Don’t miss the 25th Annual “Bible and Archaeology Fest,” sponsored by the Biblical Archaeological Society. Amazing Who’s Who roster of speakers and topics, and little ole “me,” (🤔), and you don’t even need to fly or drive to a distant city and get a hotel room…everything streamed and available to…
In this informal presentation I relate our very human attachment to “old things,” to which we attach emotion and meaning–including some of my own personal experiences–and how that is connected broadly to “archaeology”–that is, the scientific exploration of the human material past. Our imagination connects us to the past–places, artifacts,…
This groundbreaking article by the late Bargil Pixner, a Benedictine priest and my dear friend, mentor, and colleague, was published in Biblical Archaeology Review in May/June, 1990. For me it was a most important article–groundbreaking! Other than Jim Strange and Shimon Gibson, there is no one from whom I have learned…
The following four essays were in response to a comprehensive essay exam I gave in my Dead Sea Scrolls course. They were written by my student Jeffrey Poplin and used with his permission. I thank Jeffrey for his superb work and happily pass these along to my blog readers: Essay One: Offer…
Ross Nichols has just uploaded on a very balanced and reasonable set of reflections on the “Jerusalem stone” inscription and the resulting controversies that broke over the weekend–see my “Breaking News and Updates” posted here on my blog this morning–with quite a few links that fill in the backstory on…
I thought some of you might enjoy this lecture I did in 2019 at the Georgia Southern University College of Science and Mathematics to a diverse group of scientists interested in the technical and scientific aspects of some of the archaeological discoveries in which I have been involved. This was…
This video lecture from 2006 covers new textual and archaeological evidence on “Yochanan HaMatvil,” or “John the Dipper,” including the Suba cave west of Jerusalem of which I have written much over the years–in both my books (especially The Jesus Dynasty –which is on sale right now in paperback for $14. If…
Here is a real “blast from the past.” Ernest Martin had released his theories on the Jewish Temple in the time of Jesus not being located up over where the dome of the Rock is today, but to the south in the “City of David” area. In this lecture, given…
This lecture lays out what I believe is the earliest archaeological evidence related to the followers of Jesus. The standard view of many historians–though not all–is that we have nothing from the early Christians until the late 2nd or early 3rd centuries. Here I deal only with materials that are…
I am often asked what I would consider to be my most satisfying discovery related to my study of “Christian Origins” over the years. I have made over 70 trips to the Holy Land over the span of my career–combining textual study with archaeological findings and geographical contexts. If I…