Mar 12 Blog
By: BAS Staff
Bearing gifts for the infant Jesus, the three wise men from the east traversed afar to reach Bethlehem. What do we really know about the magi, who are so central to the traditional telling of the Christmas story?
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.
Feb 17 Blog
By: Tony Burke
The modern Christmas nativity scene is drawn from apocryphal texts in addition to the infancy narratives of Matthew and Luke.
Feb 10 Blog
By: Glenn J. Corbett
Who were the Nabataeans, the industrious Arab people who built the city of Petra and its towering rock-cut monuments over 2,000 years ago?
Dec 27 Blog
By: Megan Sauter
In which year was Jesus born? While this is sometimes debated, the majority of New Testament scholars place Jesus’ birth in 4 B.C. or before.
Dec 23 Blog
Read letters published in the Q&C section of BAR debating the dates of Herod’s death, Jesus’ birth and to which lunar eclipse Josephus was referring.
Dec 16 Blog
A lost Syriac manuscript, the Revelation of the Magi, translated into English by Bible scholar Brent Landau, may help answer that key question from the Christmas story: “Who were the magi?”
Dec 2 Blog
Were the gifts of the magi meant to save Jesus from the pain of arthritis? It’s possible, according to researchers at Cardiff University in Wales who have been studying the medical uses of frankincense.
Oct 14 Blog
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.
Sep 13 Blog
By: Devorah Emmet Wigoder
The brevity of life is compared to the delicate bloom of the caper in one of the Bible’s many references to fragrant and edible plants. Enjoy a glimpse of some of these plants.
For more than 40 years, the Biblical Archaeology Society has partnered with world-renowned hosts and guides to provide you exceptional educational offerings in the archaeology of the Biblical lands and in Biblical studies.