More information on Friends and Heroes

Following up from last month's post about the new BBC animated adventure series Friends and Heroes, more details have become available, and as the first episode airs in just 4 days (Monday), I thought it was about time I made some more comments. I'll review the episode I was sent as a screener tomorrow.

First of all the broadcast details(with video plus codes) have been announced as follows:

Ep 1: Monday 12th March @ 12:00 noon
Ep 2: Monday 12th March @ 12.30pm
Ep 3: Tuesday 13th March @ 12.30pm
Ep 4: Wednesday 14th March @ 12:00 noon
Ep 5: Wednesday 14th March @ 12.30pm
Ep 6: Thursday 15th March @ 12.30pm
Ep 7: Friday 16th March @ 12.30pm
Ep 8: Monday 19th March @ 12:00 noon
Ep 9: Tuesday 20th March @ 12.30pm
Ep 10: Wednesday 21st March @ 12:00 noon
Ep 11: Wednesday 21st March @ 12.30pm
Ep 12: Thursday 22nd March @ 12.30pm
Ep 13: Friday 23rd March @ 12.30pm

Secondly, it's clear that this project has a good range of talent involved. Gary Kurtz (producer for the original Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back) is named as the "Supervising Producer". Kurtz has been doing animation for the last 15 years. Other established names are composers Karl Twigg and Mark Topham, who have written a number of UK chart hits for bands such as Steps, Five and Westlife.

It's also really encouraging to see Naomi Jones involved. Jones was involved with the brilliant Testament: Bible in Animation series, as well as The Miracle Maker, one of my favourite Jesus films.

And then there's Stan Berkowitz who has worked on recent animated versions of Superman and Batman. There are various other names associated with the project, although the only one I really know is Stephen Gaukroger a regular speaker at the Spring Harvest conference over here in the UK.

Away from the names and back to the project. As mentioned previously this is the first of three series, and the opening episodes introduce the main characters (Macky and Portia) to us and to each other. Macky is from a family of first century Jewish Christians, whilst Portia is the niece of the Governor of Alexandria - Tiberius.

It's Tiberius's meteoric rise that allows each series to take place in a different city. Tiberius's promotion to leader of the siege of Jerusalem moves the action for series two to the heart of Judea, and finally his move to Rome provides the setting for the third series. So there will be something in this for Roman history buffs too (although how accurate a depiction of Tiberius it will be remains to be seen).

One final point. The animation will be a mix of 2D and 3D, with the 2D animation making up the majority of each episode, and the 3D being introduced for the sections where the biblical stories are narrated. This is an interesting technique. The use of 3D suggests that these stories are more real than those in 2D, but the way they are narrated stresses the importance of them being stories that are owned and identified with, rather than just stories for the sake of it.

Living Bible - Episodes 9 & 10 (UK version)

(This post is part of a continuing series on the UK release of The Living Bible -See all posts and citation method)

Episode 9 - Betrayal in Gethsemane
Judas leaves the last supper - (John 13:30)
Gethsemane - (Mark 14:32-42)
Jesus's Arrest - (Matt 26:47-56, John 18:1-11)
Judas Hangs himself - (Matt 27:1-10, 26:24)

Episode 10 - Trial Before Pilate
1st Trial before Pilate - (John 18:28-38)
Before Herod - (Luke 23:5-11)
2nd Trial before Pilate - (Matt 27:20-25; Luke 23:13-25; John 18:40; 19:4-16)
Jesus Mocked and Taken to be Crucified - (Mark 15:16-20)

Notes
As noted previously the episodes in this series are somewhat out of order, hence having just had episode 8 as Jesus Before the High Priest, the story now returns to the Garden of Gethsemane, before jumping forward to the events in front of Pilate and Herod.

The Gethsemane episode also features one of the more unusual examinations of Judas (pictured) that I can recall. The last supper episodes are not really included, hence there is little examination of his psyche prior to his betrayal that night (although episode 3 offers a good deal on Judas's motives in the run up to the Last Supper). However, once Jesus is arrested the story switches from looking at Jesus's anguish to that of Judas as he realises what he has done. Stranger still, we do not see Judas actually take his own life. The episode ends with Judas climbing a rocky hill, with only the voiceover to explain what he is going to do.

By including in Episode 10 two "trials" before Pilate, as well as Jesus being taken before Herod the film completes the most extensive sequence of trials in any film I can recall. Jesus is taken before Annas, the Sanhedrin at night, the Sanhedrin in the morning, Pilate, Herod, Pilate, Flogging (no direct comment), Pilate, mocking and then death. This sequence is even longer than in The Passion of the Christ. Interestingly though, whilst Jesus is taken away and returns with marks on his chest, there is no direct visual or audible reference to his flogging.

These episodes demonstrate the harmonising style of this series taken to its extreme. In addition to the lengthy trial sequence described above, some of the common events that the gospels narrate quite differently find themselves brought together. So the synoptics record Judas as identifying Jesus with a kiss. John has Jesus identify himself with the words "I am he" which cause the soldiers to fall down. Here, Judas kisses Jesus, but before the soldiers can arrest him, Jesus asks them what they have come for, and answers that he is the one they are looking for. We also get both Jesus's speech in the synoptics ("Day after day I sat in the temple teaching,") as well as that from John ("shall I not drink the cup which the Father has given me?"). However, certain details are omitted entirely, such as the fleeing naked man of Mark 14:51-2.

Likewise, the final trial before Pilate contains elements exclusive to Matthew, Luke and John. The hand washing and the line "his blood be on us and our people" is solely from Matthew. The incident with Herod and Pilate's qualms about releasing Barabbas specifically are solely from Luke, and lines such as "Behold the man!", and the veiled threats to report Pilate to Caesar are from John.

Forthcoming Book - Jesus, the Gospels, and Cinematic Imagination

This is a fairly advanced warning, but I imagine it will interest many of those who have ever found themselves flicking through a Jesus film trying to find the right scene. Richard Walsh ("Reading the Gospels in the Dark") and Jeffrey L. Staley have a new book due out in September 2007 that will make that task a whole lot easier.

"Jesus, the Gospels, and Cinematic Imagination: A Handbook to Jesus on DVD", summarises eighteen Jesus films available on DVD along with chapter listing, details of extras, a look at the film's genre and socio-political setting, descriptions of the main characters and information on the director. The book concludes with "a harmony of film parallels that lists by hour, minute, and second where each gospel scene can be found on the DVDs".

A number of parts of the book are available already, with links from Jeffrey L. Staley's home pages to the contents, preface and study questions. The eighteen books to be covered in depth are:

The Life and Passion of Jesus Christ
From the Manger to the Cross
Intolerance
The King of Kings
King of Kings
The Gospel According to Saint Matthew
The Greatest Story Ever Told
Jesus Christ Superstar
Godspell
Jesus of Nazareth
The Jesus Film
Monty Python’s Life of Brian
The Last Temptation of Christ
Jesus of Montreal
Jesus
The Miracle Maker
The Gospel of John
The Passion of the Christ

The authors raise a couple of interesting points in the preface, firstly they explain the problems of using Jesus films in the classroom:

Jesus films, however, are quite difficult to use in the classroom (and in research) because no easy tool exists for cross-referencing them with the gospels... Generally, we, like other professors, have had to watch entire films in order to find the perfect clip for a class, then note the time that the clip appeared in the film... Our handbook now resolves this problem by providing an easy-to-use list of gospel parallels that tells students and teachers the precise hour/minute/second on a given DVD that the gospel story or scene occurs. We believe that DVD

Elsewhere they make the point that DVD technology has fundamentally changed the way this kind of clip surveying can happen because not only is it possible to skip to a precise point in the film, but also, unlike video tapes, the timings are unaffected by the speed of the video player and where you start counting from.

All in all this looks like it will be an excellent resource, and hopefully it will far outstrip my Jesus Film Scene Comparison Spreadsheet, which lacks both timings and scripture references (although it does cover 30 films rather than just 18).

Please note this image is for illustration purposes only and bears no relation to the official cover

The Lost Tomb of Jesus: The Morning After the Night Before

As I mentioned on Friday I wasn't able to catch the programme on "The Discovery Channel" last night, but fortunately Mark Goodacre did and blogged the whole documentary section by section. It's a pretty comprehensive look at the filmmakers' claim, so I advise you to have a read for yourselves. Mark also has a number of other posts on this story, including a number on the statistical case as well as one where he comments on some of my comments.

Elsewhere, Peter Chattaway mentions The Body (2001) a dramatic film about a priest investigating a skeleton which may have been that of Jesus. I've not seen the film, and had forgotten it even existed. Peter certainly didn't think that highly of it anyway.

Then there's Tyler Williams's summing up of The Lighter Side of Jesus’ Tomb, which includes a link to a few comments by one of my favourite cartoonists Scott Adams (Dilbert). That led me to this gem:

What is up with these buried cities that archaeologists keep discovering? I’m trying to figure out how a city gets buried unless a volcano is nearby. In my house, for example, when the crumbs on the kitchen floor reach ankle height, I start thinking about sweeping. Call me a neat freak if you must, but I wouldn’t just keep eating bagels until I lose the refrigerator.

What's strange is how people feel the need to offer serious explanations for the questions Adams poses. Boy, does he know his key demographic inside out. For what it's worth, I also can't help wondering if somewhere along the line, Dogbert is involved in this whole "Jesus Tomb" saga.

The Lost Tomb of Jesus

I've been slightly reticent to post about this film here as firstly, it's been covered in so many other places elsewhere, by people who are far more expert than I, and secondly because I won't get the opportunity to see the film for some time anyway, and by then I imagine that this will all have died down. (My guess is that it will appear at Easter over here, with Channel 4 being odds on favourites to screen it - they did after all show the heavily Tabor influenced The Secret Family of Jesus on Christmas Day this year). I have however posted on it at rejesus where I've tried to restrict my comments to the area of statistics.

But as I've thought about my approach a bit more over the last couple of days, it's occurred to me that this is a film, and it is about the bible, at least in some sense, and whilst it's not an dramatised / narrative film (although it will undoubtedly contain a great deal of both) but a documentary, it is undoubtedly of relevance to this blog. By contrast there are a number of well known theologians who waded into this early on but have since been big enough to admit they were a bit too overzealous in places (namely Richard Bauckham and Ben Witherington)

So I'm going to write about the actual film here, which has tended to be buried amongst the discussion about the subject matter, and I might craft another post at a later stage which looks at some of the arguments.

One thing that is clear is that whilst the filmmakers have not given much thought ot peer reviewing their findings, they have certainly spent a lot of effort into putting together a substantial official website. In addition to all the usual stuff, there's a wealth of clearly and simply laid out pages with attractive design. Likewise The Discovery Channel also has a fair bit of information on the film, as well as some more "news" type pages. The film is first due to air on Sunday, March 4th, at 9 p.m. ET/PT. I would guess it would be repeated several times by Discovery.

The team that has made the film has been fairly well publicised. James Cameron's (Titanic) name has been all over the news regarding this film, but he's actually only involved as an executive producer, rather than as director. The directing honours go to Simcha Jacobovici (Exodus Decoded) who was also involved with producing and writing. Interestingly he also made James, Brother of Jesus, although I've not been able to find out the conclusions of that documentary.

A number of theologians and archaeologists are also involved, although it seems that the degree to which they have been involved, as well as the extent to which they agree with the filmmakers conclusions. So James Tabor agrees enough to have reversed some of his previous positions from The Jesus Dynasty, whereas Amos Kloner is standing by his original claim from 1980 that there was not an ossuary in this particular tomb inscribed "James son of Joseph, brother of Jesus". Darrel Bock claims to have seen the script at an early date, but not to really have been involved, and L.Y. Rahmani’s ossuary catalogue seems to have been a key source. John Dominic Crossan's name also appears on the official website, but it's far from clear how closely he has been involved.

Finally there are a number of other experts involved. François Bovon and Shimon Gibson are also named on the discovery site. In terms of experts from other disciplines, one key "witness" is Dr. Andrey Feuerverger - Professor of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Toronto. He is the statistician, although it's difficult to know what kind of information he was given to work with. Did it really justify a professor, or did they just need someone with good reputation to lend the project some credibility? Two other credits; Felix Golubev is one of the other producers, and Charlie R. Pellegrino is the other writer.

Anyone who is desperate to see this and doesn't have access to The Discovery Channel will be pleased to know that the DVD is available for sale already. The programme is also accompanied by a book which is also for sale. Summaries of the deabte are being posted at two of my favourite blogs - Codex and NT Gateway. James Tabor is also advancing the arguments in favour at his Jesus Dynasty blog.

Biblical Studies Carnival XV

Charles Halton at Awilum has posted the fifteenth Biblical Studies Carnival covering the best biblical studies related posts from February. It's presented with some much needed humour, and obviously features a number of posts on the Jesus Tomb film.

Biblical Studies Carnival XVI will be hosted by Brandon Watson over at Novum Testamentum in April.

The Cross (2001) - Scene Guide

Here's the Scene Guide for Lance Tracy's The Cross (my review). This one is a little different from normal, as one of the DVD options is to have bible references turned on. So the references given here are mainly the ones cited by the DVD itself. Those in brackets are additional ones I have included.

[Opening Shots]
Road To The Cross - (John 19:17, Matt 27:55-56)
Magdalene Cured - (Mark 16:9)
Crucifixion - (John 19:18)
Boy Jesus - (Luke 2:41-52)
Father Forgive - (Mark 15:24, Matt 27:39-43)
John Baptist - (Matt 3:1-17)
Mother Son, Son Mother - (John 19:25-27)
Who Is The Greatest - {Luke 24:22-27}
Foot Washing - (John 13:1-38)
Betrayal - (Matt 26:36-50)
Gethsemane - {Mark 14:32-42}
Arrest - {Mark 14:43-52}
Trial - (Luke 22:54)
Denial - (Matt 26:69-75)
Roman Trial - (John 19:1-16; {Matt 27:25})
Beating, Judas' Suicide, Peter Weeps - (Matt 27:26-30, 1-10)
Crucifixion - (Luke 23:36-43, Mark 15:33-37, 2 Cor 5:21)
Resurrection - (John 20:1-18)
Peter & John At Tomb - (John 20:1-18)
Mary Sees Jesus - (John 20:1-18)
Mary Tells The Disciples - (John 20:1-18)

Notes
Of all the gospels, this one relies most heavily on John. Much of the information from Gethsemane to Jesus's death is largely common, but where there are some differences, they often chose John in preference to the others. In particular the resurrection sequence almost solely reproduces John 20.

This film also is one of the few to base Mary Magdalene more on scripture than tradition, although there is still a good deal of artistic licence. So nowhere does this film treat Mary as a prostitute. Instead we see Jesus heal her after she has self harmed / attempted suicide, and then exorcise her. Whilst we have no idea what impact, whichever demons Jesus cast out, had had on her this was an effective visual way of communicating the information, just as in Gibson's The Passion of the Christ the brief shots there communicate his take on Mary.

One aspect that didn't ring true for me was Caiaphas recollection of Jesus as a boy. Early on in the film we flashback to the incident in Luke 2:41-51 where Jesus goes missing and is found "sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions". In this film we're shown a younger Caiaphas as amongst those teachers, and later on in the film the older Caiaphas recalls the incident and knows that these two Jesuses are one and the same.

When I interviewed Lance Tracy, I wanted to ask him about the use of Matt 27:25 in the trial before Pilate. Whereas this sentence is only used once in just one of the gospels, here the crowd repeats it several times. Given the long association of that verse with anti-Semitism I was a bit troubled by it. However, this is also offset by the small size of the crowd in this scene. This is one of the few films where Pilate's court is shown, but is not crammed full. Such a small crowd off sets the possibility that this crowd could represent all Jewish people even at that time, and is a nice way of dealing with the scripture whilst still including it. Personally I wish they had just had the crowd utter it once (or not at all), but this is one of the most interesting scenes in the film for how it is shot.