Meet the Redhead

You may be familiar with the redhead stereotypes like, “the red-headed stepchild”. Well, that’s really not me. My mother never liaised with a milkman, and the devil does not appear in my genealogy–we’ve checked! I don’t have a “fiery” temper, but I do burn after five minutes in the sunshine. And I stand out in a crowd “like a red thumb.”
 
As the Red-Haired Archaeologist®, I don’t quite fit in academia because I don’t always agree with their conclusions, but I am passionate about the intersections of archaeology and the Bible. I want to show you how to navigate the complex world of Scripture, history, and tradition. This means encouraging you to think critically about biblical texts, helping you to reconsider what you’ve “always been told” to believe, and emboldening you to distinguish between truth and tradition.

I hope you’ll check out my podcast, my blog, and my most recent books to learn more about my background and my work. You’ll see that I’m a church-going Christian…who graduated from Harvard. I’m a fair-skinned redhead…who works and plays—and freckles!—under the sun. I enjoy being the proverbial square peg in a round hole because it reminds me not to assume I know everything about others based on where they are from, what they might do, or which Bible translations are on their bookshelves!

I hope to see all Bible lovers work together to understand history, interpret Scripture, and apply God’s words to our lives. We’re discovering God together, and I’m ready to learn from you too.

Amanda Hope Haley has a bachelor of arts in Religious Studies from Rhodes College and a master of theological studies in Hebrew Scripture and Interpretation from Harvard University. She is a lover of the Bible–its God, its words, its people, and its history. She writes and podcasts as the Red-Haired Archaeologist, bringing readers and listeners on her journeys to understand artifacts that can contextualize Scripture. She contributed to The Voice Bible as a translator, writer, and editor; and she has been a content editor and ghost writer for popular Christian authors. Amanda and David live in Tennessee with their always-entertaining basset hound, Copper.

Did You Know?

Although the Bible does not describe Mary Magdalene as a sexually promiscuous woman, she developed that reputation because of a homily by Pope Gregory the Great in 592. The lie was so widely believed by the Renaissance that she is often depicted in art as a redhead–because people associated red hair with sin and evil.

Copper Finds a Manger

Copper the basset hound travels the world with his friend, Amanda, while she digs on archaeological sites. On this trip to Bethlehem, the ancient city where Jesus was born, this adventurous dog follows his nose to an ancient stone manger. There he meets a new friend who tells him all about life in first-century Judaea and the night a special baby was born in the house Amanda’s excavating.

This book features

  • a Page for Parents that explains the historical facts behind the story,
  • grades 1-3 reading level,
  • 34 pages of edge-to-edge full-color illustrations, and
  • durable heavyweight pages with a glued binding (no staples!).


Join Copper as he learns the history of the first Christmas!