Beyond the Bible

Christians, Jews, and Muslims are all spiritual heirs of a specific form of Judaism that arose and developed in the late 2nd Temple period. Along with Pharisees, Zealots, Sadducees, and Essenes—the Jewish groups that espoused a vision of the cosmos and the future such as that reflected in the apocryphal books of Enoch turned out […]

Go with Professor DeConick on a textual dig, as she brings to life Gnostic ritual practices from ancient sources. She considers whether ancient Gnostic initiation and its ritual therapies might characterize our earliest form of psychotherapy. The evidence suggests that, prior to Freud, Jung, the behaviorists, and the cognitive psychologists of our modern world, the […]

In this intriguing lecture, noted Biblical scholar and archaeologist Michael D. Coogan tackles the complex issue of Yahweh’s wives. According to Coogan, the issue of Yahweh’s wives, particularly the goddess Asherah, is a most interesting topic from the perspective of the history of religions, illuminated by both canonical and non-canonical sources, as well as archaeology. […]

Scholars have long known that a number of the earliest Christian writings are “forgeries”—books written by unknown authors claiming to be someone famous (e.g., one of the apostles). What is less known is that some of these forgeries were written to counter other books that were also forgeries. This lecture looks at two such “counter-forgeries”—one […]

New Testament scholar Bart Ehrman’s bestselling books have introduced the general public to some of the most challenging and controversial ideas of modern Biblical scholarship. Now, BAS Library members can watch or listen to four exclusive full-length lectures by Ehrman on topics ranging from forgeries and counter-forgeries in the New Testament to how and when […]