Jodi Magness | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Alma mater | Hebrew University of Jerusalem University of Pennsylvania |
| Occupation(s) | Professor, archaeologist |
| Employer | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
| Title | Kenan Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence in Early Judaism |
| Website | www |
Jodi Magness (born September 19, 1956) is an Americanarchaeologist, orientalist and scholar of religion. She serves as the Kenan Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence in Early Judaism at theUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She previously taught atTufts University.
Magness received her B.A. inArchaeology andHistory from theHebrew University of Jerusalem (1977), and herPh.D. in Classical Archaeology from theUniversity of Pennsylvania (1989).[1]
From 1990 to 1992, Magness was Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow inSyro-Palestinian Archaeology at the Center for Old World Archaeology and Art atBrown University. She also taught atTufts University before joining theUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she is Kenan Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence in Early Judaism.
Magness has participated in 20 different excavations inIsrael andGreece. She co-directed the 1995 excavations of theRoman siege works atMasada. From 1997 to 1999 she co-directed excavations at Khirbet Yattir in Israel. Since 2003 Professor Magness has been the co-director of the excavations in the late Roman fort atYotvata, Israel. In 2011 she began to dig atHuqoq.
Magness is a popular professor whose "unique teaching style of using vivid anecdotes [keeps] students on the edge of their seats".[2]
Magness has been a guest on theNational Geographic Channel'sThe Story of God with Morgan Freeman, a documentary television series exploring religious beliefs across cultures around the world.
Magness has strongly criticized the docu-dramaThe Lost Tomb of Jesus ofJames Cameron andSimcha Jacobovici, stating that "at the time ofJesus, wealthy families buried their dead intombs cut by hand from solid rock, putting the bones in niches in the walls and then, later, transferring them toossuaries". Whereas "Jesus came from a poor family that, like mostJews of the time, probably buried their dead in ordinary graves. If Jesus' family had been wealthy enough to afford a rock-cut tomb, it would have been inNazareth, notJerusalem", she said. Magness also said the names on the Talpiyot ossuaries "indicate that the tomb belonged to a family fromJudea, the area around Jerusalem, where people were known by their first name and father's name. AsGalileans, Jesus and his family members would have used their first name and hometown."[3]
She was American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellow of 2019.[4]
Jodi Magness, as an author, has published various works:
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
