Part A Lecture: The Search for Jerusalem's Essene Gate and the Church of the Apostles

*The slides in this video are difficult to see given the filming from the back of the room. You can view them clearly in the accompanying video of the same title, labeled slides, linked here:    • Part B Slides: The Search for Jerusalem's ...  

I have been studying, surveying, and excavating on Mt Zion (the Southwest highest point of ancient Jerusalem) since 1995. In this older historic video from 2010, I survey some of our initial results after fifteen years of work. My focus is on how the pre-70 CE "Nazarenes" made this area their HQ, based on the theories of the late Bargil Pioneer. It is here that Mary, other of Jesus, lived out her life (not in Asia Minor!), and James the brother of Jesus headed up the Nazarene Yachad. Being "on the ground" and "under the ground" makes all the difference in the world in trying to understand the texts that we have. Texts [minus] material/geographic evidence = very little and lots of misunderstandings, either based on theological or just misperceptions of what was historically the case in Herodian Jerusalem and the late Second Temple period.

For more on this subject you can do topical searches on my blog: https://jamestabor.com as well as explore other related videos on this Channel.


This lecture was part a Biblical Archaeology Society seminar, publishers of the premiere archaeology magazine, Biblical Archaeology Review. It is used with permission.

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