Archaeology and the Galilean Jesus: A Re-examination of the Evidence

This new study demonstrates the necessity of considering the specifically Galilean local conditions in the interpretation of New Testament texts. In the first section of his book, Reed shows how settlement patterns and artifacts from Galilee point to close ties between Judean and Galilean Jews during Jesus' time, as well as the ways that Roman urbanization projects at Sepphoris and Tiberias commercialized agrarian peasant life in Galilee. In a second section Reed focuses on the archaeology of Sepphoris, the largest city in Galilee, just north of Nazareth, and Capernaum, Jesus' base of operations at the periphery of Roman power centers.