time found in Nazareth
Today in Nazareth, boyhood home of Jesus, archaeologists showed off the remains of a home that may have belonged to one of his neighbors, the first such dwelling from that era.
The simple house was one of about 50 that belonged to the impoverished Jewish families who lived in the hamlet. The remains of a wall, a hideout from Roman soldiers, a courtyard and a roof-top water system were found after builders dug up the courtyard of a former convent to make room for a new Christian center, just yards from the Basilica of the Annunciation.
“This may well have been a place that Jesus and his contemporaries were familiar with,” archaeologist Yardena Alexandre, excavations director at the Israel Antiquities Authority, told the Associated Press. Jesus may have played around the house with his cousins and friends, he added. “It’s a logical suggestion.”
Further Reading
Bone-Box No Proof of Jesus
Judas Gospel gives new view of Jesus’ betrayer?
Where Jesus never walked
The Myth of Nazareth
