People & Cultures in the Bible

By: Mark Wilson

How did the Jewish name Ya’akov, properly translated as Jacob, become James in English versions of the Bible?

By: BAS Staff

Read the 114 sayings of Jesus from the Gospel of Thomas as translated by Stephen J. Patterson and James M. Robinson.

By: Megan Sauter

The New Testament recounts many episodes from the apostle Paul’s life. Yet it provides scant details about his visit to Arabia. In his letter to […]

By: Robin Gallaher Branch

Biblical studies scholar Robin Gallaher Branch explores Luke’s depiction of a woman set on doing good for the poor and serving her friends, the widows, for whom she makes robes and clothing.

By: BAS Staff

Reading the story of Noah’s ark today (Genesis 6–9), we naturally imagine that Noah, his family, and the loaded animals of all kinds survived the […]

By: Biblical Archaeology Society Staff

The Bethesda Pool, where Jesus heals the paralytic man in the Gospel of John, is a complex site. It appears to have been a mikveh, or ritual bath.

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: Biblical Archaeology Society Staff

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

By: Nicola Denzey Lewis

Brown University Religious Studies professor Nicola Denzey Lewis answers frequently asked questions about the apostle Peter. Denzey Lewis appears in the CNN series Finding Jesus: Faith, Fact, Forgery, which aims to investigate artifacts that shed light on the world in which Jesus lived.

By: Dorothy Willette

Few people are familiar with the Biblical figure Nehemiah, and yet he was instrumental in the rebuilding and reestablishment of Jerusalem in the fifth century B.C. following the Babylonian exile.