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Apr 28 Blog

The Masada Siege

What do we know about the Roman siege of Masada? We must consider both the account given by Josephus and the surviving archaeological evidence in order to reconstruct what happened.

Woodcut from Die Bibel in Bildern (1860) by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld.

Mar 10 Blog

Jesus Was a Refugee

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.

Nov 25 Blog

Ancient Jerusalem: The Village, the Town, the City

By: Hershel Shanks

Archaeologist Hillel Geva says that population estimates for ancient Jerusalem are too high. His new estimates begin with people living on no more than a dozen acres.

Nov 22 Blog

What Did Herod’s Temple in Jerusalem Look Like?

By: Jennifer Drummond

Fifty years ago, leading Israeli scholar Michael Avi-Yonah constructed a now-iconic model of Herod’s Temple in Jerusalem. How accurate is it?

The Temple menorah depicted in a deeply carved relief panel from the Arch of Titus in Rome. Photo: Courtesy Steven Fine, The Arch of Titus Project

Sep 16 Blog

Where Did the Temple Menorah Go?

By: Marek Dospěl

There is little doubt that the Temple Menorah was taken to Rome after the destruction of Jerusalem. However, Rome was sacked, and the Temple Menorah was looted. After disaster befell the cities that housed it as a spoil of war, was it returned to Jerusalem?

Aug 23 Blog

The Arch of Titus’s Menorah Panel in Color

By: Megan Sauter

Using technology, a team has digitally restored a panel from the Arch of Titus—which famously depicts captured treasures from Jerusalem’s Temple being paraded through Rome—to its original color.

Jun 15 Blog

Machaerus: Beyond the Beheading of John the Baptist

By: BAS Staff

According to the Gospels, Herod Antipas had John the Baptist imprisoned and killed at the request of the beautiful Salome. Josephus locates the event at Machaerus. The archaeological finds paint a clear picture of this magnificent site’s colorful but bloody history.

1813 painting Vesuvius Erupting by Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes

Mar 22 Blog

The Destruction of Pompeii—God’s Revenge?

By: Hershel Shanks

The eruption of Mt. Vesuvius destroyed the opulent vacation destinations of Roman elites in August 79 C.E.—almost exactly nine years after Roman troops destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem. Did this seem like more than mere coincidence to the ancients?

Dec 17 Blog

Titus Flavius Josephus and the Prophet Jeremiah

By: Biblical Archaeology Society Staff

In the first century C.E., during the First Jewish Revolt, the Jewish historian Josephus urged his besieged countrymen in Jerusalem to surrender to the Romans. Half a millennium earlier, Jeremiah did the same thing with respect to the Babylonians.

Aug 28 Blog

Anastylosis at Machaerus, Where John the Baptist Was Beheaded

By: Megan Sauter

Győző Vörös details the restoration work taking place at Machaerus—giving archaeological context to the New Testament episode featuring Princess Salome and John the Baptist.

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