archaeological evidence

archaeological evidence Latest

19th-century painting of Jezebel by John Liston Byam Shaw

Mar 3 Blog

Scandalous Women in the Bible

Mary Magdalene, Jezebel, Rahab, Lilith. Today, each are popularly considered scandalous women in the Bible. Are these so-condemned salacious women misrepresented?

Stela from El-Amarna, Egyptian King Akhenaten is seen with his wife Nefertiti and their daughters bearing offerings to the sun-disk Aten.

Feb 24 Blog

Akhenaten and Moses

By: Robin Ngo

Pharaoh Akhenaten, who abolished the Egyptian pantheon and instituted worship of a single deity, the sun-disk Aten, in the mid-14th century B.C., may have established the world’s first monotheism. Did this influence the birth of Israelite monotheism?

Moses, pictured here in a painting by 17th-century Baroque artist Guido Reni. Alinari/Art Resource, NY.

Feb 14 Blog

Love Your Neighbor: Only Israelites or Everyone?

By: Richard Elliott Friedman

The Book of Leviticus tells us to love our neighbors, but who are our neighbors? Does the command mean to just love fellow Israelites—or everyone?

Jan 20 Blog

Biblical Riot at Ephesus: The Archaeological Context

By: BAS Staff

How accurate is Luke’s account of the riot at Ephesus described in Acts 19:23–41? Excavations at the site bring this Biblical event to reality in a new way—from inscriptions and figurines of the goddess Artemis to the theater where the riot took place.

Jan 6 Blog

A Tomb in Jerusalem Reveals the History of Crucifixion and Roman Crucifixion Methods

By: BAS Staff

In the history of crucifixion, the death of Jesus of Nazareth stands out as the best-known example by far. Crucifixion in antiquity was actually a fairly common punishment, but there were no known physical remains from a crucifixion. Then, in 1968, archaeologist Vassilios Tzaferis excavated a Jerusalem tomb that contained the bones of a crucified man named Yehohanan. As Tzaferis reported in BAR, the discovery demonstrated the brutal reality of Roman crucifixion methods in a way that written accounts never had before.

Jan 3 Blog

Water from a Walking Rock

By: Megan Sauter

What does Paul mean in the Bible when he says that the Israelites drank “from the spiritual rock that followed them” during their wanderings in the wilderness?

Dec 20 Blog

King David’s Palace and the Millo

By: Robin Ngo

In the study of Biblical archaeology, Biblical texts and archaeological finds must be examined critically and independently, but ultimately, they must be interpreted together. Such an approach can be applied to King David’s Palace and the Millo.

The Ravenna mosaic of Jesus. Photo: Sant’Apollinare Nuovo Ravenna, Italy/Bridgeman Images

Dec 16 Blog

Did Jesus Exist? Searching for Evidence Beyond the Bible

By: Lawrence Mykytiuk

Did Jesus of Nazareth, “the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5), really exist? What’s the evidence outside of the Bible? Classical and Jewish writings from the first several centuries C.E. give us a glimpse of the person who would become the central figure in Christianity mere decades after his crucifixion.

Dec 14 Blog

Locating Zoar

By: BAS Staff

Read Master’s College professor Bill Schlegel’s commentary on the location of Zoar along with Steven Collins’s response.

Dec 2 Blog

First Person: Did the Kingdoms of Saul, David and Solomon Actually Exist?

By: Hershel Shanks

In BAR, Hershel Shanks examines a recent article published by archaeologist Amihai Mazar. Mazar contends that while the Biblical narratives were written hundreds of years after the reigns of Saul, David and Solomon, they “retain memories of reality.”

Must-Read Free eBooks

The Dead Sea Scrolls: Past, Present, and Future

Biblical Peoples—The World of Ancient Israel

Who Was Jesus? Exploring the History of Jesus’ Life

Ancient Israel in Egypt and the Exodus

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