I am teaching an advanced undergraduate/graduate course this semester on the “Archaeology of Earliest Christianity,” probing the question of what archaeology provides as a context for understanding Jesus and his movement. Those of us who work on “Christian origins” understandably focus primarily on texts, particularly the texts of the New Testament,…
James F. Strange died on March 23rd. I got the sad news via a text message while traveling in the deserts of Jordan. I loved him dearly, considered him my “archaeological” mentor, excavated with him for three seasons at Sepphoris in the 1990s. We differed sharply in our views of…
To understand Jesus and the movement that developed after his death we need to have a handle on a way of thinking that I call messianic apocalyptic eschatology. This is a way of describing a certain expectation and outlook on the world and human history that was characteristic of certain…
Everyone seems to “love” the Dead Sea Scrolls though I fear, much like the Bible, few seem to have actually read them. Some years ago I remember a very enthusiastic woman who came up to me after one of my public lectures on this scrolls, exclaiming, “Dr. Tabor, I just…
The braided hair of a Jewish woman was found at Masada but until recently no example of preserved hair from a Jewish male had ever been found from the late 2nd Temple period. This discovery is one of the many fascinating, but less publicized finds of the 1st century “Tomb…
Start the New Year off right. This is not a commercial! Biblical Archaeology Society lecturers do not get royalties for our lectures; we donate our time and expertise as a public academic service. BAS is a non-profit organization. If you become a Biblical Archaeology Society Library member for 2018 you…
Quintessential JZ Smith…if you never had the pleasure of hearing him…his Plenary Address to the American Academy of Religion in 2010. https://vimeo.com/20286150 You can read an informal fascinating interview with Mr. Smith (as Chicago professors are called–no titles please!) published in The Chicago Maroon in 2008 here. Don’t miss this one!…
I have existed from the morning of the world and I shall exist until the last star falls from the night. Although I have taken the form of Gaius Caligula, I am all men as I am no man and therefore I am God. Millions of my generation will remember,…
Our Gospels present us with not only a profoundly “male” story, but it is also a profoundly asexual one. Theology is one thing, history is another, and on these matters of sex, birth, and death there can clearly be a conflict but little contest. I have written a variety of…
Tonight at sundown begins the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah, followed by Christmas Eve on December 24th, just 12 days later. The two celebrations often fall close together, sometime even the same week. This festival of Dedication, more popularly known as Hanukkah–is also called the festival of Lights. This special Jewish…