Dr. James Tabor retired (2022) as a full-Professor from the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where he taught Christian origins and ancient Judaism, for 33 years, serving as Chair for a decade. His MA/Ph.D. is from the University of Chicago (1981). He previously…
I have written and lectured a lot on “When Prophecy Fails,” that is how various groups over the past 2500 years, both Jewish and Christian, have had their hopes and expectations dashed by what one might call the “brick wall” of historical reality. In times of global unrest and uncertainty,…
As many of you know I officially retired yesterday, June 30th, from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte after thirty-three yeas of teaching, but forty-five total including my previous years at Notre Dame and the College of William and Mary. I might also mention that UNC Charlotte was founded in 1946–the year…
Summer Sale: The Book of Genesis: A New Translation from the Transparent English Bible, is available in Kindle, Paperback and Hardcover at significantly reduced prices on Amazon. What is the best-known verse in the Bible—one that millions could quote immediately by heart? Christians might say John 3:16—after all, one even sees placards and signs…
In 1883 fifteen leather strips found by Bedouin in caves on the east side of the Dead Sea came into possession of book and manuscript antiquities dealer Moses Shapira of Jerusalem. These ancient texts were written in Paleo-Hebrew and after painstaking reading and transcription of the faded letters by Shapira,…
The three hundred year period of Jewish history from 150 BCE to 150 CE was characterized by the utter failure of all apocalyptic expectations of the End of the Age arriving. These failed hopes and dreams shape collectively what might be called “The Great Disappointment.” This included a variety of…
The mysterious woman, otherwise unknown in our New Testament texts, Mary Magdalene, briefly appears and disappears toward the end of Jesus’ life in all four of the New Testament gospels. As this video makes clear, it is Mary Magdalene who is the KEY figure in our historical reconstruction of what…
Few think of Jesus of Nazareth as part of the royal family of David–even though Paul affirms the same as our earliest source–namely that he was descended from the messianic lineage of King David (Romans 1:3). Given that pedigree, that means Jesus’ brothers and sisters, as children of Mary, which…
I usually don’t do personal reflections on this Blog–which is reserved for academic biblical/historical matters. However, it is called TABORBlog–so why not. On this day, June 2, 1952, marks the 70th Anniversary of Queen Elizabeth–the longest reigning monarch in English history. My two sister and I were there in London…
In 2006 I published a best-selling book with what seemed a rather odd and clumsy title for a Jesus book, namely The Jesus Dynasty: The Hidden History of Jesus, His Royal Family, and the Birth of Christianity (Simon & Schuster). Every term in that title was carefully and deliberately chosen–and the phrase “the…
