Francine Gobert
Staff Writer
As a professor of religion at the University of La Verne, archaeologist and author, Jonathan Reed had an abundance of information to share about his research during his lecture Nov. 1 titled “What Archaeology Reveals about the First Christians: The Case of Jesus and Marble.”
The lecture was given at the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity, which operates under the School of Religion at Claremont Graduate University.
Reed, who is an alumnus of CGU, is also a leading authority on first-century Palestine archaeology and directs the IAC Galilean Archaeology and the Historical Jesus project.
Upon his lecture Reed was named “bonafide archeologist” by colleague Dennis MacDonald, director of two research projects for the IAC.
“He doesn’t just know the archaeology, he knows the text and he understands theory,” said Tammi Schneider, director of the Tel el-Fara’h (South) Project and Professor for CGU. “He gives a great lecture always.”
His lecture proceeded the release of his fourth book, “HarperCollins Visual Guide to the New Testament.”
“This is a book not about proving this or that place was in the Bible,” Reed said.
But his book, as well as his lecture, was based on how the early Christians of that time lived according to his archeological finds. He also offered that the introduction of his book is value neutral and not used to impose any biblical facts or to force faith on his readers.
Reed said that the field of archaeology has shifted and been transformed by archeologists who have generated large amounts of data about Jesus and who have infused the New Testament of the Bible with new life. These archeologists including himself have attempted a horizontal approach to obtaining information about culture and society as a whole.
“A regional approach is what I hope to illustrate tonight as I examine Jesus and marble,” Reed said.
His lecture went on to prove how the lack of marble in Galilee provides information about the extent of Romanization that was present during the first century.
Galilee is a large region which takes up much of the northern region of Israel and is considered to be where Jesus Christ spent most of his walking life.
Reed has had the opportunity to excavate in several digs including in Israel where he is currently the lead archaeologist at Sepphoris, the capital city of Galilee.
Through defining marble and Romanization in terms of his archaeological research, Reed proceeded with slides displaying pictures and information of his finds.
According to Reed’s lecture, the amount of marble found during the first century in the areas that the early Christians resided shows that these areas had a limited degree of Roman influence.
He was able to prove this through an examination of private spaces which included homes of ordinary citizens, where he found that many of these places had limited to no amounts of marble present.
Many of these private spaces utilized fake marble and other stones instead of real marble, which Reed said may have been partly due to the expensiveness of the stone. Even though the limited amounts of marble were found in these domestic spaces, an abundance of frescoes were discovered and, in Reed’s words, they were “exceptional in Galilee.”
He concluded that his findings neither proved nor disproved what the gospels of the Bible say.
“Archaeology cannot be the arbiter of faith,” Reed said in his concluding statements.
Yet he revealed through his research, that what was not present during the first-century tells a large amount about the people and the state of the times.
For more information about Reed, the IAC and projects currently being researched, visit religion.cgu.edu.
Francine Gobert can be reached at fgobert@ulv.edu.
Francine Gobert
