Thunderbirds characters are GO!

Pause for Thought

From Baroness Julia Neuberger, Senior Rabbi at the West London Synagogue.

Well, here we are in Bond week, celebrating the lives and loves of that superhero James Bond. Only last week, I had someone introducing me as the new candidate for M, which didn’t really seem right for a rabbi- nor is it a secret ambition of mine! But what is it about Bond that still grips us? And how is it possible that several well-known writers have taken the story on, after Ian Fleming’s death, and managed to carry off the style?

Later this morning I’m leading a Bible class, and we’ll be looking at the books of Joshua, Judges and Samuel in the Hebrew Bible. We’ll be examining whether the stories within them are- as far as we can tell from archaeological evidence- true. In fact, they’re probably not, as far as most experts are concerned. Yet the writing is very similar throughout, even though the events described took place over many decades. The stories must have looked very different originally, but along came a writer or editor to make them all read the same, just like with the later James Bond authors.

Biblical scholars call that writer or editor the Deuteronomist, because they think he edited from Deuteronomy right through to the Books of Kings. We can’t be sure that’s correct, though it seems likely. What is clear, though, is that when you read a text, be it James Bond or the Book of Samuel, the original may not be what you’ve got in front of you. Writers and editors are always being brought in when a book or formula is doing well. Of all the books in the world, even more than James Bond, the Bible’s hugely popular - and that’s why, even now, writers and editors long to be associated with it- both because it’s so loved, and because it has so much wisdom within it- which benefits us all!