Matthew 27:55-56 Mark 15:40-41L Luke 23:49 Compare John 19:25-27   I suspect that one of the reasons the women were so visible at the crucifixion of Jesus is that they were at less risk of arrest by the authorities, who may well have had the crowd under surveillance, looking for the apostolic “ringleaders” of the Christian movement.     John 19:31-37   The gospel of John is here citing Psalm 34:20, where it is said of the Lord... Read more

    As I say, we’re headed to Tel Dan (or Tell Dan) in just a few hours.  I’m looking forward to it, because I haven’t been to the site in many years (although I’ve passed by the turnoff to it more times than I can count).   A very important discovery was made at Tel Dan during the 1993-1994 excavation season there, close to the entrance of the city’s outer gate.  It’s known as the “Tel Dan Stele.”  ... Read more

    In a few hours from my writing this, we’ll be visiting the site of ancient Dan (Hebrew דן), the excellently-named biblical city that represented the northernmost point of the ancient unified Kingdom of Israel.   In the Hebrew Bible, the recurring expresssion “from Dan to Beersheva” represents the totality of the original united monarchy, the territory extending between its northern and southern limits, rather like saying “from sea to shining sea.”   When Jeroboam broke the northern kingdom of Israel... Read more

    As some of you may be aware, I doubt very much that the familiar “Garden Tomb” is the actual burial place of Christ.  But I think that the odds are reasonably good that the rock formation shown immediately above — often called “Gordon’s Calvary” — which is behind the Arab bus station in East Jerusalem and right beside the Garden Tomb enclosure (from which this photograph was taken), is Golgotha, the place of Christ’s crucifixion.   Crucifixion was... Read more

    New, in today’s edition of the Deseret News:   “A Latter-day Saint presence in the Holy Land”   ***   I don’t typically stay in luxury hotels such as this one, the Setai Hotel in En Gev, Israel, located on the northeastern shore of the Sea of Galilee (or, more accurately and locally, Lake Tiberias or Kinnereth).  But this is a special tour.   As I say, my wife and I are over here accompanying members of the... Read more

    John Charlton Polkinghorne, KBE (Knight of the British Empire), FRS (Fellow of the Royal Society), is an English theoretical physicist, theologian, writer, and Anglican priest.  He was a professor of mathematical physics at the University of Cambridge until he resigned his professorial chair to study for the priesthood, becoming an ordained Anglican priest in 1982.  He served as the president of Queens’ College, Cambridge, from 1988 until 1996.   Here’s a comment from him that I found noteworthy:   “Science has purchased its very great success by the modesty of its ambition.  Science does not seek... Read more

    John 19:1-15 Compare Matthew 27:26-28; Mark 15:15, 17-20   When the chief priests answer Pilate by saying “We have no king but Caesar!” the echo of 1 Samuel 8:4-7 is impossible to miss:   So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not follow your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.” But when they said, “Give us... Read more

    I published the article below on 21 February 2018, in Salt Lake City’s Deseret News:   In December 1831, when HMS Beagle undertook her five-year second voyage, a 21-year-old gentleman named Charles Darwin was aboard. Serving as the ship’s “science officer,” he planned to become a country parson upon his return. By his death in 1882, however, Darwin considered himself an agnostic; although rejecting the term “atheist,” he went for walks when his family attended worship services. What... Read more

    Matthew 27:11-14 Mark 15:2-5 Luke 23:2-5 John 18:29-38 Compare Matthew 26:53; Luke 23:9-10, 13-14; John 19:8-15   Why did Jesus make no defense?  Why did he say so little before Pilate?   Because he would go to his death without resistance.  He would no more defend himself verbally than he had defended himself physically, even though, as he pointed out at his arrest, he could have called upon legions of angels to protect him.   “To this end... Read more