The Bible in the News

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The other day I was working—as I am wont to do—on the Greek and Hebrew texts of the Book of Joshua. “Wouldn’t a phrase from Joshua make a good column?” I wondered. I suppose it’s up to you, the reader, to answer that question, but meanwhile, I’ll turn to a favorite from that book, the walls of Jericho.

Sometimes, it’s the very word “Jericho” that attracts attention in the popular press. This is most clearly the case with the ups and downs of the television show “Jericho.” Its impending cancellation caused a furor among fans in mid-2007. As reported in The Montreal Gazette, the CBS network promised to bring the show back, “but fans have been warned: If the numbers don’t pick up from last season, the walls will come tumbling down for good.” Not content with a single Biblical allusion, the writer observes that “‘Jericho’ … was raised from the dead last month after fans protested en masse.” Similar language is found in the headline of another Canadian newspaper, The Globe and Mail: “Enraged Fans Raise ‘Jericho’ from the Dead.” Alas, as the New York Daily News reported, this was only a temporary resuscitation. In a story, headlined “Nuts! ‘Jericho’ Can’t Overcome Wall of Resistance,” we read, “The walls of ‘Jericho’ crumble again tonight, and this time it’s a good bet they ain’t comin’ back.”

More frequently, the popular press is attracted to the sounds of music that caused the walls to tumble. This is the case in a Washington Post review of a biography of jazz great John Coltrane: “Some listeners attached religious significance to Coltrane and his music, making him ‘a kind of martyr … a kind of seer,’ as if he were shaking the walls of Jericho and breaking the shackles of bondage with the sound of his horn.”

Such musical connections also show up in unexpected places. Take, for example, the knowledge (gleaned from Singapore’s Straits Times) that there is a “female-fronted hardcore punk/metalcore band … hailing from Detroit,” with the name Walls of Jericho, that “promises to bring the house down at their first gig in Singapore.” Or, consider this account, again from the New York Daily News, of a new museum at Woodstock, site of the famed 1969 hippie summer music festival. The connection to our topic? The article elucidates: “The museum is one element of the Bethel Woods Center … which opened in 2006 after many years of debate over what should happen to the land that, quite by chance, hosted the most famous music festival since Joshua blew his trumpets outside the wall of Jericho.”

The image of tumbling walls can also be invoked for a seemingly endless series of causes. Thus, Canada’s National Post chronicles the activities of an American who has “launched a ‘Pray at the Pump’ group to ask God to bring down gas prices, just as the ancient Hebrews called for divine intervention to bring down the walls of Jericho.” On a more poignant note, The Washington Post published a poem as part of Maya Angelou’s tribute to deceased writer and journalist Molly Ivins (with the headline, “Molly Ivins Shook the Walls with Her Clarion Call”). Part of the poem goes like this: “Up to the walls of Jericho/She marched with a spear in her hand … The walls have not come down, but they have been given a serious shaking.”

Our last example comes from The Scotsman, in a story with this intriguing title, “Would You Adam and Eve It? Heaven Help Unlucky Christians Using Bad Chat-Up Lines”: “100 of the worst [pick-up] lines have been gathered by the country’s biggest religious dating organisation, Christian Connection … Christians are no more or less likely to use bad chat-up lines, but they were more likely to use the Bible for references, however obscure. For instance, only those familiar with the story of Jericho’s walls tumbling down will be in tune with the line: ‘How many times do I have to walk round you before you fall for me?’” I don’t know about you, but I don’t find that line obscure at all. In fact, I’m pretty sure it’s the very one I used to attract my wife, Ellie, several decades ago. And we just celebrated our 40th anniversary, with no tumbling walls in sight!

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As is well known, General Shuka Dorfman (pictured), director of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), will neither meet with nor speak with BAR editor Hershel Shanks.

In the past, several prominent Israeli archaeological figures have attempted—unsuccessfully—to arrange a sulha, literally an Arabic peace meal. Among them: Joseph Aviram, longtime director of the Israel Exploration Society; Uzi Dahari, General Dorfman’s deputy; and Dan Bahat, former Jerusalem District Archaeologist and a leading expert in Jerusalem archaeology.^b

Recently, while Shanks was in Jerusalem, archaeologist Yitzhak Magen offered to “speak to Shuka.” Magen is the head of all archaeology in the West Bank and holds a position similar to Dorfman’s in Israel proper.

When Shanks telephoned Magen to see how it went, Magen broke out in roars of laughter without words. Dorfman would not even discuss the matter with Magen. Dorfman was adamant.

The source of Dorman’s animosity to the BAR editor remains unclear.

Meanwhile, Dorfman’s well-known animosity has created at the IAA an atmosphere of fear of associating with Shanks, lest Dorfman learn of the association and retaliate.

Dorfman is reportedly furious that BAR has succeeded in reporting on IAA excavations and research, despite his ban on such publication.

Dorfman has now let it be known that any association with Shanks can result in disassociation from IAA excavations and perhaps dismissal. Recently four different people associated with IAA excavations and research have expressed fear for their jobs if their association with Shanks became known. We cannot say more without jeopardizing the positions of these fine people.

As for Dorfman’s refusal to speak to Shanks, one wag has observed that even Israel’s prime minister will speak to the Palestinian prime minister, but Dorfman will not speak to Shanks.

Ironically, Shanks is welcomed by antiquities departments all around the Mediterranean but not in Israel.

The other day I was working—as I am wont to do—on the Greek and Hebrew texts of the Book of Joshua. “Wouldn’t a phrase from Joshua make a good column?” I wondered. I suppose it’s up to you, the reader, to answer that question, but meanwhile, I’ll turn to a favorite from that book, the walls of Jericho.