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…
No one maintains that the tomb of Joseph Caiaphas, discovered just south of the Old City of Jerusalem at Abu Tor on a cold November day in 1990 can not be the tomb of the New Testament High Priest Caiaphas because they believe that Caiaphas was taken bodily up to…
In April 2015 the Sunday New York Times broke a major full-page story, “Findings Reignite Debate on Claim of Jesus’ Bones” based on new chemical tests done on the ossuaries from the Talpiot “Jesus” tomb comparing it with the controversial “James son of Joseph, brother of Jesus” ossuary that came to…
Ben Witherington ((Ben Witherington is Amos Professor of New Testament for Doctoral Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary and on the doctoral faculty at St. Andrews University in Scotland, see “About Ben Witherington” )) has a new blog post titled “Once More with Feeling: Did the James Ossuary come out of…
If you want to travel with me to Israel in 2020 we have just opened registrations for a specialized tour like no other. I am just back from our Mt Zion excavation which marks my 70th trip to the Holy Land since my first visit with my family in the…
A first century CE mikveh or ritual bath was was uncovered in 2015 just south of the Old City and east of Hebron road in the Arnona neighborhood of Talpiot as a result of construction of a kindergarten. At the time of its discovery Shimon Gibson and I were been…
In our New Testament gospels there are three women named Mary who are closely associated with Jesus: His mother, who raised him and a large family of four other boys and at least two girls (Mark 6:3) Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha and Lazarus (Luke 10:38-42; John 11:1-5;…
The first week of March, 2019, during our Spring Break, I will make my 69th trip to Israel. Only a few of those trips have been on tours, but the past few years I have been taking small groups of 30 or less on very specialized tours, along with my…
I have been amazed over the years at what one assumes is in the New Testament Gospels and what is actually there. I have been teaching these texts for over 40 years and hardly a semester goes by when I don’t see something I had missed, or have something pointed…