“Alternative facts” and “fake news” are not just a contemporary phenomenon. On occasion ancient writers similarly tried to spin their version of the truth. One such claim was that Roman Read more…
Biblical Topics
Biblical topics encompass issues in the study of the Bible and Biblical archaeology, scholars and archaeologists who study the Bible, and issues in the interpretation of the Bible and Biblical archaeology findings.
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Alternative Facts: Domitian’s Persecution of Christians
• 07/24/2017
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What Is Coptic and Who Were the Copts in Ancient Egypt?
• 07/18/2017
When did the ancient Egyptians stop writing in hieroglyphs, and what came next? From the fourth to ninth centuries C.E., Egypt was predominantly Christian. During this time, the language used Read more…
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The Origin of Sin and Death in the Bible
• 07/12/2017
What is the origin of sin and death in the Bible? Who was the first sinner? Read more…
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What Were the Crusades and How Did They Impact Jerusalem?
• 06/26/2017
Some of the most famous churches in Jerusalem were built during the Christian Crusades by Crusaders wishing to memorialize sites they believed to have great Christian significance. Read more…
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Understanding Israel’s 10 Commandments
• 06/14/2017
Are the 10 Commandments really a moral code, or did the ancients understand them rather as the constitutional basis of a political theocracy? Read more…
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Left-Handed People in the Bible
• 06/13/2017
Were the warriors from the tribe of Benjamin left-handed by nature or nurture? Read more…
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Is the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife a Fake?
• 06/10/2017
When Harvard’s Karen King announced at a 2012 scholarly conference in Rome that a fragment of an authentic fourth-century gospel had come into her hands in which Jesus, speaking in Read more…
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The Nag Hammadi Codices and Gnostic Christianity
• 06/06/2017
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…
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What’s Missing from Codex Sinaiticus, the Oldest New Testament?
• 06/05/2017
Compare differences in the Biblical text between the King James Version and Codex Sinaiticus, the oldest New Testament. Read more…
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The Sayings of Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas
• 06/04/2017
New Testament scholar Simon Gathercole examines what the sayings of Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas reveal about the early Christian world in which they were written. Read more…
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The Gospel of Thomas’s 114 Sayings of Jesus
• 06/04/2017
Read the 114 sayings of Jesus from the Gospel of Thomas as translated by Stephen J. Patterson and James M. Robinson. Read more…
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Should We Take Creation Stories in Genesis Literally?
• 06/02/2017
Were the creation stories in Genesis meant to be taken literally? Maybe not, says Biblical scholar Shawna Dolansky in her Biblical Views column “The Multiple Truths of Myths” in the Read more…
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How the Serpent Became Satan
• 06/01/2017
The serpent in the Garden of Eden is portrayed as just that: a serpent. The story in Genesis 2–3 contains no hint that he embodies the devil, Satan or any Read more…
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Love Your Neighbor: Only Israelites or Everyone?
• 05/30/2017
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? Read more…
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Jonah and the Whale
• 05/28/2017
The Book of Jonah is read in the synagogue on the afternoon of Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, the sacred Day of Atonement. Why, of all Read more…
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What Happened to Cain in the Bible?
• 05/21/2017
What happened to Cain in the Bible? In the Book of Genesis, we are told about Cain’s birth, his violent act of fratricide and his subsequent exile. We learn that Read more…
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Speaking in Tongues in the Bible
• 05/14/2017
Ben Witherington III addresses what happened at Pentecost in his Biblical Views column “Speaking in the Tongues of Men or Angels?” in the July/August 2015 issue of BAR. Read more…
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The Doorways of Solomon’s Temple
• 05/11/2017
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…
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When Was the Hebrew Bible Written?
• 05/10/2017
When was the Hebrew Bible written? Ostraca with Hebrew inscriptions excavated from the Iron Age fortress at Arad in Israel may provide clues, say researchers from Tel Aviv University. Read more…
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James or Jacob in the Bible?
• 04/27/2017
How did the Jewish name Ya’akov, properly translated as Jacob, become James in English versions of the Bible? Read more…
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High Places, Altars and the Bamah
• 04/23/2017
The open-air altar shrine, called a bamah (plural bamot), is known through several books of the Biblical canon. Often referred to as “high places” in translations of the Bible, bamot Read more…
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When Was the First Communion?
• 04/10/2017
Early Christians celebrated the Lord’s Supper as a full meal, but by the third century, it had ceased to be a banquet and had become a ritualized small meal instead. Read more…
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How Was Jesus’ Tomb Sealed?
• 04/06/2017
Urban C. von Wahlde looks at the Gospel accounts to see how the stone that sealed the tomb of Jesus is portrayed. Read more…
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What Does the Bible Say About Tattoos?
• 04/06/2017
Although Leviticus 19:28 clearly prohibits tattoos, it does not give an explicit reason why. This begs the question: Why does the Bible prohibit tattoos? Read more…
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On What Day Did Jesus Rise?
• 04/05/2017
On what day did Jesus rise? After three days or on the third day? Ben Witherington III examines this question in BAR. Read more…
