Our earliest gospel of Mark implies that Jesus left the Galilee and headed for Jerusalem for Passover in the Spring a few weeks before his death. Based on additional textual sources and geographical references it appears he traveled to the Mt Herman area in the far north, then spent his…
Our knowledge of the hamlet of Nazareth, not mentioned in any early non-Christian textual sources, has grown exponentially over the past few decades. In this video I survey what we now know and how it might shed light on our understanding of Jesus and his family–from his childhood growing up…
Late yesterday I posted my first YouTube video of 2024–which is #3 of my new series I am calling “Jesus Archaeology.” It already has over 4K views in less than 24 hours. The video has to do with the “Forgotten City of Sepphoris,” on a very basic level. Many of…
We are living in the last days, on this LAST GREAT day of Gregorian Year 2023! We had a really wonderful ZOOM meeting yesterday with a mixture of students from both my on-line courses–Mark as well “Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls.” The meeting was recorded and will become part…
The story of Simon of Cyrene carrying the cross of Jesus as related in the gospel of Mark is quite remarkable for both its brevity and its content. It is conveyed in s single verse in Mark 15:21 as Jesus is being led away by the Romans to be crucified.…
This is the introduction to an exciting NEW SERIES on my Youtube Channel I am short-titling “Jesus Archaeology.” The idea is to highlight the ways in which scientifically conducted archaeology in the Holy Land has contributed to our historical understanding of the “Jesus Movement” or the rise of early Christianity.…
Some years ago in working on the narrative materials in the gospel of John, I ended up flying to Amman, Jordan to look at a specific site that I thought might be referenced in the last verse of John 10: John 10:40 He went away again across the Jordan to…
In this video I offer an informal account of my thirty-year history of research on the Dead Sea Scrolls, beginning in 1992 when our team spent a month surveying the site, doing radar ground scan, and surveying caves from Qumran to Ein Gedi. My new course, “Jesus and the Dead…
I know many of my blog readers have been anticipating the release of my new online course titled “Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls.” I have worked on this for several months and I am excited about its content and quality. It comes with a hefty course pack of study…
Sorry, this tour is FULL…after four days…I will keep you informed about future tours… A personal note: I am thrilled to see such interest in my May 2024 “Tracking Jesus” tour…I only announced it here on August 25th–three days ago! Apparently there is quite a bit of interest. I…