The Myth Of Nazareth: The Invented Town Of Jesus [Paperback]

Rene Salm (Author), Frank R. Zindler (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 10, 2008

The Myth Of Nazareth presents convincing archaeological evidence that the town of Nazareth was not settled until after the First Jewish War, around 70 CE. Exhaustive reconsideration of ALL artifacts from present-day Nazareth shows that the site was not inhabited at the time Jesus of Nazareth and his family are supposed to have been living there. In this book researcher René Salm proves that a core element of the Jesus story was an invention of the evangelists who wrote their gospels towards the end of the first century CE -- as it turns out, at the same time the village of Nazareth was coming into being. Requiring eight years of painstaking research, The Myth Of Nazareth surveys the archaeological record of the Nazareth basin from the Stone Age until modern times. It guides the reader through a stunning odyssey of discovery -- one which exposes not only the true history of the site but also a scandalous history of evidentiary suppression reaching back into Early Christian Times. The here-established fact that Nazareth is a literary invention puts Jesus of Nazareth in the same class as the Wizard of Oz and implies that Jesus too is a literary invention. Coming shortly after the claim of Israeli archaeologist Aviram Oshri that Bethlehem in Judea also was uninhabited at the time Jesus is supposed to have been born there, Salm's research seems to be delivering a one-two knockout punch to the character known as The Historical Jesus.

Editorial Reviews

Review

I am amazed by your work and can't wait to see the pathetic attempts to reply! -- Robert M. Price, PhD, ThD, Author, The Pre-Nicene New Testament, Deconstructing Jesus, Jesus Is Dead, etc. Christianity cannot survive unless this book can be refuted. By proving scientifically that Nazareth was uninhabited at the time Jesus of Nazareth and his family were supposed to be living there, Salm strikes the Achilles' heel of a very popular god. We KNOW the Wizard of Oz is not real, since we know there never was a Land of Oz. Because of this exhaustive archaeological investigation, we now know that Jesus of Nazareth also is a literary fiction. Apologists and all other professional Christians are going to be out of work unless they can disprove this book -- or find a way to suppress it. -- Frank R. Zindler, Author, The Jesus the Jews Never Knew --Back cover

About the Author

For 30 years a scholar of early Buddhism as well as Christianity, René Salm is also a published composer of classical piano music and a linguist who commands many ancient and modern languages ranging from Aramaic, Hebrew, and Pali, to German, French, and Italian. In addition, he is a mental-health professional and concert-quality pianist. Salm resides in Eugene, Oregon, without need of car or television. The Myth Of Nazareth lays the foundation for a projected sequel -- a new account of Christian origins that will investigate suppressed evidence of Gnostic, Judean, and Essene roots of Christianity.

Product Details

• Paperback: 376 pages
• Publisher: American Atheist Press (March 10, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578840031
• ISBN-13: 978-1578840038
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #898,765 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Readable, Excellent, Scholarly and Important, May 29, 2008

By 

P. Lindsay falvey (Melb, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Myth Of Nazareth: The Invented Town Of Jesus (Paperback)

I don't care if Jesus came from Nazareth, Bodhgaya or Timbukto, but I do care for good books, and this is an excellent book on a difficult subject. How could archaeology of little oil lamps be interesting? - ask Rene Salm, for has made it so in this highly readable and objective account of the area where Nazareth was meant to exist about Year 0.

Without preciousness, without the emotion of some recent anti-religion books and without fear, the book incidentally shows that belief is anathema to the spiritual dimensions of religion, yet is the very essence of the religion of the ignorant. I suspect that these latter forces will crucify the work with the usual dogma-based arguments that we too often leave unchallenged. Nevertheless I predict that the work will persist on the shelves of those who strive to understand their spirits - for those in the Christian tradition, this means those who strive to know Jesus, for they know it matters little whether he was a Jew or blond or was born in Nazareth. But it matters if their church is pushing an invented (not an inherited tribal story) myth as fact.

This is a scholarly work in a field dominated by scholars employed by church-related bodies. For this reason it is unique as its scholarship is of a higher order than that of those it criticizes. And potential readers should be aware that Salm's the criticism is kind - regardless of the obnoxious comments of another reviewer whom I suspect has not read the book at all. The reader is led into gentle questions such as `why would the church chose to present the data that way?' and `how could an archaeologist make such a simple mistake?' Of course we learn more with time in all such fields but the book allows for this and softly leads us to consider the remaining questions. We decide - it is not a belief-based study; it is a special and important contribution to a failing religion of a people searching for truth. It should be in every good university library, and will no doubt be on the shelves of the private libraries of the balance and thinking elite.

Lindsay Falvey

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book, July 3, 2011

By 

bratule - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Myth Of Nazareth: The Invented Town Of Jesus (Paperback)

Excellent! A detailled and complete review of the archaeological evidence for the existence or non-existence of Nazareth during the siecles before and after year 1.
Clear, nice explanations of the various wars and invasions at this time. Objective criticisms of the ideological biases from the previous archeologists. Well referenced.

11 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great apologetic book for atheists, April 14, 2010

By 

J. F Joyner "jim_joyner" (Spartanburg, SC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Myth Of Nazareth: The Invented Town Of Jesus (Paperback)

Rene Salm certainly has done a lot of homework on the archaeological work at Nazareth. He is a devoted researcher. He has an excellent summary of the history of the Galilee. He points out many errors and exposes the deep bias of Christian archeologists who have published their archaeological "findings."

Like his editor, Frank R. Zindler, the author is a devoted atheist. His work attacks, over and over and over, the flaws he identifies in the published works of Christian archaeologists. He casts doubt on the integrity of all archaeologists who believe Nazareth existed before the middle of the 1st century of the Common Era.

His archaeological discussion is brimming with quotes from and references to Galilean archaeologists Dr. Zvi Gal and Mordechai "Motti" Aviam. These two archaeologists receive rare respect from Salm. Ironically, Dr. Aviam completely disagrees with Salm's conclusion about the dating of Nazareth. In private communications, Dr. Aviam ("a secular Jew" by his own words) has disclosed that his personal examinations of earlier and recent artifacts and the newly discovered (early) 1st century residence persuade him that the traditional site of Nazareth is correctly identified and dated. Aviam believes Nazareth was settled in the 1st century BCE, probably when Judeans settled much of the Galilee, especially the Lower Galilee, during the years shortly before and after 100 BCE. Dr. Aviam's pointed comment to Salm and his editor was (paraphrased): I reject your conclusion of "case closed"; we don't do science that way.

It would be naive to think that Dr. Aviam's summary-comments redeem the many flaws in earlier archaeological work done in Nazareth; most of Salm's criticisms are deserved and I would expect Dr. Aviam to concur with some of the mistakes Salm criticizes. Salm also has a reasonable point to offer when he insists that no one can reasonably rely on unpublished information to support the existence of Nazareth in the 1st century BCE. However, genuine scholarship does not permit Salm to make the rules. In a world of limited time and money, archaeologists cannot pursue every question about every site. Galilean archaeologists are further hampered by the reality of the dense occupation of Nazareth. So far, archaeologists have not prioritized the excavation of Nazareth to clarify its settlement in the 1st century BCE (Professor Uzi Leibner of Hebrew University suggests the possibility of two waves of settlement in the 1st century BCE), even though several are now aware of Salm's claims and have received copies of his book. Salm may be forced now to "diss" the archaeologist upon whom he relied as a biased scientist because the Galilean expert is not persuaded that Salm's arguments warrant his conclusion(s). The esteemed Dr. Aviam recognizes the atheists' agenda is not to gain genuine knowledge, and finds it no more credible than the biased archaeologists Salm so thoroughly condemns.

Salm's book gives mixed messages about his views on Nazareth's date. At one point he says persuasive evidence could clarify the situation, like the remains of an early 1st century residence, but then he goes on to more or less say his mind is made up forever. In 2009, the remains of a 1st century residence were discovered and Salm's web site, [reference removed by amazon], quotes unnamed archaeologists disparaging the dating of the ancient residence. Salm even quotes Seymour Gittin of the Albright Institute, but does not disclose that Gittin is an expert of the Bronze Age and not an expert on Hellenistic, Hasmonaean, Herodian, or Roman period archaeology. It is obvious that Salm is shopping for opinions rather than weighing all credible archaeological evidence.

In his private communications with Salm, Dr. Aviam offered to visit the Nazareth site and see what was there to indicate the dating, recognizing that all observations are tentative at this early stage in the excavation and evaluation of the finds. Dr. Aviam's conclusion: archaeologist Yardena Alexandre's assessment that the newly discovered residence is early 1st century is based on solid evidence.

So what does an atheist do when his "hero" disagrees with his conclusions? Salm's conclusion is not truly a scholarly conclusion, it is a conclusion guided by his atheistic worldview. In other words, Salm is not going to revise his conclusions regardless of any newly discovered evidence, because such a correction would not be consistent with his a priori belief that Nazareth (in the 1st century BCE) and Jesus of Nazareth were myths. This is not to suggest to any reader that Salm is un-intelligent or uninformed or unable to present a strong case; quite the opposite is true. Anyone who underestimates the intellectual power of Salm's arguments is being naive. However, a careful and complete examination of his proposal indicates that he is guided by his beliefs and cannot accommodate objective science.

This book is well suited for atheists who desire powerful apologetics for their anti-beliefs about Jesus and Nazareth.

My main point to anyone studying this topic: this book is not an objective source of information. A much better source for learning about the archaeology of 1st century Galilee (including Nazareth) is "Archaeology and the Galilean Jesus" by Professor Jonathan L. Reed, a genuine expert.