1144 - Remembering Avraham Biran

Just a year or so ago we were talking about Avraham Biran on this program as we prepared for our 2008 25th Anniversary Book & the Spade Holyland Study Tour. Our meeting with professor Biran at the city gate of Tel Dan in 1992 was one of the most memorable moments of all our holyland tours.

Now comes word that professor Biran has passed away just a month short of his 99th birthday. So on today's program we remember once again this remarkable archaeologist who excavated one of the great cities of the Bible. I don't have any good photos but I do have a very nice audio recording of our time with professor Biran at the Dan city gate. This photo was taken the day before that meeting, when we were with Biran in his office and he invited us to meet him the next day at the city gate of Dan.

POST SCRIPT: One of the next generation of archaeologists who we would like to interview on The Book & The Spade is Eilat Mazar, who is excavating in the City of David area, the oldest part of Jerusalem. Until that day we do have a short profile that's just run in The Jerusalem Post.

1143 - A Jewish Mausoleum in Jordan and Jewish Temples in Egypt

This week's program looks at some archaeology related to the time between the destruction of the first Jewish Temple and the time of Jesus. The first part of the program discusses a Tobaid mausoleum just east of Amman. Tobiah figured prominently in the story of Nehemiah, although this structure was built by one of his descendants. The second part of the program discusses two Jewish temples that were built in Egypt, one in northern Egypt and one on the Elephantine island at the first cataract of the upper Nile River.

Tour Note: The website with reports of our 2008 Book & the Spade Tour, written by tour members, is finally online.

1141-1142 Developing Biblical Vision

These two programs come from our 25th anniversary Book & the Spade Holyland Study Tour earlier this year. Our first night in Israel professor Randy Smith gave us a short orientation lecture on how to think Biblically. It was a good reminder that even though we had traveled thousands of miles from the U.S. to the Middle East, we also needed to travel 2,000-3,000 years back in time to understand the perspectives of the Biblical writers.

Professor Smith is also pastor Smith. He leads a church in Florida these days, but he's spent most of the past three decades living and studying in Israel. He had his own study group which was traveling in Israel at the same time as our tour. We felt privileged to be able to intersect with his group at several points along the way, to take advantage of professor Smith's teaching. We hope to feature some more of his teaching on our program in the weeks ahead. In the past we have also offered DVD's of professor Smith's teaching.

We booked out tour through professor Smith's organization, the Christian Travel Study Program, and were ably cared for by crack travel agent Joan Meyer Keane.

Tour Note: The website with reports of our 2008 Book & the Spade Tour, written by tour members, is finally online.