On this last day of our Spring semester, after 45 years of full-time teaching at Notre Dame (7 years), William & Mary (5 years), and UNC Charlotte (33 years!) I am stepping down to devote myself more fully to research, writing, leading educational tours, and various film and archaeological projects–which…
Ross Nichols, author of the book,The Moses Scroll published last year, offers the best to date overview of the entire 19th century saga of Jerusalem antiquarian and bookseller, William Moses Shapira, and his sixteen leather strips inscribed in paleo-Hebrew purportedly discovered by Bedouin on the east side of the Dead Sea…
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…
Here is a real “blast from the past.” Ernest Martin had released his theories on the Jewish Temple in the time of Jesus not being located up over where the dome of the Rock is today, but to the south in the “City of David” area. In this lecture, given…
Some might think that the “title” of this lecture has to be incorrect–after all, is not Mary the most prominent woman in history? How could one possibly present her as marginalized? In fact, Mary, the mother of Jesus is at once the “best known” and “least known” woman in human…
I thought some of my readers might find this older lecture from 2010 of interest–both for what it says and what we knew at the time. Many have asked why I would call my primary book on the “Historical Jesus” the The Jesus Dynasty–and refer then to Jesus and his “royal…
A major New Testament scholar recently commented to a colleague that “Tabor’s support of the idea that the Talpiot tombs might related to the historical Jesus is truly bizarre.” I won’t name the scholar but 99% of my readers would recognize the name. My reaction is someone needs to do…
Once again “Holy Week” has arrived. Today is Palm Sunday, with Easter one week away. So one might say this week is “doubly holy,” in that it binds together what Jesus as a Jew would have been intimately familiar with his entire life–Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread–and the…
In this video lecture I survey what might be called the “dynamics of Messianic identity”–or even “self-identity,” in the late 2nd Temple period of Judaism, as well as the emergence of what eventually became “Christianity.” For more resources related to this topic see these blog posts as well as my…
The “Last Days of Jesus,” that final week of his life, marked by billions of Christians from Palm Sunday to Easter, with contemplation, mourning, and celebration–is often called “Holy Week” in the “great” churches. It is narrated by Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John in the New Testament, along with fragments…
