Biblical Artifacts

Biblical artifacts are manmade objects, often found during archaeological excavations, that make a contribution to our understanding of the Bible and/or the historicity of Biblical events.

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• Was Pontius Pilate’s Ring Discovered at Herodium?

  Robert Cargill   •  12/04/2018

  

  Thorough cleaning and advances in photographic technology have shed new light on this discovery.   Read more…
  8 comments

• Why Did Early Christians Prefer the Codex to the Bookroll?

  Marek Dospěl   •  11/28/2018

  

  Evidence shows that preserved early Christian manuscripts are more often codices than the then-established bookrolls. Why?   Read more…
  7 comments

• Tischendorf on Trial for Removing Codex Sinaiticus, the Oldest New Testament

  Ellen White   •  11/26/2018

  

  Constantine Tischendorf’s chance finding of Codex Sinaiticus, the oldest New Testament manuscript, at St. Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai—and his later removal of the manuscript—made him both famous and infamous.   Read more…
  19 comments

• Five Museum of the Bible Dead Sea Scrolls Are Fake

  Robert Cargill   •  10/23/2018

  

  The Museum of the Bible announced that at least five of their Dead Sea Scrolls fragments have been determined to be fakes.   Read more…
  8 comments

• The Nag Hammadi Codices and Gnostic Christianity

  Biblical Archaeology Society Staff   •  10/12/2018

  

  Until the discovery of the Nag Hammadi codices in 1945, the Gnostic view of early Christianity had largely been forgotten. The teachings of Gnostic Christianity—vilified especially since they were declared   Read more…
  24 comments

• 2,000-Year-Old Jerusalem Inscription Bears City’s Name

  Robin Ngo   •  10/09/2018

  

  Archaeologists have unearthed a Second Temple period stone inscription that spells the name Jerusalem as Yerushalayim (as it’s spelled in Hebrew today).   Read more…
  5 comments

• Precursor to Paleo-Hebrew Script Discovered in Jerusalem

  Robin Ngo   •  10/08/2018

  

  Alan Millard examines the Proto-Canaanite script of the earliest alphabetic text ever found in Jerusalem. What can it tell us about literacy during the time of David and Solomon?   Read more…
  17 comments

• Early Christian Amulets: Between Faith and Magic

  Marek Dospěl   •  10/01/2018

  

  Just like their pagan neighbors, Jesus’s followers of the first Christian centuries would commonly resort to protection amulets to guard themselves from illness and any kind of harm.   Read more…
  4 comments

• Where Did the Philistines Come From?

  Biblical Archaeology Society Staff   •  09/22/2018

  

  Excavators at Tell es-Safi/Gath, the site of Gath of the Philistines mentioned in the Bible, found an exceptionally well preserved horned altar reminiscent of the Israelite horned altars described in   Read more…
  15 comments

• The Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls

  Marek Dospěl   •  09/11/2018

  

  What is the significance of the Aramaic texts among the Dead Sea Scrolls for elucidating the literary, societal, political, and religious contexts of ancient Judaism and nascent Christianity?   Read more…
  2 comments

• The Tel Dan Inscription: The First Historical Evidence of King David from the Bible

  Biblical Archaeology Society Staff   •  09/10/2018

  

  Few modern Biblical archaeology discoveries have attracted as much attention as the Tel Dan inscription—writing on a ninth-century B.C. stone slab (or stela) that furnished the first historical evidence of   Read more…
  48 comments

• Word Play

  Glenn J. Corbett   •  07/28/2018

  

  Three thousand years ago, when alphabetic writing had just begun to spread across the masses of the ancient Near East, written words were far more than idle marks meant simply   Read more…
  15 comments

• Scribes in the Dead Sea Scrolls

  Megan Sauter   •  07/23/2018

  

  What can we learn about scribes and scribal activity from the Dead Sea Scrolls?   Read more…
  1 comment

• Ancient Scribe Links Qumran Scrolls to Masada

  Biblical Archaeology Society Staff   •  07/14/2018

  

  Paleographer Ada Yardeni identified the handwriting of a single scribe on more than 50 Dead Sea Scrolls from Qumran and Masada. What can this tell us about the scribal community   Read more…
  13 comments

• First Person: Was the Dead Sea Scroll Community Celibate?

  Hershel Shanks   •  07/13/2018

  

  One of the many fascinating questions about the Dead Sea Scroll community living at Qumran is whether its members were celibate. Did they marry and have children or not?   Read more…
  11 comments

• The Doorways of Solomon’s Temple

  Megan Sauter   •  06/26/2018

  

  In the Bible, the inner shrine of Solomon’s Temple is described as having five mezuzot. What are they? The question has puzzled Biblical scholars for centuries. Does a recently discovered   Read more…
  7 comments

• The Animals Went in Two by Two, According to Babylonian Ark Tablet

  Noah Wiener   •  06/18/2018

  

  A recently translated Old Babylonian flood tablet describes how to build a circular ark.
    Read more…
  60 comments

• Papyrus Amherst 63 Up Close

  Karel van der Toorn   •  06/01/2018

  

  Karel van der Toorn contends that three Israelite psalms appear in Papyrus Amherst 63—although only one is attested in the Bible.   Read more…
  2 comments

• Puzzling Finds from Kuntillet ‘Ajrud

  Biblical Archaeology Society Staff   •  05/20/2018

  

  “Yahweh and his Asherah” is written across the top of this eighth-century B.C. drawing on a ceramic pithos from Kuntillet ‘Ajrud in the eastern Sinai. Some scholars have theorized that   Read more…
  31 comments

• Advanced Technology Shines Light on More Dead Sea Scrolls

  Biblical Archaeology Society Staff   •  05/04/2018

  

  Thanks to advanced imaging technology, Dead Sea Scroll fragments containing writing too faint to read with the naked eye have now been deciphered.   Read more…
  No comments

• How Ancient Taxes Were Collected Under King Manasseh

  Biblical Archaeology Society Staff   •  04/17/2018

  

  Discovered during the Temple Mount Sifting Project, this seventh-century B.C.E. clay bulla inscribed in paleo-Hebrew script with the phrase “Gibeon, for the king” provides evidence for how ancient taxes were   Read more…
  10 comments

• The Oldest Hebrew Script and Language

  Biblical Archaeology Society Staff   •  04/01/2018

  

  In a BAR article, epigraphy scholar Christopher Rollston asks a seemingly straightforward question: What is the oldest Hebrew inscription?   Read more…
  21 comments

• He Who Freed the Dead Sea Scrolls

  Biblical Archaeology Society Staff   •  03/19/2018

  

  In 1991, with the support of Hershel Shanks and the Biblical Archaeology Society, Martin Abegg, Jr., contemplated doing something unprecedented that had the potential to derail his academic career: publishing   Read more…
  1 comment

• The Dead Sea Scrolls in Denver

  Megan Sauter   •  03/16/2018

  

  Select Dead Sea Scrolls are on display at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science in Denver, Colorado, from March 16 to September 3, 2018. Two scrolls have never been   Read more…
  1 comment

• Dead Sea Scrolls Online: IAA Expands Digital Library

  Biblical Archaeology Society Staff   •  03/10/2018

  

  The Israel Antiquities Authority launched the updated Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library, a website that allows visitors to view and search high-resolution images of the complete Dead   Read more…
  13 comments