No ancient historians or geographers mention Nazareth before the beginning of the fourth century [AD].
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.
2007-08-07 15:16:03 · 16 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
That would seem to me to disclose a profound ignorance of the scholars then, since the word is mentioned 17 times in the New Testament besides the adjective Nazarene, which is mentioned 14 times. These appear in the best attested ancient documents in existence, namely the New Testament, which claim over 500 Greek manuscripts dating before 500 A.D., and some of which date back to between 100 and 200 A.D.
If it were not mentioned in the Old Testament or the Apocrypha, that would be about as weighty as stating that Las Vegas was never mentioned as a city in the 1800's, and therefore does not exist today.
I suppose there are thousands of towns which Josephus does not mention.
If it should not appear in the Talmud, small wonder there. I will let your great mind figure out why.
2007-08-07 15:33:43 · answer #1 · answered by wefmeister 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Why make issue of Nazareth not being mentioned in the OT or the Talmud or by Paul, though fail to explain why any of these ought to mention it, and why this is an issue (there are dozens of comparable sites also not mentioned in any or all of these soruces). Josephus mentions 45 cities and villages of Galilee – yet Nazareth not at all. Galilee would have had literally hundreds of cities and villages; Josephus fails to mention all but 45 of them.
2007-08-07 15:28:57 · answer #2 · answered by G 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Wow is that a miracle or what? The Bible names a town 400 years before it actually existed.
Actually, the Jews did not think much of Nazareth which may explain it. There's a verse in N. T. where someone asks, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"
2007-08-07 15:21:31 · answer #3 · answered by Prof Fruitcake 6 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Micah 5:2 and you o Bethlehem Ephrathah the one too little to get to e among the thousands of Judah from you there will come out to me the one who is to become ruler in Israel.
Who's orgin is from earliest times from the days of forever.
Matthew 2:1 After Jesus had been born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king. The astrologers asked where is the one born to be king we saw his star.
Even telling which Bethlehem and the time period was when Herod was king.
don't see anything in that about him coming from Nazareth.
even now there are many city's and town's in Oklahoma that are not on any map anywhere. It would be hard 2000 years from now to prove they ever existed.
There wasn't even that good of map builders that time period in that area. Everyone knows archeology has unearthed sites there that were said to have never existed.
National Geographic had a whole civilization they just found in the digging up of ruins.
2007-08-07 15:28:37 · answer #4 · answered by Steven 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Read the Wikipedia article about it. Perhaps it wasn't mentioned in any of those writings because it was insignificant. Take ANY town in the US, and if it has less than 4000 people, it's pretty much unknown to people who don't live there. For example, have you ever heard of Clover, South Carolina? Ever heard of Lwowek Slaski, Poland? How about Wolfstein, Germany?
Nazareth would only have been known to locals, and no one outside of Nazareth would have mentioned it.
2007-08-07 15:27:06 · answer #5 · answered by The_Cricket: Thinking Pink! 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Don't get caught up in that type of nit-picky, obsessive hunting for evidence. If you do, you will NEVER find proof that Jesus exists. Figure out what it means to say, "God makes foolish the wisdom of men." It is taken on faith and learned with your heart, not your head.
2007-08-07 15:26:55 · answer #6 · answered by Seeking Serenity 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
You have a record of nazarite in Number,s 6;2 OT, in this book the nazarite,s come from nazareth.
2007-08-07 15:30:15 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Nazareth was a tiny little villiage, not much worthy of mention. "can anything good come out of Nazareth?" is a biblical quote that was a distainful comment about Jesus. Just because you can't find any extrabiblical mention doesn't mean it didn't exist.
2007-08-07 15:22:19 · answer #8 · answered by Gma Joan 4 · 4⤊ 2⤋
"Nazareth" may then refer to the staff of St Joseph, which is said to have bloomed when left in the Holy of Holies overnight. Doesn't this word literally mean a type of flower, the one everyone knows as the "Easter Lily". A sign of hope in spring, and also of purity, strength and innocence.
2007-08-07 15:21:50 · answer #9 · answered by Shinigami 7 · 0⤊ 4⤋
Funny, mentioned in the NT. Maybe it was called a different name in those times, ever try looking at a map? Look up Galilee. Can you find that?
2007-08-07 15:20:05 · answer #10 · answered by great gig in the sky 7 · 3⤊ 3⤋