Today we talk about ANCIENT ADMINISTRATIVE ISRAEL, a book by Dan Romulus ȘERBAN published with our publishing house Europe Books.
Europe Books had the pleasure of interviewing the author Dan Romulus ȘERBAN to get to know him better, what of his personal experience inspired the writing of his book ANCIENT ADMINISTRATIVE ISRAEL, as well as how he chose the title of his book.
Below you can find our interview. Take a seat and enjoy your reading!!!
- What of your personal experience inspired the writing of your book?
My epic. In 1990, I entered the Faculty of Theology first. At the same time, I had also entered the Faculty of Medicine. At the request of my parents, I gave up theology. I had noticed that there was a lot of administration in the Old Testament. Boring things. After 1998, I worked in the high administration of Romania, Government, Presidency. Sometimes I participated in the development of legislation. In 1997, I started the Faculty of Public Administration. The idea of administrative information returned. Now I understood it differently. In 2008, I returned to high administration. I had to do almost all the legislation of the National Hospital Accreditation Commission at that time. This is not praise. Again the idea of administration in the Bible returned. After 35 years the idea had been ignored. After I finished my doctoral school at the Faculty of Theology in Cluj-Napoca, in 2024, I presented the idea to the professors there. They got angry and accused me of desecrating the Bible. Without any theological argument! The professors in Bucharest, on the other hand, were enthusiastic. Since I already had a doctorate, I decided to publish the idea without their approval.
- What is the message you would like to convey?
That the administration “thought” by God was great. A state has three elements: the people, the territory and the legislation. At Sinai, God establishes two parallel states. The ethnic state formed by the circumcised population, with the terrestrial Canaan and the law of the 10 commandments (commandments V – IX +/- IV and X). And the Jewish spiritual state with the same population decreed as a “holy people”, the territory of the heavenly Canaan (where the wolf eats with the lamb) and the legislation of the 10 commandments (the first 3 commandments +/- commandments IV and X). The IV commandment can also be considered a civil commandment that regulates the days off in Israel (at least 52 holidays/year), and the X commandment can be an “aggravation” of the civil laws, but specific because only God can appreciate whether someone has lusted or not. When times were tough, Jews took refuge between the two states, enjoying the freedom of dual citizenship, both in the physical state and the unseen one. This functioned as a system of communicating vessels.
- How did you choose the title of your book?
The choice was natural. I wanted to show that there is an Old Testament administration written in the Bible that influences our lives. And this is not limited to the establishment of the state, but also to the identification of the structures necessary for its functioning. When we talk about force structures (defense, secret services, foreign policy), about social structures (health, education, social protection) or structures such as justice, economy, public works or ecology (how modern!!) we are talking about administration. Ten structures without which the state cannot function! Moses claims to receive everything through revelation. Whatever our existence today depends on this thinking and we cannot ignore this. It is our birth certificate. For all of humanity, not just for the Christian world. We must be honest. The fact that customs are respected in Hebrew society even after 3000 years makes us think seriously. Why would an inscription on a wall be more valid than the fact that a custom has been observed for so long in a society? The fact that the custom was mentioned in a writing whose validity we have doubts about does not mean that the custom does not exist. We cannot ignore reality.
- How was your first editorial experience?
My first editorial appearance was in 2005, when I published my doctorate in medicine. I still regret not having translated it into an international language. I think it still has things to say. Maybe the time has not passed. I have had multiple other editorial appearances in various articles with social, medical, political, medical organization and obviously religious themes.
- Are you working on a new writing project that you can tell us about?
I have finished a second book, a continuation of “Ancient Administrative Israel”. It is called “Administration of the Kingdom of Heaven”. The elements in question are from the New Testament. It talks about the administration of Christian churches in the vision of the Savior (and His disciples) and the administration in the heavenly kingdom (“the heavenly homeland”, as the apostle Paul calls it). The latter has the attributes of a dictatorship (the same people from the same structure/family rule heaven – the persons of the Godhead). However, we cannot speak of a dictatorship because a person equal to all the others in the Godhead decided to die for man by respecting his own law, the law of the 10 commandments reduced to the Law of Love, as Jesus himself presents everything on the Mount of Beatitudes in Matthew 5. This very death is the guarantee that there will be no slippage. The next project would be a volume called “The Administrative Quran,” which attempts to identify administration in another major religion of humanity.
Europe Books thanks the author Dan Romulus ȘERBAN once again for taking the time and answering our questions. We are really pleased to have walked alongside him on the editorial path that led to the publication of his book ANCIENT ADMINISTRATIVE ISRAEL. We wish him the best of luck for his book and for his future works.
To you, my dear reader, may this book be a useful source of information for you to understand certain dynamics that are still very relevant today and are still not entirely clear. I hope it piques your curiosity too!
So, my dear reader, all I have to say is to enjoy your reading!
Your Editor!