A question to Dr. Ehrman:

Merry Christmas, Dr.

There is a view by a Middle Eastern history (not religion) scholar (not sure of his qualifications) called Kamal Salibi that there was no place called Nazareth in 1st Century Palestine. He then concludes that the reference given to Jesus (as in “of Nazareth”) came from some other source. He seems to be very convinced that Nazareth was given that name at a later stage to make them point into one person (instead of three different persons). I read his books a while ago and found the argument convincing.

Have you made any research in this regard? Are you familiar with this concept?

The books are:

The Bible Came from Arabia (he discusses how Palestine is not the theatre of early Christianity and the Jewish Temple, instead, it is today’s Saudi Arabia)

Conspiracy in Jerusalem (he discusses that there were 3 Messiahs in Arabia and the oral tradition grouped them into one)

He uses the Aramaic and Greek texts. I am not convinced with the other topics that he argues but I find the Nazareth question quite logical. It is important to mention that Dr. Salibi follows a Middle Eastern political ideology which is very anti-Jewish. He passed away not long time ago.

Maher