The Ancient Hopes website, and its blog Deep Dive into Scripture, has been many years in the making. Given my rather ecumenical background, this production cannot help but reflect this background in many ways, especially in regard to the many and varied sources used. I am a true son of the Roman Church, and as a Catholic priest, I am gladly and whole heartedly under the authority of her magisterium. Historically, the Fathers of the Church made use of sources of those outside the Church’s communion, knowing that all truth is God’s truth. I discuss this in my post Jethro of the Desert, where we find Moses’ father-in-law, who most likely never converted to YHWH, giving good advice to Moses. The reader then should not be surprised to find many Jewish and Protestant references throughout.
Another rather unusual fact about myself is that I am married, entering the Church in the year 2012 with my family. I would never have become Catholic, and a Catholic priest (2013), let alone a pastor of diocesan church, St. Joseph of Eldersburg, MD (2020), without my wife Kathy’s support. In fact, she was the one who encouraged me to create a website in the first place. She has helped me in many ways, one of which is editing. I hasten to add that any mistakes that may have slipped through the cracks are my responsibility, not hers.
We stopped by a used bookstore in Pittsburgh a few years back and found a most wonderful book titled Old Testament Miniatures: a Medieval Picture Book with 283 Paintings, published many years ago by George Braziller, New York. A very gifted, anonymous, monk was inspired by God to tell the story of the Old Testament in pictures. most likely in the 13th century. The colors he used and the symbolism of his images have a way of transporting the beholder into a light beyond this world, although many of his depictions, like the biblical scenes he is illustrating, are violent in nature. It dawned on me one day that these images would wonderfully illustrate my posts and what I am trying to achieve in approaching Scripture through the images they evoke, or “motifs” as I call them.
Added to this, I have always been in awe of Gustave Doré’s depictions of biblical scenes. I happen to have in my library his The Biblical Gallery, published by Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Company, London, Paris, New York, copyright 1880, by O. M. Dunham. My friends Brian and Jacqi Wilhite have taken the pains of photographing pictures from both these volumes, cropping them, and sending them to my wife Kathy, who then places them into the appropriate places in the posts. They are under public domain. Kathy also searches elsewhere for images as well.
It is my hope that these pictures function as “windows” in these posts, along with the podcasts produced by Danny Gallagher, to open up these posts which, left to themselves, can make for rather dense reading sometimes.