Religion #2

[~StarBright~]

I only caught the end of it and the doco maker was speaking to people in the Jewish community who were returning to a particular place (sorry- not too informed- i cant even rememebr the name of the place) that had once been their land but had been taken from them and the place (near Jeruselum i think) had gone from being their sacred place of worship to being a mosk and also a place for Christians to worship- and now they all have their little peice and they can all openly do their own thing- together in the one place. The bit i watched was him talking to a Jewish man who was explaining that by doing this they are full filling a prophesy in the first testimate regarding the Jewish Community surving through hardship and finding their way back to their rightful place....

The doco maker did listen to this man- however after he had spoken to him he spoke to some of the Christian and Greek Orthodox who beleive that THEY are full filling THEIR version of the prophesy by up holding their beleifs and being truly gods people- from there the doco maker was sort of stuck as he had two opposing views about the same prophesy- and trying to be impartial- he didnt really say which he beleived to be *true*

He also talked about different scrolls being discovered in the late 70's which have been traced back to the times BC which has oppposing views to all the religious beleifs- but that when they were discovered- no one was willing to change the bible so to speak- but he put the question out there as to why these scrolls where hidden and missing from the first testimate in the first place.

When they showed the ad for next weeks episode he is going to attempt to find out who was responsible for writing and putting together the new testimate and what effects that has had on all the religious upheaval- and to find out what facts can be found to give truth to Jesus' story and his life (which i personally beleive to be mostly true.... i look at it like He definalety DID exist- just that everything written about him may not be 100% accurate- sort of like in laymans terms- we have people today who are very famous and do stuff- but you cant beleive everything you read about them IYKWIM)

I wish i had caught all of it- and i'm not sure if it was the first episode in a series or not0 but it is definaltly on next week- between 10am and 11 am on ABC or SBS i will be making sure i tape it so i can watch it a few times so i can really understand it all.

I thought you would be interested (along with everyone else here) as it really touched on alot of what we have all been discussing and i beleive it is trying to show an impartial view of someone with no basis in any of the differeing religions trying to figure out what really went on all those years ago.

How did you go with google?

Star Bright xoxox

[SaraJane]

Thanks for that Star, this is what my search found:
Theologian Robert Beckford goes on a journey to Israel, the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt, Rome and various locations in the UK and USA to examine the origins of the Bible.
It's on ABC on Sunday at 10 am and is called Who wrote the bible?

Who Wrote the Bible?
When George W Bush was sworn into office in January 2001, he placed his right hand on an old copy of the Bible that had been used in the same ceremony in 1789 by George Washington. This says a lot about the authority and influence of the Bible in western culture, but it's also a reminder of the links between Bush and Bible. The President is said to be up before dawn each day to study the scriptures, and his recent re-election is widely credited to the millions on the religious right who wanted him back in the White House precisely because of his commitment to the Good Book.

Fact-finding mission
A two-hour Channel 4 special about the Bible opens with images of George Bush ? and Osama Bin Laden. The Bible, holy books and the religious faith they inspire are on the news agenda as they've rarely been before, and the presenter of the programme, Dr Robert Beckford, is looking for good answers to what sounds like a simple question: Who wrote the Bible?
It's a question that has preoccupied biblical scholars for several generations but Beckford, who is director of the Centre for Black Theology at the University of Birmingham, forsakes the library and takes to the road in a journey from Jerusalem to Rome and on to the USA (with a stopover in Walthamstow). On the way, he talks to American pilgrims shouldering crosses on the streets of Jerusalem, to the head of the Pope's Bible Institute, to a former criminal and boxing promoter in East London, and many more. Beckford must be the only theologian in the UK who has his own Saturday night radio show, so he looks perfectly at home in the open top, electric blue fin-tail car he drives on the US leg of his quest.

Did God say that?
Sitting on a pew with a Baptist minister in Georgia, USA, he hears the most direct answer to his question of who wrote the Good Book: 'Gaaad said it; that settles it; I believe it!' says the minister, Dr Richard Land, who is an adviser to President Bush and has the presidential cufflinks to prove it. Dr Land then goes on to take George Bush to task for not sending more troops into Iraq, giving a chilling glimpse into the way the Bible's more militaristic books might be fuelling the conflict. 'I would have sent 500,000 troops,' he declares.
That revealing episode is just one jolt among many in the programme, showing us that the Bible is not some dusty old tome, locked in the past. The ancient texts still have power, for good and evil. For Beckford, the most memorable moment during filming comes when he talks to a Jewish settler in the Palestinian town of Hebron. 'We're surrounded by soldiers, he is armed and there are a couple of tanks making sure we are not attacked. I ask the settler what it means to be in Hebron and there is a sparkle in his eye as he says, "This is our land, given to us by God."'

The work of many hands
The answer to 'Who wrote the Bible?' turns out to be complex. For a start, the Bible isn't a single book, but contains 66 separate books which were collected over something like 1,200 years. Christians and Jews have usually been careful to say that the scriptures weren't delivered from a passing cloud, but were, they believe, written, edited and compiled by human beings under the inspiration of God. Even so, what Robert Beckford discovers on his biblical road trip is much more complex than anything he learned in Sunday school.
Take the Five Books of Moses, which open the Bible and include the world-famous stories of the creation, the Garden of Eden and Noah's flood. Known in Hebrew, the language they were written in, as the Torah, these books contain the foundations of Judaism and Christianity. It turns out that the Books of Moses weren't written by Moses at all, but by four anonymous writers, each with his own particular view to promote. These writings were only brought together when an Israelite king found them useful to promote his political agenda, many centuries after the time of Moses. Says Beckford: 'King Hezekiah turned the Bible into a party political manifesto for monotheism. He definitely knew something about spin.'

Their agendas are showing
The same goes for the four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Beckford dives down into the ancient catacombs beneath a church in Rome to discover why Mark, the first Gospel writer, started to write about Jesus in the first place ? as an encouragement to the first generation of Christians, who were facing persecution. He discovers that although the Gospel writers seem to be giving us direct reportage from the life of Jesus, each of them actually had his own spin on the story. While Matthew was keen to show how Jewish Jesus was, for the Jewish wing of the early church, Luke pushed the Roman angle. He packaged the teaching and miracles of Jesus to show that even civilised Roman citizens could believe in him.
There have been many TV programmes that have tried to bury the Bible ? but this is no hatchet job. We get a clue about this when we see Robert Beckford at the tomb of Christ, inside Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre. As he stoops to leave the tomb, he wipes tears from his eyes. 'I was really moved by the experience,' he says. 'I am a Christian; I believe in the teachings of Jesus, so to be in a holy place, contemplating life, moved me. And I'm sufficiently secure in my African Caribbean maleness to express a full range of emotions without fear of censure!'

More is better
Beckford's search for answers is personal and heartfelt, from the first moments of the programme, as he sits in on a Sunday school lesson his mother is teaching about Jonah and the whale. 'This is important to me,' he says. 'The Bible shaped what I thought, said and did. But that simple belief gave way to the realisation that it's not that simple.'
And it concludes with something like a confession of faith: if we accept that the Bible is messy and human, and was written for faith communities with specific needs in mind, then we will discover it to be a book that will feed our own faith in God. Says Beckford: 'If we can find God in the imperfections of our lives, then maybe we can find him in the messiness of the text.'

[~StarBright~]

Thanks for that SaraJane- i am at work at the moment- but i will have a proper read when i get home tonight- and huge thanks- now i know what channel to check!!! LOL

Does it say how long it is going for or how many episodes we may have missed??
I will be making sure i tape it... Thanks again!!

[Nelle]

If it's on ABC, you might even be able to buy it from the ABC Shop at some stage. Maybe check their website.

[SaraJane]

Star- no, it didn't say how many episodes
Nelle- good idea, I'd like to see the whole thing.

[sunflowa_girlie]

Wow, 22 pages - my eyes (and brain) hurt!

I must say, I've found it fascinating to learn about different religions/faiths in here - Islam, Paganism, Jewish. I feel smarter!