Contrary to what is often asserted by scholars as well as general readers, the early traditions that Jesus had a biological father named “Pantera” has nothing to do with an assertion that Mary was raped by a Roman soldier. Further, the name Pantera was never said to be a pun…
I really enjoyed this interview with Paul Williams, host of the Youtube channel @Blogging Theology. I offer an overview of the “real” Paul as similar to the “quest” for the historical Jesus–with a lot more to go on in terms of sources! We have FOUR layers of sources on Paul–along…
One of the fundamental challenges of any serious study of what scholars refer to as the “historical Jesus,” is to sort out the relationship between our three “Synoptic” gospels, which appear in the New Testament as Matthew, Mark, and Luke. They have a clear literary relationship–but the question of “priority”…
Critical scholars, using the most rigorous historical-critical criteria, have concluded that the following statements of Jesus from the Synoptic tradition are unquestionably authentic. This is not so say that other materials are necessarily inauthentic, but that these particular sayings are at the core of the unedited tradition. These results are…
I have been working this week on a brand new feature on my Blog–that along with the Jewish Roman World of Jesus, will grow into a really major resource for my readers and subscribers. I am called it “Tabor BookShelf.” It is in the top menu, easy to access anytime.…
The question of how the earliest followers of Jesus viewed Jesus as well as the “God of Jesus,”–that is the One God so central to most forms of Judaism, is a complex one that has been explored extensively in the field of New Testament and Christian Origins studies. I highly…
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. By using these particular links there is no increase in cost to you as the purchaser. Marie: De son enfance juive à la fondation du christianisme (Flammarion, 2020). (Kindle link). This is a translation of the forthcoming English version, The Lost Mary:…
I highly recommend to all of my readers, and followers, David Wray’s 756 page book, The Secret Roots of Christianity (2012), dealing with astrology, magic, astral immortality and Greco-Roman art of the period, including astral symbols on coins. A question I get quite often goes something like this: “Dr. Tabor,…
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…
Geza Vermes, The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English 7th Edition (Penguin, 2012). I bought my first copy of this fine little paperback volume in 1973 in graduate school at the university of Chicago–it was the 1st edition and I still have it–and I have bought every edition since then.…
