Tabor Bookshelf: My Eight Academic Books

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. By using these particular links there is no increase in cost to you as the purchaser.

Marie: De son enfance juive à la fondation du christianisme (Flammarion, 2020). (Kindle link). This is a translation of the forthcoming English version, The Lost Mary: How the Jewish Mother of Jesus Became the Vrigin Mother of God (Knopf, 2024)

Mary is the most famous woman in history, but she’s also the most misunderstood… For, believers or non-believers, what do we know about her? We have in mind the image transmitted by the painters of the Renaissance, that of a young woman of virginal purity and the appearance of a nun, God’s chosen one who gave birth to Christ. Biblical scholar James D. Tabor has conducted a continuous investigation for over twenty years. He has taken part in of excavations in the Old City of Jerusalem, at Sepphoris in the Galilee, and at Qumran, site of the Dead Sea Scrolls. He searched for traces of Mary in ancient texts, the Gospels and apocryphal writings, as well as in Hebrew sources. This book brings to life Mary, a Jewish woman of her time, who experienced the tragedies of the Roman occupation, in a country torn by power struggles and in the throes of a messianic revolution. Tabor paints the portrait of a strong and powerful woman, the inspiration behind a religious movement that was to turn the world upside down.

The Jesus Dynasty: A New Historical Investigation of Jesus, His Royal Family, and the Birth of Christianity (New York: Simon & Schuster, April 2006. Published in twenty languages. (Kindle and Audio links)

New York Times Best Seller, Major media coverage including cover of USNews&WorldReport, ABC-TV Good Morning America, 20/20, Nightline. National and international book tour; Extensive media coverage and reviews.

The Jesus Dynasty offers a startling new interpretation of the life of Jesus and the origins of Christianity that is grounded in careful analysis of the earliest Christian documents and recent archaeological discoveries, including the much-discussed “Jesus family tomb.”

In The Jesus Dynasty, biblical scholar James Tabor brings us closer than ever to the historical Jesus. He explains the crucial relationship between Jesus, a royal descendant of David, and his relative John the Baptizer, a priestly descendant of Aaron and Jesus’ teacher. When John was killed, several of his followers — including Jesus’ four brothers — joined with Jesus, who continued John’s mission, preaching the same apocalyptic message. After Jesus confronted the Roman authorities in Jerusalem and was crucified, his brother James succeeded him as the leader of the Jesus dynasty.

James Tabor has studied the earliest surviving documents of Christianity for more than thirty years and has participated in important archaeological excavations in Israel. His reconstruction of the life of Jesus and his followers, and of the early years of Christianity, will change our understanding of one of the most crucial moments in history.

“Many scholars have undertaken studies of Jesus and his legacy; none has dared advance the boldly provocative theses of The Jesus Dynasty.” — Bart Ehrman, author of Misquoting Jesus

“Provocative. . . . Takes the search for the historical Jesus to a bold . . . new level.” — Jay Tolson, U.S. News & World Report

“James Tabor stands out among his generation of biblical scholars for his thorough familiarity with the full range of textual evidence from the first centuries, his extensive experience with archaeological excavations, and his imagination and creativity. Tabor has a remarkable ability to discern the contours of vital religious movements from the scattered bits and pieces of evidence that survive from antiquity. Anyone who takes the career of Jesus seriously will have to reckon with his bold, new synthesis.”
— Professor Eugene V. Gallagher, Rosemary Park Professor of Religious Studies, Connecticut College

Paul and Jesus: How Paul Transformed the Gospel of Jesus. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2012) (Kindle and Audio links)

In this “compulsively readable exploration of the tangled world of Christian origins” (Publishers Weekly), religious historian James Tabor illuminates the earliest years of Jesus’ teachings before Paul shaped them into the religion we know today.

This fascinating examination of the earliest years of Christianity reveals how the man we call St. Paul shaped Christianity as we know it today.

Historians know almost nothing about the two decades following the crucifixion of Jesus, when his followers regrouped and began to spread his message. During this time Paul joined the movement and began to preach to the gentiles. Using the oldest Christian documents that we have—the letters of Paul—as well as other early Christian sources, historian and scholar James Tabor reconstructs the origins of Christianity. Tabor shows how Paul separated himself from Peter and James to introduce his own version of Christianity, which would continue to develop independently of the message that Jesus, James, and Peter preached.

Paul and Jesus illuminates the fascinating period of history when Christianity was born out of Judaism.

The Jesus Discovery: The New Archaeological Find That Reveals the Birth of Christianity, with Simcha Jacobovici. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2012) (Kindle and Audio links)

In 1981, a tomb was discovered under a condominium in Jerusalem that held ossuaries inscribed with such names as Jesus, son of Joseph; Mary; and Mariamene Mara. Although the bone boxes were ignored for more than 20 years, when they were finally examined, the case was made that they held the bones of Jesus, mother Mary, Mary Magdalene, Jesus’ brother, and a son of Jesus (!). This theory was largely rejected due to the commonality of the names. Now, another tomb under the same condo building has been examined using specialized robotic cameras. Untouched for more than 2,000 years, two of these newly discovered bone boxes contain further references to Jesus, according to the authors. One, they claim, is inscribed with a large fish, symbolic of Jonah, whose story is mentioned by Jesus in Matthew and Luke. The other has words scratched upon it that say, “The Divine Jehovah raises up from the dead.” Ilene Cooper, Booklist

“An exciting, extraordinary, exceptional discovery. See for yourself the first archeological evidence ever for early Christian belief in resurrection.” (Barrie Wilson, Professor of Religious Studies, York University, Toronto and author of How Jesus Became Christian)

“These newly discovered findings, revealed by a sophisticated robotic camera exploration, are extremely important for early Jewish-Christian archaeology.” (Peter Lampe, Dr. theol., Dr. habil., Professor of New Testament Studies, University of Heidelberg)

The Book of Genesis: A New Translation from the Transparent English Version (Charlotte, NC: Genesis2000, 2020). (Hardcover and Kindle links)

There’s an ancient, mysterious quality about it that makes me want to like Moses take my shoes off while standing on holy ground. Professor James D. Langford, Ph.D. Linguistics, University of Texas

The first book of the Bible presented in an authentic translation that allows the English reader to “peer through” to the Hebrew and “come as close as we will probably ever come to the original text.” This translation allows readers to experience the original Hebrew and the rich resonance of alliteration, pun, word play, and idiom that are so essential to the meaning of the Bible itself. These elements of the text are more than merely stylistic; they allow the reader to understand the echoes and meaning of the text in a way never before available. Beyond the content, the flow and verbal rhythm of the original Hebrew is conveyed, not through English style but through a reflection of its basic structure. This translation allows readers to experience the original Hebrew and the rich resonance of alliteration, pun, word play, and idiom that are so essential to the meaning of the Bible itself. These elements of the text are more than merely stylistic; they allow the reader to understand the echoes and meaning of the text in a way never before available. Beyond the content, the flow and verbal rhythm of the original Hebrew is conveyed, not through English style but through a reflection of its basic structure.This translation allows readers to experience the original Hebrew and the rich resonance of alliteration, pun, word play, and idiom that are so essential to the meaning of the Bible itself.

Praise for the Book of Genesis:

It also brings the reader closer to the spirit and sense of the original sources than any other translation I have seen. Professor Richard Rubenstein, Philosophy and Religion, George Mason University

As close as we will probably ever come to the original text. Professor Eugene Gallagher, Religious Studies, Connecticut College

There’s an ancient, mysterious quality about it that makes me want to like Moses take my shoes off while standing on holy ground. Professor James D. Langford, Ph.D. Linguistics, University of Texas

Paul’s Ascent to Paradise: The Apostolic Message and Mission of Paul in the Light of his Mystical Experiences (Charlotte, NC: Genesis2000, 2020). (Hardcover and Kindle links)

Paul makes the singular claim to have been the “last but not the least” of the Apostles of Jesus. Paul never met Jesus, but he makes high claims for his experiences of mystical revelations that include his ascent to heaven and his claim to not only have “seen” Jesus in his glory, but to have regularly communicated with the one he calls the Risen Christ. Early Christianity, as it unfolds, stands or falls on the claims of this single man whose Message and Mission are distinct from that of James, Peter, and John. In this book Paul’s Ascent to Paradise becomes an entrée into his whole world of Hellenistic mystical religious experience. This “history of religions” approach to Paul supersedes the dogmatic approaches of Christian theology and dogma. It is refreshing, gripping, dramatic, bold and fascinating. For Paul the “appointed time of the end had grown very short,” to use his words. Everything has to be viewed through that apocalyptic lens and one is transported back to Paul’s social world, the “battles of the apostles,” and either his triumph or his failure–depending on the judgment of history.

Academic Reviews

Tabor’s study [of Paul] is not the defanged apostle so familiar to us from Christian theology and much of contemporary New Testament scholarship, but a religious experimenter steeped in magic and mysticism, full of apocalyptic fervor, and inhabiting a cosmos populated with demons andangels.
Arthur Droge, Journal of Religion

Tabor has put his finger on the pulse of what is most central and characteristic about the Jesus movement from its earliest and most direct witness.
Jonathan Z. Smith, University of Chicago

Why Waco: Cults and the Battle for Religious Freedom in America, co-authored with Eugene Gallagher (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995), paperback edition published in April, 1997. (Kindle link).

Malcom Gladwell, in his featured piece in the New Yorker, “Sacred and Profane: How Not to Negotiate with Believers,” (March 31, 2014) credited Tabor and his colleague Philip Arnold, as singularly pursuing a course of action in the 1993 Waco/David Koresh tragedy that well might have resulted in a peaceful outcome.

Additional Media Coverage: cover review in the Sunday New York Times Book Review; Serialized in Harper’s Magazine, June, 1995; included on New York Times 1995 “Best List” (November 3, 1995 NYTBR) lengthy reviews have appeared in Lingua Franca, Choice, New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, Kirbus, The New York Review of Books, The Dallas Morning News, The Christian Science Monitor, First Things, Christianity Today and Religious Studies News (AAR/SBL); the book was also reviewed in approximately 38 newspaper chains worldwide.

A Noble Death: Suicide and Martyrdom Among Ancient Jews and Christians, co-authored with Arthur Droge (San Francisco and New York: HarperCollins, 1992).

Focusing primarily on the period from the death of Socrates to Augustine of Hippo, the authors investigate the Greek legacy: the six cases of voluntary death in the Hebrew Bible and later references to these; Josephus, Philo, and early Rabbinic ideas; early Christian ideas of martyrdom and the teachings of Greek Fathers of the Church and Tertullian. They emphasize the voluntariness of martyrdom and the great shift in Christian opinion of voluntary death occasioned by Augustine’s absolute condemnation of it, except in the express instance of divine command. Droge and Tabor view their study as important background to today’s death-with-dignity issues. This relevance makes the book important for the informed layperson as well as scholars, ethicists, and clergy. Highly recommended for academic and large public libraries. The Library Journal