麻豆约拍

Hebrew scholar Professor Francesca Stavrakopoulou examines the Bible鈥檚 portrayal of God鈥檚 body, from his head to his feet, showing how the western idea of God developed from the ancient religions and societies of the biblical world.

In this first episode, Francesca challenges the idea that the God of the Bible has no body, and is a 鈥渇ormless, invisible deity鈥�.

She says, 鈥淎s I looked closely at the books comprising the Bible, I couldn鈥檛 find this bodiless God. Instead, these ancient texts conjured a startlingly corporeal image of God as a human-shaped deity, who walked and talked and wept and laughed. A God who was distinctly male. I want to tell the story of the real God of the Bible, as his ancient worshippers saw him: a supersized, muscle-bound, good-looking God, with supra-human powers and earthly passions. By exploring the body of this ancient deity as his worshippers imagined him, we can access their world. We can meet the real God of the Bible.鈥�

Professor Francesca Stavrakopoulou studied theology at Oxford and is currently Professor of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Religion at the University of Exeter. The author of a number of academic works, she also presented the 麻豆约拍2 documentary series The Bible鈥檚 Buried Secrets. She regularly appears on 麻豆约拍1鈥檚 The Big Questions and Sunday Morning Live, and writes for the Guardian, the Mail on Sunday and the Times Literary Supplement.

Abridged and produced by Elizabeth Burke.
A Loftus Media production for 麻豆约拍 Radio 4