Since ancient times many Israelites preferred not to shave, but to wear a beard. Males from the western culture, especially since Roman times, preferred to shave off their facial hair. And we have countless images and depictions of people from Greco-Roman times to confirm such grooming trends. In fact, beards...
Researchers from Israel Antiquities Authority, the Safed Academic College, and the Israel Cave Explorers Club embarked on an intricate excavation mission to the cave on a cliff face near the Lebanon border. And their daring efforts paid off. Inside the cave, they found large wine jugs, a cooking pot, and...
A remarkable papyrus written in Coptic was uncovered during a 1934 expedition by New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. The manuscript was preserved by the Met but had never been deciphered or detailed in a scientific journal until now. It is a 1,500-year-old ‘magical papyrus’, probably meant to...
Minute inaccuracies in radiocarbon dating may cause a massive overhaul of the historical timeline, researchers studying anomalies in this dating method have found. By questioning certain assumptions underlying radiocarbon dating, a team of researchers at Cornell University have uncovered 20-year offsets in the calibration of radiocarbon dating used in the...
A majority of serious students of the Bible realize that what they study is not an English Book. The Jewish Bible was written in Hebrew and some sections in Aramaic. Christian writings were authored in Koine Greek. And Bibles in all other languages are translations of those early originals. One...
A carefully sculpted head of an unknown 9th century BC Biblical king has been discovered in Israel and archaeologists are working hard to try and discover just who this mystery king was. The two-inch sculpture constructed out of faience is in excellent condition with only a small portion of the...
Many students who wish to begin studying beyond the English translations of the Bible do not know how and where to begin. I get questions about this frequently and they deserve a good and thorough answer. I will provide helpful links to free resources and specific book titles in a...
Were Qumanites Essenes? The famous Dead Sea Scrolls continue to interest many students of ancient Jewish life. One question the scholars of the Dead Sea Scrolls have not resolved is whether the Qumran community was indeed Essene. This was a common assumption during the early years of Dead Sea Scrolls...
What are the Dead Sea Scrolls? In the area of biblical and historical studies, the Dead Sea Scrolls are considered one of the greatest archaeological finds of all time. That is not an exaggeration. The documents were awaiting the day of their discovery in 11 caves near the Dead Sea...