The Messianic Jesus Makes a Come Back

Last week we looked at the new book,  Are You the One Who Is to Come?: The Historical Jesus and the Messianic Question, by Dr Michael F Bird  here. The Bible and Interpretation site has subsequently released as a featured article, The Messianic Jesus Makes a Come Back, which is an essay based on the book. In it, [...]

Christ Pantocrator Medallion Discovered in Bulgaria

A glass medallion showing Christ Pantocrator dating back to the 14th century has been discovered by archaeologists at the Kastritsi fortress near Varna, Bulgaria.

According to Discoveryon:

Bulgarian archaeologists have discovered a unique glass medallion with Christ Pantocrator at the excavated fortress of Kastritsi near Varna.
The archaeological team is led by Valentin Pletnyov, head of the Varna Regional History Museum.
The [...]

Bible and Interpretation’s New Feature

Dr Jim West draws attention here  to a new feature at the Bible and Interpretation site entitled: ‘Scholars, Frauds, the Media and the Public’. I’m sure this is an appropriate response to Dr Bob Cargill’s recent article, Pseudo-Science and Sensationalist Archaeology: An Exposé of Jimmy Barfield and the Copper Scroll Project (here), which calls for archaeologists (and Biblical scholars [...]

Dr Phil Harland: Paul and his communities series

Dr Philip A Harland, who blogs at Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean (here), has today posted all the episodes of his Series 1, Paul and his communities  in a single blog post. This is a great idea and with twelve half-hour episodes (in MP3), there is a wealth of information that has been made available.
Click here to select an [...]

Bishop NT Wright: Gnosticism

Dr NT Wright discusses the popularity of Gnosticism on a newly released You Tube…

A Review of Eric Cline’s, From Eden to Exile: Unraveling Mysteries of the Bible

Prof Eric Cline’s book,  From Eden to Exile: Unraveling Mysteries of the Bible, which won the Biblical Archaeology Society’s 2009 Publication Award (see the post below or click here) as the Best Popular Book on Archaeology, is the subject of a frank review on the blog Old Hickory’s Weblog by Bruce Miller.
The title of his post is:  [...]

The Biblical Archaeology Society 2009 Publication Awards

The biennial Biblical Archaeology Society Publication Awards are out and look like this: 
Best Scholarly Book on Archaeology:
Israel’s Ethnogenesis Settlement, Interaction, Expansion and Resistance by Avraham Faust.

In this book, Faust tackles one of the hottest debates in Biblical archaeology: the “ethnogenesis” (ethnic origins) of early Israel. Faust provides an overview and synthesis of the archaeological and Biblical [...]

Interview with Todd Bolen Parts 2 and 3

We looked at the first part of an interview series with Todd Bolen by David Gunner Gundersen on his blog Raw Christianity, which was entitled Teaching and the Bible, here. Todd Bolen is of course the scholar behind the fantastic site Bible Places.com and the blog of the same name here. Well, Part 2 and 3 have been released (as promised) and [...]

Beginner’s Guide to Archaeology

Mike Pitts who is the editor of  British Archaeology has today in the Guardian (UK) a brief piece called:  Beginner’s guide to archaeology…

Dig etiquette, a full glossary of terms, useful websites and crucially, an introduction to the real importance of pointing trowels…

Trust me, this really is for beginners!

Archaeology on television can seem like an activity for geeks [...]

Hazor: Reflections on the 2009 Season

Gordon Franz has an article out entitled, Reflections on the 2009 Season at Hazor, over at Associates for Biblical Research…

This year the Hazor archaeological excavation was conducted from June 21-July 31, 2009 under the able leadership of the co-directors: Professor Amnon Ben-Tor and Dr. Sharon Zuckerman.  Most of our efforts for this season were concentrated [...]

Proto-Sinaitic Inscription Found at Timna

Bible Places.com reports on an exciting proto-Sinaitic inscription from Timna in Israel:

The engraving, measuring ca. 12 x 16 cm, was found by “Stonewatch / Arad Academy e.V.”, an institution based in Germany, that has been conducting surveys of rock art in Timna and worldwide for many years (www.stonewatch.de).
Dr. Stefan Jakob Wimmer, an Egyptologist and ANE epigraphist at [...]