Luke's Key Witness
An archaeological discovery sheds light on the identity of Joanna, a disciple of Jesus and witness to the empty tomb.
An ossuary dating back to the first century was discovered a few decades ago near Jerusalem. This ancient burial box belonged to a woman named “Yehohanah” (Joanna) who was the granddaughter of “Theophilus the high priest.” The Jewish historian Josephus wrote about a man by that name who served as high priest from 37-41 AD, and since Luke dedicated his Gospel to a “most excellent Theophilus” (Lk 1:3), many scholars over the past few centuries have suggested that this is could be the individual he specifically had in mind. But what’s particularly intriguing is the fact that in two places in his Gospel, Luke also mentions a disciple of Jesus named Joanna (Lk 8:3, 24:10). In my forthcoming book, Luke’s Key Witness, I make the case that the Gospel of Luke was written to Theophilus the Jewish high priest and that his granddaughter Joanna is presented as the central witness to Jesus’ empty tomb.
The Spring, 2026 edition of Artifax: The Biblical Archaeology News Magazine (Vol 42, No. 2) included a lengthy news article about my proposed thesis. This 3-page article appeared in the “Israel Archaeology News Digest” section of this quarterly magazine which is a joint publication of the Institute for Biblical Archaeology (Charles Aling, president), and the Near East Archaeological Society (Scott Stripling, president). You can read the entire article here.
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Video
An Archaeological Discovery Sheds Light on Luke
History, Archaeology & Luke’s Most Excellent Theophilus
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Who is Luke’s Key Witness? Shane Rosenthal & Frank Turek
Articles
Is Luke a Trustworthy Historian?, Sir William Ramsay
Can We Trust Luke’s History of the Early Jesus Movement? Shane Rosenthal
John’s Gospel: Are We Witnessing a Paradigm Shift? Shane Rosenthal
Simon of Cyrene: An Intriguing Archaeological Discovery, Shane Rosenthal
Authenticating the Fourth Gospel, Shane Rosenthal
Water Into Wine? Shane Rosenthal
The Golden Calf, David Rohl
Episodes
Who is Theophilus? #79 with Peter. Bolt
Luke, Theophilus & Joanna, #80 with Jim Sibley
A Forensic Approach to the Gospels, #81 with J. Warner Wallace
Faith Founded on Facts, John Lennox, Richard Bauckham & others
Did the Exodus Ever Happen? with David Rohl
The Sinai Inscriptions, with Michael S. Bar-Ron
Dealing with Doubt, with Greg Koukl & Alisa Childers
Stories of Jesus: Can We Trust Them? with Peter J. Williams
The Jesus of History, Shane Rosenthal
The Gospel Creed, Shane Rosenthal
Is Faith a Feeling?, with Craig Parton
Is Faith Blind? Shane Rosenthal
Is Faith Irrational? Shane Rosenthal