So, this is Ramses II, mighty Pharaoh of the Exodus! Today he lies flat on his back at Memphis, twenty kilometers south of the great pyramids in Egypt. Arrogant and obsessed with his legacy, Ramses built more statues of himself than did any other Pharoah. This fallen statue at Memphis measures 33 feet, and a matching…
Tag: immigrants
What will my heart weigh on Judgement Day?
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…
Sanctuary for Jesus’ grandmother
With anti-immigrant fever festering in countries of the Western world, I find it instructive to drive on the King’s Highway into ancient Moab, east of the Dead Sea in modern Jordan. Here ancestors of David and Jesus found sanctuary during the era of judges when drought devastated Bethlehem and their Judean homeland (Ruth 1:1–5). The ancestors were…
