The following is the impressive case put forth by Rami Arav that Bethsaida of the New Testament, home of several of Jesus’ disciples, has been not only located but extensively excavated. Please subscribe to Near Eastern Archaeology for more articles of this sort. Readers interested in the Bible and archaeology should…
What kind of a Jew was Jesus? I think this might be one of the most frequent questions I get from general audiences over the years. I am encouraged. At least one finds there is more and more a general acknowledgement, if not an understanding, that the historical figure of…
I am often asked a question at lectures and programs that I find hard to answer–“What is your greatest archaeological discovery in the field of Christian Origins?” I have been privileged to be involved in the Tomb of the Shroud in Akeldama, the Suba “John the Baptist” cave, the Talpiot…
The following is a review of my book, The Jesus Dynasty (Simon & Schuster, 2006), by professor Dennis E. Groh, noted scholar of early Christianity. If you find this very thorough review intriguing I urge those who have not to “read the book” itself, see more information here, and you…
Many years ago a man from the BBC came to me and he asked me if the Dead Sea Scrolls will harm Christianity. I said to him that nothing can harm Christianity. The only thing which could be dangerous to Christianity would be to find a tomb with the sarcophagus…
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…
The CNN “Finding Jesus” special titled “Secret Brother of Jesus,” that dealt with with the question of whether Jesus had brothers and sisters as well as the controversies surrounding the “James ossuary” has put the latter back in the news. For those a bit rusty on the background of all…
It was about twenty years ago that I first began to combine my textual study of the historical Jesus with an in-depth interest in the archaeology of late 2nd Temple Jerusalem and Galilee as it relates to the life of Jesus. An obvious interest of mine has been to determine,…
“On a hill far away, stood an old rugged cross, the emblem of suffering and shame” Evangelical Hymn, George Bennard, 1913 According to all our historical records Jesus was crucified somewhere outside the city wall of Jerusalem. He was sentenced to death by the Roman prefect of Judea, Pontius Pilate,…
