I understand that Jesus was said to have grown upin the village of nazareth. Yet,such a place has not been identified by archaeologists (known to me anyway). Years ago, I read that Jesus was of the “branch” (ie. descended from King David)-the hebrew word for this is “nazorite”. Is this the source of the (fictitious) village of nazarith?
Of course, the NT Gospels say almost nothing about Christ’s life (bfore his mission at age 30). Are there any extra-Biblical sources that identify such a village as “Nazareth”?
I couldn’t swear to anything ralph except the map I’m looking at has Nazareth on it and my Webster’s dictionary claims it is a city in N. Israel in Galilee SE of Haifa and now has a population of over 30,000 people. Its history dates back nearly 3,000 years.
We’ve had a couple of forays into this question in the past:
Nazareth (Thread is ancient and some of the posts from the UBB days are out of order.)
Part way into the second page of Is it true that we do not know what Jesus look like? there was an exchange discussing this point. (It skips around other posts discussing other aspects of the topic, but begins here and continues for several more posts).
I think maybe ralph read this old wikipedia article http://www.fact-index.com/n/na/nazareth.html which doesn’t deny that Nazareth exists or has existed for a long time, just not that long.
Sounds more like an author trying to push his idea rather than just sticking to the facts.
This is the last one ralph unless you want to continue.
Just one of many cites
http://www.ancientroute.com/cities/Nazareth.htm
It actually confirms some of what you said but also has some historical records regarding the city.
it of course goes on about rebuilding and other destructions etc…
Plus, I don’t have a cite but I’ve got a video. In Search Of that shows footage of the site and other evidence…
That ought to suffice for now, huh?
Just to note that “nazorite” (a better spelling is nazarite) is completely different. Within ancient Judaism, that was a sort of hermit-like life style: you swore an oath as a nazarite, devoting yourself to God. A nazarite couldn’t drink wine or cut his/her hair, for example. Samson is the biblical arch-typical nazarite.
A Nazareth inhabitant is a different critter.
Now you’re messin’ with a Son of a…
So, IYO, what was Jesus “the Nazarene”? A religious nazorite, a resident of Nazareth, or both?
If he was a nazarite, then judging from the gospels, he had abandoned nazarite vows before his ministry. I’m pretty sure they talk about him drinking wine.
Nazarites were religious ascetics similar to monks. Sampson was a Nazarite. So was Samuel.
The traditional archaeological site “Nazareth” dates from the 2nd century CE. There is no clear evidence that it existed as a town in the first century, or if it did, where it was located.
Nazareth is mentioned several times in Mark (c. 65-70 CE) so there is a first century belief that Jesus was from a town called Nazareth- or at least a belief by Mark.
A lot of Galilean villages and towns were razed by the Romans in the Jewish-Roman War and there isn’‘t exactly a catalogue anywhere of names and locations so it’s possible that Jesus’ hometown was destroyed and it’s exact location is now lost.
The site now identified as Nazareth was only identified as such in the 1950’s. There is not actually any reason to make that identification based on the physical evidence at the site. It’s just an old village in Galilee. No one actually knows what it was called. It’s not old enough to be the hometown of Jesus, though. Like a lot of other sites in Israel with Biblical associations, tradition, wishful pronouncements and a lucrative tourist industry played into its identification as “Nazareth.”
That’s not to say that no such place existed, only that if it did, no one knows where it was, and wherever it was, it wasn’t where it is now.
The short answer to the OP is that scholars still argue about whether Jesus was from Nazareth or whether he was a Nazarite. Nazareth as a hometown has a pretty early and consistent attestation, though.
My guess- I’m about 60% that it was a real town but that it’s location has simply been lost.
The word could mean still more things. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazarene:
No, I did not add the winking smileys, nor are they visible on the original page; must be a code-translation problem.
Yeah, there’s that “Nazarene” thing too. When you examine that particular word, you still basically get left with the same question of whether it indicated a place name or a sect.
This is one of those questions that will just drive you more and more nuts the more you examine it. Jesus was not an ascetic according to the Gospels, but the Gospels also imply that he was a follower of John the Baptist which implies that he may have been an ascetic at some time prior to his ministry. I personally nurse a hypothesis that Jesus was a former ascetic and follower of John who underwent some sort of personal or mystic transformation (perhaps precipitated by John’s arrest and execution) which caused him to abandon his vows and redefine his ministry.
Imagine if a monk abandoned his vows, started his own ministry and became popular. Would people still call him a “monk” even though he no longer was one? They might. I can’t say they wouldn’t. In fact, the irony of that title might be the point. A former monk going out and partying might seem unusual and incongruous enough that he could be identified by bemused onlookers as the “Party Monk.”
So a former Nazrite ascetic dining with prostitutes and drinking wine migh elicit the same kind of curiosity and his identification as a Nazarite might be retained for its irony, not for its technical accuracy.
Then again, maybe he was from a place called Nazareth. Mark pretty clearly identifies it as a place.
This is a question that just isn’t going to have a satisfactory answer.