Digging In: The Perfect Holiday Conversation Starter

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Like many of you, we celebrate the return of cherished holiday traditions, including coming together with friends and family for meals, laughs, and good conversation. But what to talk about? Thankfully, our Winter 2021 issue is packed with insightful, thought-provoking articles sure to promote enjoyable (and not too contentious) discussion around the holiday table.

The holidays always seem like the ideal time to talk about the Herods, the first-century dynasty of Judean rulers so reviled by the gospel writers and others. Our cover story, “Who Built the Tomb of the Kings?” by journalist Andrew Lawler, presents new evidence that one of Jerusalem’s largest and best-known monuments was initially built not for a foreign queen, as has long been supposed, but for Herod Agrippa I, the last of the Herods to rule over Judea.

And what would the holidays be without a good debate? We present two opposing views on the infamous Shapira Scrolls, the now lost manuscripts that surfaced on the antiquities market more than 150 years ago, proclaimed by seller Moses Shapira to be an early version of the Book of Deuteronomy. Ronald Hendel and Matthieu Richelle use new evidence about the script of the scrolls to argue they are forgeries, as most scholars have long suspected, while Idan Dershowitz and James Tabor present new textual and archival evidence that they believe proves the scrolls are genuine manuscripts.

Returning to a topic on which all can agree, esteemed archaeologist Carol Meyers explores our shared fascination with archaeology and the field’s unique ability to uncover past lives, from the monumental to the mundane, from the extraordinary to the everyday, in Biblical Archaeology 101: “Why We Dig.”

Strata has several short articles on food, drink, and family—all so important to our enjoyment of the holiday season. Author and travel expert Mark Wilson takes us on a “Site-Seeing” tour of the Izal plateau in southeastern Turkey, where local vineyards are reviving the region’s ancient wine-making tradition and renewing interest in its early Christian monasteries and biblical sites. Religious studies scholar Kerry Sonia examines how funerary rituals, commemorative feasts, and memorials were used throughout ancient Israel’s history to affirm familial, communal, and even national ties. And in BAR’s Test Kitchen, try out a scrumptious medieval Egyptian recipe for sweet, flaky samosas, perfect for the holidays.

Epistles also offers up some tasty tidbits for discussion. Ben Witherington III explores the apostle Paul’s brief but puzzling visit to Arabia at the outset of his ministry, and, in a particularly fun piece, Elizabeth Backfish discusses how Greek translators of the Hebrew Bible adapted different forms of Hebrew wordplay to preserve the puns, double meanings, and alliterations of the biblical text. On a more reflective note, Jon Beltz examines how the peoples of the Bible and the ancient Near East personified the devastating impact of plagues and disease through the attributes and personalities of the various gods who were thought to control them.

So as you host friends and family this season, be ready to pass around your latest issue of BAR … It’s always a great conversation starter!

Until next time, my friends.

—GLENN J. CORBETT

Like many of you, we celebrate the return of cherished holiday traditions, including coming together with friends and family for meals, laughs, and good conversation. But what to talk about? Thankfully, our Winter 2021 issue is packed with insightful, thought-provoking articles sure to promote enjoyable (and not too contentious) discussion around the holiday table. The holidays always seem like the ideal time to talk about the Herods, the first-century dynasty of Judean rulers so reviled by the gospel writers and others. Our cover story, “Who Built the Tomb of the Kings?” by journalist Andrew Lawler, presents new evidence that […]