James Daniel Tabor (born 1946) is an American

Biblical scholar Biblical studies is the academic application of a set of diverse disciplines to the study of the Bible, with ''Bible'' referring to the books of the canonical Hebrew Bible in mainstream Jewish usage and the Christian Bible including the can ...

and retired Professor of Ancient Judaism and

Early Christianity Early Christianity, otherwise called the Early Church or Paleo-Christianity, describes the History of Christianity, historical era of the Christianity, Christian religion up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325. Spread of Christianity, Christian ...

in the Department of

Religious Studies Religious studies, also known as religiology or the study of religion, is the study of religion from a historical or scientific perspective. There is no consensus on what qualifies as ''religion'' and definition of religion, its definition is h ...

at the

University of North Carolina at Charlotte The University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNC Charlotte, or simply Charlotte) is a public research university in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. UNC Charlotte offers 24 doctoral, 66 master's, and 79 bachelor's degree programs thr ...

, where he taught from 1989 until 2022 and was chair from 2004 to 2014. He previously held positions at Ambassador College (1968–70 while a student at

Pepperdine University Pepperdine University () is a private university, private Christianity, Christian research university affiliated with the Churches of Christ, with its main campus in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Pepperdine's main campus consists ...

), the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac (known simply as Notre Dame; ; ND) is a Private university, private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, United States. Founded in 1842 by members of the Congregation of Holy Cross, a Cathol ...

(1979–85), and the

College of William and Mary The College of William & Mary (abbreviated as W&M) is a public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. Founded in 1693 under a royal charter issued by King William III and Queen Mary II, it is the second-oldest instit ...

(1985–89). Tabor is the founder and director of the Original Bible Project, a non-profit organisation aimed to produce a re-ordered new translation of the Bible in English.

Background

Tabor was born in

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

but lived all over the world as the son of an

Air Force An air force in the broadest sense is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army aviati ...

officer. He was raised in the

Churches of Christ The Churches of Christ, also commonly known as the Church of Christ, is a loose association of autonomous Christian congregations located around the world. Typically, their distinguishing beliefs are that of the necessity of baptism for salvation ...

and attended

Abilene Christian University Abilene Christian University (ACU) is a Private university, private Christian research university in Abilene, Texas, United States. It is classified by the Carnegie Foundation as an R2 (High Research Spending and Doctorate Production) institutio ...

, where he earned his B.A. degree in

Koine Greek Koine Greek (, ), also variously known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek, Septuagint Greek or New Testament Greek, was the koiné language, common supra-regional form of Greek language, Greek spoken and ...

and Bible. While earning his M.A. from

he taught Greek and

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

part-time at Ambassador College, founded by Herbert W. Armstrong, founder and president of the

Worldwide Church of God Worldwide may refer to: * Pertaining to the entire world * Worldwide (rapper) (born 1986), American rapper * Pitbull (rapper) (born 1981), also known as Mr. Worldwide, American rapper * ''Worldwide'' (Audio Adrenaline album), 2003 * ''Worldwide ...

. Tabor earned his

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

in 1981 in New Testament and Early Christian literature, with an emphasis on the

origins of Christianity Early Christianity, otherwise called the Early Church or Paleo-Christianity, describes the historical era of the Christian religion up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325. Christianity spread from the Levant, across the Roman Empire, and bey ...

and ancient Judaism, including the

Dead Sea Scrolls The Dead Sea Scrolls, also called the Qumran Caves Scrolls, are a set of List of Hebrew Bible manuscripts, ancient Jewish manuscripts from the Second Temple period (516 BCE – 70 CE). They were discovered over a period of ten years, between ...

John the Baptist John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...

Jesus Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

, James the Just, and

Paul the Apostle Paul, also named Saul of Tarsus, commonly known as Paul the Apostle and Saint Paul, was a Apostles in the New Testament, Christian apostle ( AD) who spread the Ministry of Jesus, teachings of Jesus in the Christianity in the 1st century, first ...

. The author of six books and over 50 articles, Tabor is frequently consulted by the media on these topics and has appeared on numerous television and radio programs. During the Branch Davidian

siege A siege () . is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or by well-prepared assault. Siege warfare (also called siegecrafts or poliorcetics) is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict charact ...

in Waco in 1993, Tabor and fellow religion scholar J. Phillip Arnold "realized that in order to deal with David Koresh, and to have any chance for a peaceful resolution of the Waco situation, one would have to understand and make use of these biblical texts." After contacting the FBI, they sent Koresh an alternative interpretation of the

Book of Revelation The Book of Revelation, also known as the Book of the Apocalypse or the Apocalypse of John, is the final book of the New Testament, and therefore the final book of the Bible#Christian Bible, Christian Bible. Written in Greek language, Greek, ...

which persuaded Koresh to leave the compound when he had finished a document on 'the seven seals', but left the FBI skeptical, and had the compound stormed by Federal forces.

Major publications and research

His first book was a study of the mysticism of the apostle Paul titled ''Things Unutterable'' (1986), based on his University of Chicago dissertation. In 1992 Tabor turned to an analysis of attitudes toward religious

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...

and

martyrdom A martyr (, ''mártys'', 'witness' stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external party. In colloqui ...

in the ancient world, the results of which appeared as ''A Noble Death'', published by HarperSanFrancisco in 1992 (co-authored with Arthur Droge). In 1995, he published ''Why Waco? Cults and the Battle for Religious Freedom in America'' (University of California Press), which he co-authored with Eugene Gallagher, which explored what had actually happened during the

Waco siege The Waco siege, also known as the Waco massacre, was the siege by US federal government and Texas state law enforcement officials of a compound belonging to the religious cult known as the Branch Davidians, between February 28 and April 19, 1993 ...

. In 1995 he testified before Congress as an expert witness on the siege.

''The Jesus Dynasty''

In 2006 Tabor published '' The Jesus Dynasty'', which interprets

as an apocalyptic Messiah whose

extended family An extended family is a family that extends beyond the nuclear family of parents and their children to include aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins or other relatives, all living nearby or in the same household. Particular forms include the stem ...

founded a royal dynasty in the days before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. The form of Christianity that grew out of this movement, led by the apostle Paul, was, according to Tabor, a decisive break with the Ebionite-like original teachings of

and Jesus. Richard Wightman Fox, professor of history at the University of Southern California, writing in ''

Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

'' (April 2006) said, : "Ultimately Tabor leaves the reader confused about whether he thinks the Jesus dynasty is a historical fact or merely an intriguing conjecture" and that : "Tabor seems stuck in an endless loop, squinting across the sands of time as much as the terrain of Galilee and Judea, holding out for some imagined 'real' contact with the historical Jesus". An extensive popular review by Jay Tolson appeared in the April 9, 2006, issue of '' U.S. News & World Report''. Bert Jan Lietaert Peerbolte from the Theological University of Kampen writing in the

Society of Biblical Literature The Society of Biblical Literature (SBL), founded in 1880 as the Society of Biblical Literature and Exegesis, is an American-based learned society dedicated to the academic study of the Bible and related ancient literature. Its current stated mis ...

'' Review of Biblical Literature'' (June 2007) was highly critical of the book saying, : "Some books are written to spread knowledge, others to generate controversy. This book falls into the latter category. In his Jesus Dynasty James Tabor presents a reconstruction of the Jesus movement from a perspective that purports to be a neutral view at the facts. Unfortunately, Tabor’s view is not neutral and his ‘facts’ are not facts."

New Age New Age is a range of Spirituality, spiritual or Religion, religious practices and beliefs that rapidly grew in Western world, Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclecticism, eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise d ...

author Jeffrey Bütz in ''The Secret Legacy of Jesus'' (2010), says that ''The Jesus Dynasty'' is : "a long overdue and most welcome addition to our knowledge of the historical Jesus, which has, not surprisingly, been widely denigrated by conservative scholars."

Other activities

Tabor is chief editor of the Original Bible Project, an effort to produce a historical-linguistic translation of the Bible with notes. Tabor has been involved in research on a tomb found in 1980 in Jerusalem in the area of East Talpiot. It contained ossuaries with the names

son of Joseph, two Marys, a Joseph, a Matthew, and a Jude son of Jesus. In the book, ''The Jesus Dynasty'', Tabor had discussed the possibilities that this tomb might be linked to Jesus of Nazareth and his family. He was a consultant for the film, ''The Lost Tomb of Jesus'' produced by

James Cameron James Francis Cameron (born August 16, 1954) is a Canadian filmmaker, who resides in New Zealand. He is a major figure in the post-New Hollywood era and often uses novel technologies with a Classical Hollywood cinema, classical filmmaking styl ...

and Simcha Jacobovici and shown in March 2007. In 2012 Tabor published, with co-author Simcha Jacobovici, ''The Jesus Discovery: The New Archaeological Find That Reveals the Birth of Christianity'' (Simon & Schuster), which documented the exploration of a sealed tomb in Armon Hanatziv by remote robotic cameras, less than 200 feet from the first tomb. They claimed that the 2,000-year-old cave might be the burial site of Jesus's disciples—a claim which the majority of scholars reject. Tabor has also appeared in all 3 seasons of '' The Naked Archaeologist'', with Simcha Jacobovici. Tabor's works are promoted by the educational charity United Israel World Union. He co-hosts tours of the Holy Land which are conducted by this organization.

Books

*''Paul and Jesus: How the Apostle Transformed Christianity'', Simon & Schuster, 2012, *''The Jesus Discovery: The New Archaeological Find That Reveals the Birth of Christianity'' (with Simcha Jacobovici), Simon & Schuster, 2012, *'' The Jesus Dynasty: A New Historical Investigation of Jesus, His Royal Family, and the Birth of Christianity'', Simon & Schuster, 2006, & *''Invitation to the Old Testament'' (with Celia Brewer Sinclair), 2005, *'' Why Waco?:Cults and the Battle for Religious Freedom in America'' (with Eugene V. Gallagher), 1995, *''A Noble Death: Suicide and Martyrdom Among Christians and Jews in Antiquity'' (with Arthur J Droge), 1992, *''Things Unutterable: Paul's Ascent to Paradise in Its Graeco-Roman, Judaic and Early Christian Contexts'', 1986, & (based on Tabor's University of Chicago dissertation. Named by the '' Journal of Religion'' as one of the ten best scholarly studies on Paul of the 1980s.)

References

External links

TaborBlog

The Jesus Discovery research

The Jesus Discovery bookThe Jesus DynastyThe Original Bible ProjectArticle by Dr. Tabor at the Society of Biblical Literature on the Talpiot TombLetter to the Editor of SBL by Dr. Tabor
*
Interview with Professor Kloner which discusses James Tabor
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tabor, James 1946 births Abilene Christian University alumni American biblical scholars Historians of Christianity Historians of Jews and Judaism Living people New Testament scholars Old Testament scholars Pepperdine University alumni University of Chicago alumni University of Notre Dame faculty Writers from Texas 20th-century American writers 21st-century American writers University of North Carolina at Charlotte faculty