Just a few personal notes to acquaint you with your scribe. I was born in Baltimore, Maryland on October 31, 1940. My passion for Biblical studies began very early and at age 8, I had my first Hebrew lessons from Bill Albright at Johns Hopkins University. Some time in early 1948, I had stopped by Dr. Albright's office and found him very excited over some photographs he had recently obtained of newly discovered scrolls. That day I had my first translational Hebrew exercise from the Dead Sea Scroll of Isaiah, 1Qs. I was hooked from that day to the present on ancient writing and manuscripts. Above any other archaeological artifact, nothing is as intimate to a personage of the distant past than his written word. Writing connects us to the past in a much more personal way than anything else left behind by society's enterprises. The sacred writings of Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Islam and those of all the world's great religions give us a direct handshake....or mind-shake, if you will, to the "saints" of a past when men felt closer to God. These writings are my passion; also my refuge from this time when men seem furthest from God...or at least the basic truths that should govern human behavior.
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