And I have the privilege of being his student and friend.
Abner is an absolutely brilliant guy. He is a genuine genius. The wealth of knowledge that he has in his mind is boggling, and the way that he can recall it is even more baffling. His thought process is incredible. Heck, he can even read two pages of a book at a time. God has given him a truly amazing mind. But more importantly, he is an incredible teacher. He relates with his students extremely well. His humility in spite of his acute mind is inspiring. And on top of all that, he is only a few years older than I am. I think he is around 26, and he is finishing his doctorate program already (he graduated from seminary in three years with multiple degrees).
But he is also a friend as well. We are doing Greek New Testament reading with a couple other guys one night a week, and his home is almost always open if we want to come over and hang out. I'm not writing this to suck up to him or anything. I assume you readers want to know what its like out here. Studying with Abner is one of the great joys and privileges that I have here in Israel. And I'm serious, in 15-20 years, I'm sure that he will be known as one of the next great Bible scholars.
On a different note, here are some pictures from our last field study:
This is the Beth-Horon ridge. It was an important ridge for travel. One of the events which happened here was when the Lord pounded the Amorites with hailstones and Joshua asked the Lord for the sun to stand still in Joshua 10.
Here are some ruins from a Crusader-era church built on the site of Nebi-Samwil, the traditional site of Samuel's burial (though its probably not really it).
I'm hanging out in the abandoned and unfinished home of the former Jordanian King Hussein in the West Bank (the West Bank is quite safe; the dangerous part of Israel is Gaza). It also stands upon the ancient city of Gibeah.
"The Pass" between Michmash and Geba. Jonathan and his armor bearer crawled up its side and attacked the Philistines in 1 Samuel 13.
This is just an IDF soldier at a checkpoint as we crossed into Jericho, which has been granted control by the Palestinians.
This mosaic was at Jericho.
The walls of Jericho which were brought down by Joshua and the Israelites.
1 comment:
Sorry I missed you call yesterday while out biking. Sounds like you are keeping buysy. Talk to you soon!
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