Dr. Notley and Michael Lane have been doing Israel tours together since 2012. You’re likely very familiar with our executive director Michael Lane and his weekly teachings on the podcast. He will be co-teaching on our 2023 Israel Biblical Archaeology Tour with Dr. Notley whom you might have read about in the news recently.

Dr. R. Steven Notley is a Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at the New York City campus of Alliance University (2001-present) and chair of the college’s Biblical and Theological Studies Department.  He received his Ph.D. from the Hebrew University, where he studied with David Flusser. Dr. Notley lived sixteen years in Jerusalem with his wife and four children, during which time he was the founding chair of the New Testament Studies program at the Jerusalem University College. He has been leading groups of students and laypeople to Israel and the eastern Mediterranean region for 35 years (check out his dig at El Araj!). 

He is the author of many books and articles.  He continues collaborative research and publication with Israeli scholars in the fields of historical geography, ancient Judaism and Christian origins.  Among his list of publications, he collaborated with Flusser on the historical biography, The Sage from Galilee:  Rediscovering Jesus’ Genius (Eerdmans 2007); with Anson Rainey (Tel Aviv University) the monumental biblical atlas, The Sacred Bridge: Carta’s Atlas of the Biblical World (Carta Publishing 2005); with Ze’ev Safrai (Bar Ilan University) an annotated translation of Eusebius’ important description of Roman Palestine, Eusebius, Onomasticon:  A Triglott Edition with Notes and Commentary (Brill 2005).  He rejoined Safrai for their second work, a pioneering collection and translation of the earliest rabbinic parables that provide the literary and religious context for the parables of Jesus, The Parables of the Sages (Carta 2011). Since 2016 he has served as the Academic Director of the El Araj Excavation Project in its search for first-century Bethsaida-Julias, the lost city of the Apostles. View the photos of his excavation on Instagram.

Dr. Notley will be with us for the entirety of our 2023 Israel tour. He was instrumental in putting together our itinerary which you can find out more about by visiting the tour page. This trip with Michael and Dr. Notley is a unique opportunity to get your big Bible questions answered. Sign up today while there’s still room!