Paul never met Jesus. With those four words I began my book, Paul and Jesus (Simon & Schuster, 2013). Jesus was crucified in 30 CE, Paul had his visionary encounter with Jesus some years after that–seven years according to one early source (The Ascents of James). Accordingly, he is often called…
I wanted to thank Bart Ehrman, my colleague down the road at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, for inviting me to guest post on his popular Blog. My post, titled “The Historian and the Supernatural,” will appear in two parts–today and tomorrow. I have also agreed…
Jews, Christians, and Muslims all affirm the doctrine of “resurrection of the dead” as a central tenet of eschatology–that is, the understanding of the “last things” or how human history is to end. One common misunderstanding, especially among Christians, is that resurrection of the dead is equivalent to the idea…
Daniel chapter 11 might well be the longest “continual” prophecy in the Hebrew Bible. Indeed, it appears to be referred to in Daniel 10:21–the chapter leading up to the Daniel’s most disturbing vision–as the “book of truth.” It is surely one of the most influential in terms of firing up…
There is a new scientific paper published just this week by a distinguished team of international geologists, chemists, and earth scientists, titled “The Geochemistry of Intrusive Sediment Sampled from the 1st Century CE Inscribed Ossuaries of James and the Talpiot Tomb,” that is now available on-line. Based on extensive soil…
In my 2006 New York Times bestselling book, The Jesus Dynasty, which was subsequently translated into twenty-six languages, I included the following dedication: Ad Memoriam Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) Missionary, philosopher, historian extraordinaire. In whose shadow we all stand. My book appeared on the 100th anniversary of the publication of Schweitzer’s most influential 1906…
Anyone who works on the apostle Paul comes up against this question almost immediately–namely “Who Is a Jew”? After all, in different contexts Paul affirms that “in Christ” there is “neither Jew nor Gentile” while also affirming that “He is a real Jew who is one inwardly, whose circumcision is…
My dearly beloved oldest son, David Tabor, age 51, lost his battle with cancer after a long struggle on Friday morning August 30th. He died at MDAnderson Cancer Center in Houston, so he had access to the best most innovative care, but things were too advanced by the time he…
Press Release via Eureka Alert: https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-08/uonc-eot080819.php Researchers digging at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte’s ongoing archaeological excavation on Mount Zion in Jerusalem have announced a second significant discovery from the 2019 season – clear evidence of the Babylonian conquest of the city from 587/586 BCE. [See Evidence for 1099…
Major story breaking this morning on the 920th anniversary of the July 15, 1099 Crusader siege of Jerusalem, one of the bloodiest and most savage events in western history. We had amazing confirmation of the siege on the southern end of the city at our Mt Zion dig this summer.…
