According to Adele Berlin, the Book of Ruth illuminates the main theme of the Hebrew Bible: the continuity of God’s people in their land. 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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The Story of Ruth
• 07/31/2018
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The Song of Songs: Love Is Strong as Death
• 07/30/2018
The Song of Songs (or Song of Solomon) from the Hebrew Bible is a love song beyond compare—although it has been compared to everything. Some have deemed it lewd entertainment. Read more…
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How Was the Bible Written During and After the Exile?
• 07/27/2018
How was the Bible written during and after the Babylonian Exile? Did the Biblical authors continue to use the Hebrew language even though they were living in lands where Hebrew Read more…
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Hidden Christian Cross at Hippos-Sussita
• 07/24/2018
A brass weight that had concealed a Christian cross was discovered in a Byzantine church at Hippos-Sussita in Israel. Read more…
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Alternative Facts: Domitian’s Persecution of Christians
• 07/20/2018
“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…
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High Places, Altars and the Bamah
• 07/15/2018
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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The Canonical Gospels
• 06/28/2018
The four canonical Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John narrate the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Biblical Archaeology Society editors have hand-selected articles from the BAS Library that Read more…
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The Doorways of Solomon’s Temple
• 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…
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The Animals Went in Two by Two, According to Babylonian Ark Tablet
• 06/18/2018
A recently translated Old Babylonian flood tablet describes how to build a circular ark.
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Bible Animals: From Hyenas to Hippos
• 06/14/2018
Lions and crocodiles and monkeys, oh my! There are about a hundred different types of animal species mentioned in the Bible. In this post, Rabbi Dr. Natan Slifkin discusses the Read more…
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Defining Biblical Hermeneutics
• 06/10/2018
The hermeneutics of the Bible are the many ways people read the Bible. Read more…
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The Split of Early Christianity and Judaism
• 06/08/2018
Northern Renaissance painter Robert Campin’s Marriage of the Virgin dramatically captures the split of early Christianity and Judaism. Read more…
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Asherah and the Asherim: Goddess or Cult Symbol?
• 06/03/2018
Who is Asherah? What is asherah? The reference may be to a particular goddess, a class of goddess or a cult symbol used to represent the goddess. It is sometimes Read more…
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Who Are the Nephilim?
• 05/31/2018
Who are the Nephilim? From where do the “heroes of old, the men of renown” come? Read more…
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Did Pharaoh Sheshonq Attack Jerusalem?
• 05/29/2018
Israeli scholar Yigal Levin’s article “Did Pharaoh Sheshonq Attack Jerusalem” in the July/August 2012 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review examines the historical veracity of both the Egyptian Pharaoh’s account and Read more…
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Rock Giants in Noah
• 05/28/2018
Can the Book of Enoch shed light on Noah the movie? Ronald S. Hendel examines the flood story. Read more…
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Where Noah Landed?
• 05/27/2018
Still another group is looking for Mt. Ararat, where the Bible says Noah landed after the flood. This group is looking to confirm the tradition that nearby Mt. Cudi (Judi Read more…
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What Happened to Cain in the Bible?
• 05/23/2018
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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Left-Handed People in the Bible
• 05/15/2018
Were the warriors from the tribe of Benjamin left-handed by nature or nurture? Read more…
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Jacob in the Bible
• 05/08/2018
Who did Jacob wrestle with in the Bible? Phyllis Trible connects this episode to her own struggle with feminism and the Bible in her Biblical Views column “Wrestling with Faith.” Read more…
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Who Is Satan?
• 05/07/2018
Does our modern conception of Satan have any resemblance to the devil in the Bible? Just who is Satan? Read more…
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The Creation of Woman in the Bible
• 05/03/2018
How was the first woman created in Genesis 2? Was she made from the man’s rib or, as recently suggested in BAR, from his os baculum? Read more…
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Mark and John: A Wedding at Cana—Whose and Where?
• 04/29/2018
James Tabor discusses the wedding at Cana from the Gospels of Mark and John. Whose wedding was this and why were Jesus and his family present? Read more…
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Does the Gospel of Mark Reveal Jesus’ Anger or His Compassion?
• 04/27/2018
In the fifth-century C.E. Codex Bezae, an early edition of the New Testament written in Greek, the Gospel of Mark describes Jesus’ anger before healing a leper (Mark 1:41). While Read more…
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Gospel of John Commentary: Who Wrote the Gospel of John and How Historical Is It?
• 04/26/2018
The Gospels, the first four books of the New Testament, tell the story of the life of Jesus. Yet only one—the Gospel of John—claims to be an eyewitness account, the Read more…
