R. Steven Notley
R. Steven Notley is Dean of the School of Religious Studies at Pillar College in New Jersey, and a renowned scholar of early Judaism, Christian origins, and the historical geography of the New Testament. He is the author of several books and articles, including The Sage from Galilee: Rediscovering Jesus’ Genius (co-authored with David Flusser, Eerdmans, 2007), and also serves as the academic director of the El-Araj Excavation Project in Israel.
Presenter at
BAS Symposium: The Life of Jesus, May 17, 2025
Reading the Gospel in the Land
The Jewish scholar, David Flusser, once remarked that the question is not whether Jesus was Jewish, but what kind of Jew was he? To answer Flusser’s question, the serious reader of the Gospels must consider the religious, linguistic, and geographical setting for the accounts, which serves as something of a frame for the New Testament presentation of the historical Jesus. One should be familiar with Jesus’s engagement with Jewish thought in the first century, as well as the nuances of the Hebrew language environment in which Jesus lived, spoke, and taught. Finally, no serious consideration of the historical geography of the Synoptic Gospels can be reconciled with the prevailing scholarly approach that assumes Luke’s dependence upon Mark’s Gospel. This dated scholarly notion has cast a long shadow over historical Jesus studies. Throughout the Second Gospel, a confused and anachronistic setting for Roman Judaea is presented. Yet, scholars take little note that Mark’s lapses are absent from Luke’s Gospel. These deft geographical and archaeological details are devoid of any theological significance, which might explain Luke’s need to “correct” Mark, as is often assumed. Instead, they point to Luke’s independence from Mark and correspond with his value as an important witness to Jewish life and faith in the first century.
Bible & Archaeology Fest XXVI, November 17 – 19, 2023
Jesus and the Passover: What Can Archaeology Tell Us About the Last Supper?
Much has been written about whether or not “the Last Supper” of Jesus was a Passover meal. To a large extent how one answers this question is dependent upon their reading of the New Testament accounts. The Gospel of John clearly distinguishes between the Last Supper and the beginning of Passover, while according to Luke’s Gospel Jesus tells those gathered with him, “I have earnestly desired to eat this passover with you” (Luke 22:15). Our predicament is not unique in the study of history where the historical sources do not always agree. Fortunately, archaeological discoveries in the last century and a careful reappraisal of the language in the accounts can greatly assist us. In this presentation we will find that there is little reason to question that Jesus celebrated a Passover meal with his followers in Jerusalem on the eve of his tragic death.
Bible & Archaeology Fest XXV, October 8 & 9, 2022
Byzantine Bethsaida and the House of St. Peter
The aim of this study is to investigate the historical implications of the basilica discovered at Khirbet el-A’raj (Bethsaida) in 2021. In the absence of an alternative church, since 1921 both scholarly and popular writings have redirected the Byzantine testimony for a basilica built over the house of Peter to the Octagon (as the excavator Gaudenzio Orfali called it) in Capernaum. Yet, this modern innovation stands in the face of centuries of Byzantine tradition that consistently identified Peter’s home in Bethsaida and not in Capernaum. In this presentation we will consider the most recent results from the 2022 season at Khirbet el-A’raj, the appropriation of the Byzantine tradition by the Franciscan excavators at Capernaum, and ask whether the newly excavated basilica at Bethsaida might be a better candidate for the traditional church built over the house of Peter and Andrew.
Bible & Archaeology Fest XXIV, October 16 – 17, 2021
In Search of Armageddon
My lecture will challenge the ubiquitous attempts to identify the elusive name from Rev. 16:16 with Megiddo. This idea is fraught with problems, not the least of which is the fact that by the first century Megiddo had long since been lost and forgotten. Unfortunately, the conversation is generally dominated by those immersed in OT archaeology who do not take into account that the setting had changed entirely by the first century. At a minimum the article/presentation calls for some rethinking.
Bible & Archaeology Fest XXIII, October 24 – 25, 2020
What Language(s) Did Jesus Speak and What Difference Does It Make?
NT scholarship perpetuates the 150 year mistaken notion that Hebrew was a dead (or mostly dead) language by the first century CE. I present evidence that Hebrew was alive and well in the first century and explore its implications for how we read the words of Jesus that have been preserved in Greek but most certainly were spoken in Hebrew.
Bible & Archaeology Fest XXII, November 22 – 24, 2019
Unmasking A Case of Collusion: Who Killed Jesus and Why?
Recently R. Steven Notley wrote an article looking at what archaeology can tell us about an infamous Roman governor, “Pontius Pilate: Sadist or Saint?” (BAR July/August 2017: 41-49, 59-60). In the course of his research for the article, he realized that New Testament scholars have overlooked an important contribution from archaeology in addressing an age-old question: Who was complicit in the death of Jesus and what motivated them? In this talk he will reconsider the central figures presented in the Gospel passion narratives, the traditional view of them, and how archaeology can help to lift the veil on the tragic events that took place under the cloak of darkness. The answer is to be found through a careful reading of the diverging Gospel accounts and a fresh look at the central figures in light of recent archaeological discoveries. The results will challenge our reading of the Gospels and the traditional understanding of who were the friends and the foes of Jesus.
Bible & Archaeology Fest XXI, November 16 – 18, 2018
Historical Geography of the Gospels and the Myth of Q
Over the last 150 years an unassailable assumption of New Testament scholarship has been that Mark wrote his gospel first, and that it was subsequently used by Matthew and Luke in the composition of their gospels. To explain the content common to Matthew and Luke, but not present in Mark, it is suggested that they relied upon a hypothetical literary source that no longer exists. It is commonly designated as “Q” from the German term Quelle (source). In this presentation we will demonstrate that this literary model has paid insufficient attention to the historical and geographical realia in the gospels. We will bring several examples which quite simply cannot be reconciled with New Testament scholarship’s assumption about the literary development of the Gospel tradition. A challenge to the prevailing literary model is of no small consequence. Like lenses in a camera, a change in order and perspective inevitably means a change in the image that emerges of the historical Jesus, his life, and his message.
Bible & Archaeology Fest XX, November 17 – 19, 2017
Unearthing Bethsaida-Julias: Has the City of Apostles Been Found?
For the last two seasons archaeologists and volunteers from Kinneret College (Israel) and Nyack College (New York) have excavated at el-Araj, one of the possible locations for Bethsaida mentioned in the New Testament, Josephus, and other early Jewish sources. In August, headlines around the world announced that the city of the Apostles had finally been found. What was unearthed and why is it significant? How do the excavations at el-Araj compare with the historical picture we receive of Bethsaida-Julias from the written sources? Notley will present the findings from the second season of the El-Araj Excavation Project, which may have finally found evidence for Herod Philip’s urbanization of this fishing village on the Sea of Galilee, transforming it into a Jewish polis.
Bible Fest XIX, November 18 – 20, 2016
Jesus in the Land
In this presentation we consider the contribution of recent archaeology to our understanding of events recorded in the Gospels. Jesus’ life and work were in the Land of Israel, and yet too often consideration of the physical setting for those events is all but ignored. Recent archaeological discoveries of early Roman remains at Yodfat, Migdal and Tel Rekhesh continue to challenge previous scholarly opinion about the cultural nature of the Galilee. It does not now appear to be the impoverished, uneducated, and religiously indifferent backwater assumed by previous generations of scholars. These mistaken perceptions likewise shaped assumptions regarding the historical Jesus and his place in Jewish life in the Galilee. We look at these archaeological finds and the new excavations at el-Araj (historically one of the candidates for New Testament Bethsaida), asking what they tell us about the setting for the Gospels. Recent archaeological efforts in Jerusalem have also called for a reappraisal of long-held notions. We will briefly consider what the salvage excavation from the Temple Mount can tell us about the way of the cross and the elusive lithostratos.
