CHRISTIANS! Does the now-know fact that Nazareth did not exist before the 2nd century affect your faith?

Question

The archaeological and historical evidence is consistent with the site initially being used as a single family farm over many centuries.

Please read the source before prematurely providing an obtuse answer:

http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/nazareth.html

I love Kenny P's comment. Especially the: "You believe anything and pass it on as gospel" bit. Isn't that the very definition of "faith"?

I appreciate 'Fireball226' demonstrating the power of Christian brainwashing. She does not even want to see anything that dares suggest what she believes is even innacurate. Sounds like she does not have much strength in her convictions...

To 'Christian_me': Thank you for illustrating how logical 'faith' is.

To 'Arewethereyet': Perhaps you should read past the 1st line. Did you really think that would be their only point.

To depositingmy2cents: I'm not aware of any Atheists contending that Troy was a mythical city. Perhaps the reason why is that there is archaeological evidence for it...

To Texastrev: Wow you're smart! You got me. I had no idea the name of the website proves by default that everything on it is false.

To Yahweh: Thanks for actually thinking about it before answering. The Gospels we have were not written in the 1st century. The oldest known writings were copies and are from late in the 2nd century, almost two hundred years later, and those ones don't mention the town. Additionally, you could have written that Disneyland was where Jesus was born and nobody around at the time would have been any the wiser that the place didn't actually exist. Reason is most people never traveled more than 30 miles from the place they were born their entire lives, they were overwhelmingly illiterate, and entirely uneducated.

BrotherMicheal: Thank you for your answer. The interpretation of the archaeological evidence saying Nazareth was a small agricultural village was made by Catholic priests finding what they wanted to find. Not exactly an unbiased source. Additionally there is a problem with the population being less than two hundred; it's all in the article.

To Fatima: Your contentions are proven false in the article. Thanks for playing.

To ecterbob: Did you actually check to see if the info was in the sources listed? Haven't seen any tearing apart done yet...

To opinionated: Maybe next time you could give an opinion rather than just a sound bite. Run along now...

Answer 1

Interesting. I'll have to research a bit.

Why are some religious types rejecting it out of hand without consideration? Not very logical.

Answer 2

Nazareth
Also known as En Nasira, Japhia, Mash-had, en-Nasirah, Nazerat, Nazareth of Galilee, Nazareth in Galilee, Yafti en Nasra

Situated inside a bowl atop the Nazareth ridge north of the Jezreel valley, Nazareth was a relatively isolated village in the time of Jesus with a population less than two hundred.
Today Nazareth is home to more than 60,000 Israeli Arabs, and Upper Nazareth is home to thousands more Jewish residents.
Very little is known about Nazareth from the ancient sources. Outside of the New Testament, Nazareth is never mentioned until the Byzantine period (4th c. A.D.). Archaeological excavations have confirmed that the city was only a small agricultural village during the Hellenistic and Roman periods.

Answer 3

I'm a bit skeptical of this, since the gospels were written in the 1st century.
Either what the site we call Nazareth is not the actual city (which is quite possible. Archeology has mislabeled cities many times. Signs saying "This is Nazareth, welcome!" probably aren't too easy to find), or someone went back in the books and wrote the name of a new city in.
Either way, people reading the original manuscripts at the time they were written would know the author was a crackpot if they made up a city.

Answer 4

I'm supposed to trust documentation from a site called "jesusneverexisted"? I'm supposed to consider this objective scholarly research? I did go on that site, and found nothing but vague claims of "archaeologists say" and papers written by people with no respectable academic credentials. It lists sources by several reputable scholars, but there is no annotation. Anybody can list a bunch of books and claim their information came from there when no sources are actually cited. Have you ever heard of "peer review", which is done to protect against such sloppiness masquerading as research? This is exactly the kind of fuzzy intellectual approach that atheists condemn. (As they should.) I'm sorry to be so blunt, but any first-year seminary student could rip this apart.

Answer 5

There are many other sources...dump this one.
Nazareth did exist during the time of Jesus. It was a little village of little significance in those days.
Now go search Goggle again for the truth...yes?

Answer 6

Faith is not affected by knowledge, by very definition it is the belief of something in spite of all rational and logical reasoning against it. Education does affect faith, but only after a very long spell of it.

Answer 7

This affects me not at all. The link you gave even said the following "no other source confirms that the place even existed in the 1st century AD."

So because they cannot confirm it, it must not have existed. Uh-huh.

Answer 8

Not at all. Jesus is Lord. Thank you Jesus for paying the price for me to be saved.

Answer 9

Guess all that beer has finally gotten to you, huh

Kind of like that mythical city of Troy, huh....oh wait.....

Answer 10

*adding this comment to the all time list of stupid comments*

You people kill me sometimes

You believe anything and pass it on as gospel

BTW..........are you interested in a bridge?...I have one for 1/2 price in Death Valley