Bible History Daily

Bible History Daily

Mosaic of the Journey to Bethlehem from the Chora Church in Istanbul.

Mar 28

Were Mary and Joseph Married or Engaged at Jesus’ Birth?

By: Mark Wilson

Were Mary and Joseph married or engaged when they traveled to Bethlehem? Biblical scholar Mark Wilson examines what the gospels say in this Bible History Daily guest post.

Cenacle Jerusalem

Mar 28

Did Jesus’ Last Supper Take Place Above the Tomb of David?

By: Marek Dospěl

Jesus’ Last Supper and the Tomb of David are traditionally associated with a building called the Cenacle in Jerusalem. Can archaeology shed light on these traditions?

The sunken courtyard outside the entrance to the cave of Salome. Courtesy Emil Aladjem, Israel Antiquities Authority

Mar 27

Saint Salome’s Resting Place?

By: BAS Staff

At the site of Horvat Qasra in the Judean foothills, between the fifth and the eighth centuries, Byzantine Christians frequented a small tomb chapel cut […]

Judas Betrays Jesus with a Kiss 1873 in 'The story of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation'

Mar 26

Why Did Judas Identify Jesus with a Kiss?

By: Hershel Shanks

I’ve been reading a new book titled Pseudo-Cyril of Jerusalem “On the Life and the Passion of Christ”: A Coptic Apocryphon by the Dutch scholar Roelof van den Broek.1 In case it has escaped your attention, it provides a new translation of an eighth-century Gnostic gospel in Coptic from Egypt that has been in the Morgan Library in New York since 1908, a gift of J.P. Morgan.

Zev Radovan

Mar 26

Nehemiah—The Man Behind the Wall

By: Dorothy Willette

Few people are familiar with the Biblical figure Nehemiah, and yet he was instrumental in the rebuilding and reestablishment of Jerusalem in the fifth century B.C. following the Babylonian exile.

ancient lipstick

Mar 25

A 4,000-Year-Old Lipstick

By: Nathan Steinmeyer

  A small stone vessel from the southeastern Jirof region of Iran may be the oldest lipstick ever discovered. Publishing in the journal Scientific Reports, […]

Herod Tomb

Mar 24

How Was Jesus’ Tomb Sealed?

By: Megan Sauter

What kind of stone sealed the tomb of Jesus? Was it a round (disk-shaped) stone or a square (cork-shaped) stone? While both kinds of blocking stones are attested in Jerusalem tombs from the time of Jesus, square (cork-shaped) stones are much, much more common than round (disk-shaped) ones.

Giotto adoration of the magi

Mar 23

Where Was Jesus Born?

By: Megan Sauter

If Jesus was born in Bethlehem, why is he called a Nazorean and a Galilean throughout the New Testament? Philip J. King addresses this question in his Biblical Views column.

Bar Kokhba Tunnels

Mar 22

Bar Kokhba Tunnels in the Galilee

By: Nathan Steinmeyer

Excavations by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) have revealed a complex of underground tunnels built by the Jewish residents of Huqoq, in central Galilee, around […]

1813 painting Vesuvius Erupting by Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes

Mar 21

The Destruction of Pompeii—God’s Revenge?

By: Hershel Shanks

The eruption of Mt. Vesuvius destroyed the opulent vacation destinations of Roman elites in August 79 C.E.—almost exactly nine years after Roman troops destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem. Did this seem like more than mere coincidence to the ancients?