I would love to meet and spend time with some of my blog readers this Fall in San Antonio, November 17-19 for the “26th annual “Bible and Archaeology Fest.” Click on the link for all the details. I have been at these for all but two of the 25 years!…
In this fourth of my series on “Death and Afterlife in the Ancient Western World,” I offer a very brief overview of ancient Egyptian views of death and the underworld. These views go back 5000 years and set the stage for later developments in moving religious concepts from “this world”…
I am beginning a new teaching series on Youtube this week on the topic of “What the Bible Really Says About Death, Afterlife, and the Future.” You can download my article by this title free at the link in the description. Here is the short Intro video I recorded yesterday.…
Too long the origins of early Christianity and its development in late Roman antiquity has focused on ancient texts–to the neglect of important material evidence, particularly the considerable numismatic evidence of the period–and its relationship to astrological beliefs. The view arose that one’s fortune or destiny was determined by the…
There is clearly a lot of interest in understanding the apostle Paul in our world today–even after two millennia. Recently I was honored and pleased to be asked to fill in for Bart Ehrman’s popular Podcast on YouTube and other outlets hosted by the fabulous Megan Lewis. That two part…
If you check the dropdown menu at the top of any page on my TaborBlog you will see an emerging new feature titled “The Jewish-Roman World of Jesus.” During my years at UNC Charlotte these materials were on a university web site used by my students in my courses–but since…
Over the decades I have heard dozens of interviews with John Crossan, listened to his lectures, read his books, and spent time together in Jerusalem in 2007 with him and his wife Sarah, in endless conversation, visiting some of the “off the beaten tourist paths” places with Shimon Gibson. He…
On May 3, 2022 I taught my last college class after a 43 year career at three universities: Notre Dame, the College of William and Mary, and UNC Charlotte. Over the years many of my blogs readers have said they wish they could take one of my courses. In the…
In this 2015 lecture I talk about the ways in which dualistic forms of thinking about the cosmos, often referred to as “Enochian” in their Jewish forms, and “Gnostic” in the wider Hellenistic world, basically took over the Western world and fundamentally transformed Judaism, Christianity, and Islam into religions of…
I dedicate this video to my University of Chicago teacher, the late Jonathan Z. Smith, from whom I learned more about ancient religions than anyone in my academic career. In this lecture I explore what I have called the greatest transformation in human thought in Western history–namely the shift from…