Here is where you will find the schedule of AIAS lectures for the coming months.
As you will be aware, all charities are going through hard times during the Covid-19 pandemic and the Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society is no exception. Although we do not charge for our lectures, any contribution to the general costs of the Society would be more than welcome, particularly from non-members.
Anyone who would like to make a donation, large or small, can send an email to: ad***@******rg.uk for details as to how to pay by credit card.
Our regular lectures are currently being held online, via Zoom, but we are also hosting some in-person events at various locations in London and elsewhere. Check the lecture notices below for details.
2026 Lectures:
Previous 2026 lectures can be found here.
———IN-PERSON———-
Mapping the Twelve Tribes: A 2500 Year History
This webinar features Professor Nathan MacDonald, Professor of the Interpretation of the Old Testament, University of Cambridge.
Thursday 15 October, 6pm in person at JW3, 341-351 Finchley Road, NW3 6ET
AIAS is pleased to welcome Professor Nathan MacDonald as he presents Mapping the Twelve Tribes: A 2500 Year History for the 2026 Dr Richard Barnett Lecture.
The twelve tribes have played a significant role in the European imagination of ancient Israel. This illustrated lecture will examine the history of mapping Israel’s tribes and some of its unexpected turns. Together we will examine early mapping of the Holy Land both Jewish and Christian, why Christians were so interested in the tribal territories, and what they did or did not know about the physical geography of Israel.
Nathan MacDonald is Professor of the Interpretation of the Old Testament at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of St John’s College. He was educated at Cambridge and Durham and worked at St Andrews and Göttingen before taking up his post in Cambridge. He has written extensively on the Pentateuch and on the Israelite cult. His most recent book The Making of the Tabernacle and the Construction of Priestly Hegemony examines how the tabernacle accounts in the book of Exodus were of great interest to ancient readers and was a site for working out ideas about the priesthood, the temple and society.
POSTPONED: Josephus on Jesus
This webinar features Professor Steven Mason, Em. Distinguished Professor of Ancient Mediterranean Religions and Cultures, University of Groningen.
Wednesday 23 September, 5pm (GMT) on Zoom.
Join Steven Mason to discuss his 2026 article The Historical Jesus: New Evidence or New Techniques?
This January 2026 publication explores Josephus’ little paragraph on Jesus of Nazareth (Ant. 18.63–64), which long ago acquired its own name, the testimonium flavianum (TF), is indicative of its unique fame.
This article first contextualises the TF in Josephus’s life and his Antiquities, then summarises Schmidt’s historical case before probing its interpretations of Josephus, the New Testament, and rabbinic literature. It finds that his elaborate case for the TF’s oft-doubted authenticity (Part 1) must be taken seriously, but that his more sensational claims in Part 2 create problems that Schmidt leaves unaddressed.