Exploring the Bible

  When historians analyze ancient history, they are often forced to rely on the testimony of a single chronicler writing centuries after the events occurred. We trust Plutarch for details on the life of Caesar, even though he wrote more than a century after Caesar died. The Resurrection of Jesus, however, rests on a different kind of foundation. It is not based merely on a feeling, a metaphor, or a solitary vision. According to the earliest documents of the New Testament, the Resurrection was a public event witnessed by a crowd so large it would fill a modern auditorium. This is the account of the 500 brethren —arguably the most daring claim in the entire Bible, and the one that offered the ancient world the easiest way to destroy Christianity, if it were false. The Three Days that Changed the World "The Easter Story" The Text Before the Text Most people assume the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) are the earliest records of the Resurrection. But historically s...

  In November 1990, a bulldozer widening a road in the Peace Forest of Jerusalem broke through the roof of an ancient burial chamber. It was a routine accident in a city built on layers of history, but what archaeologists found inside was anything but routine. The cave contained twelve ossuaries (limestone bone boxes) dating to the first century AD. One of them, highly ornate and carved with intricate rosettes, bore a stunning inscription: Yehosef bar Qayafa (Joseph, son of Caiaphas). Scholars immediately recognized the name. This was likely the family tomb of the High Priest Caiaphas , the man identified in the Gospels as the mastermind behind the trial of Jesus. It was a discovery of monumental importance, providing the first physical evidence for one of the central antagonists of the New Testament. But years later, a new controversy emerged from this tomb—one involving two rusted pieces of iron that were allegedly found inside the High Priest’s final resting place. The re...

 If you follow biblical archaeology, you probably know about the famous 1988 radiocarbon test. That test dated the Shroud of Turin to the Middle Ages (somewhere between 1260 and 1390 AD), causing many to write it off as a brilliant medieval forgery. But history is rarely that simple. In 2005, a chemist named Raymond Rogers,a lead researcher from the original 1978 STURP team,published a peer-reviewed study that turned that 1988 conclusion upside down. He didn't use carbon dating. He used something called the Vanillin/Lignin Test . Here is how it works, minus the heavy scientific jargon. What is Lignin and Vanillin? Linen is made from flax plants. Flax contains a chemical compound called lignin. As lignin ages and breaks down over centuries, it releases a gas called vanillin (yes, the same compound that gives vanilla its smell). Because vanillin depletes over time at a predictable rate depending on the temperature, scientists can test ancient textiles to see how much vanillin is left...

 In 1980, construction workers clearing ground for an apartment complex in the Talpiot neighborhood of Jerusalem struck rock. They had accidentally uncovered the entrance to an ancient burial cave. Inside, archaeologists found ten limestone ossuaries (bone boxes) dating to the first century. The artifacts were cataloged, the bones were reburied according to Jewish religious law, and life went on. But twenty-seven years later, the world’s media exploded. A 2007 documentary produced by James Cameron, The Lost Tomb of Jesus , claimed that this unassuming cave was actually the family tomb of Jesus of Nazareth. They argued that the ossuaries contained the remains of Jesus, his mother Mary, and even a "son" named Judah. If true, this discovery would dismantle the central tenet of Christianity: the Resurrection. If the bones of Jesus are in a box in Jerusalem, the tomb was never empty. However, when the sensationalism fades and the cold, hard facts of archaeology and history...