A Companion to the Archaeology of Religion in the Ancient World presents a comprehensive overview of a wide range of topics relating to the practices, expressions, and interactions of religion in antiquity, primarily in the Greco-Roman world. • Features readings that focus on religious experience and expression in the ancient world rather than solely on religious belief • Places a strong emphasis on domestic and individual religious practice • Represents the first time that the concept of “lived religion” is applied to the ancient history of religion and archaeology of religion • Includes cutting-edge data taken from top contemporary researchers and theorists in the field • Examines a large variety of themes and religious traditions across a wide geographical area and chronological span • Written to appeal equally to archaeologists and historians of religion

A comprehensive survey of the doctrine and practice of baptism in the first five centuries of Christian history, arranged geographically within chronological periods.

"This handbook brings together work by leading scholars of the archaeology of early Christianity in the Mediterranean and surrounding regions. The 34 essays to this volume ground the history, culture, and society of the first seven centuries of Christianity in the latest currents of archaeological method, theory, and research."--

Here is the first archaeological evidence of the truth of the gospel stories to emerge in modern times. Unique about this site, is that it contains archaeological evidence that comes to us from the very time of the personalities and events described in the Gospels. For here is the largest ritual bathing pool ever found in the Jerusalem area, found indeed in the village where John the Baptist was born, showing unmistakable signs of ritual use in the first century AD and containing the earliest ever Christian art, depicting John the Baptist as well as the three crosses of the crucifixion. By using the forensic techniques available to the modern archaeologist Gibson - a working field archaeologist of the highest credentials - and his international team of experts will be able to draw information from the drawings, pottery, coins, bones, remains of a ritual fire, pieces of cloth etc found in the cave and, by matching these up with the contemporary literary sources, allow them to shed light on each other.This is a unique opportunity to build up a picture of the very first Christians, how they lived and even what they believed.As Gibson writes- 'By fitting together all the new archaeological facts with the basic historical information that has been available (sometimes even buried) in scholarly literature for a long time -I believe I am able to throw an amazing amount of light on the personality and mission of John the Baptist -the man, the prophet.Who was he? Where did he come from? What were his beliefs and what was the baptism all about?...

"All of us need to return to Nazareth." — Pope Benedict XVI, from his visit to Nazareth, 2009 After the best-selling archaeological biography Mary of Nazareth, Michael Hesemann sets out once again for the Holy Land, this time seeking traces of perhaps the most mysterious figure in human history: Jesus of Nazareth, whom Christians believe to be the Son of God, the Messiah. In this unique book, Hesemann walks the streets of Israel in order to put historical, archaeological, geographical, and scriptural research on Jesus to the test. Bible in hand, he takes readers on a stunning tour through the places Jesus lived, worked, and suffered—Bethlehem, Nazareth, Capernaum, Jerusalem—to give a concrete and colorful sense of the historical Jesus and the world he knew. Along the way, archaeologists reveal to Hesemann a host of little-known discoveries, from the apostles' boat to Herod's palace to what might be the sites of Jesus' miracles. This book brings readers face-to-face with the mystery of the Incarnation—a God who, if Scripture is right, became man and lived among us. Pack your bag and follow closely as Michael Hesemann retraces the footsteps of Jesus of Nazareth.

Based on studies at Bethsaida, Capernaum, Nazareth, Jerusalem, and elsewhere, this volume shows how recent archaeological studies clarify the world, life, and thought of Jesus of Nazareth. It contains the revised and edited lectures that leading archaeologists and biblical scholars presented at a gathering in Jerusalem to celebrate the new millennium. Many contributors came directly from their excavations in places like Bethsaida, Capernaum, Nazareth, and Jerusalem to share their discoveries and insights, focusing on the question In what ways do new archaeological discoveries clarify the world, life, and thought of Jesus from Nazareth? Readers of Jesus and Archaeology will gain many new insights into the life and times of this fascinating Galilean Jew.

A veteran archaeologist sheds light on the biblical text by examining archaeological discoveries.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1876.