The Nativity on BBC1

One of the historical consultants explains that her Role was to ignore historical veracity.


'Of course, acting as historical consultant on a retelling of the birth stories is quite a tall order. Like most biblical scholars I’m rather sceptical of the historical veractiy of the stories as they now appear in Matthew and Luke. My brief, though, was to put my uncertainties to one side, to accept a broadly harmonised story-line, and simply to add local detail and colour where I could.'

I suppose this is a bit like getting Sir Richard Attenborough as a consultant on 'Ice Age.

But he is a real scholar,not a Bible scholar,so would not 'put his uncertainties' to one side.

Detroit Lions Missionaries

If two earnest young men stop you in the street to explain to you that the Detroit Lions are the greatest football team in the NFL, and they know this because they have a burning in their heart that this is so, what should your response be?

What if they then went on to try to get you to believe that the Book of Mormon is true?

Jesus of Nazareth: An Independent Historian's Account of His Life and Teaching

In this brilliant book, by the brilliant independent historian, Maurice Casey, Professor Casey shows on page 197 that 'Mary Magdalene was particularly important, and other rich women were instrumental in providing for financing and other practical aspects of the ministry in Galilee.'


In this brilliant book, by the brilliant independent historian, Maurice Casey, Professor Casey shows on page 64 that the disciples were so poor that they had to go into cornfields in Galilee and pick grain to eat on the Sabbath to avoid starving.

Truly, Professor Casey has an independent mind.

On page 194,Professor Casey gives unshakeable evidence, obtained simply by reading the Bible, that there were many other relatively rich women whose donations had a cumulative effect that was evidently important.

If only those rich women who were instrumental in providing for financing and other practical aspects of the ministry in Galilee had read Professor Casey's book, they would have realised that the disciples were so poor that they had to eat raw grain to survive.