As you leave Jerusalem and go to the south and to the east, toward the Dead Sea, the terrain changes rapidly and starkly. You move off gradually from [the] ... rolling hillside, through the ravines, ...

What are the origins of Christianity? Most people would say it begins with Jesus. But Jesus and at least some of his disciples were influenced by, or followers of, people who called themselves “the ...

Western biblical scholars have long discussed and debated the work of biblical scholars living in Israel, amid the scorching deserts of the Middle East. Now a prominent expert disputes that one of ...

One of the less sanitary aspects of life in Jesus' day has come into play in the debate over who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls, how they lived and how they died. The latest evidence comes from a site ...

In Luke 1:31-35, an angel tells the Virgin Mary, “And now you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the son of the Most High, the ...

An ancient Jewish sect showed such devotion to their definition of purity that they pursued bizarre toilet habits that left them riddled with parasites, say researchers who have discovered and dug up ...

Early Christianity was extremely diverse and often contradictory in its beliefs and practices. What do we know of the 'Christianities' that fell by the wayside? The once entrenched idea that early ...