Religion

So he's a GREAT archeologist!

To be sure, he did get an undergrad degree in archeology. Still?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_M._Friedman

Lindsey Graham's expression says it all.

At the alleged time of Jesus, by the way, Israel was run by the Romans; who called it "Palestine."

The area had been occupied by a series of different empires, peoples. Alexander the Great, a Greek, had taken over parts of the coast from the Phoenicians, (Tyre etc.) c. 332 BC. Gradually it was taken over by the Selucids. Then the Romans. Who took it over in 63 BC. And burned Jerusalem to the ground in 70 AD. Leaving only the external wailing wall, and a few towers for its troops.