People in the Bible

By: Janet Howe Gaines

For more than two thousand years, Jezebel has been saddled with a reputation as the bad girl of the Bible, the wickedest of women. But just how depraved was she?

By: Robin Ngo

For the first time, the royal seal of King Hezekiah in the Bible has been found in an archaeological excavation.

By: Robin Gallaher Branch

Anna is one of the Bible’s most unusual women. Introduced at the end of the Birth Narrative (Luke 1:1-2:40), Anna concludes the sextet of named, pious Israelites surrounding the miraculous births of John and Jesus.

By: Gary A. Rendsburg

In the Spring 2023 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, Lee M. Jefferson provided an excellent survey of how the horns of Moses (see Exodus 34:29–30, […]

By: Biblical Archaeology Society Staff

In a Biblical Views column, Robin Gallaher Branch presents several examples of how, in the Bible, widows can serve as special textual markers to alert readers that something significant is about to happen.

By: Biblical Archaeology Society Staff

Few modern Biblical archaeology discoveries have attracted as much attention as the Tel Dan inscription—writing on a ninth-century B.C. stone slab (or stela) that furnished the first historical evidence of King David from the Bible.

By: Robin Gallaher Branch

The Book of Judith presents a truly remarkable heroine. Judith is introduced as a devout, shapely, beautiful and wealthy widow who exhibits characteristics equal to those of Israel’s finest warriors.

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: 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: Robin Ngo

In the Book of Joshua, Rahab assisted two Israelite spies in escaping out a window and down the city wall of Jericho. Who was Rahab in the Bible? A Biblical prostitute or just an innkeeper?