NT Gateway Weblog

It was good to meet Mary Coloe recently at the British New Testament Conference in Birmingham -- she travelled all the way from Australia to speak in the Johannine Literature seminar. Mary has a homepage at Australian Catholic University and it includes -- as I like to see on scholar's homepages -- some reproductions of articles:

"Raising the Johannine Temple (Jn 19:19-37)," Australian Biblical Review (2000) 47-58.

"Households of Faith (Jn 4:46-54; 11:1-44)," Pacifica (October 2000) 326-333.

"Like Father Like Son. The Function of Abraham in Jn 8," Pacifica (1999) 1-11.

"The Structure of the Johannine Prologue and Genesis 1," Australian Biblical Review, 45 (1997) 40-55.

Particularly useful when it's journals like Australian Biblical Review! No disrespect intended, but not many UK libraries subscribe to it. I remember calling up an issue from the Bodleian in Oxford a while ago and the box arrived with the one I wanted missing -- very annoying.

---

In last week's Review of Biblical Literature announcements, I was interested to read my friend Matti Myllykoski's review of Bruce Chilton and Jacob Neusner (eds.), The Brother of Jesus: James the Just and His Mission. He linked, in that review, to something I'd missed before on the net:

J. B. Lightfoot, The Brethren of the Lord

It's an interesting article from 1865, excerpted from his Commentary on the Epistles of St. Paul, and reproduced on the Philologos Religious On-line Books web site.

---

Interesting article in Christianity Today, just posted, by Gordon Govier and subtitled "The James bone box controversy reveals the politics beneath the science", but it reflects on the broader stakes in biblical archaeology more generally, so it's not just a rehash of the James ossuary news:

Biblical Archaeology's Dusty Little Secret

---

A vociferous response to Akenson's outspoken article appears today from Bruce Waltke, professor emeritus of biblical studies at Regent College, UBC, professor of Old Testament studies at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Fla., and a member of the advisory committee for The Gospel of John:

The Gospel of John: Let he who is without sin . . .

Excerpt:

In sum, Prof. Akenson's scholarship is poor, his tone is grating and his arguments bogus. Ironically, he piously asks us to redeem the text "by informed, discriminating and gentle scholarship," when his own diatribe amounts to hate literature against Mr. Drabinsky and Christians. I say "hate literature," because among many other charges, he maligns true believers as "lunatics" for believing "that Jesus's blood be shed to complete God's plan for the[ir] salvation."

Donald Akenson's effort to discredit the greatest story ever told has, in fact, discredited the author and Canadian culture.

---

Nice article by Peter Chattaway (author of a good article linked on the NTGateway Celluloid Jesus pages called Jesus at the Movies):

Passion 'softened,' John comes to screen

He suggests that there are signs that Mel Gibson is "softening" The Passion's alleged anti-semitism in reaction to criticism. Chattaway is the first to pick up on something that has concerned me, though, and rather makes me dread seeing the film, the violence and gore:

What does concern me, though, is the thing that Gibson keeps pitching as the film's main selling point: its graphic violence.

As evangelical broadcaster Michael Coren noted in the National Post (see editorial, page 12), the medieval Roman Catholic church was "obsessed with gore," and even had "a virtual blood cult within it" -- and elements of that persist today.

The depiction of violence for its own sake has become all too common in modern cinema, even in films that purport to take it more seriously, and I would say this is especially evident throughout Gibson's career. I hope he will be able to take his audience beyond the physical torment to some deeper spiritual place. But we'll just have to wait and see.

Nice suggestion on The Gospel of John: "Oh, and a note to the producers: If you're really serious about filming the entire Bible, perhaps you could include John's epistles on the DVD as bonus features. They're a little too short to be released on their own."

---

The web site for the new Rock Opera is at:

!Hero On-line

It includes audio samples, news, the chance to buy the music etc. and you can get an idea of the feel of the piece quite quickly. Click on "Media" for a trailer. The tour apparently began this month in New York and continues in other places in the U.S.A. in November.

---

Well, it's all happening at the moment. I can remember a time when people were bemoaning the end of the attempts to produce Jesus films, and looking back to the golden age that even included the extraordinary musicals Jesus Christ Superstar and Godspell. Now this isn't on the cards as a film yet, but there is apparently a new Rock/Hip Hop opera based on Jesus life. Have a look at the details again on Crosswalk:

"!Hero" - Christ's Life Inspires New Rock/Hip-Hop Opera, David Schrader

From the article:

Poetic license firmly in hand, they chronicle the modern day title character (played by Tait), who was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, flees with his family from a hostile government to the Jewish section of Brooklyn, New York, and begins to speak out against the systems of the world. Along the way, Hero selects his disciples from the docks of the East River, delivers the Beatitudes in Central Park, and shines in glory from the observation deck atop the Empire State Building. Odd as these twists may seem with their liberties, the plot remains reverent in message and should be duly intriguing to newcomers and seasoned believers alike.

Sounds a bit Godspell to me. I look forward to hearing more.

---

Jeffery Hodges on the Johannine-Literature list points out a review on the Crosswalk site:

"The Gospel of John" - Movie Review, Holly McClure.

Very enthusiasitic; and interesting to see the effect that a John-only film has on the reviewer, who is clearly a keen Christian, "Because this is a literal translation of the Gospel of John, there are a few scenarios and characters missing that are familiar to many people who have read the other Gospels . . . I feel it’s important to recognize that there may be a few people who see this movie who don’t know the story of Jesus, who aren’t familiar with the Scriptures and therefore have no idea of what happened in the other Gospels. So you may want to fill in the blanks with answers to some of those questions if you happen to attend the movie with an unbeliever." This film is going to be great for us NT scholar-types who are always struggling so hard to get our students not to "fill in the blanks" from other Gospels!

---

I've been looking for an excuse to mention the sad news of the passing of Johnny Cash on September 12 and now I have one. (I've been a fan since seeing Johnny Cash on an old episode of Columbo featuring his version of the old Hank Williams classic "I saw the light"). My excuse for mentioning Johnny Cash:

Cash's spoken word New Testament" to be re-released

The original 19-hour recording of the entire New Testament by "one of the most distinctive voices of the twentieth century" as noted by The Washington Times, was produced by Dyann Rivkin and published by Thomas Nelson in 1989. It won the prestigious Angel Award presented by Excellence in Media.

The recording was inspired by Cash's mother, Mrs. Carrie Rivers Cash, who encouraged her son for more than twenty years to record the - Bible. Cash said that he approached the recording with "fear, respect, awe, and reverence for the subject matter."

"John carefully reviewed 27 different Bible translations before approaching us about the recording of the New King James Version," noted Sam Moore, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.
[. . .]

Funnily enough, it's the same publisher (Thomas Nelson) as the teen bible previously mentioned.

---

Courtesy of Jim West, a reference to a CNN article on a Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos's praise for the film:

Vatican Cardinal Praises 'Passion'

"A triumph of art and faith" apparently.

---

Loads more about Revolve on its publisher's website:

Revolve, NCV: The Complete New Testament

Includes a thee and a half minute advertisement full of teenagers saying how old and "freaky" normal bibles look, but how accessible this one is.

Albert Mohler doesn't like it much -- "This product just might take trivialization to a whole new level" -- see:

"Not Your Grandmother's New Testament: A Look at 'Revolve'"

The publisher's web site (above) links to more friendly assessments.

---

That's a quotation from God's Word Goes Glossy, an article on Fox News about Revolve, "a magazine that’s slicked up the New Testament for girls aged 12 to 17":

“We wanted to make sure that it was something that teen girls liked and could identify with, but we wanted to make sure it was theologically in line with what pastors are teaching," Laurie Whaley, editor of Revolve, told Fox News.

[. . . ]

While some may consider Revolve "dorky" rather than "way cool," the glossy version of the good word appears to be a hit. One teenager enthusiastically told the Twin City's Pioneer Press that her peers were all impressed with the magazine.

[ . . . ]

“We came to realize we need an avenue, a venue to be able to tell teen girls ‘You're special, you're worthwhile, you're valuable,’” said Susie Shellenberger, author of "Girl Talk With God."

But not everyone agrees that having questions and answers like the ones in the "Blab" section of the magazine are helpful. Among the Q&As: "Was Jesus a vegetarian? No: Plenty of fish, some lamb. What's wrong with following horoscopes? It's condemned in Scripture."

[. . .]

Revolve's text is also sprinkled with statistical factoids, like this one nestled next to Jesus' talk with the Samaritan woman who had many men (John 4): "Didya Know: 63 percent of teens who have had sex say they wish they had waited."

I must admit that to me it looks horribly like the kind of thing that The Onion parodies so well, especially the enthusiastic quotations from those who have used it. I notice the word "factoid" rears its head too. This is an Americanism, I think? I was listening to BBC Radio FiveLive recently and an American correspondent mentioned a "factoid"; Simon Mayo asked him what a factoid was and the correspondent replied, "It's a kind of fact, but with -oid added on the end."

---

Stephen Goranson reports on the Xtalk list on the following article: Francesco Bella and Carlo Azzi, "14C Dating of the 'Titulus Crucis,'" Radiocarbon [journal] v.44 n.3 (2002 [received 2003]) 685-9. Apparently they report on radiocarbon dating of the walnut wood relic in Rome, thought by some to be the tablet from the cross of Jesus Christ: it has a 2-sigma date range of 980 to 1146 AD.

Also according to Goranson, they refer to another publication which discusses the possibility that this tablet is a copy of the original: Rigato, ML. 2002. Il Titolo della Croce di Gesu. Confronto tra i Vangeli e la Tavoletta--Reliquia della Basilica Eleniana a Rome. Dottorato nella Facolta di Teologia. Pontificia Universita Gregoriana. Roma.

---

Donald Akenson, author of Saint Saul: A Skeleton Key to the Historical Jesus has written an article on the two new Jesus films,

Garth, Mel: Of all the sacred texts to bring to the screen, why did you pick the most adversarial Gospel?

The "Garth" of the tile is Garth Drabinsky, the man behind the revamping of the Visual Bible and one of the producers of the new film. This is the first really anti-Gospel of John piece I've seen, though Akenson brings the Gibson film in too. For an example of the flavour of the piece:

"Why would anyone want to be faithful to such a text? It can be redeemed by informed, discriminating and gentle scholarship. But, to film a literal version of the Gospel of John is like filming a faithful version of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion."

So Akenson overstates things rather. His remark that "Drabinsky's literalist version of the Gospel of John, financed by the far-right, evangelical Visual Bible International Corporation", even if it were accurate, does not pay attention to the fact that Drabinsky took care to get an advisory board of scholars together, none of whom -- as far as I could see -- are marked by far right, evangelical credentials. I'd have thought that they'd have good reason to be a bit annoyed with the piece.

---

Many of us were very sorry to hear of the death of Anthony Saldarini in September 2001. There's now a memorial page devoted to him at:

In memory of Anthony J. Saldarini

The page includes the full text of one of his last lectures on Christian-Jewish relations, "CHRISTIAN ANTI-JUDAISM:The First Century Speaks to the Twenty-First Century" (The Joseph Cardinal Bernardin Jerusalem Lecture, April 14 1999, Chicago). The page also links to:

Daniel J. Harrington, S. J., Homily for the Funeral of Professor Anthony J. Saldarini.

What brought all this to my attention was Dove Booksellers have just announced that they are selling Anthony Saldarini's Library.

---

It's great to know that I am not the only one to find such trivia interesting. Matthew Page sends the following, not all from "proper" Jesus films, but interesting nonetheless:

Charlto Heston - Greatest Story & Ben Hur
Robert Wilson (only actor to play Jesus twice) - Day of Triumph & I Beheld his Glory
Joseph Schildkraut - The King of Kings (Judas) & Greatest Story Ever Told(Nicodemus)
Frank Thring - Ben Hur (Pilate) & Herod (King of Kings)
Peter Ustinov - Nero (Quo Vadis) & Herod (Jesus of Nazareth)
Finlay Currie - Quo Vadis, Ben Hur
Edward Hardwicke - Son of Man (Judas) and Mary the Mother of Jesus

---

Thanks to Jeff Staley on the Johannine-Literature list for pointing out that The Gospel of John will be showing at the SBL/AAR Annual Meeting in Atlanta. It is the Sunday evening of the meeting; couldn't find it in the SBL programme details, but it is there on the AAR site:

Annual Meeting 2003: Programme Highlights: Films

In the likely event that it won't have been released in the U.K. before November, this is good news indeed for people like me!

---

Jim Davila comments that the likely reason for the Secret Gospel of Thomas subtitle for Elaine Pagels' book is marketing: "It's a sexy subtitle: secret Gospels sell well. But then, I'm a cynic". I'm sure Jim's right. Someone mentioned to me recently that it's a great idea to try to get "Jesus" into the title of your book if at all possible -- it'll double your sales. Since hearing that, I can't help noticing how many books inappropriately have Jesus in the title.

At least my book on Thomas will be about Thomas. Speaking of Thomas, I'm reading an excellent book at the moment by Risto Uro, Thomas: The Gospel of Thomas in Historical Context (London & New York: T & T Clark International, 2003). It's just out. Unfortunately very expensive -- £50 or $85 for 200 odd pages; I hope that's not the way that Continuum's prices are going to go. I picked it up cheap at the BNTC. I'll report on it when I've finished reading.

---

Review of Biblical Literature latest reviews:

Bryan, Steven M.
Jesus and Israel's Traditions of Judgement and Restoration

Chilton, Bruce and Jacob Neusner, eds.
The Brother of Jesus: James the Just and His Mission

Fortna, Robert T., and Tom Thatcher, eds.
Jesus in Johannine Tradition

Marshall, John W.
Parables of War: Reading John's Jewish Apocalypse

Oakes, Peter, ed.
Rome in the Bible and the Early Church

Riley, Gregory J.
The River of God: A New History of Christian Origins

---

Another I've thought of: Ian Holm is Pontius Pilate (voice of) in The Miracle Maker and was Zerah (a vocal member of the Sanhedrin) in Jesus of Nazareth. And Antony Quinn was Barabbas in the film of the same name and Caiaphas in Jesus of Nazareth. Another link between those two films: Ernest Borgnine is the centurion in Jesus of Nazareth and Lucius in Barabbas. I'm on a roll!

---

Thanks to Helen-Ann Hartley of Worcester College, Oxford for the following: "Not sure these count, but Howard Gaye was Jesus in two films 'Intolerance' (1916) and 'Restitution' (1918). John Drew Barrymore played Judas AND Jesus in the film 'Pontius Pilate' (1964) - not sure how he managed that!"

I hadn't heard of the film Pontius Pilate before. I looked it up in the IMDB, which lists it under Ponzio Pilato (1962). It looks extraordinary; cast includes Basil Rathbone as Caiaphas! Another film that has one actor playing two parts is Godspell which has David Haskell as John and Judas (and likewise one actor plays the two parts in the theatrical version).

---

Interesting to see that Christopher Plummer is the narrator in The Gospel of John. Q.: Which other Jesus film has he cropped up in? A.: Jesus of Nazareth in which he was Herod Antipas. For the Jesus film addicts / nerds among you (or am I the only one?), I can think of at least one other who crops up twice in Jesus films. Donald Pleasence (the one who goes blind in The Great Escape) is the Satan figure in the temptation sequence in The Greatest Story Ever Told and Melchior (one of the wise men) in Jesus of Nazareth. Can anyone think of any more?

---

The release of The Visual Bible: Gospel of John has clearly introduced a new element into the negative reporting about Gibson's The Passion. If you're not heartily sick of reading about it -- and I must admit that I'm not yet -- this article from The Globe and Mail contrasts the two films, with The Gospel of John coming out pretty favourably, though the author clearly hasn't viewed either yet!

Scholars Back Charges Against Gibson

---

Old Testament scholar Norman Porteous died on September 3 aged 104. The Times published an obituary earlier today:

The Rev Professor Norman Porteous: Obituary

---

I've added a search facility on the left. It's the same Pico search engine that indexes the whole of the NT Gateway (basically it just crawls everything on the NT Gateway except things I tell it not to). I could add a separate one for the blog if there's sufficient demand for that, but I doubt there would be, and I can't think that that would be particularly more useful than the combined one.

---

Curious Observer article yesterday on the problems of "mixing religion and art", combining discussion of the Mel Gibson film with David Blaine and Damien Hirst and suggesting differences between British and American perceptions:

"Seen from here, the Gibson row seems peculiar to God-obsessed America, whose constitution separates state and church but whose President treats the two as conjoined twins. This is a country where 94 per cent of adults believe in the Almighty and where New Yorkers cheer with reverence when Blaine stands still for a very long time, pretending to be a statue."

Like a Red Rag to a Bigot, Mary Riddell

---

From the Johannine Lit. e-list (post by Arne Halbakken), a MovieGuide.org review of The Gospel of John:

Visual Bible: The Gospel of John: Review by Ted Baehr

Strong conservative Christian bias, but he clearly loved the film.

---

And he has a blog too, called AKMA's Random Thoughts, pretty regularly updated and looks lively. From what I've read through so far there's not a lot of NT related stuff given that he's an NT prof., but there are bits and bobs, e.g. see his:

Review of Elaine Pagels, Beyond Belief.

I was actually really disappointed with that book; I read it a couple of months ago. I think my problem with it was that its subtitle (The Secret Gospel of Thomas) led me to expect an entire book about Thomas, on which I'm writing a book myself at the moment. But what there was on Thomas -- and there's not a lot -- I was already familiar with from Pagels' academic articles. How odd that the book went through with that subtitle -- doesn't make much sense to me.

---

A. K. M. Adam's webpage just added to the Scholars: A page. Some interesting information there, e.g. an article entitled "The Disseminary: What Theological Educators Need to Learn from Napster". So what on earth is "The Disseminary"? It's defined as "a site that uses electronic technology to spread as much theological nourishment as possible, without devoting energy to policing the results of that distribution. No degrees. No requirements. No restrictions. Put it out where users can grab it" and it has its own web site at http://www.disseminary.org. I've known AKMA for a few years; we usually bump in to each other at the SBL Annual Meetings; I'm surprised I hadn't realised until now that he had such a strong web presence.

---

There's an associated press story by Richard Ostling just out and doing the rounds. It has some interesting comments on the Visual Bible Gospel of John:

Other Jesus Film Gets Less Play

Excerpts:

"One of the Jewish scholars, Alan Segal of Barnard College, told a Toronto media preview that "it's a stunning and illuminating film." But Segal also acknowledged that, of the four Gospels, John is "the most Jewish in its subject matter, and the most anti-Jewish in its perception."

John emphasizes Jesus' own claims to be the Messiah and the Son of God, which sets up a sharp conflict among Jews. By John's account, the Temple authorities plotted early on to kill Jesus and pressed a hesitant Pilate to give the Roman go-ahead for crucifixion.

The scholars provide words of explanation that scroll down the screen before the action begins, noting that crucifixion was a Roman punishment not sanctioned by Jewish law and that Jesus and all his early followers were Jewish.

The scholars' words also tell viewers that John was written "two generations after the Crucifixion" and reflects a period of growing friction between early Christians -- who were living within Jewish communities -- and Jewish leaders."

---

Latest Explorator has just been sent out. See:

Explorator 6.20

---

I've now also added a new page on The Gospel of John:

Celluloid Jesus: The Gospel of John

This is the new Visual Bible word-for-word version of the Gospel of John. It's about three hours long and directed by Philip Saville. The Visual Bible were also responsible for the 1997 Matthew ; but this film has a new director and a new Jesus. The film's official web site is impressive and has loads of information including trailer:

The Gospel of John: A Major Motion Picture . . . Word for Word

The film appears to be opening in the U.S.A. from September 26. There are no indications yet when it will be released elsewhere. The film has an impressive advisory committee with lots of names that will be familiar to NT scholars and students, Peter Richardson, Adele Reinhartz, Alan Segal, Carolyn Osiek, Stephen Reid, Patricia Dutcher-Walls, Charles Hedrick, Bruce Waltke and Tony Michael. The web site also has a good-looking academic reading list, including several on "Anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism", interesting in the light of the criticisms of Mel Gibson's film. See:

Resources

At the bottom of this page, they've listed "Some Films on the Life of Jesus" and they've copied and pasted directly from my Celluloid Jesus index page. Nice to know they're using the NT Gateway, though it would be nicer still if it got a little acknowledgement or even a link!

---

The New Yorker has published a 14-page article on Gibson's The Passion entitled "The Jesus War"; it is by Peter J. Boyer and is apparently in the September 15, 2003 edition. The text of the article has been posted on the net here:

The Jesus War by Peter J. Boyer

---

I've created a new page in the Celluloid Jesus bit of the NT Gateway for the new Mel Gibson directed film The Passion:

Celluloid Jesus: The Passion

---