|
Jesse Bankhead - Biology, Biology 2 
BS- LIpscomb University
MA - Lipscomb University
M.Phil. - Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion
Jesse is a native Texan who has called various parts of Tennessee home for most of his life since age 8. In 1982 he graduated from Harding Academy of Memphis where he was involved in chorus and theatre and ran cross country and track. He then attended David Lipscomb University in Nashville and graduated in 1987 with a B.S. in biology and a minor in mathematics. During his college years he developed a curiosity about and then an insatiable desire to learn biblical languages [As Jesse puts it, "Curiosity killed the cat, but for a while I was a suspect."]. He began to satisfy that desire by taking Greek his last year of college. At the beginning of that school year Jesse went to the Greek professor and asked if he thought Jesse could handle what would be a very rigorous year of Greek in addition to finishing a biology degree. The teacher's answer was, "Jump in and see if you can swim." So Jesse jumped, swam, and won the award for the best first year Greek student. That year of Greek, along with the experience of an international mission trip both before and after that school year, changed Jesse's life.
Feeling a call to pursue biblical studies and teach, Jesse earned an M.A. at Lipscomb University in 1993 [same school but for reasons unknown to Jesse, the "David" was dropped]. While working on his master's degree, Jesse worked for UPS and is proud to be a former Teamster. He then was accepted into the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near East doctoral program at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati. There he studied Hebrew and several other ancient languages [Akkadian, Sumerian, Ugaritic, Aramaic, Arabic, Syriac, Rabbinic Hebrew, Greek], Hebrew Bible, and Ancient Near Eastern history. After finishing his course work he took a leave of absence during which time he and his family moved to Signal Mountain [aka Mayberry on the mountain], owned a small [too small as it turned out] business, worked for FedEx Ground, and then, returning to academia, taught at UTC and [David] Lipscomb University. He taught Bible, biblical Hebrew grammar and readings, and Introduction to the Hebrew Bible.
In order to return to his graduate work, Jesse reluctantly stepped away from teaching in 2002. He passed his candidacy examinations in 2003 and began searching for a dissertation topic. He was a regular substitute and then full time middle school teacher at Signal Mountain Christian School, where he taught Bible, Latin, Life Science, Math, and History. When SMCS discontinued the middle school, Jesse firmly believes that God providentially opened a door at David Brainerd Christian School. Jesse is very thankful and pleased to be here and is in his second year at DBCS.
In addition to loving the school environment [He confesses to being a "classroom junkie"], Jesse is fascinated by the beauty and grandeur of the natural world and enjoys the outdoors. He especially enjoys hiking and taking pictures in the mountains. While indoors Jesse loves to read, mostly in Hebrew, Greek, and English, and currently recommends Shaping A Christian Worldview: The Foundations of Christian Higher Education, edited by David S. Dockery and Gregory Alan Thornbury, Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity, by Nancy Pearcey, Reclaiming Science from Darwinism, by Kenneth Poppe, Psalms, Job, and just about anything by Walter Brueggemann.
Jesse and Gena were married in 1989 and have two wonderful sons. Nathaniel is a junior at CCS, and Elijah is in the fourth grade at SMCS. They enjoy hiking together, watching college football [especially Texas and Tennessee], cooking and eating [they are strict vegetarians who also eat chicken, turkey, fish, and an occasional steak].
|
