My guest today is Professor Ken Dark. Ken is Visiting Professor at King's College and formerly Professor of Archaeology and History at the University of Reading. His archaeological work has focused on Late Antiquity and the Byzantine Era, but, as he and I will discuss, this led him to study sites in Nazareth which will be the focus of our discussion today. His analysis of these sites is the focus of his new book  Archaeology of Jesus’ Nazareth (Oxford University Press, 2023) which draws on several papers he has published based on his examination of sites and finds in Nazareth. In today’s conversation we talk about the evidence regarding the town of Nazareth in Jesus’ time and, of course, eventually get to Rene Salm's crackpot theory that there was no such town in Jesus' time. This is a theory so stupid that even most Jesus Mythicists reject it, but it still has currency among far too many non-believers. Ken Dark will help us to understand why it’s complete nonsense.

Further Reading 

Dark, K., Archaeology of Jesus' Nazareth (Oxford University Press, 2023)

Dark, K., Roman-period and Byzantine Nazareth and its Hinterland (Routledge: London, 2020) 

Dark, K., The Sisters of Nazareth Convent - A Roman-Period, Byzantine and Crusader Site in Central Nazareth (Routledge: London, 2021) 

History for Atheists: Jesus Mythicism 5 - The Nazareth "Myth".