If the bible is a book for outsiders, then we need to take seriously what outsiders say about it. I want to use three examples from black atlantic history to illustrate this point and to make my case. The first example comes from 18 31 in jamaica when enslaved africans are not allowed to read the bible. And those who are allowed to readThe slave bible is 90 % old testament and only ten% new testament. Abit of a clue there, in terms of how the slave regime wanted to use the bible to maintain the status quo. But in 18 31, a baptist minister by the name of sham sharps sharp gets one of the full versions of the
Adam and Eve, Noah’s Ark, Moses and the Ten Commandments, the parting of the Red Sea. These are a few of the stories from the Old Testament. And then there’s the New Testament, with its account of the life of Jesus, the Good Samaritan, the raising of Lazarus and the feeding of the five thousand. Whatever our creed or background, these stories are embedded in our consciousness. They inform our everyday speech and much of our art, music and literature. But which of these books is the greater? For this archive episode, we gathered expert voices to consider the question including writer and broadcaster Anne Atkins, Booker Prize-winning novelist and journalist Howard Jacobson, Professor of Theology and Culture in the African Diaspora Robert Beckford, and Anglican priest and presenter the Rev. Richard Coles. Hosting the discussion is broadcaster, comedian and author David Baddiel.
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