Overview

The Nazareth Inscription is a slab of white marble bearing a Greek edict, issued in the name of an unnamed "Caesar," that forbids disturbing tombs or removing the dead and threatens capital punishment for violators. It became famous in the twentieth century because of a tantalising possibility: if it came from Nazareth and dated to the decades after Jesus, it might record a Roman reaction to Christian reports of an empty tomb. That reading made the modest slab one of the most discussed inscriptions in New Testament archaeology. Yet the object's connection to Nazareth rests on a single collection note, and its date and purpose have never been settled.

The physical inscription is entirely genuine; what is debated is whether it has anything to do with Christianity at all. A 2020 isotope study that traced the marble to the Greek island of Kos has given the long-running argument a decisive new piece of evidence, which is why the site records the artifact as authentic in existence but debated in significance.