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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.
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.
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When we first encounter the Bible, we are taught its stories—Adam and Eve, Moses and the Red Sea, David and Goliath, Jonah and the whale, and more. When a story lacks the details we crave, we fill in the blanks–with what we’ve seen in movies, read in books, and been told by our Sunday school teachers. But there’s a better way to encounter the whole story of Scripture: uncovering and understanding the ancient world and the people who experienced biblical events.
In Stones Still Speak, Harvard-trained archaeologist and theologian Amanda Hope Haley scrapes back 2,000 years of misguided cultural interpretations to reveal God’s Word in its historical, archaeological, and literary contexts. Far from a dry academic exercise, this process explains how our misunderstandings developed and revitalizes the Scripture you thought you knew, with the greater purpose of encouraging a more intentional, rigorous study of the Bible in your daily life.
Available for pre-order now. Books will ship from your favorite retailer by September 23, 2025.
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
Join Copper as he learns the history of the first Christmas!
