A staircase that seems to lead nowhere.

When Jews returned from exile, they brought the Babylonian calendar with them.

Discovered: a housing complex believed to belong to the family of the High Priest.

Reviled by Jews and Christians alike, Herod was one of the world’s great builders.

Yes, but their role changed after the destruction of the Second Temple.

Archaeologists have long believed that a pile of large stones at the base of the Western Wall is a product of the Roman destruction of. . .

Although the Bible contains extensive descriptions of the ritual garments worn by Temple priests, artistic renderings are virtually nonexistent. But the Septuagint, a Greek translation. . .

The Second Temple was built in Jerusalem by returnees from Babylonian exile around 516 BCE. Some 500 years later, King Herod undertook a program of. . .

Are scholars who deliberately refer to the Jews of the Second Temple era as “Judeans” engaging in semantic subterfuge? (A debate.)

The Maccabees against the Greeks? Alexander the Great meets the high priest? At a 5th-century synagogue in Galilee, researchers are still uncertain what they’ve found.

Next week, Jews everywhere will gather to mourn the destruction of the Temple. The last king of Israel marked that event by issuing coins bearing. . .

The teeming religious literature of the Second Temple period—shunned by the rabbis of the Talmud—has now been gathered in a three-volume work. But who will. . .

A recent attempt by scholars to rename the Jews of the Second Temple period as “Judeans” is both intellectually flawed and morally suspect.    

In 73 C.E., Rome’s Tenth Legion laid siege to the last remaining Jewish redoubt at King Herod’s fortress-palace atop the Masada cliff. Exactly how did. . .