There have been various sarcastic comments made about Jeffrey Archer's last book "The Gospel According to Judas by Benjamin Iscariot", but The Guardian's digested read might just be the best. Quite why anyone would still take Jeffrey Archer seriously is beyond me, even if he is writing with a Professor. It's even possible that Archer's book is inadvertently discrediting the whole "Gospel of Judas" story far more effectively than the host of biblical scholars who have tried to do likewise by tackling it head on.
(And yes, I know that one is a lost gospel whilst the other is a work of fiction cashing in on it, but still…)
Hi Matt! This is totally off topic, but I guess you'd be interested to know . . .
ReplyDeleteI just received my DVD copies of "The Last Days of Pompeii" (1984) and "A.D."
As you know, the two mini-series have not been officially released on DVD, but I got these from an online DVD store here in Canada that specializes in rare movies and TV shows (I could give you the website, if you like). The quality of the products, I must say, is top-notch, and the packaging is excellent. My next purchase from them would be "Masada" (with Peter O'Toole and Peter Strauss), based on Josephus' account of the last rebel resistance in the First Jewish Revolt against Rome, and the non-biblical (but biblical in proportions) "Centennial."
I haven't looked at the DVDs in their entirety yet, but I browsed through them very quickly. The picture quality of "The Last Days of Pompeii" is good, though "A.D." 's is not quite. However, this "A.D." DVD is the complete 9-hour version. (The DVD from Gospel Films that is widely available right now is a heavily-edited 6-hour version).
"The Last Days of Pompeii" is seven hours with three parts on 3 discs, while "A.D." is on 5 discs, along with a bonus disc fealuring the CNN documentary "After Jesus: The First Christians."
I'd would very much like to hear your thoughts on these mini-series, especially on "A.D."