CCBlogs thinking critically, living faithfully

James McGrath's blog

Academic discussions of the subject of the place of Jesus' birth has been spreading Christmas cheer throughout the biblioblogosphere. Mark Goodacre's podcast started it off, and Doug Chaplin, +Wrong and I all responded in different ways. The +Wrong discussion is particularly interesting since it offered examples of individuals who became known as "NAME 0f PLACE" where the place was not where they were born; to which Steph responded by pointing out that in such cases the place they were associated with was a place they became famous, and it is not clear that "Jesus of Nazareth" fits that category. (An example that comes to mind from a later time is Rumi).

Historians are understandably skeptical and must consider the possibility that Jesus was associated with Bethlehem later. Because of the joint convictions that (a) Jesus was the Messiah, and (b) the Messiah has to come from Bethlehem, some Christians could well have drawn the conclusion that Jesus must have been from Bethlehem.... READ MORE.