A Non-Scholarly Historian on Ancient Biblical Texts
People often ask how I came to write about the ancient world about Cain, Abel, Adam, Eve, Watchers, rebellion, sacrifice, and the shadowed corners of Genesis that few readers ever notice. I’m not a scholar in the academic sense. I don’t sit in lecture halls or publish in theological journals. I’m not weighed down by footnotes or institutional frameworks.
Instead, I like to say I am a “non-scholarly historian” a researcher driven by curiosity, not credentials; by imagination, not ivory towers. And sometimes, that freedom allows me to see what scholars overlook.
My approach to ancient biblical texts is simpler and more organic: I follow the threads. Threads woven through apocryphal writings, early Jewish commentary, oral traditions, and lesser-known manuscripts that most people never hear about. These texts do not rewrite scripture they illuminate it. They fill in silences, expand on motivations, deepen relationships, and reveal cultural layers that help us understand the world behind the Bible’s brief, iconic narratives.
The Genesis story of Cain and Abel, for example, is only a few verses long. But when you read widely beyond the canon into the archived, the forgotten, the whispered you begin to discover something astonishing: the first family was far more complex, emotional, flawed, and human than the surface story allows.
Cain’s jealousy didn’t come from nowhere. Abel’s favor with God wasn’t accidental. Adam and Eve weren’t silent background figures. And the world outside their valley, according to apocryphal texts, was not empty it was spiritual, dynamic, and full of forces competing for influence.
- This is where being a non-scholarly historian becomes powerful.
- I can step into these spaces with creative freedom and reverent imagination.
- I can combine historical curiosity with storytelling instincts.
- I’m not limited to one translation, one commentary, or one academic discipline.
Instead, I Ask:
- What did they feel?
- What did they fear?
- What were the hidden family dynamics?
- What social tensions shaped their choices?
- What spiritual influences stirred behind the scenes?
- Why did God speak to some and not others?
- What ancient voices preserved these nuances outside the biblical text?
My research process is a blend of reading, reflecting, and reconstructing. I look for patterns across ancient sources, compare traditions, and explore the emotional logic behind historical fragments. Then I step back and let the story speak.
In my novel Cain, this approach reveals the hidden motivations behind the first murder, the earliest seeds of rebellion, the birth of secret societies, and the fragile hope of the world’s first children trying to understand a God who sometimes speaks and sometimes stays silent.
Being a non-scholarly historian is not a limitation—it’s a lens. One that invites readers to rediscover ancient stories with both wonder and wisdom. To see biblical characters not as distant symbols, but as real people shaped by fear, faith, desire, and choice.
At Its Heart, My Work Reflects One Belief:
There is more to the ancient world than we’ve been taught. And sometimes the deepest truths are found not in the loudest texts, but in the forgotten ones the ones waiting quietly for curious minds to uncover them.
