Jesus/Historical Jesus

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: Lawrence Mykytiuk

Did Jesus of Nazareth, “the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5), really exist? What’s the evidence outside of the Bible? Classical and Jewish writings from the first several centuries C.E. give us a glimpse of the person who would become the central figure in Christianity mere decades after his crucifixion.

By: Megan Sauter

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.

By: James Tabor

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?

By: Robin Ngo

Where did Jesus turn water into wine? According to archaeologist Tom McCollough, one site offers the most compelling evidence that Cana of Galilee has been found.

By: Biblical Archaeology Society Staff

Was Joseph Jesus’ biological father? If not, who was Jesus’ biological father? Andrew Lincoln examines what early Christians thought about conception and explains how views about this subject have changed over time.

By: Jonathan Klawans

Many people still assume that Jesus’ Last Supper was a Seder, a ritual meal held in celebration of the Jewish holiday of Passover. In this exclusive Bible History Daily guest post, Boston University Professor of Religion Jonathan Klawans provides an update to his popular Bible Review article questioning this common assumption.

By: Megan Sauter

What kind of stone sealed the tomb of Jesus? Was it a round (disk-shaped) stone or a square (cork-shaped) stone? While both kinds of blocking stones are attested in Jerusalem tombs from the time of Jesus, square (cork-shaped) stones are much, much more common than round (disk-shaped) ones.

By: Hershel Shanks

I’ve been reading a new book titled Pseudo-Cyril of Jerusalem “On the Life and the Passion of Christ”: A Coptic Apocryphon by the Dutch scholar Roelof van den Broek.1 In case it has escaped your attention, it provides a new translation of an eighth-century Gnostic gospel in Coptic from Egypt that has been in the Morgan Library in New York since 1908, a gift of J.P. Morgan.

By: BAS Staff

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