Director of ABR Dr. Scott Stripling holding a ritually desecrated pot mentioned in Dr. Peterson’s presentation.
Lee University’s Dr. Brian Peterson presented a paper at the Sixth Annual Highlands Conference in Hashmonaim, Israel, about his research and excavation of what has been proposed to be Joshua’s Ai (Josh 7–8) and New Testament Ephraim (John 11:53-54).
Dr. Peterson does his research and field work as part of the Associates for Biblical Research under the directorship of Dr. Scott Stripling from Houston, Texas. The ABR is an association of archeologists and scholars committed to proving the validity of the Scripture through archeology and scholarship.
Dr. Peterson’s paper, titled “Khirbet el-Maqatir: A Prosperous Polis of the Second Temple Period,” discusses the excavations of the first-century ruins of Maqatir conducted by ABR and Peterson since 2010. In this paper he proposes that the first-century ruins of Maqatir are the remains of a small observant Jewish city of Jesus’ day, perhaps the location of Ephraim, the city mentioned in the Scripture of John 11. According to John 11, Ephraim is the place where Christ spent his last days before going to Jerusalem to be crucified.
According to Dr. Peterson, the significance of this research and proposal is that it will “put on the table” an alternate location for Ephraim, and that it was a Jewish city, not a backwater settlement.
“We believe it to be a Jewish city because of ritual desecration of pots and the presence of ritual baths known as mikva’oth as well as lamps and coins without images on them,” said Dr. Peterson.
Dr. Peterson joined the Lee faculty in 2011 as an assistant professor of Old Testament in the Theology Department of the School of Religion, where he presently teaches a variety of OT classes and Hebrew at the undergrad and master's levels.
After spending over a decade as a licensed carpenter after high school, Dr. Peterson felt God calling him to a life of ministry. He taught at the Gambia Theological Institute in West Africa, as well as spending a year as an assistant professor of Old Testament at Prairie Bible College in Alberta, Canada.
Dr. Peterson received his doctorate in Hebrew Bible from the University of Saint Michael’s College at the University of Toronto. He earned a Master of Theological Studies from Beeson Divinity School, a Master of Old Testament from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and his bachelor’s in Biblical Studies from Zion Bible College.
Dr. Peterson will return to Israel with a group of Lee students to the dig site this summer. For more information about the trip or Dr. Peterson’s research, contact bpeterson@leeuniversity.edu.
Dr. Brian Peterson