fictive place, birthplace of fictive person gets on the list

[nemesiss]

UNESCO makes a list of locations, buildings, natural formations, which become world heritage...
now, what UNESCO wants to do, is include Bethlehem.

accourding from what i heard and read, bethlehem never even existed... unless you mean a place in pennsylvania, so it's quick ackward that some people think it has actually value for humanity?

also, does anyone know the birthplace of the invisible unicorn, the flying spaghetti monster (and other gods), so we can petition UNESCO to include those in their list..?

 

[nasher168]

Re: fictive place, birthplace of fictive person gets on the

accourding from what i heard and read, bethlehem never even existed...

No, it did exist, and still does. According to the link, it is first mentioned in documents from 1400 BCE.
Of course, the Jesus birth is questionable to say the least.

 

[Noth]

Re: fictive place, birthplace of fictive person gets on the

The discrepancy I think you're referring to is Nazareth, of which the earliest accounts only speak of a century C.E. (A.D.) IIRC.

Bethlehem does indeed exist, but if UNESCO wants to add it to this list I don't know where they'd have to draw the line next. What makes Christian Bethlehem more important than Muslim Mecca, etc. etc. etc.
Weird move regardless.

 

[Divergedwoods]

Re: fictive place, birthplace of fictive person gets on the

The decisions of UNESCO as for the world heritage sites in not always clear. As a personal example, the campus of the national university of Mexico (UNAM) was added to the list in 2007 although I can't really say that it's all that impressive or important

 

[Pulsar]

Re: fictive place, birthplace of fictive person gets on the

What makes Christian Bethlehem more important than Muslim Mecca.

For Mecca to be included on the UNESCO list, Saudi Arabia has to submit an official nomination. They've never done that.

 

[ShootMyMonkey]

Re: fictive place, birthplace of fictive person gets on the

The discrepancy I think you're referring to is Nazareth, of which the earliest accounts only speak of a century C.E. (A.D.) IIRC.

200+ CE if you want to look for the earliest sources outside the Bible. Earliest mention by any historian appears only around 320 CE. Earliest mention on any map shows up around 400 C.E. As far as I know, there was no Nazareth as spoken of by Christians, and there still isn't. A few places have been named or presumed to be the location of Nazareth, but every such proposed location shows quite strong contradictory evidence. The purported location where there is now a village called Nazareth in Northern Israel only contains archaeological evidence of having been settled much later by Byzantines, and contains absolutely no evidence that people ever stood there any earlier than that. Notably, there is no olden Jewish record of any village in Galilee called Nazareth, nor does it even get listed among pilgrimage sites until after the Protestant Reformation.

AFAIK, though, a lot of Biblical scholars don't accept the existence of Nazareth either. They accept that it was a mistranslation from a Jewish-Christian sect called the Nazarenes, who believed in the divinity of Christ. Supposedly, "Nazarene" is derived from the word for "Truth", which doesn't sound all too unlikely for the name of a religious sect. The argument is that the phrase "Jesus o nazaraios" should have been "Jesus the Nazarene" rather than "Jesus of Nazareth."

In all likelihood if Jesus ever existed, he was probably actually born in Bethlehem. The whole idea of the census and all that was a cheap fabrication that was added in when people realized the story got screwed up with the idea of creating the fake village of Nazareth.

 

[Pulsar]

Re: fictive place, birthplace of fictive person gets on the

There's also a Nazareth in Belgium, which reminds me of an infamous anecdote...

A maths professor at my university lives in Nazareth. He's like the stereotypical academic: absent-minded, strange voice, socially handicapped, bit of a goofball, complete will a long beard and wild hair. And his first name is Jozef. You can guess where this is going...

A few years ago he went to a maths conference in Tel Aviv. When arrived at the airport and got to Customs, he saw the officer frowning at his passport. So he thought it was a good idea to introduce himself, and he said

"Hello, I am Joseph from Nazareth!"

Security, alarmed that he might be a dangerous nut and a possible terrorist, took him into custody. They only released him after the organizers of the conference confirmed that he was legit :lol: