Historical Jesus

By Yonat Shimron Religion News Service CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (RNS) For years, nonbelievers rejoiced at the publication of a new book by New Testament ...

The archaeological evidence shows that Jesus grew up in a small village, Nazareth, about four miles from Sepphoris, a prominent city in the early first century C.E.

One may well choose to resonate with the concerns of our post-modern despisers of established religion. But surely the best way to promote any such agenda is not to deny what virtually every sane historian on the planet has come to conclude.

JERUSALEM -- Is the purported burial box of Jesus' brother James fake or authentic? Seven years of trial, testimony from dozens of experts and a 47...

The New Testament is not a history textbook. Indeed, by contemporary historical standards, there is precious little independent corroboration to establish even the existence of the historical Jesus.

The only trial in the world which seems to have taken longer than the Amanda Knox one in Italy is the extended trial over the so-called James Ossuary in Jerusalem.

I want to suggest that the country club image for the Christian faith, its salvation culture, no matter how historic and vital to the Christian church's identity, inadequately frames what might be called its true "gospel culture."

While theories vary on who the "historical" Jesus really was, there's general agreement that Jesus was not born in Bethlehem. So why was it so important for the gospel writers to claim Bethlehem as Jesus' birthplace?

By Ron Csillag Religion News Service (RNS) John Dominic Crossan is arguably the world's foremost scholar of the historical Jesus. Twenty-five years a...

By G. Jeffrey Macdonald Religion News Service Since 1985, scholars affiliated with the Jesus Seminar have been casting doubt on the authenticity of ...

In the teachings that we can reasonably attribute to Jesus himself, there is nothing -- not one thing -- that contradicts or breaks with the Judaism of what came to be called the "old" testament.

For the past several years I've made an avocational study of Jesus and his followers in their historical context, with particular attention to the question of what we can reasonably think Jesus said.