" AND NOT EVEN BY LYING DID YOU SUCCEED IN MAKING YOUR FABRICATIONS CREDIBLE. ON THE CONTRARY SOME OF THE FAITHFUL JUST LIKE DRUNKS WHO PICK A QUARREL WITH EACH OTHER CHANGED THE ORIGINAL TEXT OF THE GOSPEL IN THREE AND FOUR AND MANY DIFFERENT WAYS AND DOCTORED IT SO AS TO HAVE A MEANS OF REPLYING TO REFUTATIONS."
kelsos/true speech II,26+II,27/c. AD 178



I. "MATTHEW" 2:23

in the gospel of 'matthew' 2:23 we read:
"and he came and settled in a city called nazareth : so that what had been said through the prophets that he would be called nazorean would be fulfilled".

now to begin with the subject of this phrase in 'matthew' 's grammatical context is joseph not jesus.
so if 'matthew' is refering to jesus as nazorean which he appears to be then his grammar is wrong.
but if 2:23 is a constructio ad sensum and the nazorean is jesus then what the hell is nazorean supposed to mean?
again the seemingly deliberate confusion/information fog here starts with the awkward grammar contradicting the apparent sense.

anyway 'matthew' clearly seems to imply that jesus was called nazorean because he grew up in nazareth.
but grammar again belies this :
in greek an inhabitant of nazareth may not be called nazorean - greek NAZORAIOS - as in 'matthew' 2:23.
in greek it would sound more like nazaretis - see maria-luisa rigato/il titolo della croce di gesù/roma 2005/p.65.

so why is 'matthew' tryin' to cheat us into believing that jesus was called nazoraios because he came to live in nazareth?
on the surface of it why rule out that 'matthew' or whoever wrote 'matthew' 2:23 simply got it wrong out of ignorance and/or poor greek.
but 'matthew' 's greek is generally deemed correct not poor eg by o. da spinetoli/matteo entry/nuovo dizionario enciclopedico illustrato della bibbia/piemme 2005.
therefore if 'matthew' wrote that nazoraios means from nazareth which it can't he was deliberate about cheating us.
father forgive him not for he knew what he was doing...

we are being treated to a fair bit of good old information fog or disinformation here:
1. the phrase he shall be called nazoraios grammatically refers to joseph though sense-wise it doesn't register;
2. if refered ad sensum to jesus the nazoraios thing is connected to nazareth which grammatically is nonsense according to greek morphology.

somebody's desperate to cover something over here - and he's doing a very poor job at it.

one might ask didn't 'matthew' 's ancient greek-speaking readers/listeners realize the fraud?
well - not necessarily.
because first of all most of them may have been too ignorant to hair-split over grammar. probably most of them were no native speakers of greek.
and the few well educated in those early - and every other time's down to present day's - audiences were probably those who held leadership positions in the early christian church - with no motivation to question doctrine.

again:
'matthew' 2:23 looks like deliberate dissimulation/deception on the part of whoever wrote it.

next up once more:
what the hell did nazoraios really originally mean that 'matthew' was so desperate to dissimulate?
the debate is millennium-old.

II. LET'S CHECK THE MANUSCRIPTS

first of all let me suggest we ask ourselves this all-important question whenever debating scripture:
since when has 'matthew' 2:23 existed?
don't tell me since shortly after 'jesus' ' death because there is no proof a 'matthew' ever wrote his gospel and when.
therefore let's rephrase:
when is the existence of 'matthew' 2:23 first attested to?
let's pick up our standard scientific edition of the greek new testament:
nestle-aland/novum testamentum graece et latine/2002.
on pp 684 ff there's a list of greek manuscripts handing down the NT or parts thereof to us.
it's not a complete list but it includes i should hope all the most ancient and best-deemed ones.

now when does 'matthew' 2:23 first occur?
in a III-century papyrus.
papyrus 70 in nestle-aland's list of which there are apparently 2 extant bits one in oxford the other in florence.
only the latter contains 'matthew' 2:23 (florence.istituto papirologico "g.vitelli".PSI inv. CNR 419,420) .
anyway papyrus 70 is dated by nestle/aland back to the III century AD that is to between AD 201 and 300.
there appears to be no earlier manuscript including 'matthew' 2:23 and no later one until the IV century AD.
now i do not know as yet how papyrus 70 was dated to the III century i assume they C14'ed it and analyzed the writing style anyway for now let's assume such a date is correct and someone wrote or copied 'matthew' 2,23 onto payrus 70 in the III century AD.
this would allow us to say that 'matthew' 2:23 has existed since some time between AD 201 and AD 300.
but it does NOT allow us to say 'matthew' 2,23 existed BEFORE AD 200. that 'matthew' 2,23 existed before 200 is mere speculation.
because again no earlier manuscript contains 'matthew' 2:23 or other lines from chapter 2.
which is to say we have no proof whatsoever that 'matthew' 2:23 was written before AD 201.
which is a helluva long time after 'jesus' ' alleged death under pilate that is by AD 37 when pilate's tenure ended.
let me underscore this point one last time:
we have no evidence for stating that 'matthew' 2:23 was written before at least 163 years after the alleged death of the alleged jesus. therefore we may neither maintain so nor deny it with certainty.
don't tell me that 'matthew' 2:23 must have existed before the III century because a III-century copy presupposes an older original:
1. how do you know that papyrus 70 is a copy not the original?
2. even IF papyrus 70 is a copy since its precise year is unspecified it may have been copied say in 260 from an original written say in 230.
therefore again even IF papyrus 70 is a copy there's no telling when its archetype (master/maybe original) was written.

does any ancient author quote 'matthew' 2:23 before AD 201?
no - not that i'm aware of.
sure enough greek-language author kelsos in his antichristian book 'truthful speech' VII,18 calls jesus O NAZORAIOS ANTHROPOS - the nazorean man according to r.bader's scientific edition of kelsos' work.
and kelsos' book is dated back to AD 178 albeit without absolute certainty.
but kelsos VII,18 first of all does not mention nazareth at all nor any OT prophecy therefore it can't be taken as exegesis or quote of 'matthew' 2:23 or as proof for the existence of 'matthew' 2:23 in or before AD 178.
kelsos VII,18 if authentic and correctly dated is only proof that early 'christian' writings called jesus nazoraios. kelsos does not tell us what he thought nazoraios meant.
furthermore kelsos' work wasn't handed down to us by dedicated manuscripts in its integrity but only in fragments quoted by church father origen refuting kelsos around AD 248 - therefore we can't even be sure kelsos is being quoted correctly by origen.

the first author that appears to be commenting on 'matthew' 2:23 albeit without verbatim quoting him is church father tertullian in about AD 210 (maria-luisa rigato/il titolo della croce di gesù/roma 2005/p. 82) in his work adversus marcionem included in the church-father collection called patrologia latina short PL 2,4,8.
but AD 210 is the same age as papyrus 70:
III century AD.
sure enough if tertullian really was writing around AD 210 about 'matthew' 2:23 then 'matthew' 2:23 must have existed for some time before AD 210 - but since when it had existed that is when it was written we do not know.
tertullian may have written 'matthew' 2:23 himself for ought i know.

the problem with both 'matthew' 2:23 and tertullian is that they're trying to explain away 'nazoraios' as meaning from nazareth when in fact it may not according to greek grammar.

so back we are full-circle:
what the hell did nazoraios really mean and why are 'matthew' 2:23 and tertullian wrongly telling us it means from nazareth?

III. NAZORAIOI = FIRST CHRISTIANS

'jesus' was called nazoraios.
his first followers also were according to acts of the apostles 24:5 where paul is accused of being the leader of the cult of the " nazoreans" - same greek word as in 'matthew' 2:23.
thus apparently acts 24:5 is telling us that the first christians were called nazoraioi (nazoreans).
and they certainly didn't all come from nazareth - paul himself famously was from tharsos .

therefore acts 24:5 gives the lie to 'matthew' 2:23 that nazoraios=from nazareth.
o wondrous harmony of the " word of god "...

but WHY were 'jesus' and his early followers called nazoraioi?
what are 'matthew' 2:23 and tertullian adversus marcionem PL 2.4.8 so busy dissimulating?

IV. MANDEANS AND MANICHEANS

to this day mandeans and manicheans call themselves NASORAYYA in aramaic a language common in palestine in jesus' times still spoken today in parts of the middle east.
and 'matthew' 2:23 's + acts 24:5 's NAZORAIOI sounds quite like the greek translation/transliteration of NASORAYYA doesn't it ?

but:
mandeans and manicheans are no christians - at least not as we understand the word 'christian' today.
mandeans are to this day the followers of john the baptist.
they live in iraq or at least used to before g.w.bush destroyed the country.

V. GUARDIANS OF JOHN'S LEGACY

so mandeans may have taken refuge in iraq after the assassination of their prophet john the baptist.
now scholar lidzbarski said in 1920 that nasorayya comes from aramaic nasar =hebrew natsor = to protect/keep.
in the case of mandeans, to keep john the baptist's rituals such as baptism by full immersion.
scholar m. black accepted this theory.
he said that early christians were called nazoraioi as well = nasorayya = keepers because jesus' movement was an offspring of john's.

all of which makes a lot of sense to me - the gospels tell us that jesus before starting his own ministry first went to john and was baptized by him.
and that's when jesus became a nazoraios/keeper according to lidzbarski/black.

so maybe what 'matthew' 2:23 did not want us to know was that jesus really was a follower of john the baptist.

VI. WHY WAS JOHN THE BAPTIST SO DANGEROUS ?

because john the baptist clearly had been an anti-establishment figure.
ancient jewish historian joseph flavius who was born shortly after john's death in his book jewish antiquities volume 18 chapter 5 paragraph 2 tells us that the baptist had attracted a huge following by preaching perfection justice piety .
the gospels tell us he had criticized roman-puppet tetrarch herod antipas for marrying a niece.
and john's 'huge following' evidently also saw antipas as the exact opposite of 'perfection justice piety'.
joseph tells us that herod antipas feared john might start an uprising and therefore killed him " in order to get him out of the way " - call it preventive assassination ...

so THAT may well be what 'matthew' 2:23 and his exegete tertullian are trying to cover up through the nazareth lie :
THAT JESUS AND HIS DISCIPLES WERE NAZORAIOI THAT IS NASORAYYA THAT IS KEEPERS OF JOHN THE BAPTIST ' S RITUALS WHICH IMPLIED BEING ANTIROMAN REVOLUTIONARIES.

call it 'doctoring' or 'sanitizing' the movement in robert h eisenman's vivid phrasing.

VII. MANICHEANS

but manicheans too reportedly defined themselves as nasorayya = nazoraioi.
god forbid people and especially roman authorities would associate christians and manicheans for 'matthew' 's/tertullian's lyin' official-church successors!

manicheans were the followers of mani a III century AD 'iraqi' prophet who thought he was the savior of mankind.
he revered jesus and taught a message akin to john's and jesus'.
he became a preacher in 244 and was duly crucified in 277 by the persian king who evidently feared mani's social-revolutionary potential much like herod antipas had feared john's 241 years earlier.
economic equality was a common focus for john jesus and mani - too dangerous for capitalism in all times...

obviously if 'matthew' 2:23 and tertullian PL 2.4.8 were written respectively some time before AD 210 and around AD 210 they were not falsifying the meaning of nazoraios from 'keeper of john the baptist's ways' into 'from nazareth' out of fear of being associated with mani who was yet to be born in AD 210 - 'matthew' 2:23 and tertullian PL 2.4.8 were written to separate early christianity from john the baptist's/mandean social-revolutionary implications.

but later church fathers who also reprised the absurdity that nazoraios=from nazareth such as eusebius of caesarea (AD c.260-340) surely were keenly aware of the potential for associating jesus john and mani and therefore may well have picked up the old nazoraios=from nazareth exegetic trick so as not to induce people or roman authorities into thinking that jesus and his disciples were nasorayya that is one and the same as not only mandeans but also manicheans in doctrine - both harking back to the dangerous john the baptist.

VIII. WHAT ABOUT THE PROPHETS THOUGH?

the lidzbarski/black theory that nazoraioi=nasorayya=mandeans is fascinating and accounts for everything...were it not for one bloody 'small' detail:
that 'matthew' 2:23 piling up layer upon layer of information fog says that it had been "the prophets" who said that 'he' would be called nazoraios.

except there is no such prophecy in the old testament as we know it.
whereas every other OT prophecy quoted in the gospel of matthew is traceable to the OT.

each of the 2 main explanations for such an oddity make matters even worse for our gospel liars...

IX. JUDGES 13:5 : THE NAZIR

now what 'matthew' may be distorting here to boot is the OT passage closest to 'matthew' 2:23 's "he will be called nazorean" : judges 13:5 which is about a prophecy to the future mother of samson that she'll beget a son "whose head no razor shall touch because the boy WILL BE A NAZIREE consecrated to god from his mother's womb" (my caps).

in the old testament naziree has nothing whatsoever to do with the city of nazareth which is totally ignored by the old testament - and by everybody else in antiquity through "jesus" ' time and long beyond.

who was a naziree or nazir as per judges 13:5 and why are the 4 canonic gospels so desperate to cover up the messiah's "nazir" status with the ludicrous fabrication of a nazareth birth that no prophet had ever dreamt of at all?

the first occurrence of nazirism in the bible is at numbers 6:1-21 : god instructs moses to institute a special vow (nazirism) "to be holy to god" consisting of :
- abstention from wine and all heady beverages vinegar liquors grapes;
- letting the hair down;
- not touching corpses not even a family member's.

now the second point is immediately recognizable in the traditional long-haired-jesus iconography .
the first point is more contentious because according to the canonic gospels jesus drank - but this might be further dissimulating lying on the part of the gospel forgers just like the nazareth thing again for the purpose of concealing jesus' dangerous nazir status see below chapter X. DID JESUS REALLY DRINK? where i demolish the alleged 'drinking-jesus' attestations in the gospels.

point 3 not to touch the dead belies jesus' nazir (or at least perpetual-nazir see below) status according to maria luisa rigato/il titolo della croce di gesù/roma 2005/p.86 because 'matthew' 9:25 tells us jesus "touched without problems a corpse, jair's daughter" in rigato's words.
but she is wrong : 'matthew' 9:24 tells us that according to jesus the kid "is not dead,she's sleeping". therefore when in the next line 'matthew' 9:25 jesus takes the girl by the hand he's not touching a corpse but a living. same story in the parallel narrative of 'mark' 5:39 - 5:41 and 'luke' 8:52 - 8:54.
in the other gospel instances of 'resurrections' performed by jesus there's no touching the dead.
so nazir vow 3 is accounted for with jesus - he never touches the dead throughout the gospels.

and he wore long hair.
but he drank - unless this is another gospel lie see below dedicated chapter.

now naziree vows could be temporary or perpetual.
samson's nazirism was perpetual "from his mother's womb". that accounts for why he lost his power when his wife managed to cut his hair.

nazar in hebrew means to separate and to consecrate - samson was set aside for god from before his conception.

now back to judges 13:1 ff :
a guy called manoach had a sterile wife (the usual sterile-wife story so familiar with bible readers see sarah&abraham) whom an angel visits - a clear literary model for the angel visiting mary to announce her the birth of jesus.
now the angel first orders manoach's wife to take a vow of nazirism herself :
"though shalt not drink wine nor heady drink nor eat unclean food. because there you will conceive and beget a son on whose head no razor shall pass because the boy shall be a naziree holy to god from his mother's womb; HE SHALL BEGIN TO DELIVER ISRAEL FROM THE HANDS OF THE PHILISTINES" (my caps).

now samson was to be a life-long nazir - and the purpose of this special calling by god WAS TO FREE ISRAEL MILITARILY FROM ITS ENEMIES IN A HOLY WAR ACCORDING TO GOD'S WILL.

which obviously would have been very inspirational to first-century AD radical jihadist jews such as zealots qumranites etc who were hell-bent on awaitin' a militaristic messiah who would deliver them from imperialistic roman occupation with the help of god and his heavenly host in a final apocalyptic armageddon that would bring about the end of evil and the triumph of the just of israel.

now "matthew" obviously proroman antizealot that he is turns all of this jihadistic sense of judges 13:5 's naziree into "jesus" coming from nazareth - because gospel jesus had to be meek proroman pacifist so as not to irk the structure of roman power then lording it over palestine.
therefore again the phrasing "he shall be called nazorean" in matthew is totally distorted into a lie after lifting it from its original militaristic zionist context - as per usual pattern in the westernizing 4 canonics.

not to mention the fact that NAZORAIOS is no possible greek transliteration for hebrew nazir - it would have to be nazIraios. further infog for a change...

from all this we may arrive at the following all-important conclusions:

1. "matthew" 2:23 is lying when he hints albeit in a cloud of grammatical fog that judges 13:5 prophesied the nazareth birth for the christ - judges 13:5 says samson will be a nazir.

2.if the gospels are fabricating a nazareth birth it means they're desperate to dissimulate/obfuscate/erase from history a nazir status for the real christs/messiahs of history - that is those radical jewish leaders called zealots etc who especially in the first century AD devoted themselves to the violent struggle against the romans for the freedom of israel - like novel samsons.

3. therefore in the first century AD and even later the term nazir had come to acquire such dangerous antiroman connotations that it scared the evangelists shitless to rewrite it into "from nazareth" .

one thing is for sure:
"matthew" is taking his bible quote (albeit not a verbatim quote but close enough) out of context and distorting its meaning into a lie because again judges 13:5 has nothing whatsoever to do with the city of nazareth which is not attested to at all for old testament times either by written sources or by archeology.

robert eisenman/the dead sea scrolls and the first christians/element 1996/p.117 n.3 says that jesus' brother james' nazir status is well attested to:
james was 'holy' or 'nazirite from the womb' for hegesippus according to eusebius EH 2.1,2.23; epiphanius haeres.29.3,78.13; jerome vir. ill. 2 etc.
"the same claim" - eisenman continues - "i.e.,being specially chosen while in his mother's womb,is put forth by the author of the Qumran Hymns - presumably the Righteous Teacher himself.".
and most likely "whatever james was, jesus was" according to the finale of eisenman's "james the brother of jesus"/faber and faber 1997.


X. DID JESUS REALLY DRINK?

there are indeed strong reasons to suspect that drinking jesus is yet another gospel lie.
because if we again ask ourselves the all-important question of when the relevant gospel passages are first attested to we find that THE DRINKING JESUS OF 'MATTHEW' 11:19 DOES NOT OCCUR IN THE EXTANT MANUSCRIPT TRADITION OF GREEK MATTHEW BEFORE THE IV CENTURY (codices alpha 01 london brit libr add 43725 and B03 vat gr 1209) .
COINCIDENCE OR LATE ADDITION?
AGAIN & AGAIN :THERE IS NO PROOF WHATSOEVER THAT MATTHEW 11:19 FEATURING DRINKING JESUS WAS WRITTEN BEFORE THE IV CENTURY AD.

ia 'matthew' 11:19 quoted by any author before the IV century?
no such witness is mentioned by nestle/aland's apparatus criticus to 11:19.
'apparatus criticus' in a scientific edition is bottom-page notes telling us in this case which manuscript witnesses/other ancient authors have a given passage and in what form.
to my knowledge the first author mentioning drinking jesus is epiphanius (AD 367-404) - again oh coincidence in the late IV century.
and epiphanius' context 'coincidentally' is one of polemics against identifying NAZORAIOS with NAZIR! (epiphanius epistula ad theodosium imperatorem - a letter to the roman emperor! who was the last person in the world that would have accepted the equivalence nazoraios=nazir with its antiroman implications. and thanx to epiphanius' skewed exegesis emperor theodosius in 391 or 392 rewarded sanitized christianity by proclaiming it the official and exclusive religion of the roman empire...).

once more:
the nazir status was implicitly nationalistic/antiimperialistic/antiroman therefore it had to be written out of christian scripture if christianity was to survive and gain power.
so lo&behold out of the magic hat of late proroman gospel forgers there springs non-nazir drinking jesus of 'matthew' 11:19 NOT attested to before the IV century in textual manuscript tradition and underscored by late-IV-century church daddy epiphanius who in the context of kissing roman emperor theodosius' ass de-nazirized jesus turning him into a drinker .
i wouldn't be in the least surprised if epiphanius had written 'matthew' 11:19 himself .
'matthew' 11:19 also serves the purpose of again differentiating drinking jesus from non-drinking antiestablishment john the baptist...

other gospel occurrences of drinking jesus may be a little earlier than the IV century but see below.

i owe the epiphanius quote to maria-luisa rigato/il titolo della croce di gesù/roma 2005/pp 84-85.
rigato ibidem pp 86-87 reviews other gospel quotes with drinking jesus. let's check when THEY first appear in manuscript tradition.

1. 'matthew' 26:29:
- papyri 45 and 53 III century = centuries after 'jesus' .

MOST INTERESTING HERE IS PAPYRUS 64 ONE OF THE VERY OLDEST DATED TO AD C.200 WHICH DOES CONTAIN 10 LINES FROM CHAPTER 26 OF MATTHEW - BUT NOT THE LAST SUPPER'S WINE-RELATED PART.
COINCIDENCE AGAIN?
OR COULD IT BE THAT THE WINE-RELATED PART IN THE LAST SUPPER WAS ORIGINALLY TOTALLY ABSENT IN THE REAL MATTHEW TEXT UNTIL AS LATE AS C.200 ONLY TO BE INTERPOLATED INTO THE TEXT BY LATER FORGERS STARTING IN THE III CENTURY ?

LET ME UNDERSCORE THIS AD NAUSEAM LET ME MAKE IT ABSOLUTELY CRYSTAL-CLEAR THAT THE OLDEST MANUSCRIPT HANDING DOWN TO US CHAPTER 26 OF MATTHEW (THE LAST SUPPER) THAT IS PAPYRUS 64 OXFORD GR 17 + BARCELONA P BARC 1 DATED TO C.200 BY NESTLE/ALAND IGNORES THE WINE PART FOR THE LAST SUPPER .
NO WINE ON THE TABLE YET AS LATE AS AD 200...

AGAIN AND AGAIN NO WINE FOR THE LAST SUPPER NO 'MATTHEW' 26:29 BEFORE THE III CENTURY AD.

CAN ALL THIS AGAIN BE PURE COINCIDENCE?
COULD IT BE INSTEAD THAT ABSTAINING NAZIR JESUS WAS TRANSMOGRIFIED INTO A ROMANIZING DRINKER BY MANIPULATING THE ORIGINAL TEXT OF MATTHEW STARTING SOME TIME IN THE III CENTURY?

any person who hasn't yet lost his/her intellect to church dogma will at the very least suspend judgement and faith re whether jesus drank or not at this point i dare hope!

how about drinking jesus in luke now?

in 'luke' 7:34 poor jesus not only takes to drinking but also becomes a 'friend of tax-collectors and sinners' - the groups radical nationalist jihadist zealot jews ie real early christians hated the most.
let me in passing remind you that point 1 on the agenda of I-century AD jewish messianic revolutionaries had been quitting paying taxes to rome.

anyway when is luke 7:34 first attested to?
let's again scroll down nestle/aland's NT manuscript list:
check this one out for instance:
papyrus 75 dated to the III century (P bodmer XIV.XV at cologny) has a lot of luke's chapter 7 until line 32...and then skips to lines 35-39 ( line numbering is absent of course it's a late medieval addition) !!!!!!
IT IGNORES PRECISELY JUST 7:34 THAT IS DRINKING JESUS AGAIN AND ALL OVER AGAIN JUST LIKE WE'VE SEEN ABOVE FOR PAPYRUS 64 IGNORING 'MATTHEW' 26:29 & ITS WINE-AT-THE-LAST-SUPPER LIE!

still believe it's the umpteenth coincidence?
still believe the gospels were not manipulated & falsified?
STILL BELIEVE?
STILL A BELIEVER?
well if you are then go back to bleating at sunday school but don't bother reading me any longer - logic is not for you.

the first attestation for drinking jesus in 'luke' 7:34 occurs as late as papyrus 82 strasbourg p gr 2677 and codices alpha 01 and B 03 THAT IS IN THE IV/V CENTURY THAT IS ONE OR TWO CENTURIES AFTER PAPYRUS 75 IN EPIPHANIUS' & THEODOSIUS' TIME AGAIN - OH COINCIDENCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

'john' 2:3-10 the cana miracle when 'jesus' allegedly turned water into wine is irrelevant because it does not say that jesus himself drank of the wine but only that he turned water into wine and only after first displaying reluctance/annoyance (2:4).

oh but - above-quoted rigato continues - 'matthew' 27:48 says jesus on the cross accepted vinegar which was prohibited to nazirs therefore jesus was no nazir or at least no perpetual nazir.
but rigato is dead wrong again:
'matthew' 27:48 says someone 'gave vinegar to drink' to jesus on the cross NOT that jesus accepted it.
it sounds more like additional sadistic torture than solace. which is confirmed by 27:48 being lifted from psalm 69:22 "they poisoned my food/and when i thirsted they gave me vinegar" whose original context was yet again zionistic/messianic/antiforeigner: it's judah's enemies 69:19.20.36 who are by the way "drunkards" 69:13 who torture god's suffering servant 69:30.37 by giving him vinegar when he thirsts.
and that's why nazir jesus in 'matthew' 27:48 does NOT accept a damn thing. the spongeful of vinegar is forced onto his mouth.

in the parallel narrative of 'mark' 15:36 the same sadistic monster who tortures dyin' jesus with the vinegar probably purposefully because nothing could be more repugnant to a nazir than prohibited vinegar also pokes fun at jesus sayin' "let's see if elijah comes and takes him down" - clearly a context of torture .
it's ludicrous for rigato to speak of jesus "accepting" the vinegar as if he was comfortably seated in a restaurant choosing his salad dressing.

'luke' 23:36/37 is even more explicit re vinegar=means of torture/sadistic prank:
"the soldiers poked fun at him approaching and offering him vinegar and saying 'if you are the king of the jews save yourself' ".

it's just plain incredible how maria-luisa rigato/il titolo della croce di gesù/roma 2005/p.86 can misrepresent all this into crucified jesus "accepting" vinegar contrary to numbers 6:3 forbidding it to nazirs!

the only evangelist who on the surface appears to speak of jesus "accepting" the vinegar is 'john' 19:30.
it's one against the other 3.
but the greek text says jesus "took" the vinegar not that he deliberately "accepted" it.
what else could a dyin' man on a cross have done defenseless against a fuckin' soldier who's rubbin' a sponge in his face regardless of his will as we gather from matthew mark & luke?

jesus' will for 'john' was to fulfill scripture in accepting that last kind of torture not in enjoying vinegar.
'john' 19:28 refers the vinegar thing to scripture as if jesus deliberately had said i thirst before dying so that psalm 69:22 would be fulfilled WHERE VINEGAR IS UNWANTED TORTURE NOT A DRINK OF CHOICE!

in greek the verb LAMBANO to take (in) may refer to both intentional and unintentional acceptance.
therefore when 'john' 19:30 says jesus ELABEN/took the vinegar it does NOT imply consensus to the drinking of vinegar but only that jesus "accepted" the kind of torture prophesied in psalm 69:22 for the messianic suffering servant.

XI. ISAIAH 11:1

according to all exegetes of all orientations matthew 2:23 (the fulfillment of "what had been said through the prophetS " plural that the messiah will be called nazorean) also harks back to isaiah 11:1 :
" a sprout will bud from jesse's trunk a shoot will sprout from its roots " :
again the original messianic context here is violently nationalistic and warlike : see for instance 11:13 "judah's enemies shall be exterminated" - the terminator obviously being god thru his messiah=sprout / branch.

why would matthew's nazoraios hark back to isaiah's sprout as well?
let's turn to robert h eisenman's all-important doctrine from his book james the brother of jesus vol I faber and faber 1997 p 240 in my own resume:
'nazir' 's first original hebrew meaning is consecrated set aside.
but the similar hebrew word nezer also means branch - and here comes isaiah 11:1.

therefore matthew 2:23 is not only skewing the meaning of judges but also that of isaiah whose messiah again was a samson-like warlike one who would come and destroy israel's enemies in battle.

no wonder most jews to this day never bought the christian lie - they knew their scripture way better than to fall for matthew's patently tendentious misrepresentations.

as if all of this disinfo dust storm weren't enough - remember when i told you at the beginning of this essay that grammatically 'matthew' 2,23 's "he shall be called nazoraios" refers to joseph not jesus?
well by 'coincidence' old-testament joseph (jacob's son in genesis) is also called both SPROUT and NAZIR in the same passage (genesis 49,22 and 49,26) !

all of this deliberate mess on the part of an author (or authorS...) such as 'matthew' can only be true 'information fog' typical of every lyin' establishment's propaganda of all times :
say everything and its contrary until people completely forget/miss the original meaning and truth of things.

XII. DOGMATIC DELIRIUM : FRED P MILLER

the only reason why i'll now produce my critique of delirious fred p miller's "isaiah's use of the word 'branch' or nazarene"
www.ao.net/~fmoeller/nazer2.htm
is because miller's rant represents the average mainstream 'exegesis' therefore many are being exposed to such propaganda so it's important to refute it.

from the first lines about the 'miracle of prophesy' we learn the freddie is a true believer. but unfortunately blind faith is a false certainty therefore it has nothing to do with science - miller disqualifies himself as a scholar.

for instance he waxes poetic/sentimental about 'isaiah' 's prophesy re cyrus 'given not only before cyrus lived but before the nation was taken captive and the temple destroyed by the babylonians' .
that is miller would have us believe that isaiah (VIII century BC) prophesied events of the VI century BC.
pity that almost any serious decent scholar would tell you that the book of isaiah is NOT the work of just one author as evinceable from the bible itself - see for instance g.odasso/isaia entry/nuovo dizionario enciclopedico illustrato della bibbia/piemme 2005.
for instance if we ask ourselves as usual when 'isaiah' 44:26-28 (cyrus-will-rebuild-the-temple) is first attested to we find that by the year 350 BC that is long after cyrus it still WASN'T!
because chronicles book 2,36:22-23 attributes the cyrus prophecy to jeremiah not isaiah.
that's to say as late as BC 350 noone we know was attributing a cyrus 'prophesy' to isaiah.
the first attestation for the existence of 'isaiah' chapters 40-66 (with cyrus) and even 36-39 dates to as late as BC 132 (bible book of siracis or ecclesiastes 48:22-25).

moreover - odasso continues - there are such internal differences in style historical context and theological angles within the book of 'isaiah' that medieval jewish scholars already had begun to grasp that 'isaiah' was different authors.
classical philologists starting with doederlein in 1789 attributed 'isaiah' 40-66 (with the cyrus 'prophesy') to someone he termed deuteroisaiah that is second isaiah and who lived in the VI century BC. which is cyrus' time therefore we are talking false prophesies here. things written during or after the events but fraudulently sold as prophesies.
ever since a tritoisaiah or 3d isaiah has been postulated by serious scholars for 'isaiah' 56-66.

WHICH IS TO SAY 'ISAIAH' IN THE VIII CENTURY BC MAY NOT HAVE PROPHESIED ANY CYRUS AT ALL. 'ISAIAH' 'S CYRUS PROPHESIES ARE A FRAUD. ANY SERIOUS SCHOLAR TODAY OR NEARLY ALL WOULD TELL YOU THAT THE BOOK OF 'ISAIAH' IS NOT THE WORK OF ONE SINGLE AUTHOR OR ONE SINGLE TIME.

anyway i am not asking you to 'believe' in serious exegesis as opposed to demented fred p miller.
but any rational person would by now at the very least SUSPEND JUDGEMENT re an VIII-century-BC 'isaiah' having prophesied events to come 200 years later.

THEREFORE MILLER IS FRAUDULENTLY SELLING YOU FALSE CERTAINTIES WHEN HE STATES THAT VIII-CENTURY-BC ISAIAH PROPHESIED CYRUS.

and just as fraudulently he is not informing you that most exegetes today opine the cyrus-related part in 'isaiah' was written during or well after cyrus' time - and thus sold as a prophesy to the gullible when in fact it was none.

back to the branch.

the title of miller's rant is again "isaiah's use of the word 'branch' or nazarene".
now later upon quoting 'matthew' 2:23 miller translates "he shall be called a NAZARENE" (my caps).
clearly miller is NOT translating 'matthew' 's original greek text which has NAZORAIOS NOT NAZARENOS therefore it's in english nazorean NOT nazarene.
the greek nazarenos is used too in the NT but less than nazoraios and anyway NOT at 'matthew' 2:23.
but of course translating nazarene is yet another sleight-of-hand on the part of miller because nazarene of course calls to mind nazareth more than nazorean and that's what miller wants to stick with you just like 'matthew' - that jesus was a nazarene because he was from nazareth which is also etymologically connectable - but it's by no means certain - to isaiah's branch.

moreover 'matthew' 2:23's NAZORIAIOS is no precise correspondence to 'isaiah' 1:11 's NEZER=branch because of the different vowels.
again miller resorts to yet another dirty sleight of hand here to make 'isaiah' 's nezer appear more similar to nazoraios which for miller is nazarene:
he wrongly transliterates the hebrew word for branch as NAZER instead of the correct NEZER.

whereas all bible scholars i'm aware of transliterate it as NEZER that is the first vowel being E not A:
see for instance maria- luisa rigato/il titolo della croce di gesù/roma 2005/p.76: 'NETSER' (she writes TS instead of Z because in hebrew it's sade not zain but i'm focusing on the vowels here);
r.eisenman/james the brother of jesus/1997/p.249: NEZER.
fred p miller is the only 'exegete' in the world to transliterate the hebrew word for branch in 'isaiah' 1:11 as NAZER with as first vowel A instead of E.
and why? because miller wants us to connect more easily with NAzareth...

i shall abandon miller here to his rant - hoping you will have grasped by now that the guy either totally ignores greek and hebrew and yet poses as a bible exegete or he's a total fraud.

and i thought it important to expose miller's ignorance(fraud) to you because it's so typical for mainstream america's bible teaching in school sunday school etc.

BREAK FREE FROM CHURCH BRAINWASHING!



XIII. MATTHEW ' S ABSURD NAZARETH GEOGRAPHY

at 13:54 matthew pictures 'jesus' as going to his hometown which every single exegete i've read so far interprets as nazareth.
he goes to the local synagogue which obviously is not attested to by archeology for that time.
and...lo-and-behold at 14:13 jesus departs from there that is nazareth...BY BOAT!

which is obviously absurd because nazareth lies some 40 kilometres away from the nearest body of water that is the lake of tiberias.
not only modern-day nazareth but also the ancient one according to whatever mainstream bible dictionary you might peruse.

this remark albeit amidst confused and wrong sourcing is to be found in luigi cascioli la favola di cristo 2a ed 2005.

evidently 'matthew' was totally ignorant of palestinian geography and he was just making things up as he went because his greek-speaking audience /readership whether jewish or gentile knew even less than him about palestine.
which implies 'matthew' wrote from outside of palestine for people who lived far from palestine.

XIV. NAZARETH IN MARK

mark does not say where jesus was born or grew up.
abruptly at 1:9 jesus goes from nazareth in galilee to john the baptist.

XV. NAZARETH IN LUKE

luke too like matthew has jesus born in bethlehem.
but whilst for matthew his family was already living there and thus he was born at home luke has it that joseph and mary were living in nazareth and then transfered to bethlehem (because of a census) where jesus was born in a manger although in theory this was joseph's family town...
o wondrous harmony of the word of god...

at 4:29 'luke' has it that the people of nazareth got mad at their own jesus and forcibly brought him to the edge of the mountain on which their city was built.

but modern-day nazareth is not built upon a mountain at all it lies at the bottom of a valley.
this remark too albeit amidst imprecise topographical data and gospel references is to be found in luigi cascioli/la favola di cristo/2a ed 2005.
your church-mandated bible dic du jour will scramble over that by tellin' ya that nazareth in jesus' times may have lain further up the hills surrounding nazareth but again there is no archeological or literary attestation outside of the gospels for nazareth existing in 'jesus' ' time that is between 6 BC and 33 AD roughly. see archeo chapter below.


XVI. NAZARETH AND EPIGRAPHY

the first written attestation to the existence of a city called nazareth outside of the new testament occurs in a hebrew inscription dated to the III or IV century AD excavated at caesarea maritima in 1958 published in 1962 which apparently mentions nazareth as the seat of one of the 24 priestly courses. i don't yet know what dating methods were used.

the 24 priestly courses were 24 groups of jewish priests who took turns in the service of the jerusalem temple as prescribed by bible numbers 24:1-19.
I gather that after the destruction of the jerusalem temple by the romans in AD 70 and/or after the romans repressed the bar kochba jewish revolt in AD 135 those 24 priestly courses would have left jerusalem & scattered around with one of them possibly ending up in nazareth.

r.riesner in the entry nazaret of the nuovo dizionario enciclopedico illustrato della bibbia nuova edizione 2005 edizioni piemme also tells us about nazareth being first attested to in the "III-IV century" caesarea inscription.
which means 2 to 4 hundred years after "jesus" ' time.
thus the caesarea inscription constitutes no evidence at all that nazareth existed between roughly 6 BC and 33 AD - the time of the alleged jesus.

riesner does not tell us where the caesarea inscription is kept and i haven't found out yet - when i do i'll check it for myself.
but for the time being again even if authentic and correctly interpreted and dated the caesarea inscription only tells us that nazareth existed in the III or IV century AD not in jesus' times.

riesner continues that church father jerome (AD 348-420) and jewish poet eleazar ha-qalir (IX century AD) say that after the bar kochba revolt ie after AD 135 nazareth was the seat of the happizzez priestly course which was the 18th priestly course according to the bible first book of chronicles chapter 24 line 15.
so if jerome and ha-qalir are being accurate which i haven't verified yet what do they tell us?

that nazareth existed after AD 135 when exactly unspecified.
of course in that case it must have already existed some time prior to that unspecified "after 135" - unless the happizzez refounded nazareth themselves.
but since when nazareth may have existed before the happizzez reached it and settled there we cannot say.

therefore again even if combined with the jerome/ha-qalir data the caesarea inscription provides no evidence whatsoever that nazareth existed in "jesus" ' times ie roughly between 6BC and 33AD.

let me furthermore remark that the text of the caesarea inscription mentioning nazareth is hypothetical because the inscription is fragmentary on 3 different pieces of a marble slab and was reconstructed by michael avi-yonah.
therefore there can be no absolute certainty as to what the original text said.
and again even if yonah correctly reconstructed the original text there is no telling when the happizzez priestly course settled in nazareth therefore again the caesarea inscription is no proof nazareth existed as a city in 'jesus' ' time. see maria-luisa rigato/il titolo della croce di gesù/roma 2005/pp 54-56 which include her unproven hypothesis that the happizzez settled in nazareth in the second century BC!...

of course i cannot thereby prove that nazareth did not exist between 6BC and AD33 either.
but any rational person at this stage may only conclude that re the existence of nazareth between 6BC and AD33 THE ONLY LOGICAL STANCE IS SUSPENSION OF JUDGEMENT.

XVII. NAZARETH AND ARCHEOLOGY

let's now comment on
r.riesner/nazaret entry/nuovo dizionario enciclopedico illustrato della bibbia/nuova ed 2005/edizioni piemme
which is the most complete and updated state of the issue i've found so far.

riesner tells us that settling in the nazareth area is attested to by archeology:
- for prehistoric times
- for the 2nd millennium BC
- starting in the XIII century BC (iron age).

but after the babylonian exile that is after 597 BC if my understanding of riesner is correct (i'm saying this because there was an earlier exile that of the northern israel kingdom caused by the assyrians starting 722 BC and i'm not sure if the nazareth area lay within israel or judah at the time ) settlement in nazareth ceased and its area remained uninhabited throughout the persian era that is throughout the VI V and IV centuries BC only to be resettled in "late hellenistic times" which would obviously imply nazareth's existence in jesus' times because late hellenistic means before jesus and as we shall presently see riesner believes in dubious archeological finds in nazareth supposedly dating from jesus' time.

so where's the archeological evidence for nazareth in jesus' time according to riesner?

1. rooms in hollowed-out limestone used as:
-water tanks
-wine tanks
-oil tanks
-grain silos.
all of which according to franciscan friar bagatti as reported by riesner.

i haven't personally verified those excavations yet. nor seen the original bagatti reports.
but even admitting we are dealing with said storage facilities in the nazareth area HOW DID BAGATTI DATE THEM TO NEW TESTAMENT TIMES?
riesner tells us nothing at all about dating methods used.
bagatti reportedly found artificial caves holes in the ground hollowed-out limestone.
how do you date a limestone cave?
did bagatti find any organic remains of the wine/oil/grain? did he C14 them?
even if he did C14 is notorious for having a centuries-wide error margin.
until i see bagatti's protocols i'll therefore suspend judgement over those limestone tanks.

riesner himself tells us iron age silos hollowed out in limestone were also found in nazareth so what exactly enables us to rule out with absolute certainty that bagatti's "NT-time" silos aren't 1,300 years older for instance?

anyway riesner insists that other NT - era manufacts were found in nazareth:

2.a few herodian lamps
painted vases
one 2-handled vase
amphorae of the most various kinds.

for this second group of finds riesner credits brunot whom i'll check yet.
therefore again i'll suspend judgement for now but in the meantime i can't help but remark that of the 4 above-mentioned types of manufacts in group 2 only the first if confirmed would take us to NT times - but NOT necessarily because herodian lamps whatever they're supposed to be may have been produced and used after herodian ie NT times too for instance after AD 135 when the happizzez' priestly course reportedly was living in nazareth.
i wonder how one tells herodian lamps from non-herodian lamps...i'll check.

the other 3 types of manufacts for group 2 are so generic they could be from any other time.

moreover lamps vases amphorae even if confirmed as belonging to NT times may not attest to a city at all but only to nomadic tradesmen or shepherds using the nazareth-area caves that had been there from time immemorial as temporary storage or shelter facilities for instance.

but riesner insists that there's
3. more than 20 hellenistic/roman-era sepulchres too.
his source is a fellow kopp whom i'll check yet.
but again and again:
how were those 20-plus sepulchres dated to hellenistic/roman times especially since riesner informs us that II- millennium-BC sepulchres have been found in the nazareth area too?
how do you tell a II-millennium sepulchre from an hellenistic/roman one?
is it any specific architectural style we're talking about here or just rock-carved caves used as tombs?

and again furthermore:
do 20-odd sepulchres even if hellenistic/roman necessarily attest to a city?
again nomads may have buried their dead in there - soldiers shepherds brigands you name it.
riesner says the main caesarea-damascus road in antiquity used to bypass the nazareth area just 3 km to the east.
another road to nearby sepphoris also passed not far.
travellers/nomads etc may have had to bury their dead in those nazareth-area rock tombs.
joseph flavius tells us for instance in his book jewish war III,289-306 that in AD 67 the city of iapha which riesner says was near nazareth was captured by the romans and an immense slaughter of 15,000 jews ensued.
could it be some of those bodies were buried in the nearby 20-odd nazareth-area sepulchres because they surely had run out of tombs in iapha?

therefore the 20-odd "hellenistic/roman" sepulchres at nazareth even if real and really from NT times do NOT per se attest to the existence of a city of nazareth in NT times.

the last bit of archeological "evidence" for nazareth in "jesus" ' time is according to riesner
4. remains of a I century AD house found by a fellow nitowski in 1987 but for this riesner unlike for the other 3 groups of finds does not provide us with the original nitowski report reference so why should we believe him? how can we verify?
again how was this alleged I-century nazareth house supposedly dated ?

apparently this house lies under the "dames de nazareth" monastery.
if real and dated with certainty it would represent the ONLY archeological proof that nazareth was a city or at least inhabited in NT times.
and yet again i must now first look godknowswhere for nitowski's report.

finally i won't even discuss the so-called "nazareth inscription" (another one not the caesarea one) because according to riesner himself there is no certainty it is to be attributed to NT times.

recapping on nazareth & archeology:

according to riesner NT nazareth is attested to by:
1. holes in the limestone used as storage facilities which might as well date back to 1,300 years earlier for ought i know;
2. a few "herodian" lamps & assorted pottery none of which can be precisely ascribed to 6BC/AD33 and none of which necessarily implies a city as opposed to for instance temporary abode for nomads/travelers/soldiers/refugees/brigands etc.
3. 20-odd "hellenistic/roman"-era sepulchres that again might as well instead date back to the II millennium BC for ought i know from riesner's account and furthermore again even if really from NT times do NOT necessarily imply a city as opposed to for instance countryside tombs for again nomads/soldiers/rebels such as some of the 15,000 jews butchered by the romans at nearby iapha in 67 according to joseph flavius .
4. remains of a "I-century-AD house" allegedly found by a mysterious nitowski in 1987 for which riesner can't even come up with the original research report reference.

nothing but holes in the ground a bit of pottery 20 sepulchres that anyone may have used at any point in time starting 2,000 BC and alleged remains of an alleged I-century house...

now you tell me if that's bomb-proof archeo evidence for a city of nazareth between 6 BC and AD 33...



CONCLUSIONS

'matthew' 2:23 shoots himself in the foot no matter how we interpret it revealing us the purpose of the nazareth lie:
1. to cover over jesus' and his followers' belonging to john the baptist's anti-establishment nasorayya=keepers
2. to cover up jesus' that is many I-century AD-and-before-and-beyond jewish would-be messiahs' nazir id est violent antiroman stance.
3. to rewrite jesus being considered the incarnation of isaiah's nezer= 'branch'=violent apocalyptic anti-foreigner messiah.

furthermore matthew 14:13 tells us astonishingly that jesus departed from nazareth by boat when in fact nazareth lies 40 kilometres away from the nearest body of water.
but then again what's geography worth for the flock of the faithful...

and nazareth is ignored by ancient writers for jesus' times outside of the gospels of course.
the earliest mention of it appears to be in a late inscription relating events which late writers place after the year AD 135 - 100 years at least after the alleged jesus.

so-called "archeological evidence" for a NT nazareth appears to be inconsistent or at the very least inconclusive. i'll investigate it further to be safe.


another gospel lie exposed.



ALETES december 23, 2005


recommended bibliography:
A.for a general introduction to the gospel lie:
1. robert eisenman
james the brother of jesus volume I
faber and faber 1997
2. aletes
gospel jesus never was
utah.indymedia.org/news/2005/12/12723.php
3. aletes
doctoring simon
utah.indymedia.org/news/2005/12/12724.php
4.aletes
e cristo cascò dalla croce
italy.indymedia.org/news/2005/11/933728.php
B. clericofascist but useful materials:
4. nestle/aland
novum testamentum graece et latine
deutsche bibelgesellschaft 2002
5.maria-luisa rigato
il titolo della croce di gesù
editrice pontificia università gregoriana
roma 2005
6. nuovo dizionario enciclopedico illustrato della bibbia
edizioni piemme 2005.


ALETES december23,2005