All Things Biblical

In this video I situate my work on the "Quest for the Historical Mary--Mother of Jesus," in the broader shift in the Hellenistic world, in which a "Great Reversal" took place. Humans began to look to the heavenly world above as their true Home,, whereas the earth was seen as a dark lower world into which we have fallen--strangers in a strange land. You can explore all my interv...

In this illustrated reading of the Preface to my book Paul and Jesus: How the Apostle Transformed Christianity (Simon & Schuster 2012) I present a very personal overview of how I view and understand "The Thirteenth Apostle" since I first encountered him at age 17 in my Testament Greek course with the late Professor Abraham Malherbe. He was one of the towering scholars of his generati...

In this final interview of 2025 I speak with Dr. Chris Corinthwaite. We delve into some of the more fascinating and intricate deals of my research on Mary, Mother of Jesus, as presented in my new book: The Lost Mary: Rediscovering the Mother of Jesus IKnopf 2025)Link: https://jamestabor.com/lostmary

In Part II of this podcast I explores the idea that John the Baptizer was the prophetic figure who inaugurated the Jesus movement, that Jesus joined the movement as his disciple, and when he was arrested, Jesus picked up the baton.

In this podcast I explores the idea that John the Baptizer was the prophetic figure who inaugurated the Jesus movement, that Jesus joined the movement as his disciple, and when he was arrested, Jesus picked up the baton.

Don't miss this one. Come Time Travel with me. I wanted to share this podcast interview I did recently with Professors Helen Bond and Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones  on their amazing show "Biblical Time Machine." They asked me to take them back to the first century CE, the time of Jesus, and to explore the the historical Mary --not the ransformed Perpetual Virgin, Mother of God,  Queen of Hea...

In this interview with Megan Lewis, host of the Youtube channel  @DigitalHammurabi   I offer an overview of a more extensive lecture on the topic of "The Making of a Messiah," I discuss some of the methods scholars use to peer through our historical and material evidence to try to get at what we call the "historical figure of Jesus," not so much what people came to believe theologically, but what...

In this continuing series of Jesus' last week the activities of Jesus in the Jerusalem Temple led to the "plot to kill" by a select "mafia-like" gang of priests who are even viewed negatively in Jewish sources.

In this new series of podcasts beginning today, April 8th, five days before Passover on the Jewish calendar, I begin to trace the last journey of Jesus to Jerusalem. Subsequent podcasts will carry us through his crucifixion and the aftermath of both despair and faith, in the future and significance of his message.

Millions of Christians for nearly 2000 years have assumed, based on faulty translations--and frankly, Handel's Messiah--that Jesus is referred to as the Mighty God and Everlasting Father by the Prophet Isaiah...Here is the back story. You can download a free PDF of the notes here:https://jamestabor.com/JesusGod

A plain historical reading of Isaiah 7 and 8 in context reveals that Immanuel is NOT Jesus or any Messiah--it is Isaiah's Son!

Millions have read the quotation in Matthew from Isaiah 7:14 that reads in the King James Version--"A Virgin shall conceive," and taken that text as predicting Jesus' virgin birth. As it turns out the Isaiah text says nothing of the kind, and has not only been poorly translated, but read totally out of content. You can download a free PDF of my notes here: https://jamestabor.com/virg...

In this new series on my Youtube channel, to run concurrently with the present series, "Lost in Translation," we work on learning how to spot and identify texts of the Bible, whether Hebrew Bible/O.T. or New Testament, that have been overlaid with what appear to be disjunctive interpolations inserted for polemical reasons. . You can download a free PDF of the notes I use in this video he...

Millions sing the old evangelical Christian hymn "I Know that My Redeemer Lives," referring to Jesus. However, the idea comes from Job 19 and it turns out it has been seriously mistranslated in Christian versions of the Bible and the actual meaning is something totally different--but equally amazing! For a free PDF of the notes I used in this presentation you can use this link: https://j...

Millions for centuries--and into our own time, read Genesis 2 and the creation of Adam from the dust as referring only to his body--but then he receives the "breath of life" from God and becomes a living soul--special and above the animals, who are only beasts who perish. Here is a free link to my notes in PDF form you can download: https://jamestabor.com/AdamSoul Here is a link to my tr...

The traditional translation of "Den of Thieves" is misleading both in the mouth of Jesus in the Jerusalem Temple--but more significant,--in the mouth of the Prophet Jeremiah whom Jesus quotes. Here is the back-story on what was really going on, both in the time of Jeremiah and of Jesus. Here is is a FREE PDF download of the texts I cover in this video: https://jamestabor.com/templeslaugh...

A Single verse of the Bible--Jeremiah 17:9, has been mistranslated and misapplied to millions over the past two thousand years to imply that humanity is hopelessly lost in sin, desperately wicked--and that means EVERYONE, even those who are living a righteous life. What it really says is quite the opposite? As it turns out, it is the apostle Paul who has shaped the entire Christian world into the...

The very first verse of the Bible--Genesis 1:1--which millions can quote by heart--is MIStranslated in most all major versions and all languages--with very few exceptions. The reasons are simple--Marketing and Commercialism. Who would buy a Bible translation that does not begin with "In the Beginning, God Created the Heavens and the Earth"? In this short exposition I dhow how the origina...

The image of the "Son of Man returning in the Clouds of Heaven" becomes common among Christians to refer to Jesus and his 2nd Coming. However the phrase originates from Daniel 7 in the Hebrew Bible and has nothing to do with the coming of Jesus or any other Messiah figure. Playlist for Prophecy Through the Ages: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIRNAKj50kuuRc5p9l9bSmLgbTWkzyngX

A careful look at Zechariah 14 that predicts a final "battle against Jerusalem" between all the nations of the world, manifestation of the LORD on the Mt of Olives. Christians frequently refer to this and apply it to Jesus as the Messiah. But what does the original Hebrew text in fact say? Here is a free link to my notes in PDF form that you can download and study further; http://jamesta...

This is a long and serious study based on a lecture I recently gave to my students in the "Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls" course--which is still open to join. We went through a much neglected text--the WAR SCROLL--found in 1947 and seldom mentioned. As it turns out it is the FIRST grand example of Apocalyptic Predictions, Expectations, and FAiLURE from 100 years before the time of Jesus...

Blast from the past...I gave this lecture in 2007 at an academic conference. Don't miss the Q&A at the end. In these intervening years, although I have further developed these views, by and large I remain in agreement with the position I present here. I thought some of you might enjoy both the speaker and the content--looking back!

Studies of the Armenian "Apocryphal Texts" (i.e. Jewish literature from 200 BCE to 100 CE aka "Pseudepigrapha") associated with the Old Testament have been long neglected in favor of other textual traditions, especially Greek, Latin, and Syriac--and some Hebrew materials from the Dead Sea Scrolls, and in the case of 1 Enoch, Ethiopic. See the collections of R. H. Charles, H.F....

Here we see a very young David Koresh in his defensive mode...this is before his "New Light" Revelation came, making him the Lamb of Revelation, who opens the Seven Seals, a sinful Messiah, fulfilling Psalm 45--the "Rider on the Wbute Horse-, with many wives and children, right before the End Times. George Roden was the son of the previous leaders: Ben Roden, who was then succeeded...

In this short video I try to put my finger on the single FATAL flaw underlying all modern interpretations of "Bible Prophecy" that plot a countdown of events leading up to the end of the World. The key is a historical reading and understanding of the texts in their original time and contexts. This is particularly the case with the books of Daniel and Revelation. They must be read in the...