MIKE HOMAN
Mike Homan is no dummy, and he’s helped numerous others become the same about the Bible — and beer. A 1993 UNO graduate, Homan is a professor of theology focusing on the Hebrew Bible at Xavier University of Louisiana. Thus the 2002 book he co-wrote with Jeffrey Geoghegan, “The Bible for Dummies.” With Geoghegan and Robert Mullins Homan he also wrote “Over, Under, and Through the Bible: An Archaeological, Historical, and Satellite Atlas,” and “To Your Tents, O Israel!: The Terminology, Function, Form, and Symbolism of Tents in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East.” But thanks to his studies at UNO, Homan also is known for connecting the bible and … beer. Interest in that began when he worked at the Bethsaida Excavations Project while a student. “Most of the artifacts, such as ceramics, stone vessels and animal bones were all connected to food production and consumption,” he said in a UNO Magazine article. “Excavating these people’s houses made me curious about their daily lives. While working on my doctorate on the history of ancient Israel it was clear that wine and beer played major roles in all ancient Near Eastern civilizations.” And so he’s also published several articles about beer and its influence on the Bible and ancient Israel. Now he’s expanding his research and working on a book about the role of alcohol in the Abrahamic Faiths — Judaism, Christianity and Islam.