An Archaeological discovery may shed light on the Gospel of Luke

Posted on February 17, 2026 
Filed under History, Resources

In a video published last week, Shane Rosenthal (long involved with The White Horse Inn podcast, and now hosting The Humble Skeptic) extends earlier discussion on the Joanna Ossuary –

“In this video, Shane Rosenthal, host of The Humble Skeptic podcast, takes a trip to a museum on the campus of the University of Haifa in Israel, in order to take a closer look at what he believes is one of the most significant, yet overlooked, archaeological discoveries related to the Bible.

In 1983, an ossuary belonging to Joanna, the granddaughter of Theophilus, the high priest, was discovered near Jerusalem. Could this be a reference to the Joanna and Theophilus mentioned in Luke’s Gospel (Lk 1:3, 8:3, 24:10)?”

Watch here.

In his forthcoming book, Luke’s Key Witness, he also looks at the suggestion that Andronicus and Junia, mentioned in Romans 16:7, may be the same people as Joanna and her husband Chuza mentioned in Luke 8:3.

On his podcast, he interviews many scholars, including Peter Bolt (Who is Theophilus?), who also proposes the link between Joanna of the ossuary and the Joanna of Luke’s Gospel, as well as many other fascinating ideas about Luke.

And in a similar vein, he interviews T.C. Schmidt, who makes the case for the authenticity of Josephus’ mention of Jesus. (T.C. Schmidt’s book Josephus and Jesus: New Evidence for the One Called Christ was reviewed recently by John Dickson at The Gospel Coalition.)