Journal: Conspectus
Volume: CONSPECTUS 40:1 (Oct 2025)
Article: Book Review: "Archaeology And The Itinerant Jesus"
Author: Anonymous

SATS 40:1 (October 2025) p. 93

Book Review: Archaeology And The Itinerant Jesus

Phillips, Lloyd, Jacqueline A. 2022. Archaeology and the Itinerant Jesus. WUNT II.564. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck. xxix, 451 pp. ISBN 978–3–16–159347–5. Approx. 1963 ZAR (99 EUR). Paperback.

The popular notions of liberal research on Jesus that we actually can know only very little about him and that the little we know is hardly reliable and plausible are annoying. Therefore, I cherish studies that argue to the contrary and do so with good arguments and fresh evidence. Jacqueline Lloyd’s persuasive study, Archaeology and the Itinerant Jesus, is one such volume, which I enjoyed immensely. Lloyd comes from Laidlaw College in Auckland, New Zealand. She examines the portrayal of the itinerant ministry of Jesus in the Gospels.

In chapter one (pp. 1–64), she begins with a brief summary of the portrayal of the itinerant ministry of Jesus in Mark, Matthew, and Luke, in the Q source sayings, and in other sources. This is followed by a survey of research, a description of her approach and focus, and a discussion of the nature of the sources. Lloyd also briefly discusses the value of archaeology for historical Jesus research (pp. 35–40) and the methodological issues involved in gathering and using archaeological sources and relating them to literary sources. Chapter one closes with a survey of the basic historical framework for the ministry of Jesus as a prophet with a message for all of Israel.

In chapter two (pp. 65–120), Lloyd addresses the ethnicity of Galilea. This includes defining the region of Galilee, surveying the extant literary sources, sketching scholarly debates over Galilean ethnicity, and assessing the role of Jewish identity markers in the archaeological record. Positive markers for Jewish identity are remains of limestone/chalk vessels, ossuaries, mikva’ot, coins from the Jewish revolt, and Jewish synagogues and symbols. Negative markers are, among others, the absence of non-Jewish shrines and cult artefacts. Lloyd also provides a brief summary of Galilean settlement history. She concludes that Galilee in the first century was a region predominantly inhabited by Jews who observed the Sabbath and met in synagogues.

Against this backdrop, in chapter three (pp. 121–166), Lloyd examines the settlements and ethnicity of different places in Galilee and draws the implications for the historical Jesus. These include Jesus and his Jewish Galilean context, his preaching in the synagogues of Galilee, and Jesus and the named settlements of Galilee. This is followed in chapter four (pp. 167–206) by an examination of the population density and travel in Galilee; that is, the number of towns and villages, the size of the Galilean population, and the existing ...