Inside the Jaffa Gate, Jerusalem
From Athens to Jerusalem to Babylon, understanding the Bible means understanding the cities and cultures that produced it. The story of these centers—their history, their archaeology, their mysteries, and the people who inhabited and later excavated them—is also the story of the Bible itself.
Weaving together biblical archaeology, history, and personal experience, Robert Cargill, assistant professor of classics and religious studies at the University of Iowa, shares a host of surprising facts. For example there is no archaeological evidence for the biblical Exodus or the existence of Jesus—and no literary evidence from the first century outside of the Bible that mentions Jesus.
Cargill leads a fascinating tour through cities in the Holy Land and beyond, including Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Qumran, Babylon, Athens, Alexandria, and Rome to reveal how their stories shed new light on the Bible. Cargill’s book The Cities that Built the Bible (HarperOne) is available for sale and signing.
