About a century before Moses led the Hebrews out of Egypt, an Egyptian royal scribe named Hunefer died. Found in his tomb was a papyrus Book of the Dead, an illustrated guide for navigating the afterlife. The above illustration shows Hunefer (in white at far left) entering the afterlife, where his heart will be weighed…
Month: June 2025
A surgical strike won’t solve this problem
Whatever Zeus, chief of Greek gods, once held in his right hand was not friendly–either a lightening bolt or a spear. A little violence would solve whatever problem Zeus encountered. I ponder the political and spiritual message of this oversized statue of Zeus (5th century BC) I saw a few years ago at the National…
Autocrats love their gold
Ever notice how authoritarian rulers try to salve their ego, distract attention from their corruption, and dazzle others with bling? And there’s gold, always gold! A great fire destroyed more than half of the city of Rome in the summer of AD 64. Suspected of having torched the city to make room for a new…
Let those mighty bells resound!
Twice during the month of May, church bells thundered and shook the ground around me. At Rome: Ellen and I arrived at Rome on May 8 to visit Roman imperial and early Christian sites. Late in the afternoon we explored Trastevere (“Across the Tiber”), a section of ancient Rome where many first-century Jews and Christians…
Holy Lands Peace Pilgrim 