The Bible: A History

In the first episode of this provocative new series, novelist Howard Jacobson is the first of seven prominent figures to give their personal view of the Bible and why it's relevant today. Jacobson confronts the raging controversy between militant atheists and those who believe in the literal truth of the Creation story as told in Genesis. In a powerfully argued polemic, Jacobson suggests that both sides have missed the point and concludes that the Creation story is a life enhancing myth: a great work of literature which celebrates the creativity of both the Creator and man, his creation.

War correspondent Rageh Omaar, who was brought up as a Muslim, examines Abraham, one of the most revered patriarchs of both the Jewish and Christian Bible and of the Muslim Holy Quran. According to all three faiths, he was the first man to worship one God - and one God alone - and all three religions claim him as an ancestor. He's often cited by world statesmen as a unifying figure for all the three religions, yet today many of the children of Abraham are locked in conflict. Omaar travels to Israel, the West Bank and Iraq to investigate the story of Abraham, and ask whether his legacy is a source of great division or if the great patriarch holds the key to peace and reconciliation.

Conservative MP and Christian Ann Widdecombe, goes in search of the law of Moses, tracing the historical origins of the Ten Commandments and their profound influence on British society for over two millennia. She has robust encounters with scholars, and with leading atheists Christopher Hitchens and Stephen Fry, who reject some of her most deeply held beliefs. Fry informs her that her damn Commandments have suppressed, tyrannised and bullied. But Ann passionately argues that we would have happier, more fulfilled lives today if we still followed biblical law.

Historian and broadcaster Bettany Hughes meets the feisty women figures of the Bible. Its fashionable to dismiss the Bible as a manifesto for misogyny. Undeniably, many of its pages are rank with sexism: the proud Queen, Jezebel, is fed to the dogs, the teenage girl, Salome, is used as sexual bait. But Hughes argues that the Bible is a window on the Bronze Age, a time when women had more power. She introduces a dazzling cast of female characters: warriors, adulterous wives, mothers and good women: all daughters of Eve who speak volumes about their world, and our own.

Gerry Adams, politician and supporter of the IRA throughout years of sectarian conflict and the subsequent peace process, investigates the life and death of Jesus Christ, against the backdrop of his own life and career. Adams describes himself as an Irish Catholic who, despite all the let-downs and scandals that the Church has been embroiled in, remains a member. Adams sets out to discover the real, historical Jesus, rather than the version of Jesus he was taught about as a child, and to establish who killed him and why.

Tom Holland, historian and award winning author on the classical world, examines St. Paul. After Jesus, Paul is the most important person in the story of the origins of Christianity and to this day he provokes controversy. Opponents of homosexuality and women priests cite the teachings of St Paul to make their case. But Tom Holland argues that St. Paul does not deserve his reactionary reputation and that this complex and contradictory figure was in fact a revolutionary thinker. Liberals, as well as conservatives, owe him a profound debt of gratitude.