Biblical Archaeology Review, September/October 2008
Features
Solomon, Socrates and Aristotle
In Earliest Biblical Painting, Greek Philosophers Admire King’s Wisdom
Is it possible that the earliest existing picture of a scene from the Bible also includes the philosophers Socrates and Aristotle as onlookers? It is not only possible; I believe that is the case. The earliest depiction of a Biblical scene comes from a site that is...Read more ›
The Shattered Crown
The Aleppo Codex, 60 Years After the Riots
The Aleppo Codex, the most revered copy of the Hebrew Bible, survived intact for more than a millennium before it was ripped apart, burnt, stolen, secreted and, finally, rescued. On November 29, 1947, the very day that Hebrew University Professor E.L. Sukenik acquired the first three Dead...Read more ›
Sound Proof
How Hezekiah’s Tunnelers Met
I’ve been writing about Hezekiah’s Tunnel for 35 years. (I can be seen with a long beard standing in my undershorts up to my hips in water in the picture of Hezekiah’s Tunnel in the standard archaeological encyclopedia of the Holy Land;1 the photo...Read more ›
The Messiah Son of Joseph
“Gabriel’s Revelation” and the birth of a new messianic model
A new inscription, recently published in BAR for the first time in English,a may hold the key to unlocking a new understanding of some of the history of Christian and Jewish messianism. Written on a stone 3 feet tall, the new text has many of the characteristics...Read more ›
In Praise of Indiana Jones!
I went to see the newest Indiana Jones filma with two of my sons, and, to tell you the truth, I really had a good time! What can I say? Spielberg, Lucas and Ford still have it in them to put together a very enjoyable and stimulating...Read more ›