The Myth of Nazareth: The Invented Town of Jesus

376 Pages·2008·1.32 MB·English

by  Rene Salm

THE MYTH OF NAZARETH
THE MYTH OF NAZARETH

The Invented Town of Jesus

Scholar’s Edition

René Salm

2008
American Atheist Press
Cranford, New Jersey
American Atheist Press
P. O. Box 5733
Cranford, NJ 07016

www.atheists.org

Print ISBN-10: 1-57884-003-1
Print ISBN-13: 978-1-57884-003-8

E-Book ISBN-10: 1-57884-023-6
E-Book ISBN-13: 978-1-57884-023-6

Scholar’s Edition Copyright © 2006, 2007 by René Salm
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.

Published February, 2008
Printed in the United States of America
E-Book Edition Published May, 2013

Unless otherwise noted, the Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version
Bible, copyright © 1989 of the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in
the U.S.A., and are used by permission. All rights reserved. Photograph of Nazareth from the SE © BibleWalks.com,
used by permission. Photograph of Church of the Annunciation courtesy of gallery.tourism.gov.il.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Salm, René.
The myth of Nazareth : the invented town of Jesus / René Salm. -- Scholar’s ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-57884-003-8
1. Nazareth (Israel)--History. 2. Excavations (Archaeology)--Israel--Galilee.
3. Galilee (Israel)--Antiquities. 4. Jews--History--168 B.C.-135 A.D.
5. Jews--History--70-638. I. Title.

DS110.N3S35 2008
933--dc22
2008004416
Contents

Introduction

Chapter One: The Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages
The Nazareth basin
The Stone Age
The Cave of the Leap
The Bronze Age
The Early Bronze Age
The demise of cities
The Intermediate Period
The earliest Nazareth evidence
The Middle and Late Bronze Ages
The general evidence
The Bronze Age tombs at Nazareth
Historical considerations
The Iron Age
The end of settlement in the basin
The Iron Age evidence
Summary of the Iron Age evidence
Excursus: The Bronze Age location of Japhia

Chapter Two: The Myth of Continuous Habitation
The Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian Periods
The end of habitation in the Nazareth basin
The Babylonian period
The Persian period
The Question of Continuous Habitation
The early archaeologists
Father Clemens Kopp and the new evidence
A changing landscape
Father Bellarmino Bagatti
Ritrovamenti nella Nazaret Evangelica (1955)
The Shrine of the Annunciation
The Dictionnaire de la Bible (1960)
The silos and cisterns
Continuous habitation since the dawn of history?
Excavations in Nazareth (1967/69)
Secondary References to Continuous Habitation

Chapter Three: The Hellenistic Renaissance Myth
The Hellenistic Period
Ptolemaic times
The Seleucids and the Maccabean revolt
The Hasmonean Age
Claims of Specific Hellenistic Finds
The Richmond report
The kokh tomb
The infamous “Hellenistic” nozzle
The Galilee boat
The Church of St. Joseph material
Remaining material represented as Hellenistic
Unsubstantiated Hellenistic claims
Summary
General Hellenistic Claims
The Hellenistic renaissance myth
Point-by-point
Sepphoris
Chapter Four: The Time of Christ
The Time of Christ
A note on method
Roman burial customs in Palestine
The kokh tomb
The so-called “Herodian” tomb
The earliest Nazareth evidence
The ancient oil lamp
The bow-spouted (“Herodian”) oil lamp
“Herodian”
Other alleged evidence from the first century CE
Pottery
Stone vessels
Roman oil lamps
“Rolling stones”
Ossuaries
Sarcophagi
Inscriptions
Graffiti
“Domestic installations”
Basins
Coins
Representative passages from the secondary literature
Other considerations
The site of the “casting down”
A synagaogue of the first century CE?
The neighborhood of Nazareth
Conclusions
Chapter Five: Gospel Legends
The location and size of the ancient village
Competing literary traditions
The tombs of the Roman era
The size of the village
The venerated area
The slope
The cavities in the ground
The question of habitations
The home of the Blessed Virgin
The Church of St. Joseph
The tombs under the Church of the Annunciation
Artefacts and tombs
Tomb 27
Tomb 29
Graves o/p
Conclusions

Chapter Six: Nazareth and Nazara
Between the Revolts
The Roman Evidence
The structural evidence
The movable finds from Roman-Byzantine Nazareth
Evidence from the tombs
Non-funerary finds
The Hapizzez and the Caesarea Inscription
Count Joseph of Tiberias
The narrative of Epiphanius
Did Count Joseph build a church in Nazareth?
Who was buried where?
The Secondary Literature
A characteristic passage
Arguments from silence
Literary Considerations
(1) “Nazareth” outside the Gospels
In pagan and Jewish sources
The fourth century Christian sources
“Nazareth” in Ante-Nicene literature
(2) Nazareth in the early gospel tradition
Nazara and its cognates

Epilogue
Appendices to Chapter One
Appendix 1: Itemization of the Bronze-Age Artefacts
Appendix 2: Itemization of the Iron Age Artefacts
Appendix 3: The Stratigraphy of Megiddo
Appendices to Chapter Six
Appendix 4: The Nazareth Tombs
Appendix 5: Independent Datings of Nazareth Lamps and Pottery
Appendix 6: Pottery and Movable Artefacts from Nazareth
Appendix 7: Nazareth Timeline From c. 135 CE
Bibliography
Index
GENERAL INDEX
Seek not to worship
but to understand.
Introduction

This need is prevalent, in what must be construed as an irrational manner, …that the archaeologists
prove that all the events described in the Bible did indeed occur and that all the figures mentioned and the
episodes described are entirely consistent with reality. There is in this demand a violation of archaeological
integrity and an attempt to impose upon archaeology unattainable objectives—that is, the proof of faith.
…It is therefore not a coincidence that a considerable proportion of the archaeologists active in the
Land of Israel over the past one hundred years have come from the religious establishment. Many of them
received a large part of their education at various theological seminaries, while their archaeological
training was often deficient. This is particularly evident among American archaeologists…
This state of affairs has given biblical archaeology a reputation for amateurism in some archaeological
circles. Modern scientific excavation is so complex that those who have not received adequate training
(which is the case with most of those educated at theological seminaries) cannot conduct one properly.
—Amnon Ben-Tor, The Archaeology of Ancient Israel (1992, p.9).

The archaeology of Nazareth fully corroborates Ben-Tor’s words. The early history
of that hallowed ground is as unknown today as when digging first began, one hundred
and fifteen years ago. Despite excavations conducted over many generations, mystery
covers Nazareth like a blanket protecting a precious baby. In some circles, questions
regarding the history of the village are unwelcome, as if the baby might be disturbed by
too much probing. So, a venerable hush has settled over the place, a quiet acceptance in
catholic circles that the mysterium verbi, and all associated with it, is beyond man’s
[1]
understanding.
No one really knows what happened at Nazareth two thousand years ago. Some
scholars, uncomfortable with a posture of pure veneration, have attempted to peel back
the blanket, at least slightly, only to confront a thick wall of tradition. “Go no further!”
is the stern message conveyed to him who asks too many questions. Yet the questions
multiply. Already in the nineteenth century some liberal scholars wondered why the
town was not mentioned in the Jewish scriptures, nor in the Talmud, nor even once in
the prolix writings of the first-century Galilean general, Josephus. The latter had, after
all, lived in Japhia, a town less than two miles from Nazareth. Why, they asked, did the
first Christian generations either completely ignore the place, or appear to not know
where it was? The first writer to mention Nazareth (Julius Africanus, c. 200 CE)
[2]
locates it in Judea. Again, why in the Acts of the Apostles (24:5), is Paul called a
“ringleader of the sect of the Nazoreans”? Certainly he was not the leader of onetime
inhabitants of Nazareth! “Nazorean,” these questioners opined, must once have referred
to something other than a place. If so, then what was a “Nazorean” (Ναζαωραȋος)? That
term seems to be first used by Matthew, for Mark does not know it—the latter
exclusively uses Ναζαρηνέ. In any case, English translations invariably read “Jesus of
Nazareth” for both ’ Ιησοû Ναζαρηνέ and ’Ιησοûς ό Ναζωραȋος. But was this the
original meaning? Finally—for these questions are without end—why in his birth story
does the evangelist Matthew introduce Nazareth with a perfectly unknown saying?