Earlier last year, the movie “The Book of Eli” began being shot in New Mexico; is due to be released on January 15, 2010 AD. It is a little difficult to get much info on this movie and some descriptions seem to conflict but: the movie is set in the post-apocalyptic year 2043 AD. It appears to be set circa 30 years after a final war which caused a hole in the ozone layer and humanity is left in a bit of a mess. The movie stars Denzel Washington as “Eli,” Malcolm McDowell as “Lombardi,” Gary Oldman as “Carnegie,” Mila Kunis as “Solara,” et al.
The premise is that Eli guards The Book of Eli (do not if he wrote it or why his name is also that of the book) that is said to hold the knowledge which could redeem the world. Carnegie and his posse are out to get The Book of Eli and the shenanigans ensue. Carnegie’s adopted daughter, Solara, ends up becoming Eli’s guide. The official Warner Brothers film description states that Eli is “Driven by this commitment and guided by his belief in something greater than himself.”
Actually, judging by more recent commercials; it appears that “the book” is the Bible and The Book of Eli is his story. Although, knowing Hollywood if the book is, indeed, the Bible it will turn out to be hollowed out and contain Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth—think about it: a hole in the ozone layer and the Earth is in bad shape! Also, all that it takes to go from “Eli” to “Al” is a copyist error! Perhaps Bart Ehrman will write “Misquoting Eli.”
Denzel Washington stated:
there's the classic battle of good and evil in this. God and the devil, if you will, and I found that interesting […] We all at some point are in search of something and higher power, whatever you want to call it, the meaning of life, you know? [...] I know I was, especially at even my son's age, in my 20s, and ... dabbling in Eastern philosophies and yoga and Buddhism and Christianity and Islam. I kind of touched them all, you know, just trying to figure out the meaning of life or, if nothing else, figure myself out. So I think there's that. There is a thirst for that. ... As a classic battle between God and the devil, or even more specifically for the character of [Eli], I mean, he's five days' walk from the Promised Land, if you will, for taking this book where it belongs, and literally all hell breaks loose.1
An interesting thought experiment is to juxtapose the premise behind The Book of Eli and the Bible and consider them in more ways that just a redemptive message being guarded by some, though not kept secret, while others failingly attempt to discredit it.
Let us imagine that in such a post-apocalyptic world the internet is dead and gone (NO!!!!!!!) as well as all other electronic devices thus; no electronic Bibles, no eBooks, no MP3 audio books, no hand/palm devices, etc. (my nephew predicts that someday YouTube, Twitter and Facebook will merge into one ginormous site called YouTwitFace).
So, we are left with printed texts alone. Still, there are millions upon millions of Bibles in print but let us imagine that somehow they have all (and in the original Greek “all” means “all”—that is a little apologetics humor) have been destroyed. What now?
Well, for the Old Testament we have some 10,000 manuscripts dated from 250 BC to 1100 AD.
What we learn about the Old Testament when we consider the manuscript evidence, roughly considering our modern version versus the oldest manuscripts is that with the passage of over 1,000 years we find only minor changes and no change to the message. The bottom line is that the Old Testament has more manuscripts, earlier manuscripts, better copied manuscripts, and more reliably recorded history than any other book of its time. If you cannot trust the Old Testament, then you would have to throw out all of ancient history.
As for the New Testament we have more manuscripts and earlier manuscripts which have been more accurately copied than any other book from antiquity. We have circa 5,700 Greek manuscripts with a total of circa 24,000 when we include other languages while most other books of that time have 10-20 manuscripts. The one that comes second to the New Testament is Homer’s Iliad for which we have 643 manuscripts. The New Testament is far and away even from the one that comes in second—it is not a close second as the difference is some 23,357 manuscripts.
Now, let us further consider that the over 34,000 manuscripts for the Bible have all been destroyed. What now?
We could take the writings of the Early Church Fathers—their books, commentaries, sermons and correspondence—in which they quote the New Testament and we could reconstruct the New Testament with the exception of 11 verses (verses that do not affect any doctrine). The writings of the early church fathers are from within 250-300 years of the original writings (which is one fifth less than almost all secular literature). We have 36,289 quotations of the New Testament from the early church fathers, some are 2 or 3 chapters long.
If Eli is protecting the Bible, those who are after it would cease chasing him and would be able to reconstruct it.
Comments
Although the premise of the film is far fetched,I'm still hoping for the best and might check it out. Thanks for the clear evidence that God has preserved his word, despite the claims of critics.
It is difficult to know what to expect from Hollywood (ok, maybe not) but we will see what they do with the issue of the Bible in this movie.
Hi.
From Denzel's comments it seems quite clear to me that this movie will be a typical universalist, new age, pagan fusion propaganda film that plays down the absolute truth of the Biblical gospel or the only name given among men where we can be saved, Jesus Christ.
The book of eli will no doubt end up to be some kind of gnostic tool which will have some kind of power as well to be used for who knows whatever gnostic reason.
2 Tim 4:2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away [their] ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
Mar 7:7 Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching [for] doctrines the commandments of men.
nice article
Within the context of the film it was explained that the Bibles were burned because the 3rd war was blamed on religion. So I doubt that the texts you reference still exist within the context of the film. Furthermore without reliable access to transportation it would be impossible for the antagonists to assemble them especially since so few literate people existed. The few literate people would have to identify the appropriate texts on their own as anyone hunting for books would have to bring in everything he found. Carnegie would either be overwhelmed with the number of books he had to go through or stymied by the lack of any books at all. If all of the bibles were destroyed I wouldn't hold out much hope for reconstructing it from manuscripts.
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