Millions of sincere Christians believe the Turin Shroud offers something very close to a photographic image of the historical Jesus–including selected scientists, Bible scholars, and theologians–and further that it offers tangible scientific proof that Jesus was raised bodily from the dead! But what are the facts. In this video I…
Dateline: Tuesday, June 29, 2010, Jerusalem Israel I flew to Israel the day before to be present for one of the most significant discoveries I have made in my entire forty year academic career! Enjoy the experience , and see the links at the end to learn much more! https://youtu.be/N1oKvLC8oN4…
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…
Reduced Price until Sunday Midnight February 25th! Some of you might have seen that Bart Ehrman is promoting a new course with archaeologist Jodi Magness. The two of them are faculty together at UNC Chapel Hill. I have never enrolled in one of Bart’s courses before, though I have often…
Does the 1980 Talpiot “Jesus Family Tomb” have any likely connection to the historical Jesus of Nazareth and his family? In January of 2008 a group of internationally renowned scholars from a broad range of disciplines met in Jerusalem to discuss that very question. Covering the archaeological facts about the…
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…
In this final segment of my series on Final Days of Jesus over “Holy Week” as the Christian call it, I consider the burial and empty tomb accounts in the Gospels, as well as “sightings” of Jesus. Please access the blog posts that lay out these issues in GREAT detail.…
Don’t miss this one! I recently did an update interview on some of the latest research on the James ossuary that has not been picked up by either the media or academics in the field of 2nd Temple Judaism/Jesus Movement historical studies…Much more to come, especially further, more sophisticated DNA…
In Part Two I relate the story of the ossuary or “bone box” from 1st century Jerusalem inscribe: “James son of Joseph Brother of Jesus” and its possible relationship to either the Shroud tomb or the Talpiot “Jesus Family” tomb. If you missed Part One see the previous post on…