The author was born towards the end of World War II to Middle Eastern Christian parents in the historical Assyrian heartland. His family is denominationally Catholic and liturgically Syriac, an offshoot of the Church of Antioch that was founded by Saint Peter, one of the twelve disciples of Jesus.

In his boyhood and during early primary school, he had served in the Church as an altar boy and certainly was destined to become a deacon. However, his family moved to another town and this caused his church involvement to change.

His whole life, he was not fully Christian but most times a churchgoer with no deep conversance with the Holy Scriptures. This was the norm for most of his generation due to cultural impact, except for those close to or relative to clerics who managed to get acquainted with parts of the scriptures. His parents, especially his father, instilled in him the high moral codes that would remain with him throughout his whole life—always modest and always honest.

In the early 1970s, the author ordered his first copy of the Holy Bible via his priest, written in the common language of the land. He started from the first cover then the Book of Genesis but going through the first chapter, he found it difficult to grasp what he read; it was a formidable task to scale. In later years, he realised that a beginner must not start reading the whole Bible from cover to cover but by selecting easier books of the Bible to digest and tune with the text. Once acquainted with some knowledge of the Bible, then go for the whole Bible from cover to cover.

In the late 1970s, he departed from his town of birth to obtain western education and upgrade his postgraduate degree, and it was then that his Christian sphere started to widen with links to both Catholic Chaplaincies and Christian Unions. He had a good circle of Christian friends and it continued even after he had finished his courses and went into academic life in the 1980s, 1990s and beyond. Now, his faith in Jesus is sealed and complete.