Plundering Cambridge

For the last eighteen months a single project seems to have dominated much of my working life. When it first came up, I jokingly said to a colleague that we would probably look back on "The Christ Files' as the high-light of our careers. Four countries later, with four more to go, and I'm starting to think that quip was more than a little prophetic. Around seven months from now the result should be a landmark series that presents a conclusive " and more importantly, unbiased " assembly of the historical evidence for the existence of Jesus Christ. Naturally this production has already taken the television crew I am part of to some of the most famous universities, libraries and archaeological sites in the world " but you can read more about those trips by following the links in the fact box above. Our most recent destination has been the University city of Cambridge"

Normal people support football teams; academics support universities. And it appears that if you're a musty professor from the United Kingdom, you're either an Oxford or a Cambridge fan. Last year's [trip to Oxford] produced some gems in our search for the historical background to Jesus. Cambridge was next on our list of ‘top five’ tourist spots for history nerds (I chose the accompanying picture because I thought it looked most like a an academic’s ‘album cover’ of the team wandering the city streets). It would deliver the same treasure trove of sources, but our first task was a mass experiment that took months to put together.

The big experiment
One of my jobs as a script writer is to try and come up with ways to make complex ideas easily digestible, and when you're talking television the easier it is to get it under your belt the better. One of the big hurdles in uncovering Jesus' history is that even the best manuscripts we have tend to run out somewhere around 50 AD. That leaves a gap of about two decades from the time Jesus died to the time people started writing about his life and teachings. Most historians we've talked to don't seem too worried about this large jump, pointing to "oral history' (the verbal histories a community passes down to its members) to bridge the gap. But how do you make what sounds like a 20-year game of "Chinese whispers' sound credible to skeptical television viewers?

I thought the best thing to do would be to show them " set up a demonstration of how easy oral history could be transmitted, filmed over a couple of hours and crammed into a few minutes. The director liked the idea, but once I had opened my big mouth I then had to make it happen.

Step one was organizing the volunteers. For months on end I corresponded by email with a growing list of Cambridge church-goers who thought they might be able to spare the time. We would need at least 20 all up if the illustration was to work; I aimed for 35 just to be sure. Then came our first big answer to prayer " the caretakers of The Round Church, the city's oldest Christian building offered it as a location. But would everyone turn up on the day?

I can tell you I was very nervous standing at the front of our ancient location, looking out on a cold Cambridge Monday morning while the crew set up inside. No-one seemed to be hurrying in our direction. The time for the volunteers to arrive came and went, and only a total of six people had walked through the door. Was I panicked? Strangely not! I kept praying, knowing that what we were attempting to do was to draw attention to the historical validity of God's word, and bringing glory to Him is the sort of prayer God delights to answer. Ten minutes passed and another six people dribbled in, but our volunteers still only numbered 12. The director and I exchanged tense looks. But the set-up was taking longer than expected so we had a little extra time. And then in a rush, seven more people arrived and one minute before we started the final volunteer walked in. The whole experiment went off without a hitch, producing more than a few laughs along the way and a solid visual argument for the effectiveness of oral history. But to see it, you'll have to wait till the program comes out"

The paper chase
Another important lesson I learnt in the process of putting this latest shoot together was that just because historians know of the existence of an ancient manuscript doesn't mean they actually know where it is. I think that some of the more prominent libraries around the world bear more resemblance to a teenage boy's room than a learning institution, given their ability to put their hands on valuable works by early historians. But once we'd sorted through the various rumours and half-truths, we were happy to discover that two of our most sought after documents resided only a few kilometers apart in Cambridge " as opposed to the basements of institutions in Basel, Milan or Paris to name a few options. Better still, the curators were easy to communicate with and keen to see their collections included in our project.

First prize, however, had to go to St John's College, Cambridge, which not only provided the 12th century manuscript of Josephus (pictured here with an ecstatic John Dickson) but also a "Harry Potter' library to film it in. Imagine a long room lined with dark oak bookcases, crammed with centuries-old leather tomes, framed by a huge window looking out on the River Cam and the Bridge of Sighs. And did I mention the wrought-iron staircase you had to climb to reach it? It was a cinematographer's dream.

Next stop, the Holy Land
So, that leg of the job's done and we're heading for the airport. The next destination is one that has taken even longer to prepare for. It's been a year of planning and shortly we will be touching down in Israel. It will be my fourth time filming in the country and previous trips have taught me that it can be a challenging experience for a whole range of reasons. First stop, Galilee and the Golan Heights. Wasn't that where there was a little fracas between the Hezbollah and the Israeli Army, I hear you say? Yes, I was afraid you'd bring that up"

But the same God who saw us through the last four countries will be taking the same trip, and He's been an amazingly calming influence. So, see you in Tel Aviv!