Biblical Archaeology Review, January/February 2004
Special Section
Introduction
Many people may be turning their attention to the classical world of ancient Greece this August, when the Olympic Games convene in Athens, but those of you who sign on this summer as dig volunteers in Israel or Jordan may well find yourselves handling artifacts that ...Read more ›
Guide to Sites
Abila of the Decapolis Located near Jordan’s border with Syria, about 3 miles south of the Yarmuk River, Abila belonged to a confederation of ten hellenized cities in northeastern Palestine referred to in the New Testament as the Decapolis (Matthew 4:25; ...Read more ›
Final Blow to IAA Report
Flawed Geochemistry Used to Condemn James Inscription
Sorbonne paleographer André Lemaire recently analyzed in these pages the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) report that declared the James ossuary inscription (“James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus”) to be a modern forgery.a Lemaire considered various aspects of the IAA report, such as paleography and orthography, and...Read more ›
Features
Where Lot's Daughters Seduced their Father
Excavations Reveal Commemorative Monastery
Perched precariously on a steep, barren slope overlooking the southeastern shore of the Dead Sea, I found the remains of what had once been elegant stone buildings—walls, pieces of metal and glass, tiny mosaic cubes and pottery sherds. It was 1986 and I was...Read more ›
What Jesus Learned from the Essenes
The Blessing of Poverty the Bane of Divorce
Scholars have been cautious about drawing a direct line between Jesus and the Dead Sea Scroll sectarians. Indeed, perhaps the most criticized sentence in the vast literature about the Dead Sea Scrolls is one penned by the great American literary critic Edmund Wilson. Based on the conclusions...Read more ›