Living and Working in the Shadow of the Seven Churches
I first came to Turkey in 1992 during my doctoral research on the Book of Revelations. My visit to the Seven Churches – the seven early churches or congregations mention in the Book of Revelations - was life-changing. The […]
What did Jesus look like?
Everyone knows what Jesus looks like: he is the most painted figure in all of western art, recognized everywhere as having long hair and a beard, a long robe with sleeves (often white) and a mantle (often blue). But what did he really look like, as a man living in Judaea in the 1st […]
Zodiac Calendars and Angelic Teaching in the Dead Sea Scrolls
Angels are often associated with secret knowledge but not usually with authentic mathematics. In several of the Dead Sea Scrolls there is a complicated network of parallel stories in which angels impart secret knowledge of […]
The Return of David and Solomon?
Buried beneath the houses of Silwan, a small neighborhood south of the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, lie the remains of four thousand years of human history. As elsewhere in the Middle East, in Silwan history is counted by ages […]
Introducing the Pseudepigrapha
The term “pseudepigrapha” is rather off-putting, conjuring up an image of ancient and difficult to understand texts that have little relevance to people today. In fact, this fascinating and wide-ranging literature, dating from approximately […]
The Bible, Archaeology, and the History of Early Israel
The problem of the relationship between the Bible and archaeology is an old one, and archaeological trends over the last several decades have shifted away from using the Bible. For those working in biblical or Near Eastern studies, however, the question […]
“In a world where slaves make bricks without straw…”
Director Ridley Scott’s Exodus: Gods and Kings is the latest retelling of the Old Testament’s most popular film franchise. Does he succeed or fail? Should Biblical films be Biblical or “historical”? And is Batman a good Moses? […]
What’s New with Ezra-Nehemiah
What’s new with Ezra-Nehemiah? This might not be the most exciting discussion on the Bible you can think of, but give me the chance to convince you otherwise. Granted, the rebuilding of the Jerusalem Temple after the Babylonian Exile has not been[…]
David’s Jerusalem
By: Daniel Pioske In a letter sent to Charlemagne sometime just prior to 800 CE, Alcuin of York praised his “David,” as Charlemagne wished to be called later in life, for the benevolence with which he “ruled and governed” over Jerusalem. In truth, Charlemagne’s influence in Jerusalem was restricted to sponsorship of a few […]
The Passover and Jesus
By: Adela Yarbro Collins Professor at Yale Divinity School We actually know very little about how the Passover was celebrated at the time of Jesus. According to the Mishnah, the Hallel (Psalms 113-118) was sung by the Levites at the sacrifices in the temple on important festival days. It was taken over early into the […]
Did Jesus Celebrate Passover in Sepphoris?
By: Dr. Eric M. Meyers Archaeologist and Duke University professor The question of whether Jesus celebrated Passover in Sepphoris is related to the larger question of why Sepphoris is not mentioned in the New Testament. As many of our readers must know, Sepphoris is only 5 kilometers from nearby Nazareth. When Sepphoris became the capital […]
The Last Passover of Jesus
By: James H. Charlesworth George L. Collord Professor of New Testament Language and Literature and director of the Dead Sea Scrolls Project at Princeton Theological Seminary In the Spring, Passover is time for reflective celebration. The great festival is also time for joyous expectation, as humans relish in the return of warm sunshine and blooming […]
Tell Es-Sultan - A Pilot Project for Archaeology in Palestine
By: Lorenzo Nigro, University of Rome La Sapienza In a few weeks students and young scholars of Rome “La Sapienza” University, along with Palestinian colleagues from the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, will return to Tell es-Sultan. The site – identified since late antiquity with Biblical Jericho, the Canaanite city-state of Rwha –is the most visited […]
Archaeology Weekly Roundup! 03/07/2022
If you missed anything from the ASOR facebook or twitter pages this week, don’t worry. We’ve rounded up some of this week’s archaeology news into one convenient post. If we missed any major archaeological stories from this week, feel free to let us know in the comment section! [list type=”icons-book”] “The Bible’s Prehistory, Purpose, and […]
Remembering King David
By Jacob L. Wright, Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible at the Candler School of Theology, Emory University Why didn’t the biblical authors present a more flattering image of King David, and why did they make his stories so complex? In his 1943 biography of King David, the British diplomat Alfred Duff Cooper, 1st Viscount Norwich, insisted […]
Archaeology and the Bible – Yet Another Personal Viewpoint
By: Aren M. Maeir Biblical Archaeology, that so-popular yet so-vilified profession, deals with the interface between the archaeological remains and the cultures in which the biblical texts were incubated, formed, edited and collected. We archaeologists therefore deal with a large corpus of finds from many periods and cultures, as it is clear that the biblical […]
Has Archaeology Gone Overboard in Throwing Out the Bible?
By: Steven Collins The relationship between archaeology and the Bible has been a much-debated topic over the last 25 years. The terms ‘minimalists’ and ‘maximalists’ are now as frequent as ‘exodus’ and ‘epigraphy’. There seems to be little or no middle ground. On the one hand, William Dever is—as he has stated on several occasions—flattered […]
The So-Called “Solomonic” City-gate at Megiddo
Editor’s Note: The “Solomonic” gates at Hazor, Gezer and Megiddo have long been controversial for their apparent confirmation of Biblical accounts. Below, Prof. David Ussishkin, the excavator of Lachish and Megiddo, argues that the six-chambered gate structure at Megiddo cannot be dated to the tenth century and the reign of Solomon. What is the proper […]