Wednesday,
21 June, 2000
John McCarthy's Bible Journey
Thirteen years ago, in a cramped,
windowless cell in Beirut, John McCarthy was given a Bible by
his Muslim captors. Being religious men themselves, they assumed
their hostages were too, and that they'd like their Book.
In fact, despite his Church of England upbringing, McCarthy
was not a card-carrying believer at all, but he did read the
Bible, twice through, cover-to-cover. He hoped that it might
bring him inspiration or comfort - he had a half-remembered
sense that this was "the Word of God", whatever that
meant. But in all honesty, he read it mainly because there wasn't
much else to do.
McCarthy is not a theologian or a Bible scholar and reading
the Bible didn't make him religious, but it did make him think.
It offered invaluable help with the self-examination and soul-searching
that were necessary for all the hostages to survive in captivity.
It taught them important lessons about the nature of power,
the value of hope and that suffering can be used creatively.
It is this last lesson that lies behind McCarthy's landmark
project. In John McCarthy's Bible Journey, he returns
to the Bible and to the Middle East, to try to make sense of
what he read in that Beirut cell. Janet McLarty outlines McCarthy's
incredible journey of discovery.
In The Beginning
In the first programme McCarthy explains how he first read the
Bible in captivity and discusses its impact on him. He'd found
himself the latest unwitting character in the story that runs
right through the Bible: the struggle of the people of the Near
East to resolve their relations with one another and with God.
So, what had changed in all those centuries? Had the Bible taught
mankind nothing? In captivity, he read the Bible straight through,
from Genesis to Revelation, but now, he begins to discover,
the beginning isn't necessarily the best place to start. In
fact, the beginning isn't the beginning at all. He starts to
get a picture of the Bible, not so much as "a single book,
written in a straight line, by people who were there", but
as a whole library of texts, written by very different people,
at different times, each with their own agenda.
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| 'The
Bible taught the hostages important lessons about
the nature of power, the value of hope and that
suffering can be used creatively' |
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As McCarthy discovered from his Muslim captors, Abraham, or
Ibrahim, is a figure much revered in Islam: one of the five
great prophets and the father of Ishmael, founder of the Arab
nation. To Jews, he's the person who struck an eternal deal
with God, a covenant, which made Abraham's tribe God's chosen
people forever and secured their place on the land. But how
much do we know about the real Abraham, aside from what's written
in the Koran and the Bible? Did he even exist?
The
Wilderness Years
McCarthy goes in search of the real Moses, if such a figure
ever existed. He travels to the mountain-top and wonders how
on earth the breath-taking spectacle of dawn over Sinai could
have inspired something as mundane as a code of law. Why look
for God on a mountain-top at all? He sleeps rough in the desert
and asks a Bedouin Sheikh, who should know better than most,
about Moses' and the Israelites' survival chances during their
40 lost years in the wilderness.
It
Ain't Necessarily So…
Did Joshua really "beat the Battle of Jericho" or did
the walls come tumblin' down a good few hundred years earlier,
as archaeologists believe? McCarthy visits Tel Hazor, scene
of another biblical triumph by Joshua, and discovers hard evidence
of a conflagration at about the time when Joshua reportedly
burned the defeated King's palace.
The
Prophet Margins
Being a prophet has never been easy. Keeping Kings in check
by telling them what they don't want to hear is not the safest
profession. McCarthy talks to some contemporary figures who
have tried it, and he also goes in search of the truth behind
Biblical prophecy. Could they really see into the future or
were they just better than average at reading the present?
Who
Do You Say That I Am?
Depending on your religious belief, Jesus is either the saviour
of mankind (Christians), a prophet (Muslims), the heretic whose
movement gave rise to centuries of persecution (Jews) or some
bloke they sing about at Christmas (Agnostic). In this programme,
McCarthy goes to the places where Jesus lived and died, in an
effort to distinguish the real figure from the many often different
versions presented by different Churches, down the ages. Was
Jesus's message a message for his times or for all times? Does
it transcend religious denominations, and if so, why aren't
we hearing it?
The
Road To Damascus
McCarthy looks at how the movement started by Jesus evolved
in the years after his life, death and supposed resurrection.
Was his message refined by the early missionaries and Gospel
writers who carried it around the known world, or did they simply
change it? Can we rely on the Gospels?
Bible
Stories
McCarthy
looks at the process of compiling and editing the Bible - bringing
the story of centuries to a close, in both Jewish and Christian
circles. Why did it have to end? Was the message really complete?
Had God said enough? Or was it spurred on more by practical
imperatives, such as the death of the Messiah (Christians) and
the destruction of the Temple (Jews). Who decided what got left
in and what got kept out, and what effect did that have on the
two faiths that emerged from the period?
Blessed Are The Poor
McCarthy
assesses the impact of liberation theology in El Salvador, a
country which has been torn apart by civil war and where large
numbers live in grinding poverty. He finds out how reading the
Bible has provided hope and stability for those communities
who have applied many of its practical teachings to their daily
lives.
War
And Peace
McCarthy
begins to assess the moral, cultural, political and religious
impact of the Bible in the centuries since its completion. In
Britain and the Middle East he discovers first-hand the enormous
variety of uses and abuses to which the Bible has been put.
He asks why it is that a so-called "Holy Book" should have been
so relentlessly at the centre of wars and persecutions.
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| 'Why
did the Bible have to end? Had God said enough?'
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The
Tree Of Knowledge
McCarthy
investigates science versus religion and attempts to reconcile
the Biblical account of creation with the theory of evolution.
He visits Hereford Cathedral to see the Mappa Mundi to find
out how the world was understood in the Middle Ages and then
questions today's top scientists to see how we understand the
universe today. Does our current understanding of the world
mean that the accounts in Genesis are now obsolete?
All
About Eve
McCarthy
considers the extent to which the Bible has been used to promote
specific gender roles for men and women: is the Bible a sexist
book, responsible for creating and sustaining a patriarchal
society for the last 2000 years? He looks at the influence certain
religious women have played in history. He joins a group of
feminist Christians who are developing their own theology with
new translations of the Bible that use inclusive language and
prayers to 'Mother God'.
Loose
Ends
What
is McCarthy to believe? If God created us in his image, why
do we seem so determined to re-create him in ours. McCarthy
considers doing exactly that himself: framing his own religion.
But what will be its creed?
In an age where certainty causes so much distress, he decides
that perhaps the safest and truest conclusion is inconclusion.
McCarthy will continue to read the Bible, and hopes that others
will, too, but more for the questions it raises than for the
answers it gives.
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| Reading
The Bible |
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| The
bible has been translated into more than 1200 languages
and currently sells more copies than any other book.
Editions are also available on CD Rom and the Internet. |
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