People & Cultures in the Bible

By: Andrew McGowan

Theological scholar Andrew McGowan examines how December 25 came to be associated with the birthday of Jesus and became Christmas, a holiday celebrated by Christians around the world.

By: James Riley Strange

In the early first century CE, Jesus’s hometown of Nazareth was a Galilean village like most others. With a population probably numbering only in the […]

By: BAS Staff

At Shivta, a large early Christian site in southern Israel, scenes painted on the ruined walls of two monumental church buildings have been recently identified […]

By: Janet Howe Gaines

In most manifestations of her myth, Lilith represents chaos, seduction and ungodliness. Yet, in her every guise, Lilith has cast a spell on humankind. Who is Lilith in the Bible?

By: Robin Gallaher Branch

Who was Phoebe? That’s a good question! This first-century C.E. leader of the early Christian community makes a cameo appearance in Romans 16:1–2. Paul graciously […]

By: Clinton J. Moyer

The Phoenicians were the maritime traders par excellence during the Iron Age. By the late ninth century BCE, they had ventured from their home cities […]

By: BAS Staff

Mary Magdalene, Jezebel, Rahab, Lilith. Today, each are popularly considered scandalous women in the Bible. Are these so-condemned salacious women misrepresented?

By: BAS Staff

Isaiah is arguably the most popular of all the Hebrew prophets who wrote their oracles. In this BAS Library special collection, gain fascinating insights into Isaiah the prophet.

By: BAS Staff

Were the gifts of the magi meant to save Jesus from the pain of arthritis? It’s possible, according to researchers at Cardiff University in Wales who have been studying the medical uses of frankincense.

By: Marek Dospěl

When the biblical prophet Jeremiah decided to leave Judah and spend the rest of his life in Egyptian exile (Jeremiah 43), it must have been […]