University of Wisconsin-Madison

Recovering Ancient Libraries

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Mon, 19 Oct 2015 14:48:52 +0000

Gordon Govier

Recovering Ancient Libraries

Brent Seales studied robotic navigation as a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin—Madison (UW). He was also part of an ��ñ�� Bible study with other graduate students. He could not have imagined that his computer science skills would someday help decipher a text of Scripture so ancient that only the Dead Sea Scrolls are older.

When Brent arrived at the UW, he found a group of graduate students who met together to explore how their studies in the sciences, arts, humanities, and other fields aligned with their Christian faith. “��ñ�� brought me into a community interested in living that out,” he said. “And it also introduced me to faculty members who had attached themselves to the ��ñ�� community for the purpose of mentoring us.”

After seeing how the UW faculty engaged with grad students, Brent knew that he wanted to commit himself to an academic career where he could continue to combine the pursuit of both a vocational and spiritual calling. Brent earned his PhD and became a professor at the University of Kentucky (UK), where he has taught computer science for the last 24 years. He’s involved in a local church and currently serves as the faculty adviser for ��ñ��’s fellowship at UK.

At Kentucky, Brent’s research field is computer imaging for digital libraries, particularly ancient manuscripts from the medieval period. He became adept at dealing with pages of old and damaged texts. But imaging those open texts was comparatively easy when he faced his next challenge: imaging texts that could be described as being similar to a cigar-shaped charcoal briquette.

Brent was part of a team of scholars working on deciphering carbonized papyrus scrolls that were archived in a villa in Herculaneum, one of the cities destroyed by the AD 79 eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. “We could see the writing but not very well, because the surface was carbonized,” he said. “The writing is black and the surface is black.”

Various wavelengths of light were considered to heighten the contrast, including infrared and X-rays. It was then that Brent wondered if the X-rays of computer tomography (CT), the technique that medical professionals use but refined for higher resolution, could actually read the scrolls without unrolling them. Then, in a further effort to heighten the contrast between the black writing and the black surface of the documents, Brent began a collaboration with physicists in Grenoble, France, using a particle accelerator.

In the meantime, Israeli officials contacted him about a carbonized text discovered decades ago in the ruins of a Byzantine synagogue at the oasis of Ein Gedi, along the shore of the Dead Sea. They had tried their own CT scan, but were unable to read the text on the scroll because they lacked the software that Brent had developed.

He never saw the scroll. Dead Sea Scrolls curator Pnina Shor handed him a disk full of data at a meeting in Los Angeles and Brent’s team went to work on it. The metal in the ink used for this document provided much better contrast than the Herculaneum scrolls. The first image wasn’t clear enough to read the text but they worked through the early summer months and by mid-July had a second image to send to Israel.

“They immediately recognized that it was the opening verses of the Old Testament book of Leviticus,” Brent explained. “It’s written in a tiny, deliberate hand. There’s a lot of text, even though it’s small.” He’s hoping the next image will have verses from the second chapter of Leviticus.

“This discovery absolutely astonished us,” said Pnina Shor at a news conference in Jerusalem. “We were certain it was just a shot in the dark but decided to try and scan the burnt scroll anyway. Now, not only can we bequeath the Dead Sea Scrolls to future generations, but also a part of the Bible from a Holy Ark of a 1,500-year-old synagogue!”

Brent was told that there are more carbonized texts in Israel waiting to be analyzed, and he suspects that ancient carbonized manuscripts have been excavated and saved from other locations. “If we can provide a method to read a rolled-up scroll, then we can support the idea that we should go back into Herculaneum and excavate the potential for other galleries and other collections that might exist that are still in the ground,” he said.

Looking back on his ��ñ�� grad group, Brent is thankful for faculty members who modeled mentoring relationships with its members. That example has stayed with him for three decades and it’s an example he has tried to follow with his own students. Some of those students worked with him to help decipher the Leviticus scroll.

“I think it's a wonderful circle for me personally to see my work coming back to material that is sacred and forms the foundation of the Judeo/Christian tradition,” Brent said. “That's an alignment of faith and work that I never thought would happen to me personally and now that I see that happening it's really gratifying.”

University of Kentucky video-Intersection Comparison Loop hosted by ��ñ��'s twentyonehundred productions on Vimeo.

The New Yorker also recently highlighted the work of Brent Seales and his colleagues in recovering ancient manuscripts.

2016 UPDATE - Ein Gedi Leviticus scroll dated to the first century A.D.

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University of Wisconsin-Madison

University of Kentucky

Experiencing God Through Community

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Mon, 25 Aug 2014 21:30:13 +0000

Amy Hauptman

Experiencing God Through Community

“Often, following Jesus can be very discouraging, especially in an atmosphere such as college,” said Isaac Redinger. “During my freshman year, I often felt ostracized because I didn’t want to take part in the unhealthy lifestyles that were around me in the dorms.”

Before coming to college, Isaac had grown up in a Christian family, where his parents encouraged his spiritual growth. Isaac remembers beginning a personal relationship with Jesus when he was very young. He and his family attended church in Madison, Wisconsin, and his family took trips to Inter-Varsity Canada’s Ontario Pioneer Camp every summer.

“While participating in those summer camps, I started to identify my leadership skills through training, and I recognized the importance of being in an atmosphere that would grow my faith,” said Isaac. “It was during my middle school years, I remember, that my relationship with God hit a turning point, and [since then] I’ve been growing to know him more and more each day.”

Following in His Sister’s Footsteps

When Isaac was a senior in high school, his sister was a student at the University of Wisconsin—Madison (UW) and was involved in ��ñ��. After seeing the fellowship that his sister experienced through ��ñ��, Isaac knew that he wanted to join when he was a freshman at University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

“As I got involved in ��ñ��, I was thankful for the ways that God was surrounding me with genuine friends who were living for God,” said Isaac. “Over the years, ��ñ�� has showed me the importance of living in community with others—it not only strengthens my faith, but this community encourages me to reach out to others, to learn more about who God is through Bible study, and also to have fun!”

Growing in Faith

One of Isaac’s most memorable times with ��ñ�� came at the beginning of his sophomore year. He and his roommate felt led to host a weekly Bible study out of their dorm room, even though they only knew of one friend from another floor who might be interested.

Through the first weeks of the semester, Isaac saw God bring 12 male students who wanted to learn more about Jesus to their Bible study.

“Not only were these guys committed, but the friendships that developed from this study were awesome,” said Isaac. “I was amazed the most after realizing that much of that Bible study formed as a result of prayer—it was very humbling to realize that it was not us who were bringing people together, but it was God moving in the lives of our friends.”

Isaac not only became more confident in his faith; he also began to recognize the ways that God was answering prayer and demonstrating his love through this small group of male students.

After leading the Bible study this past year, Isaac sensed God inviting him to take another step of faith by going on an ��ñ�� Global Project over the summer, which he just completed. "I saw God open up doors on our trip that I didn't think would be possible!" he said.

Ready for Anything

Returning to campus for his third year of studies, Isaac is “excited to see what God has in store.”

“Through ��ñ�� I have grown a lot as a leader,” said Isaac. “Not only have I learned so many amazing things through manuscript Bible study, but I’ve realized that leading a Bible study has strengthened my reliance on God.”

As Isaac and countless other ��ñ�� student leaders return to campus, we trust that God will bless and guide each of them as they share the good news of Jesus Christ with friends.

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University of Wisconsin-Madison

Global Projects

Our best strategy

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 20:29:30 +0000

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Lauren Anderson

Our best strategy

Starting two years ago, every night at 10:02, students from my ��ñ�� chapter prayed Luke 10:2. “He told them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.’”We knew the harvest on our campus was plentiful and we saw the need for workers at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. This year, we are seeing God answer that prayer.

Last year, our chapter had eight small group Bible study leaders on a campus of 30,000 undergraduate students. I was one of those eight. There were so many students and so few leaders that over 20 people came to my small group from week to week. With a group of that size, discussing Bible passages and building community was challenging. We needed more leaders.

As our chapter does each year, we invited a new group of students into leadership for the following year at the end of the fall semester. This time, 24 students accepted the invitation to lead a small group. God provided the workers we needed.

With three times as many small group leaders as last year, we’re excited to see how God will use our small groups to reach more of our campus.

More plans, more prayer

Because of our growth, planning for ministry as an executive leadership team looks a little different this fall. We have more leaders to support and train, while some small group leaders want to establish Bible studies on new areas of campus. Meanwhile, we have started rethinking our chapter’s leadership training curriculum, structure of Bible studies, and format of our weekly large group meetings.

At times in our executive leadership meetings, it can feel like we have too much to do, too much to plan, too many possibilities. In those moments, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and lack direction. But we have a strategy. Just like when we didn’t have enough leaders and began praying, we’ve discovered the power of asking God when we make challenging decisions.

This is what Mike Crossley, last year’s chapter president, found when our chapter’s executive leadership team started inviting God into difficult situations.

Two years ago we were learning about the power of prayer and depending on God. Our executive team felt led to change our meetings accordingly, adding more prayer and worship at the beginning. We also started sharing testimonies of what we saw God doing in our lives and on our campus to increase our faith. Even so, we still had problems agreeing on and finishing our agenda.

This past year we decided to make another change and pray whenever we faced a difficult issue. We asked the Lord for guidance and wisdom, spent time listening, shared what we received and prayed together from a place of faith in what God said.

Almost immediately the arguing stopped, and we moved forward in unanimous agreement. Then one day we finished our agenda half an hour early! This happened consistently the last few months of the semester.

We took the time to pray more and bless each other and thank the Lord. We left refreshed and encouraged because we saw God leading our chapter.

This year, we’re applying that lesson to our meetings as we face major changes in our ministry.

We’ll plan. We’ll prepare. We’ll train. And above all, we’ll pray. So far, that’s been our best strategy.

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University of Wisconsin-Madison