Happily, I come out of a Christian tradition in which the Hebrew Bible carries as much authority as the New Testament. No different weight is given to one or the other. The Bible is one, Old and New, in my particular tradition. My own interest is far more in the…
Back in 2015 I published a piece in the Huffington Post dealing with what I consider to be reasonably strong evidence for a “married Jesus” and within hours it drew thousands of responses and hundreds of comments–positive, negative, and even threatening and denunciatory. Clearly this is a topic that generates more heat than…
Yesterday morning in Jerusalem I heard the bells of the Dormition Abbey on Mt Zion and wept thinking of Bob Dylan’s song. Here are some thoughts on the profound lyrics. There are many “Gospels,” many Gods, many Lords, and many Christs. The challenge is sorting them out. Paul refers to…
Birger Pearson’s piece at the BAS Web site addressing the questions of whether Mary Magdalene was Jesus’ wife? and Was Mary Magdalene a Prostitute? is really well done in my view. It is short but to the point. I see it as an advance over the article he did some…
In the meantime, it is indeed interesting to note that this very practice of patronymy/paponymy/metronymy, by its repetitive nature, leaves the sample of names quite narrow and refutes in essence the argument of “very common names” put forward by a number scholars that the Talpiot tomb was not that of…
This is the third installment of my response to the review of my book, The Jesus Dynasty, by my friend and colleague Prof. James F. Strange published in the Biblical Archaeology Review (November/December, 2006, pp. 72-76). You can read Parts 1 and 2 here and here. Toward the end of…
Don’t miss “The Real Jesus” that premiers on Sunday at 8pm ET on the Smithsonian Channel. This four-part series takes the famous 1977 Franco Zeffirelli’s “Jesus of Nazareth” film star, Robert Powell, who became to the masses the quintessential blue-eyed “Jesus,” back to the Holy Land on the 40th anniversary…
If you missed the recent PBS two hour special “Last Days of Jesus” those of you in the United States can stream it free of charge on-line here. I offer a few comments here, not by any means a full review, which would deserve several blog posts. I thought the…
One of the ideas I explore and develop in my 2006 book, The Jesus Dynasty, was the notion of two Messiahs. I had no idea it would become sensational–much less controversial. It actually became headline news, with a cover story in USNews & World Report and special segments on ABC’s…
The 1st century CE Jewish historian Titus Flavius Josephus, known today as Josephus, was born Yosef ben Matityahu /יוסף בן מתתיהו in the year 37 CE. He began his career as commander of the Jewish forces in the Galilee in the 1st Jewish Revolt against Rome in 66CE, subsequently surrendered…