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Jesus: The Evidence is a three-part television miniseries made by London Weekend Television (LWT) for Channel 4, and transmitted in the UK in 1984 over the Easter period (Ep.1 - 8 April 1984; Ep.2 -15 April 1984; and Ep.3 - 22 April 1984).
The series was the first major religious commission by the UK’s newly established fourth channel, and signalled a major departure from the largely non-critical approach to religious subject-matter that had been established from the earliest days of the BBC. In setting itself up to be deliberately provocative, questioning and speculative, the series sparked a furore, and marked a significant moment in the deterioration in the relationship between the Christian churches, and the UK's broadcasting institutions. [1] The series' content referenced a range of popularized treatments of the search for the ‘real’ Jesus, including Hugh Schonfield’s The Passover Plot , and Morton Smith’s Jesus the Magician .
The idea for the series was sparked by an article about The Gnostic Gospels, [2] an award-winning book by the American scholar Elaine Pagels, which was previewed in The Sunday Times in December 1979, [3] tweaking the interest of John Birt who at that time was Director of Programmes at LWT. An accompanying book of the same name was produced with the series by author Ian Wilson who also appeared as an interviewee.
The series featured a number of notable scholars, including Helmut Koester, Werner Kümmel, Dennis Nineham, Morton Smith, I Howard Marshall, George A Wells, and Géza Vermes.
The show was narrated by the actor Jeremy Kemp, researched by Jean-Claude Bragard, produced and directed by David W. Rolfe, executive produced by Jane Hewland, and series produced by Julian Norridge.
The series became the focus of a campaign of protest led by the Evangelical youth magazine, Buzz, which drew wide support from across many sections of the churches (particularly the Evangelical and Catholic wings). One leading commentator noted that what the series demonstrated was the way in which Channel 4 was "not so much the last of the main public service channels to arrive, as the first swallow heralding the broadcasting pluralism of cable and satellite". [4] According to Bonner and Aston (2003):
The producers did not help themselves either by including a statue of Christ that symbolically exploded in slow-motion. Originally intended to illustrate a point made by Albert Schweitzer, it became a sort of visual punctuation mark used several times in the first and second programmes, causing genuine offence to some. [5]
Henry Chadwick, then Regius Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge, commented that the programmes "juxtaposed perfectly sensible scholarly opinions with opinions so outré and hard to defend on rational grounds that disservice was done to the sensible people by the company they were portrayed as keeping". [1]
Gnosticism is a collection of religious ideas and systems that coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Jewish and early Christian sects. These diverse groups emphasized personal spiritual knowledge (gnosis) above the proto-orthodox teachings, traditions, and authority of religious institutions.
Irenaeus was a Greek bishop noted for his role in guiding and expanding Christian communities in the southern regions of present-day France and, more widely, for the development of Christian theology by combating heterodox or Gnostic interpretations of Scripture as heresy and defining proto-orthodoxy. Originating from Smyrna, he had seen and heard the preaching of Polycarp, who in turn was said to have heard John the Evangelist.
The Gospel of Thomas is a non-canonical sayings gospel. It was discovered near Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in 1945 among a group of books known as the Nag Hammadi library. Scholars speculate the works were buried in response to a letter from Bishop Athanasius declaring a strict canon of Christian scripture. Most scholars place the composition during the second century, while others have proposed dates as late as 250 AD with signs of origins perhaps dating back to 60 AD. Many scholars have seen it as evidence of the existence of a "Q source" that might have been similar in its form as a collection of sayings of Jesus, without any accounts of his deeds or his life and death, referred to as a sayings gospel, though most conclude that Thomas depends on or harmonizes the Synoptics.
Televangelism and occasionally termed radio evangelism or teleministry, denotes the utilization of media platforms, notably radio and television, for the marketing of religious messages, particularly Christianity.
The Nag Hammadi library is a collection of early Christian and Gnostic texts discovered near the Upper Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi in 1945.
Sky One was a British pay television channel operated and owned by Sky Group. Originally launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, it was Europe's first satellite and non-terrestrial channel. From 31 July 1989, it became Sky One and broadcast exclusively in the United Kingdom and Ireland as British Sky Broadcasting's flagship channel. It existed until 1 September 2021, when it closed down as part of a restructuring with its EPG position taken by Sky Showcase and much of its content library moved to Sky Max.
Elaine Pagels, née Hiesey, is an American historian of religion. She is the Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religion at Princeton University. Pagels has conducted extensive research into early Christianity and Gnosticism.
Religious broadcasting, sometimes referred to as faith-based broadcasts, is the dissemination of television and/or radio content that intentionally has religious ideas, religious experience, or religious practice as its core focus. In some countries, religious broadcasting developed primarily within the context of public service provision, whilst in others, it has been driven more by religious organisations themselves. Across Europe and in the US and Canada, religious broadcasting began in the earliest days of radio, usually with the transmission of religious worship, preaching or "talks". Over time, formats evolved to include a broad range of styles and approaches, including radio and television drama, documentary, and chat show formats, as well as more traditional devotional content. Today, many religious organizations record sermons and lectures, and have moved into distributing content on their own web-based IP channels.
Valentinianism was one of the major Gnostic Christian movements. Founded by Valentinus in the 2nd century AD, its influence spread widely, not just within Rome but also from Northwest Africa to Egypt through to Asia Minor and Syria in the East. Later in the movement's history it broke into an Eastern and a Western school. Disciples of Valentinus continued to be active into the 4th century AD, after the Roman Emperor Theodosius I issued the Edict of Thessalonica, which declared Nicene Christianity as the State church of the Roman Empire.
Edwin Masao Yamauchi is a Japanese-American historian, (Protestant) Christian apologist, editor and academic. He is Professor Emeritus of History at Miami University, where he taught from 1969 until 2005. He is married to Kimie Yamauchi.
Sky Television plc was a public limited company which operated a nine-channel satellite television service, launched by Rupert Murdoch's News International on 5 February 1989. Sky Television and its rival British Satellite Broadcasting suffered large financial losses, and merged on 2 November 1990 to form British Sky Broadcasting. A programming merger took effect on 1 December 1990.
GOD TV is a word of faith Christian media network that started in the United Kingdom. The network's main offices are located in Plymouth, England, UK, and Orlando, Florida, US. Regional offices are situated in India, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana and Australia.
Ian Howard Marshall was a Scottish New Testament scholar. He was Professor Emeritus of New Testament Exegesis at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. He was formerly the chair of the Tyndale Fellowship for Biblical and Theological Research; he was also president of the British New Testament Society and chair of the Fellowship of European Evangelical Theologians. Marshall identified as an Evangelical Methodist. He was the author of numerous publications, including 2005 Gold Medallion Book Award winner New Testament Theology.
Jesus the Magician is a 1978 book by Morton Smith arguing that the historical Jesus was a magician who "sprang from a Galilean strain of Semitic paganism" (p. 68).
Buddhism was known in the pre-Christian Greek world through the campaigns of Alexander the Great, and several prominent early Christian fathers, including Clement of Alexandria and St. Jerome, were aware of the Buddha, even mentioning him in their works. However, the majority of modern scholars who have studied both Buddhism and Christianity hold that there is no direct historical evidence of any influence by Buddhism on early Christianity. Scholars generally consider any such influence implausible given that first century Jews are highly unlikely to have been open to far eastern concepts that appeared opposed to some of their basic beliefs.
Buddhologist Edward Conze (1966) has proposed that similarities existed between Buddhism and Gnosticism, a term deriving from the name Gnostics, which was given to a number of Christian sects. To the extent that Buddha taught the existence of evil inclinations that remain unconquered, or that require special spiritual knowledge to conquer, Buddhism has also qualified as Gnostic.
Tobias Churton is a British scholar of Rosicrucianism, Freemasonry, Gnosticism, and other esoteric movements. He has a Master's degree in Theology from Brasenose College, Oxford. He is the author of Gnostic Philosophy, The Magus of Freemasonry, and Freemasonry and other works on esotericism.
A few months after the 1969 premiere of the children's television program Sesame Street in the U.S., talks began in the United Kingdom to broadcast the programme or develop a co-production on British television. The idea was controversial at the time; the BBC was opposed to it, and ITV was reluctant. Response from parents, educators, and television officials to the show was varied, ranging from distaste to acceptance. After much public debate, the BBC chose not to air Sesame Street for several reasons, including the show's educational methods, its creation for American audiences, and the UK's long history of quality educational television programmes for young children. ITV, after much research, including a report entitled Reactions to Sesame Street in Britain, 1971, chose to air Sesame Street on a limited basis. It then switched to Channel 4 in the 1980s and aired there until 2001, when it was pulled from its regular schedule, replaced by The Hoobs.
Gnostics was a 1987 four-part drama-documentary series made by Border TV for Channel 4 (UK). It was re-broadcast in 1990. The writer of the series, Tobias Churton, also released an accompanying book.
This is a timeline of the history of the British broadcaster London Weekend Television. It has provided the ITV weekend service for London since 1968.