Who Wrote the BIBLE?

About this episode

Tony Robinson discusses the Bible as a complex collection of texts with guests John Barton and Francesca Stavrakopoulou.

Today Tony is joined by an Anglican priest, John Barton, and an atheist scholar, Francesca Stavrakopoulou, to strip away myth and reverence and reveal the Bible as a messy, brilliant, centuries-long experiment in storytelling, belief, politics, and power. Full of sex, violence, poetry, argument, and big ideas, the Bible emerges not as a single holy book but as one of the most influential and fascinating collections of texts ever written. As Francesca says, ‘ whether we believe it or not, the Bible is one of the most important cultural icons of our time.’ Hosted by Sir Tony Robinson | Instagram @sirtonyrobinson Producer: Melissa FitzGerald | X @melissafitzg With Professor John Barton | theology.ox.ac.uk/people/john-barton John is an Anglican priest and biblical scholar. From 1991 to 2014, he was the Oriel and Laing Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Oriel College. In addition to his academic career, he has been an ordained and serving priest in the Church of England since 1973. His research interests and extensive publications have been in the areas of the Old Testament prophets, the biblical canon, biblical…

People in this episode

Host: Tony Robinson

Guests: John Barton, Francesca Stavrakopoulou

Topics covered

• Bible
• storytelling
• belief
• politics
• power
• cultural icons

Keywords

• Bible
• John Barton
• Francesca Stavrakopoulou
• storytelling
• cultural icons
• theology
• Old Testament

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Church of England, University of Oxford

Books & works: A History of the Bible: The Book and Its Faiths

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