I’ve been watching that Peter Jennings special Jesus and Paul. Actually, just watching a little at a time, because it’s so long, and really not very good.
It’s such a fascinating subject, and he’s got such good scholars (Crossan, Fredricksen), but he continually falls into the trap of primitivism (the Arabs living in Israel today are the same people as at the time of Jesus, they’re a simple, hard-working, peasant folk).
And what’s worse, he doesn’t give the scholars time to really talk. A brief snippet or sound-bite here and there is all they get.
It really makes me fondly remember and long for more like the PBS Frontline show From Jesus to Christ. That was what Jennings and ABC are trying to do, but really what commercial television probably can’t do.
Because it’s ABC, it has to be pitched at a twelve-year-old’s level of comprehension–and not a very intelligent or well-read twelve-year-old, either.
I heard today that the BBC is going to do a series based on James Carroll’s “Constantine’s Sword.” That should be interesting, as Carroll brings attention to a number of points about Jesus and the making of the New Testament that most Christians (and most Jews) are unaware of.