The reason it is so difficult for people today to think of Jesus as a normally married Jew of his time and culture has little to do with the fact that his wife and child are not mentioned in our meager sources. It is based on an ideal of Christian…
A Woman Called Magdalene Mary Magdalene is referred to by name only twelve times in our New Testament gospels and never again in any of the other New Testament writings. As we have seen she appears at the death scene of Jesus, his burial, and the empty tomb, and…
Paul indicates that “seeing the Lord” is an essential criterion for one claiming to be an apostle. According to the book of Acts the main criteria in deciding who would replace Judas Iscariot as the Twelfth apostle after he had betrayed Jesus and killed himself was that the one chosen…
And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing. Most general Bible readers have the mistaken impression that Matthew, the opening book of the New Testament, must be our first and earliest Gospel, with Mark, Luke, and John following.…
Nine years, almost to the day, after Roman legionaries destroyed God’s house in Jerusalem, God destroyed the luxurious watering holes of the Roman elite. Was this God’s revenge? That’s not exactly the question I want to raise, however. Rather, did anyone at the time see it that way? Did anyone…
I invite you to join our special 10th Anniversary Israel tour “Experiencing the Jesus Dynasty” in 2016. The dates are March 4-13. If you are interested in the historical Jesus understood in the light of the latest archaeological discoveries in Israel this is the tour for you. As many will…
Ben Witherington ((Ben Witherington is Amos Professor of New Testament for Doctoral Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary and on the doctoral faculty at St. Andrews University in Scotland, see “About Ben Witherington” )) has a new blog post titled “Once More with Feeling: Did the James Ossuary come out of…
I am posting this response by Simcha Jacobovici to critics of his “Nails of the Cross” documentary that aired on the History Channel in the USA and most recently in Israel. His thesis: that two crucifixion nails, most likely those used to crucify Jesus of Nazareth, were found in a…