Guess what? Remember that skeptical position that Nazareth didn’t even exist in Jesus time? Famous atheist Frank Zindler, of atheist magazine, pointed out the following facts (quoted from Wikipedia):
No “ancient historians or geographers mention [Nazareth] before the beginning of the fourth century.”
Nazareth is not mentioned in the Old Testament, the Talmud, nor in the Apocrypha and it does not appear in any early rabbinic literature.
Nazareth was not included in the list of settlements of the tribes of Zebulon (Joshua 19:10-16) which mentions twelve towns and six villages
Nazareth is not included among the 45 cities of Galilee that were mentioned by Josephus (37AD-100AD).
Nazareth is also missing from the 63 towns of Galilee mentioned in the Talmud.
Well, turns out the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announed the unearthing of a first-century house, on the exact spot where Catholicism has historically considered Mary and Joseph to have lived.
What’s the moral of this story? Even when the historical evidence seems to make the Bible appear to be lying, later historical evidence has vindicated it. Remember the Hittites? For a long time skeptics said the Hittites, mentioned about thirty times in the Bible, had never existed, but later evidence has confirmed their existence beyond any doubt. Same with Nazareth. Moral–the Bible is more reliable than the consensus of all the ancient authorities who seemed to indicate that Nazareth never existed.
o little town of nazareth . . .
Guess what? Remember that skeptical position that Nazareth didn’t even exist in Jesus time? Famous atheist Frank Zindler, of atheist magazine, pointed out the following facts (quoted from Wikipedia):
Well, turns out the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announed the unearthing of a first-century house, on the exact spot where Catholicism has historically considered Mary and Joseph to have lived.
What’s the moral of this story? Even when the historical evidence seems to make the Bible appear to be lying, later historical evidence has vindicated it. Remember the Hittites? For a long time skeptics said the Hittites, mentioned about thirty times in the Bible, had never existed, but later evidence has confirmed their existence beyond any doubt. Same with Nazareth. Moral–the Bible is more reliable than the consensus of all the ancient authorities who seemed to indicate that Nazareth never existed.
Sources: Darrel Pursiful’s blog, Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Wikipedia.
Merry Christmas!
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