Based on new and ongoing research, the ratio of Pb (Lead) isotopes in the bones of those in the Talpiot Jesus Family tomb match the ancient water supply of Sepphoris/Nazareth, not that of Jerusalem. This is a segment of a lecture given by Moshe Sharif, retired geologist from the Geologic…
In this fourth of the mini-series for Holy Week I take things from the death of Jesus to his double burial, and the bare beginnings of resurrection faith as hinted at by Paul. In the 5th and final episode I will examine how resurrection faith move from a glorified spiritual…
As many of you know I formed a “Tabor Research Community” in 2023 using Patreon…but my approach is different from most. Everyone who joins, at any level, gets the same materials–as I realize people have widely differing financial means, and I am not interested in “selling” my work to those…
This paper poses a simple question: Is there sufficient historical evidence to identify a modest first century CE Jewish rock-hewn tomb, accidentally opened by a construction crew in 1980 in east Talpiot, just south of the Old City of Jerusalem, as the probable burial tomb of Jesus of Nazareth and…
In the aftermath of Jodi Magness’s recent lecture on the “Burials of James, Jesus, and the Talpiot Tombs” in Bart Ehrman’s course “Archaeoolgy in the Time of Jesus” one thing was clear to me that I had not fully realized. Most treatments of the data on the Talpiot tomb research…
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.…
Caution: This presentation is 1.5 hours and is for serious students of the historical Jesus–which I believe my Blog readers and subscribers are. In this age of TikTok, Shorts, YT videos that are never supposed to be longer than 12 minutes, it will find its rightful place. It is not…
NEW! The Lost Mary: Rediscovering the Mother of Jesus (New York: Knopf, 2025). Kindle and Audio. Also published by HarperCollins UK available on Amazon.co.uk serving United Kingdom, EU, and worldwide A world-renowned historian of early Christianity and ancient Judaism lifts the veil on the life of Mary—revealing her revolutionary role as…
The on-line magazine, Popular Archaeology, which I highly recommend, recently circulated its “Top Ten” feature stories of the past decade. I was honored and pleased that one of the ten stories that my research on the historical Jesus, as related to material and textual evidence, was chosen as one of…
This lecture focuses on Jesus and his “band of brothers,” whether members of his own family or apostles or both. Sorting it all out is quite a challenge. I had uploaded a private camera version of this lecture before but this one has the slides–they are not the best quality…