Biblical Archaeology Review, September/October 2014
Features
After Hadrian’s Banishment: Jews in Christian Jerusalem
This article has been adapted by BAR editor Hershel Shanks from a lengthy scholarly study by Professors Yoram Tsafrir and Leah di Segni of Hebrew University in Liber Annuus, published by the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum.1 This adaptation was made with the authors’ permission. After the Romans destroyed...Read more ›
JPFs: More Questions than Answers
Archaeology is full of puzzles, as BAR readers are well aware. I would like to discuss here some figurines that proliferated in Judah during the First Temple period; they have puzzled me for a long time. They are known as JPFs, and more than a thousand have...Read more ›
2,000 Ancient Aramaic Business Scribbles (including the delivery of 30 mice)
Once a week I drive from Jerusalem to my daughter’s. She lives in Shoham, a little town near Ben Gurion Airport on the highway to Tel Aviv. In just a half hour, the mountains of Jerusalem gradually give way to open plains. Most of the fields here...Read more ›
Ancient Israel Through a Social Scientific Lens
In broad scope, our extensive knowledge of the “world of the Bible” was formed in three stages. The 19th century saw the early exploration of the Holy Land and surrounding countries by people like the American Edward Robinson, the Frenchmen Victor Guérin and Charles Clermont-Ganneau and especially...Read more ›
Love Your Neighbor: Only Israelites or Everyone?
It’s one of the most famous lines in the Bible: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18). Impressive. Fascinating. Inspiring. Capable of a thousand interpretations and raising 10,000 questions. A remarkable proposition coming out of ancient Judah, which was embedded in the Near Eastern...Read more ›