Besorah: Whisperings of A Messiah That Already Came

A Wandering Preacher Arrives From Galilee

The term Messiah has been superceded by the English word Christ, which in it's original Greek form is Χριστός (khrīstós, "the anointed one"), which is derived from the verb χρίω (chrī́ō), meaning "to anoint." The Hellenized Μεσσιας of the New Testament (John Ⅰ. 41; ⅠⅤ. 25) is a transliteration of the Aramaic form, Aramaic being the spoken language of Palestine in the time of Jesus. The term "Messiah" - with the article and not in apposition with another word - is, however, not an expression that is explicitly used in the Tanakh, though it occurs for the first time in apocalyptic literature.

Early Life

Jesus lived in the Roman province of Judea during the Second Temple Era, having come from Galilee (גליל - galîl), which was a region in Northern Israel, dotted with small towns and villages. The Jewish historian Josephus once wrote that there were 204 small towns in Galilee, although this estimate may be an exaggeration.

Jesus probably spent his adolescence and early adulthood as a menial manual laborer (most likely a craftsman) in the rural, rather poor town of Nazareth in the Galilean mountains of northern Palestine, almost 2,000 years ago. This is because the word translated as "capenter" is τέκτων (téktōn), which is just a common term for an artisan or a craftsman, and although the term is rather general it does gravitate more or less especially towards wood- working and carpentry.

Which is hardly surprising, I suppose, since the word is drived from Proto Indo-european tétḱō meaning carpenter, via the root word tetḱ ("to create; to hew"). The term is frequently contrasted with an iron-worker, or smith (χαλκεύς) and the stone-worker or mason (λιθολόγος, λαξευτής). However, wood was typically scarce in Second Temple era Judaea, so it's unlikely that Joseph and his family relied solely upon wood-working as a profession.

Nazareth

One argument a lot of mythicists like to make is that Jesus is a fictional character because Nazareth didn't exist until the 3rd century AD. However, this is an exaggeration of the facts. Nazareth was founded as an early rural settlement in 2200 BC, but was grown into a major city at roughly 300 AD. So Nazareth did exist in the first century, it was just a rural town and not a major city. When we read the Gospels in context this is exactly what we find.

Not to mention, this argument is simply illogical. Agnostic skeptic Bart Ehrman once pointed out:

"I could dispose of this argument fairly easily by pointing out that it is irrelevant. If Jesus existed, as the evidence suggests, but Nazareth did not, as this assertion claims, then he merely came from somewhere else. Whether Barack Obama was born in the U.S. or not (for what it is worth, he was) is irrelevant to the question of whether he was born."

Lastly, the argument has been falsified through a blatant dismissal of numerous archaeological discoveries which clearly establish that Nazareth was indeed a town inhabited in the first century at the time of Jesus. Archaeologists even showed us how Jesus would have lived in the rural village of "Naṣrəṯ" (נַצרֲת), as it was likely called back then.

There is a consensus among researchers, and findings which clearly show evidence that 1st century Nazareth was a Jewish community with less than 400 people living there. Archaeologists unearthed a stone quarry there, terraced farmland, a wine press, and watch-towers like the ones which Jesus describes in the Parable of the Wicked Vinedressers in Matthew ⅩⅩⅠ and Mark ⅩⅠⅠ. They also discovered a house with a still intact cistern, with stone vessels typically used by Jewish people during that period to preserve purity of food. But what wasn't found there was just as telling. No glass, mosaics, frescoes, paved roads, or imported materials were found in this town from the 1st century, suggesting that this was a simple, rural village at that time (this is typical of many small towns in Galilee at this time).

A House In Nazareth

A house in Nazareth might have been one roomed or have several small rooms opening into a central courtyard. Stairs on the outside of the house led up to the roof, which was used as an outdoor room partly shaded by matting or something like a tent.

Inside, small windows (sometimes covered by lattice or shutters) made for dark rooms. Niches and wooden shelves were used for storage. Most houses had a cistern for water. There would be a wide bench made of mud brick or stone at one end with pillows and mats to sleep on or sit on. People also sat on the floor or on cushions. You might have a table, couch, or bed if you were more well off (but generally only the wealthy had this).