Some might think that the “title” of this lecture has to be incorrect–after all, is not Mary the most prominent woman in history? How could one possibly present her as marginalized? In fact, Mary, the mother of Jesus is at once the “best known” and “least known” woman in human…
Once again “Holy Week” has arrived. Today is Palm Sunday, with Easter one week away. So one might say this week is “doubly holy,” in that it binds together what Jesus as a Jew would have been intimately familiar with his entire life–Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread–and the…
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…
I have spent several decades reading and thinking about the whole issue of translation–especially when it comes to translating ancient texts–like the Bible–into English. I majored in Greek in college, taking my first introductory course, using Machen’s New Testament Greek for Beginners, published in 1923 and reprinted many times. I still have my…
A two hour interview would be considered a bit much for most viewers, unless the host is the ever-skilled Paul Williams of Blogging Theology. In my view this is a model of how interviews of authors should ideally be conducted. I predict that viewers who are interested in the deeper…
This is a short introduction in my own words to my best-selling book The Jesus Dynasty which I recorded in 2005 before it was published. The book is most easily available on Amazon in Paper, Hardcover, Kindle, and Audio book formats. I in fact READ THE BOOK MYSELF for the…
Please visit my Youtube Channel and Subscribe, for much more to come. I regularly teach a course called “The End of the World as We Know It,” with thanks to REM and Leonard Cohen’s, “The Future.” I did this thirty-minute overview with Derek Lambert, the dynamic host of MythVision Podcasts–which…
Breaking news–many of my readers know of the 1st century synagogue at Migdal or Magdala discovered in 2009 during a salvage dig conducted by Dr. Dina Avshalom-Gorni of the Israel Antiquities Authority at the location of a new hotel at Migdal Beach, the site of ancient Magdala. The breaking news out…
Most of us who work in what we academics call “Christian Origins” hold to the “Two Source” theory of Synoptic Gospel origins. That is, Mark was the earliest narrative gospels, Matthew and Luke both used Mark as their core source, but they had access to another source that we call…
I am honored to be featured in the popular Bible History Daily feature published by the Biblical Archaeology Society. If you are not a subscriber, it is free–I highly recommend, see this link. https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/new-testament/the-strange-ending-of-the-gospel-of-mark-and-why-it-makes-all-the-difference/