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…
Post-Biblical Period
The post-Biblical period encompasses the eras of history that follow after the conclusion of events as recorded in the Bible.
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When Was Jesus Born—B.C. or A.D.?
• 12/12/2018
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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What Is Coptic and Who Were the Copts in Ancient Egypt?
• 04/19/2018
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 Virgin Mary and the Prophet Muhammad
• 03/03/2018
The Virgin Mary and the prophet Muhammad have a lot in common within their respective Christian and Islamic traditions, according to author Mary Joan Winn Leith. Read more…
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Early Christian Art Symbols Endure after Iconoclast Attack
• 02/17/2018
Depictions of fish and fishermen can be found in the colorful floor mosaics at the sixth-century C.E. basilica at Horvat Beit Loya. The mosaics were defaced by iconoclasts in the Read more…
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Classical Corner: A Subterranean Surprise in the Roman Catacombs
• 02/15/2018
What are 1,300 non-Christian burials dating to the second century C.E. doing in the middle of one of Rome’s most important Christian catacombs? Read more…
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Jews in Roman Turkey
• 10/02/2017
Recent excavations in Limyra, Turkey, have uncovered a mysterious building near the city’s east gate. Although the structure has been only partially excavated, Jewish iconography and architectural features have already Read more…
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Justinian Plague Linked to the Black Death
• 09/21/2017
Bacterial research has linked the Justinian Plague to the world’s most infamous affliction, the Black Death. Read more…
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Where Did Early Christian Monks Get Their Wealth?
• 06/24/2017
To the “holy poor” or the “real poor”—that is the question. To whom were alms to be directed? This question divided the early Christian monastic movement in the East. Read more…
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The Origin of Christianity
• 01/07/2017
Geza Vermes explores the origin of Christianity by examining the characteristics of the Jewish Jesus movement to see how it developed into a distinctly gentile religion. Read more…
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Byzantine Church Discovered Outside of Jerusalem
• 06/17/2015
Archaeologists have discovered a Byzantine-period church during excavations just outside of Jerusalem in Israel. Read more…
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Hoard of Gold Coins Found in Caesarea Harbor
• 02/19/2015
A massive hoard of gold coins—the largest discovered to date in Israel—was found by divers in the Caesarea harbor. Read more…
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The Gospel of the Lots of Mary
• 02/10/2015
AnneMarie Luijendijk has identified a previously unknown Late Antique text containing oracles called The Gospel of the Lots of Mary. Read more…
