I'm neutral. I don't know if the Bible is true or not. So this is just a history show to me. But it does create doubt about the authenticity of the New Testament. People who believe the Bible purely based on faith will not appreciate the research and history this show offers.
7 Reviews
Informative and Beautifully Produced
lavatch12 March 2016
Warning: Spoilers
This 2003 documentary was produced in the UK and runs for slightly over two hours. The principal goal is to tell the fascinating story of the writing of the New Testament, including authorship and how the various books were eventually compiled.
As a complex topic, the film remains somewhat on the surface level of some extremely thorny scholarly issues. One of the points that is touched upon is how the authors of the four gospels are only vaguely associated with real people. If we know so little about the lives of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, then we know even less about their writing contributions to the gospels.
Nothing remains in the original hands of the alleged authors, and scribes often contributed new writing to the texts. The John who is the author of the gospel is in all likelihood not the same John of the Book of Revelation. And the writings of the all-important figure of Paul clearly included the works of others, who added to Paul's letters.
The scholars selected for the interviews in this program were extremely well-chosen. The film was enhanced with excellent location footage of the key sites in the Levant, Northern Africa, and the Mediterranean. The extremely articulate narration was spoken by John Morgan.
One of the most insightful parts of the film was the presentation of how the 27 books of the New Testament were finally compiled. Remarkably, it was not until the fourth century C.E. that the key figure of Athanaseus of Alexandra made the decision through his influence at the church councils to select the books that would comprise the New Testament. The so-called Nag Hammadi texts were excluded and labeled as heretical. As Professor Bart Ehrman indicates at the close of the program, Christianity would have been "a quite different phenomenon" if volumes like the Book of Thomas had been included in the final version of the New Testament.
This program should have an appeal to both beginning and advanced students of religion, as it serves as an excellent introduction to early Christianity.
As a complex topic, the film remains somewhat on the surface level of some extremely thorny scholarly issues. One of the points that is touched upon is how the authors of the four gospels are only vaguely associated with real people. If we know so little about the lives of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, then we know even less about their writing contributions to the gospels.
Nothing remains in the original hands of the alleged authors, and scribes often contributed new writing to the texts. The John who is the author of the gospel is in all likelihood not the same John of the Book of Revelation. And the writings of the all-important figure of Paul clearly included the works of others, who added to Paul's letters.
The scholars selected for the interviews in this program were extremely well-chosen. The film was enhanced with excellent location footage of the key sites in the Levant, Northern Africa, and the Mediterranean. The extremely articulate narration was spoken by John Morgan.
One of the most insightful parts of the film was the presentation of how the 27 books of the New Testament were finally compiled. Remarkably, it was not until the fourth century C.E. that the key figure of Athanaseus of Alexandra made the decision through his influence at the church councils to select the books that would comprise the New Testament. The so-called Nag Hammadi texts were excluded and labeled as heretical. As Professor Bart Ehrman indicates at the close of the program, Christianity would have been "a quite different phenomenon" if volumes like the Book of Thomas had been included in the final version of the New Testament.
This program should have an appeal to both beginning and advanced students of religion, as it serves as an excellent introduction to early Christianity.
Little more than an attempt to discredit the New Testament.
joeyboyd-2697510 May 2023
Very biased piece with a clear agenda aimed to discredit the authenticity and origins of the Bible. The producers and "experts" give opinion after opinion as if it is proven fact with little to no evidence of anything. There are a lot of "most experts" now agree, based on very flimsy arguments. This is not an objective piece by any stretch of the imagination. Speakers have obviously been hand picked, not for levels of expertise, but for the common agenda of discrediting the authenticity of the Bible and marginalizing true believers. In all fairness, I did not watch the entire piece as I found it to be a waste of time, but in the parts that I did see, not a single scholar was interviewed that held beliefs of the Bible's authenticity. Any time the narrative even mentioned a varying opinion scenes would show Monks in a monastery as if they were the only believers that acknowledged the commonly accepted authors of the new testament. It is unfortunate that such time, money, and energy would be put be put into such a subjective piece masquerading as a researched documentary.
Skewed in only One direction
velvet-3156918 June 2021
It seems they purposely picked only new testament scholars that try to disprove the bible like Bart Ehrman. Dr. Gary Habermas is also a New Testament Scholar who's data is more accurate than what they are trying to depict here. Why didn't they have him on as well and get the two different scholars? This is meant to force their views on others and not get the whole picture out. Not accurate.
Save time, don't watch #fakenews
molivas-0617413 December 2019
This video is exactly what one would expect when dealing with liberal biblical scholars. They do nothing more than create doubt and confusion in their presentation. They Inter mix factual information with falsehood which leaves the listener genuinely confused if this was their first time delving deeper into these subjects.
For Christians the Bible itself is the source of truth
hheartfire8 August 2021
For Christians the Bible itself is the source of truth. This documentary, masquerading as something that is Christian, is filled with supposed experts who absolutely say that things appear in the Bible that don't. Jesus married to Mary at the wedding in Cana? Seriously? And both of your supposed experts say that Jesus had brothers and sisters. Yes he did. They were born after Jesus was born as a Bible *clearly* states that Mary did not have relations with Joseph until after Jesus's birth. If either of your supposed experts had read the Bible more than once or didn't have an agenda to push they would know that. Christians beware... Just enough truth to get you thinking that the rest of it is truth but it is a pack of lies. Read your Bible. It doesn't matter who wrote the testament books because they were inspired by the Holy Spirit. So you wanna know who wrote the New Testament? The Holy Spirit. End of story.
Not looking for truth
lfletellier20 November 2022
The entire discussion revolves around the opinion (and the agenda) that the New Testament of the Bible is not what Christians claim it to be, God's word to his people, written by reliable witnesses who either knew Jesus, or acquired reliable information from those who knew him. The producers obviously carefully selected their so called "Experts" by their critical stances of the New Testament scriptures. Too bad they didn't have the integrity to get both sides of the discussion, as there are many reputable biblical scholars who have solid evidence and strong conviction that the new testament is in fact very reliable.
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