4 days agoMy Teacher, Lamin Sanneh (1942–2019)I have been privileged to study under some of the greatest minds in their academic fields. In this series of tributes to them, I commend their work and celebrate their lives. Lamin Sanneh was born into a Muslim family in The Gambia. He earned his PhD in Islamic history at…7 min read7 min read
Apr 6Egypt’s Famous 5 in the BibleI grew up in the 1960s reading about Enid Blyton’s Famous Five, filled with adventures that delighted my young mind and fueled my thirst for adventures of my own. On my recent exploration of Egypt, I learned a great deal. I will share (a) how each location I visited relates…29 min read29 min read
Feb 28“What were you thinking?”How many times have you heard this from you mom or dad when you were growing up? When I was in graduate school, I spent a lot of time studying cognition and how we think about thinking thoughts. Why do we think as we do? The answer lies in how…6 min read6 min read
Dec 24, 2022WORLD’S OLDEST BIBLEScience and the Discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Part 3) Who found them and where were they? From 1947 to 1956, the Qumran Library of about 100,000 fragments written in Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic dating back to 200 BC was discovered by the Dead Sea in Israel. In 63 BC, the Romans occupied Palestine. The Temple…10 min read10 min read
Dec 24, 2022WORLD’S OLDEST BIBLEScience and the Discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Part 2) The World’s Oldest Bible is found among the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS). However, the DSS were not found in the Dead Sea, they have nothing to do with the sea, or the dead, let alone the Dead Sea or…9 min read9 min read
Dec 24, 2022WORLD’S OLDEST BIBLEScience and the Discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Part 1) Jesus was born in a specific time and space as a first century Roman Palestinian Jew who read the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. These three cultures shaped modern Christianity as it emerged in the fourth century from…3 min read3 min read
Jun 9, 2022The Bible of Christianity & Christianity of the BibleThe Bible of Christianity The Bible of Christianity refers to how the Bible came to be: the selection, adaptation and redaction of the books that form the Bible. 1) Genesis: The primeval account of the origin of the universe, of life and of humanity is followed by the ancestral account of Abraham’s migration from…Christain9ty5 min readChristain9ty5 min read
Jun 9, 2022A Bird’s Eye View of the BibleOld Testament The 39 books of the Protestant Old Testament began as oral teaching and were later committed to writing. Their compositions have been redacted over the years. The ones that we inherited are called the final forms. In the modern arrangement, the OT begins with a theological account of this world’s…5 min read5 min read
Jul 8, 2021Hebrews, Israelites & JewsAre they the same people? Today, Israel refers to a nation, whose culture is Jewish and its language Hebrew; yet the Hebrews were a people, Israelite areligion and Jew, a race! Thus the 3 terms, Hebrew, Israel and Jew refer to nation, culture, language, people, religion and race depending on…Jews12 min readJews12 min read
Feb 17, 2021THE BIRTH OF CHRISTIANITY, FROM ABRAM TO JESUSThe 2000 year spiritual journey from Abram to Jesus culminated in the Christian Church of the 4th century AD. During the past 4000 years since Abram’s migration from Mesopotamia to Egypt, the Bible is a recent form of God’s revelation. 19th century BC — Abram, a Mesopotamian trader and El…History2 min readHistory2 min read
