The mysteries of the Bible have puzzled laymen and experts alike for centuries, yet, 100 years ago, in an obscure book of just over 110 pages, one man sought to explain scientifically such inexplicable events as the miracles of Jesus and his resurrection, the raising of the dead, and what happens to the human soul – if anything – after we die. The man’s name was William Anthony Granville, and he was not a theologian, a philosopher or a crazed fanatic shouting on a street corner, but a respected American mathematician; and once you read his book, The Fourth Dimension and The Bible (1922), you may feel his name deserves to be ranked alongside Charles Fort’s for his examination of historic anomalous events – and the Bible is full to the brim with these.
Born in Minnesota in 1863, Granville became professor of mathematics at Yale in 1895, leaving in 1910 to take up the presidency of Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania. Between 1909 and 1911, he wrote four books on mathematics, including the snappily titled (1909), books widely used in their time and still of use today. However, Granville’s next book was of a more popular
