Hello and welcome to the site! I am writing this blog to help interested readers explore the historical origins of Christianity. There are many great blog sites on the internet and I encourage you to explore them. My humble contribution focuses on issues that are of particular interest to me. Who am I? I am …
Category: General
Everything else!
Do Historians Deny the Miraculous?
In some of my university classes on Christian origins we discuss Jesus and the gospels. A number of my students are nonplussed to find that historians do not automatically add Jesus’s miracles to the historical data bank of all the things that Jesus likely did. “All the gospels,” they correctly claim, “present Jesus as a …
Just Published! Meet Paul Again for the First Time: Jewish Apostle of Pagan Redemption
I am happy to announce the publication of my latest book, Meet Paul Again for the First Time: Jewish Apostle of Pagan Redemption (Wipf and Stock, 2021). This book offers a new way to read and understand the self-styled “apostle to the Gentiles,” not as a hopeless sinner, not as an apostate Jew, not as …
The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem
In Bethlehem, somewhat off the path beaten by most tourists, lies the Church of the Nativity, so called for the tradition that it was here in the manger-cave below that Jesus was born. The tradition is quite old and led the emperor Constantine to erect a basilica here in the early 4th century. Crusaders rebuilt and …
Check Out My New Easter Article at “Bible History Daily”!
Check out my Easter-themed article, "Hunting for the Upper Room in Jerusalem: The Last Supper’s Upper Room in Early Christian Art", just published today on the Biblical Archaeology Society's Bible History Daily website at: https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/post-biblical-period/hunting-for-the-upper-room-in-jerusalem/.
My Students are the Greatest!
This fall semester came to a close today (final exams begin Friday). In recognition of a great semester, the students in my class on the Apostle Paul at UNCC surprised me with this wonderful tribute baked by one of them and backed by all of them. I was taken aback to be sure. What great …
Reviews for “The Upper Room and Tomb of David”
Reviews for The Upper Room and Tomb of David: The History, Art and Archaeology of the Cenacle on Mount Zion: “Judicious use of archaeological discoveries and insightful witnesses, beginning with the Bordeaux Pilgrim in 333, through the Muslim conquest to the crusader period, often supported by images and illustrations, enhance this first full length study …
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The Burial and Remains of St. Peter – A Study of the Evidence
Several years ago I prepared a paper detailing what archaeology and history have revealed to us about the last days and ultimate burial of Peter, apostle of Jesus Christ. Few scholars today would doubt the historicity of the tradition that the apostle Peter suffered martyrdom in Rome. The exact year or the circumstances that surround the …
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New Discoveries in Archaeology
I'll try to add some additional posts over the holidays to catch people up on some recent discoveries. Just in the news is the discovery of a 1,300 pound stone off of the coast of ancient Dor bearing an inscription dating from around the time of the second Jewish revolt against Rome (ca. 132 CE). …
The Last Surviving Crusader Capital in the Cenacle
In an article published in 1983, Bianca and Gustav Kühnel draw our attention to what may be the only Crusader-era capital remaining in the Upper Room of the Last Supper on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. Now supporting the qubba (dome) over the stairway between the upper and lower chambers, the capital was apparently re-used by …
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David Christian Clausen 