#1684
2019-11-01
With Clyde Billington
One of the elusive sites of biblical archaeology is Emmaus, the destination of the two disciples, when they were joined by the resurrected Jesus (Luke 24:13). Several sites have been proposed but now archaeologist Israel Finkelstein believes he has found evidence that supports the site where he is digging, Kiriath Jearim. That's one of the leading stories in our news digest in the latest issue of our biblical archaeology news magazine ARTIFAX, and one of the topics in this week's discussion with prof. Clyde Billington, my co-editor. We also discuss results of investigations into Bronze Age copper mining and smelting at the Arava sites of Timna and Faynan, and what that tells us about the biblical world of three millenia ago, and the accuracy of the biblical account. Tin used in smelting Copper to make Bronze came all the way from England.
tags: Kiriath Jearim Timna Phoenicians Edomites Emmaus Faynan Tin England
#1642
2019-12-25
The Mystery of the Magi, part 2
With Dwight Longenecker
The annual Christmas holiday has layers and layers of tradition that have accumulated over 2,000 years but in recent years we have tried to strip away some of the tradition and go back to the story of the birth of Jesus from the Gospels, particularly Matthew and Luke, and for some reason we've focused on the story of the Wise Men a lot in recent years. Dwight Longenecker, the author of a new book called The Mystery of the Magi, digs into this unusual story from Matthew's Gospel and suggests that these Wise Men did not come from Persia, which was quite distant from Jerusalem and Bethlehem, but rather from the Kingdom of Nabatea, which was right across the Dead Sea.
tags: Magi Wise Men Persia Nabatea Petra Aretas
#1641
2019-12-24
With Dwight Longenecker
The annual Christmas holiday has layers and layers of tradition that have accumulated over 2,000 years but in recent years we have tried to strip away some of the tradition and go back to the story of the birth of Jesus from the Gospels, particularly Matthew and Luke, and for some reason we've focused on the story of the Wise Men a lot in recent years. Dwight Longenecker, the author of a new book called The Mystery of the Magi, digs into this unusual story from Matthew's Gospel and suggests that these Wise Men did not come from Persia, which was quite distant from Jerusalem and Bethlehem, but rather from the Kingdom of Nabatea, which was right across the Dead Sea.
tags: Magi Wise Men Persia Nabatea Petra Aretas
#1384
2013-05-29
Carchemish, Plutonium, and Hebrews
With Prof. Clyde Billington
In this second program on the latest archaeology news from the news digests of ARTIFAX magazine, we discussed new archaeology at Carchemish, the discovery of one of the "Gates of Hell" in Turkey (known as Plutonium), and a computer analysis that provides a solution to the question, "Who Wrote the Book of Hebrews."
tags: Carchemish Plutonium Hierapolis The Apostle Paul The Apostle Luke
#1382
2013-05-15
With Prof. Steve Mason
Steve Mason, a professor of history at York University in Toronto, gave us some insights into the ancient historian Josephus, in this August, 2000 interview. Josephus was a prolific writer and his writings offer many insights into the world of first century Judaism. In part 3 of this 3-part conversation, some comments about parallels in the accounts of Luke and Josephus.