Introduction: Finding the Bible through the Bedouin

Abstract

IN THE LATE SUMMER OF 1970, I WAS living in the heart of the Negev desert at a fledgling educational institution called Midreshet Sde-Boker, from where I conducted ethnographic research into Bedouin culture—the culture of nomadic dwellers in the desert. One Sunday as I sat in my study preparing a lecture that I was to present to a conference the following Friday, a Bedouin friend, Swaylim Abu Bilayya, of the nearby Azazma Sarahin tribe knocked on my door....