The Myth of Nazareth: The Invented Town of Jesus (81 page)

^[281]
  S. Saller
Excavations in Bethany
pp. 200–202; P. Lapp
Palestine Ceramic Chronology,
p. 146; and Kraeling,
Gerasa
p. 553.

^[282]
 
Exc
. 282 and fig. 224:1.

^[283]
  Chapter 2, pp. 90–91.

^[284]
 
EJ
, “Nazareth” col. 900. See Pt. 2:30.

^[285]
 
Exc
. 272. This claim was first made by Bagatti in his 1960 article, “Nazareth,” for the
Dictionnaire de la Bible
(col. 324).

^[286]
  Paraphrases are found in
NIDBA
, “Nazareth,” p. 330, col. 1; Finegan 1992:45.

^[287]
  Alexandre 2000.

^[288]
  These four shards are marked by a (•) in
Illus. 3.6
.

^[289]
  The present analysis is compatible with a recent study by D. Hamidovic: “On the one hand, between the end of Iron I [
c
. 1000 BCE] and the Roman Period it is not certain that the site was occupied, or perhaps the site was very sparsely populated, according to the recovered archaeological material. Doubt is permitted as regards the Hellenistic II era (
c
. 200–63), on the other hand nothing [
aucun élément
] can assure occupation in the Iron III or Persian eras (539–332) nor in the Hellenistic Period (
c
. 332–200)” (Hamidovic:102). The facts presented in these pages show that Hamidovic is too tentative.

^[290]
  These tombs are itemized and described in Chapter 5.

^[291]
  Meyers, Netzer, and Meyers 1.

^[292]
  Strange contributed 182 articles alone to The
Macmillan Dictionary of Judaism in the Biblical Period
(1996).

^[293]
  Strange’s bibliography on Nazareth includes: E. Meyers and J. Strange,
Archaeology, the Rabbis, & Early Christianity
. Nashville: Abingdon, 1981; J. Strange, “Diversity in Early Palestinian Christianity: Some Archaeological Evidences,”
Anglican Theological Review
, vol. LXV (1983), pp. 14–24; “Some implications of archaeology for New Testament studies,” in
What has Archaeology to do with Faith?
pp 23–59. Harrisburg: Trinity Press Int’l, 1992; “Archaeology and the New Testament,”
Biblical Archaeologist
, vol. 56 (Sept. 1993), pp. 153–157; “First century Galilee from archaeology and from the texts,” in
Archaeology and the Galilee
, pp. 39–48. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1997; “The sayings of Jesus and archaeology,” in
Hillel and Jesus
, pp. 291–305. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1997; “Ancient texts, archaeology as text, and the problem of the first-century synagogue,” in
Evolution of the Synagogue
, pp. 27–45. Harrisburg: Trinity Press Int’l, 1999; and articles entitled “Nazareth” in the
Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Biblical World
(1991),
The Anchor Bible Dictionary
(1992), the
Macmillan Dictionary of Judaism in the Biblical Period
(1996), and the
Oxford Encyclopedia of Near Eastern Excavations
(1997).

^[294]
  Strange has excavated at Tell er-Ras, French Hill in Jerusalem, Kh. el-Kom, Caesarea, Kh. Shema, and Sepphoris. (
Biblical Archaeologist
56:3 [1993] p. 153).

^[295]
  Strange 1997; Batey 1992:59; 2001.
Hypocritês
in Greek had two meanings: (1) an actor, and (2) a dissembler. The second meaning is apparently intended in the canonical gospels, but Strange and others suggest the first as a possibility in the New Testament. Incidentally, it has recently been shown that the theater at Sepphoris was constructed
after
the time of Christ, namely, not before mid-first-century CE.

^[296]
  Meyers and Strange 57.

^[297]
  Bagatti 1955:5–6, 23;
Exc
. 319,
etc
. Discussion in Chp. 2:7–28.

^[298]
  P. Lapp 1961:230. The author enumerates Gezer, Samaria, Beth-Shan, Shechem, Beth-zur, Lachish, “and possibly also Bethel, Dothan, Shiloh, and Tell Zakariyeh” as abandoned or in major decline in II BCE.

^[299]
  P. Lapp 1961:230. Nancy Lapp notes that the “workmanship of the cooking pots in the second century B.C. had deteriorated considerably. Ware is thinner and less durable; most pots are carelessly made.” (N. Lapp 1964:22.)

^[300]
 
Exc
. 319.

^[301]
  Finegan:188. In fact, Marisa was destroyed by the Parthians in 40 BCE and never rebuilt. Today, it is the location of modern Tell Sandahannah.

^[302]
 
Exc
. 236.

^[303]
  The Church has also claimed the ancient Nazarenes liked to live in caves, which presumably would remove much evidence of habitations. Against this view, see Chapter 1, p. 36; Aviam 2004:90; Chapter 2, p. 66.

^[304]
  See J. Strange, “Six Campaigns at Sepphoris: The University of South Florida Excavations, 1983–1989,” in Levine, pp. 339–351 (bibliography in his note 1). Also, E. Meyers and J. Strange, “Survey in Galilee, 1976,”
Explor
3 (1977), 7–18; E. Meyers, J. Strange, and D. Groh, “The Meiron Excavation Project: Archaeological Survey in Galilee and Golan, 1976,”
BASOR
230 (1978), 1–24.

^[305]
  J. Strange, “Nazareth,” in
OEANE
, p. 113.

^[306]
  Chapter 1, pp. 19–22.

^[307]
 
ABD
(1992), “Nazareth,” p. 1051.

^[308]
 
Exc
. 258–272.

^[309]
  Chapter 1, p. 53
ff
. The Bronze and Iron periods are not elsewhere mentioned in Strange’s article.

^[310]
  Crossan 16.

^[311]
  Crossan and Reed 32.

^[312]
  See Chp. 1:
Illus. 5
.

^[313]
  Above, p. 103.

^[314]
  Aviam 2004:54.

^[315]
  Above, pp. 100, 103.

^[316]
 
Exc
:236. On the stratigraphic trench,
cf
. Chapter 2, p. 83
f.

^[317]
  Above, p. 110.

^[318]
  Three kokh tombs at Nazareth (numbers 70, 71, and 72) had quantities of datable pottery and oil lamps. All the post-Iron Age artefacts date to Middle Roman and later times (Chapter 6). The several kokh tombs excavated by N. Feig confirm this dating. The latter are not used in the primary data for this work, however, as they lie outside the immediate Nazareth basin.

^[319]
 
DJBP
, “Nazareth,” p. 449.

^[320]
  See Chapter 2, pp. 65, 71.

^[321]
  See above, pp. 100–101.

^[322]
  Chancey:36.

^[323]
 
Ibid
.:36.

^[324]
  Chancey:46.

^[325]
  Bagatti writes “Constans” (
Exc
. 210), Roman emperor in the West from 337–350. His brother Constantius II reigned in the East.
Cf
. Taylor 255. The coin was found embedded in the plaster of Locus 29 under the CA.

^[326]
 
OEANE
, “Nazareth,” p. 113.

^[327]
 
OEANE
, “Nazareth,” p. 114.

^[328]
  Chapter 1, pp. 23
ff
. The adaptation of caves to agricultural (rather than domestic) use will be taken up in Part Four.

^[329]
  See,
e.g
., Crossan and Reed 2002:34–35.

^[330]
  Map ref. 176.239.
NEAEHL
“Sepphoris,” 1324; Meyers, Netzer, Meyers: 3.

^[331]
  Meyers, Netzer, and Meyers:10.

^[332]
  Z. Weiss,
NEAEHL
, “Sepphoris,” p. 1324.

^[333]
 
Ant
. 13.12.5.;
War
2.5.10
f
.

^[334]
  E. Meyers, “Roman Sepphoris” p. 323.

^[335]
 
HA
8/5/2005,  p. 117.

^[336]
 
Ant
. 18.2.1.27.

^[337]
 
Chapter 1,
Illus
.
1.2
.

^[338]
  This was the son of Hezekiah the “robber chief ” whom the twenty-five year old Herod put to death
c
. 47 BCE (Schürer I.i:383).