was the town of Nazareth made-up by Christians?

Date 6/20/96

A friend wrote (paraphrased):

I have heard mythisicts argue that the non-historicity of Jesus is strongly supported by
the discovery that much of the geography of the gospels is fictional. They claim that
Nazareth did not exist during the first centuries BCE and CE; the earliest possible date
for settlement of the place is CE 135. And if there was no Nazareth, so the argument
goes, how could there be a Jesus of Nazareth?

My initial reaction to this is as follows: Nazareth was an extremely obscure Galilean

village. In fact it was so obscure that it was never mentioned in the OT, Josephus, Philo,
early rabbinic literature, or OT psuedepigrapha. However, the NT reference is (or
should be) sufficient to establish its existence.

I'm looking for more information on this. I'd especially appreciate it if anyone could
point me to some good scholarly references which address this issue.

Thanks in advance,

Here are a couple of quotes on the archeological data:

"Despite Nazareth's obscurity (which had led some critics to suggest that it was a relatively
recent foundation), archeology indicates that the village has been occupied since the 7th
century B.C., although it may have experienced a 'refounding' in the 2d century b.c. " ([MJ]A
Marginal Jew--Rethinking the Historical Jesus, (vol 1), p.300-301)...cites Meyers and
Strange, Archeology, the Rabbis, and Early Christianity, Abingdon:1981. pp.56-57
Although I do not have the Meyers/Strange work, more detail from it is given by Paul
Barnett[BSNT], Behind the Scenes of the New Testament, IVP:1990, p.42:
"Despite the Hellenization of the general region and the probability that Greek was known to
many people it seems likely that Nazareth remained a conservative Jewish village. After the
Jewish war with the Romans from AD 66-70 it was necessary to re-settle Jewish priests and
their families. Such groups would only settle in unmixed towns, that is towns without Gentile
inhabitants. According to an inscription discovered in 1962 in Caesarea Maritima the priests
of the order of Elkalir made their home in Nazareth. This, by the way, is the sole known
reference to Nazareth in antiquity, apart from written Christian sources... (next paragraph)
Some scholars had even believed that Nazareth was a fictitious invention of the early
Christians; the inscription from Caesarea Maritima proves otherwise."
hope this helps...glenn miller