New Testament Interpretation

Where did Jesus meet Mary Magdalene? Archaeological explorations allow us to ask fresh questions. Now, excavations in Lower Galilee have revealed villages that were central to Jesus’ ministry: most notably Capernaum, Migdal, and Bethsaida. For the first time since 67 CE, we can enter a synagogue in which Jesus would have taught, as he was […]

Scholars of memory – from such fields as psychology, sociology, and anthropology – have long known that we not only forget things (all the time), we also misremember them or even invent them in our heads. How does that apply to the memories of Jesus among his early followers before the Gospels were written? Did […]

In order to evangelize Asia Minor, Paul realized that the work was much larger than what he could accomplish on his own. Thus, Paul began training others to carry on the ministry. Much of the idle time spent traveling the roads from city to city was devoted to training his companions. Later after Paul arrived […]

In the excavations at Metropolis north of Ephesus, Turkish archaeologists uncovered two altars dedicated to Caesar that attribute a rare epithet to him. Paul uses the same word about Jesus in Roman 3:25. We will explore whether this is a new Pauline example of anti-imperial rhetoric. Acts 20:15 records that Paul on his return to […]

The Gospel of John features a mysterious “disciple whom Jesus loved.” He appears explicitly only in the second half of the Gospel, where he witnesses Jesus’ last supper, his crucifixion and his resurrection. Traditionally, he has been identified with John, son of Zebedee, and identified as the author of the Gospel, but the character is […]

This presentation seeks to fuse together two methods of scholarly inquiry (Biblical criticism, archaeological research) in order to show how the biblical scholar and archaeologist may both benefit from a close, fruitful dialogue that yields possible exciting new insights into the world of the Bible. It can be argued that some biblical scholars do not […]

Both within the New Testament and in later Christian gospels, writings that describe the death of Jesus increasingly declare Pilate innocent of the whole proceeding. The logic of this exoneration gives rise to an obvious question: If Pilate is not guilty for condemning an innocent Jesus to death, then who is? The early Christian answer? […]

This account introduces the bizarre adventures of the miracle-working, precocious, irascible child Jesus. Follow along as Goodacre describes several of the miracles attributed to Jesus during his childhood. This was part of the Animating Christian Apocrypha DVD.

The Gospel of Thomas is full of Jesus’ sayings and yet contains no passion narrative, no miracle stories and no story narrative. However, this valuable text may nevertheless shed light on the historical Jesus and the development of earliest Christianity. This was part of the Animating Christian Apocrypha DVD.

The Gospel of Philip is the most notorious among the lost gospels and features the lines that gave rise to the fictional account of Jesus’ life that featured so prominently in Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code. This was part of the Animating Christian Apocrypha DVD.

A gospel written in the name of a woman, depicting Mary Magdalene not as the repentant prostitute of western Christian tradition, but as an important visionary and leader in the early church. This was part of the Animating Christian Apocrypha DVD.

Written in the name of Jesus’ right-hand man, the Gospel of Peter tells an alternative version of the Passion story in which a walking, talking cross emerges from the tomb on Easter morning. This was part of the Animating Christian Apocrypha DVD.

Discovered in 1958, the Secret Gospel of Mark depicts Jesus in a night-time encounter with a young man, but could this unusual text in fact be a modern hoax? Form your own opinion as Goodacre presents evidence both for and against forgery. This was part of the Animating Christian Apocrypha DVD.

First published by Harvard Divinity School in 2012, this tiny fragment features Jesus’ mention of “my wife.” But is it actually no more than a 21st-century forgery? In this lecture, Goodacre presents the known history of the text, the scholarly tests it has undergone and the potential for forgery. This was part of the Animating […]

First published in 2006, the Gospel of Judas instantly attained notoriety—could this really be an another take on the gospel story, in which Judas Iscariot is now a hero? This was part of the Animating Christian Apocrypha DVD.

Many gospels only survived in fragmentary form. One of them, the Egerton Gospel, is a curious hybrid with similarities to both the Synoptic Gospels and John. Another, the Dura-Europos Gospel Harmony, is our earliest evidence of an attempt to blend the four gospels into one narrative. This was part of the Animating Christian Apocrypha DVD.

A compelling prequel to the Gospels, the account known as the “Proto-Gospel of James” centers on the life of Mary and Joseph as well as narrates Jesus’ miraculous birth in a cave in Bethlehem. This was part of the Animating Christian Apocrypha DVD.

The Gospels of Matthew and Luke narrate Jesus’ birth to a young virgin named Mary. Are these stories history or are they legend? The “Scandal of Jesus’ birth,” presented by the always-popular Mark Goodacre, is the first video in the upcoming 10-lecture set “Who Was Jesus?”

Both within the New Testament and in later Christian gospels, writings that describe the death of Jesus increasingly declare Pilate innocent of the whole proceeding. The logic of this exoneration gives rise to an obvious question: If Pilate is not guilty for condemning an innocent Jesus to death, then who is? The early Christian answer? […]