Nazareth

Most Vridar posts on Nazareth focus on the archaeological evidence for its existence in the first-century, but also address the historical likelihood of Jesus being identified as from that town and the place of Nazareth in the nativity accounts of the gospels.

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A more complete response to the previous post on the relevance of the Nazareth question:

• Once more on Nazareth, Relevance and Salm versus Carrier

  (2021-10-01)

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Responding to the view that the Nazareth question is irrelevant to studies of the historical Jesus:

• Is the Nazareth Question Important? A Response to Richard Carrier

  (2021-09-29)

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Two posts answer Tim O’Neill’s misinformed attempt to undermine the work of René Salm and his use of the archaeologist Hans-Peter Kuhnen’s work:

• Tim O’Neill Misreads (Again) the Evidence on Nazareth

• Salm’s Nazareth Correspondence with Kuhnen Demonstrates O’Neill’s Falsehoods

  (2020-04-15)

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A review of Salm’s analysis of the published reports on the archaeology of Nazareth took a pro-Catholic apologetic perspective:

• Religion Prof Watch (Quote Mining a Review on Nazareth) 

  (2019-07-04)

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General comment on changes with and special interests (e.g. Herman Detering’s work on the influence of Buddhism) of René Salm’s website. Includes comments on certain critical receptions of Salm’s thesis and another list of past Vridar posts on Nazareth.

• Mythicist Papers: Resources for the Study of Christian Origins – Update

  (2018-11-21)

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This post challenges the common assumption that the Nazareth background of Jesus was a historical embarrassment that had to be explained away in different ways in the gospels of Matthew and Luke:

• Questioning the apologetic argument for Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem

  (2018-11-16)

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A critique of Bart Ehrman’s attempt to refute the view that there is little reason to think Nazareth was an occupied village in the early first century:

 

• Dear Professor Bart Ehrman, Please explain, if you will…

  (2016-10-27)

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An introductory overview of René Salm’s second book, NazarethGate

• Nazareth, General Overview of the Evidence

  2016-02-22

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I have been slowly reading the first six chapters of René Salm’s new book, NazarethGate: Quack Archeology, Holy Hoaxes, and the Invented Town of Jesus, stopping to consult wherever I can his footnotes, his citations of various archaeologists’ works, and at this point I have found his argument to be both

• decisive with respect to the non-existence of Nazareth until well into the latter half of the first century CE
• and absolutely devastating in his analysis of archaeologist Ken Dark’s published efforts to prove the presence of early first century domestic dwellings there.

• NazarethGate

  (2016-01-26)

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A post on Salm’s response to Ken Dark’s review:

• A Critique of Ken Dark’s Work at the Sisters of Nazareth Convent

  (2014-07-23)

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René Salm is one of several persons Bart Ehrman personally attacks:

• Book Review: Bart Ehrman and the Quest of the Historical Jesus of Nazareth — Reviewing the review

  (2013-05-04)

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A clinical dissection of an attempt to refute Salm’s case:

• More Nazareth Nonsense from Tim O’Neill

  (2012-12-29)

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Addressing Bart Ehrman’s less than professional treatment of Salm’s book:

• Bart Ehrman’s “unture” claims about the Nazareth arguments

  (2012-12-05)

• Emperor Ehrman Walks Naked Through a Storyland Nazareth 4000 Years Old

  (2012-12-07)

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Rene Salm at the Society of Biblical Literature Meeting and related controversy:

 

• More SBL Fallout from René Salm’s paper

  (2012-12-03)

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Links for Salm’s discussion of his experiences at SBL and observations of the “pious fraud” that is associated with so much Nazareth archaeology:

• Carrier on Brodie and Rene Salm, at SBL, on Nazareth, Pious Fraud, James McGrath and others

  (2012-11-30)

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Salm’s response to Yardenna Alexandre’s claims about discoveries at Mary’s Well:

• Nazareth Boondoggle

  (2012-09-24)

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A copy of another of Salm’s responses to  Yardena Alexandre’s reports of finds at Nazareth:

• Nazareth: René Salm’s preliminary response to Bart Ehrman

  (2012-05-16)

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Not addressing archaeology this time, but a different perspective on the likelihood of Jesus being identified as “from Nazareth”:

• Would the historical Jesus of Nazareth really have been named Jesus of Nazareth?(2012-03-14)

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Introduction to a linked twenty-page article:

• The origin and meaning of Nazarene/Natsarene and its relationship to “hidden gnosis”

  (2011-07-31)

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Links to Salm’s responses to critics:

• The Nazareth Myth: Salm Responds to McGrath and O’Neill

  (2011-05-07)

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René Salm discusses Nazareth and Nazarenes, James and Paul, Christianity and Buddhism, and Ventures Old and New:

• Interview with René Salm

  (2011-4-27)

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A response to criticisms by Maurice Casey and Michael Kok:

• Nazareth fictions, Aramaic blindspots and scholarly bias: Filling some gaps in Sheffield’s review of Casey’s ‘Jesus of Nazareth’

  (2010-12-04)

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Comments on Salm’s Nazareth book by Thomas L. Thompson, Robert M. Price, Robert Eisenman, Hans-Peter Kuhnen, James Randi:

• The Real Jesus Challenge, Bart Erhman, and Nazareth

  (2010-08-15)

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Another post bypassing the archaeological evidence and examining instead the historical likelihood that Jesus was known to be from Nazareth; also looks at the arguments relating to the appearance of Nazareth in the early years of Jesus in the gospels of Matthew and Luke:

• Response (2): the Bethlehem-Nazareth fallacies

  (2010-01-28)

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Addressing mainstream news media reports of the discovery of a house in Nazareth said to date to the time of Jesus:

• That “Jesus-era” House in Nazareth “Discovery”

  (2010-01-01)

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Archaeologist Dr Ken Dark, in the Bulletin of the Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society [BAIAS] (Vol. 26, 2008), wrote a five-page review of René Salm’s The Myth of Nazareth: the Invented Town of Jesus (2008). I was led to this review after catching up with a discussion of Salm’s book on the Freethought & Rationalism Discussion Board.

• Reviewing a Scholarly Review of Rene Salm’s The Myth of Nazareth

  (2009-05-31)

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• What it really means to be human . . . the challenge before us all

  (2009-04-11)

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Introduction to Rene Salm’s website page introducing readers to the archaeological evidence for an occupied Nazareth in the time of Jesus:

• The Nazareth Myth

  (2009-04-11)

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