May 7 Blog
By: Sarah Yeomans
Living in the Greco-Roman world, early Christians were able to draw from a set of rich artistic paradigms when they set out to depict their stories and beliefs in decorative contexts. This often led to the assimilation of well-established pagan artistic styles and images into early Christian art. The sculptors, fresco painters and mosaic artists who created Christian images did so by using the prolific examples of art and decoration that shaped their artistic landscape.
Mar 31 Blog
By: Jonathan Klawans
Many assume that Jesus' Last Supper was a Seder, the ritual Passover meal. Examine evidence from the synoptic Gospels with scholar Jonathan Klawans.
Mar 26 Blog
By: BAS Staff
Was Mary Magdalene a prostitute who repented or simply an influential female follower of Jesus? Mary from Magdala has popularly been saddled with an unfavorable reputation, but how did this notion come about?
Mar 24 Blog
By: Steven Shisley
Most scholars believe that early Christians did not use the cross as an image of their religion. So how did the cross become modern Christianity’s most popular symbol?
Mar 19 Blog
By: James Tabor
The braided hair of a Jewish woman was found at Masada but until recently no example of preserved hair from a Jewish male had ever been found from the late 2nd Temple period. This discovery is one of the many fascinating, but less publicized finds of the 1st century “Tomb of the Shroud,” discovered in the summer of 2000 just outside the Old City of Jerusalem. The secrets this tomb continues to yield are many, including recent correlations with the DNA test results from the Talpiot Jesus tomb.
Mar 17 Blog
Read what Bible Secrets Revealed consulting producer Dr. Robert Cargill reveals about the third installment of the History Channel series.
Mar 12 Blog
By: Megan Sauter
Laodicea was a wealthy city in western Turkey that flourished for centuries. Why does the author of the Book of Revelation call the church of Laodicea “lukewarm”—neither hot nor cold? Recent excavations at the site might provide the answer.
Mar 10 Blog
By: Joan E. Taylor
Scholar Joan E. Taylor says that it’s worth remembering that Jesus’ earliest years were, according to the Gospel of Matthew, spent as a refugee in a foreign land.
Mar 5 Blog
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.
Mar 3 Blog
Mary Magdalene, Jezebel, Rahab, Lilith. Today, each are popularly considered scandalous women in the Bible. Are these so-condemned salacious women misrepresented?
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