Jesus & archaeology, 2023
Archaeological discoveries this century throw light on the life of Jesus as recorded in the four gospels.
Tag: Archaeology
Jesus and history, 2023
Archaeological and other investigations continue to throw light on the history surrounding Jesus. Here begins a series of posts where I look at some of the latest information.
Nazareth in Jesus’ day: 4 facts
The Bible says Jesus grew up in Nazareth, but until recently the evidence for this was scant and disputed by some. But now there is clear evidence of a small agricultural village or town in the first century.
The Exodus (book review)
What should we make of the story of the Exodus in the Old Testament? Two million people escape slavery in Egypt after a series of savage plagues, with God leading the way. They escape the pursuing Egyptian army by walking through the waters of the Red Sea, which God miraculously parts, then closes on the […]
Is God genocidal?
I remember being concerned about it more than 40 years ago. How could God command his people to murder everyone living in each Canaanite city that they captured? And I am not the only one to feel revolted by these commands in the book of Deuteronomy and the accounts in the book of Joshua. Critics […]
Troy, archaeology and the Old Testament
Recently I came across a magazine article about the discovery of the remains of a 3,500 year old burial in Greece, dating to the time of the Mycenaean civilisation (about 1650-1200 BCE). I knew little about the Mycenaeans, so I read on, looked at a few other online sources, and made some interesting discoveries. Interesting […]
The historical evidence for Jesus seems to be getting stronger
The Pool of Bethesda – model in the Israel Museum Picture taken by deror avi on 18th August 2006 (Wikipedia) Fifty years ago, when I was a young christian, there was a clear division in New Testament studies between scholars who defended historic christianity and more secular scholars who took an extremely critical view of […]
Bart Ehrman on Nazareth
I don’t think he read my recent post 🙂 but Bart Ehrman has also posted on the evidence for Nazareth existing at the time of Jesus. Bart has several advantages over me. Not only is he a professional working full time in this field, but he is able, because of his position, to have personal […]
Nazareth – the evidence mounts
I have written before about archaeological excavations in Nazareth and sceptics who claim Nazareth didn’t exist as a village at the time of Jesus (and hence the gospels must be wrong) – see Did Bethlehem and Nazareth exist in Jesus’ day? and Nazareth re-visited. I have just come across some new information that was first […]
Science and religion
Conventional ‘wisdom’ says that religion and science are at war, or at least opposed. Certainly you’ll find many atheists and many believers saying that. But there is another side to the story. Some scientific discoveries seem (to some) to support belief, and many scientists are believers. And in recent times, the scientific study of religion […]