Most of us have been reduced to being armchair travellers in the current circumstances. Thankfully with so much TV, internet and literature we have many ways to virtually leave our homes and explore the world.
But how do we distinguish between reliable, authentic guides to travel and history from the spurious and mythological? We instinctively look for the signs in the details. Do writers and directors really know the locations they try to describe? We have probably all watched news reports or documentaries that concern our local area, but made by people without local knowledge. We spot any blunders and laugh at any howlers. The credibility of the reports is undermined.
Hallmarks of local knowledge
It is this kind of scrutiny that can be applied to the four Gospels. Many New Testament historians have been able to test the details of historical and geographical references in the Gospels in order to demonstrate their knowledge of the Holy Land at the time of Christ.
Comedy, free speech and warnings from the past
Hannah Arendt was a Jewish philosopher who grew up in Nazi Germany. Eventually she had to flee to France and, …