As most of you will have heard some time ago, a boat was excavated out of the mud in the sea of Galilee when it was at a low ebb, and it turned out to be a boat from the era in which Jesus and Paul lived. This was clearly a home-made boat, made out of many different kinds of wood, as we will see shortly, apparently whatever wood was ready to hand. Today the boat looks like this…. But... Read more

Certainly some of the most dramatic two chapters in the Bible are 1 Kings 18-19– the story of Elijah’s triumph over the prophets of Baal, and the aftermath, involving a flight to Mt. Horeb. Mt. Carmel today has a nice monastery on top, and a great view of the Jezreel valley. Here’s the statue of Elijah in the act of dispatching some false prophets…. And here’s the overlook of a hazy Jezreel valley…. There are caves found here where the... Read more

Caesarea Maritima is of importance, not merely to understand the grandiose building complexes of Herod the Great, but also of course because here is where the prefect of the province of Judaea lived, including Pontius Pilate. A famous inscription, now in the Israeli museum, was found here mentioning Pilate. Here is what the original stone looked like…. But it is also important for the study of Paul and his work, because of course he was incarcerated here for two years,... Read more

The journey to Israel can take many forms, but in antiquity if you were sailing there from Greece, you would go to the Caesarea Maritima, Herod’s spectacular man-made port. We will visit it first. There is now a nice film one can see of what it would have looked like… here are some stills I took from the film…. The harbor complex seems to have been modeled on the harbor in Alexandria where the famous Pharos lighthouse could be seen…... Read more

This will be the last of our posts on Greece, and it is fitting that we end where we began, back in Athens. The new Parthenon museum is world-class, and not to be missed if one is going to Athens to see the Parthenon, not least because, major parts of that temple are now in this nice museum which lurks below the acropolis, and is even built so its angle and dimensions correspond to the angle of the Parthenon itself,... Read more

American can be proud that we have had so much to do with the dig at ancient Corinth, which fortunately was not buried beneath the modern city of Corinth. American archaeologists have worked there since before the middle of the 20th century, and much has come to light. I had the privilege of watching the excavation of a villa up above the city proper in the little village beside the site. What was unearthed was spectacular mosaic floors, such as... Read more

The Roman General Mummius rather completely destroyed ancient Corinth in about 144 B.C. and then Julius Caesar had it rebuilt along Roman lines. The only major building left standing was the ancient Temple of Apollo, which you can still see today. Both in those pictures and in the one below, you can see an ancient shop where Priscilla, Aquila, and Paul may have worked. Apollo was like a Swiss army knife— he served many functions, including riding the sun chariot... Read more

The god Asclepius was the ancient god of healing, and people went to Corinth quite specifically to get healed of all kinds of maladies and diseases. The small museum at Corinth has been upgraded since my last visit, and the display of the plaster cast molds of body parts is more impressive now. Scholars are undecided whether these are votives, made to ask Asclepius to heal that body part, or thank offerings, after it was believed that healing had been... Read more

The port city of Corinth on the Aegean side is Cenchreae, where Paul stayed in the house of Phoebe, the first person to be called a deacon in early Christianity, and Paul’s own patroness. She seems in addition to have been the person whom Paul entrusted the crucial letter to the Romans with, having written it in her house (see Rom. 16). She was tasked to take it to Rome while Paul returned to Jerusalem in about A.D. 57. Here... Read more

The instruments of democracy should be the title of this post. First, notice this decree from the golden age of Greece about getting rid of tyrants who try to destroy or rig a democracy (the relevance to today in various places in the world should be noted). Read the decree closely. There was a way to get rid of a tyrannical official or ruler, namely take a vote to banish him on the spot. This is where the word ‘ostracism’... Read more