In which year was Jesus born? While this is sometimes debated, the majority of New Testament scholars place Jesus’ birth in 4 B.C. or before. This begs the question: How 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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When Was Jesus Born—B.C. or A.D.?
• 12/12/2018
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Where Was Jesus Born?
• 12/09/2018
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. Read more…
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Who Was St. Nicholas?
• 12/07/2018
The legend of jolly old St. Nicholas evolved into Santa Claus in Christmas tradition, but who was St. Nicholas? Read more…
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Were Mary and Joseph Married or Engaged at Jesus’ Birth?
• 12/06/2018
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. Read more…
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The Origins of “The Cherry Tree Carol”
• 12/02/2018
“The Cherry Tree Carol” is a Christmas carol that first appeared in 13th-century England; an American version was discovered in Appalachia in the 20th century. Stonehill College Biblical scholar Mary Read more…
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The Aleppo Codex
• 11/27/2018
The world’s oldest Hebrew Bible, the Aleppo Codex, is missing pages—and not just a couple leaves, but four of the Five Books of Moses! What happened to them? Read more…
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What’s Missing from Codex Sinaiticus, the Oldest New Testament?
• 11/26/2018
Compare differences in the Biblical text between the King James Version and Codex Sinaiticus, the oldest New Testament. Read more…
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Tischendorf on Trial for Removing Codex Sinaiticus, the Oldest New Testament
• 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…
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Women in the Bible
• 11/15/2018
Although the Bible is largely a product of the male-dominated societies of ancient Israel and the first-century C.E. Roman world, some of its most fascinating, evocative and inspiring characters are Read more…
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Site-Seeing: Nimrod
• 11/14/2018
Nestled in the northern Golan between Tel Dan to the west and the Hermon Ski Resort to the east, there’s a site that is too often passed by: Nimrod Fortress. Read more…
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What Were the Crusades and How Did They Impact Jerusalem?
• 11/11/2018
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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The Patriarch Abraham and Family
• 11/10/2018
In a special collection of Bible Review articles, Biblical scholars provide different avenues to understanding the Genesis account of the patriarch Abraham. Read more…
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An Unexpected Consequence of the Christian Crusades
• 11/04/2018
The Fihrist, and the scholarship it represents, is one of the shining positives that emerged from the Crusades. Read more…
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Lilith in the Bible and Mythology
• 11/03/2018
Who were the original humans that God created in the Garden of Eden: Adam and Eve? Or Adam and Lilith? A close look at the opening chapters of Genesis—and ancient Read more…
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Who Is Satan?
• 10/31/2018
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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Video Lecture: “The Origin of Heaven and Hell”
• 10/31/2018
In this illuminating lecture, BAR Editor Robert R. Cargill will show you how heaven and hell came to exist so prominently in Jewish and Christian literature. Read more…
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Ask Now: Who the Devil Is Satan?
• 10/26/2018
Examine who Satan really is and where he appears in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament in a BAS Library special collection of articles. Read more…
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How the Serpent Became Satan
• 10/14/2018
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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The Nag Hammadi Codices and Gnostic Christianity
• 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…
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Eunuchs in the Bible
• 10/04/2018
Stephen J. Patterson discusses what Jesus meant when he referred to “eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 19:11–12). Read more…
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Jesus as Lord of the Dance
• 10/02/2018
The apocryphal Acts of John describe the dance of Jesus and the apostles. How widespread was the ritual of dance in Christian worship? Read more…
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The Sayings of Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas
• 09/30/2018
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
• 09/30/2018
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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Understanding Israel’s 10 Commandments
• 09/28/2018
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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First Person: Misogyny in the Bible
• 09/27/2018
According to scholar Christopher Rollston, there are many examples of the marginalization of women in the Bible. Read more…
