Essential trivia.

And, Behold, a Burning Bush: An Aussie Gentile on the Holy Mount in Search of What was Written by Men in Step with God by Bill Priest; Seaview Press, 2002, $21.95.

FEW BOOKS begin with a quotation from Exodus. Which may be just as well, as the authorship of the Pentateuch will be argued long after we are all gone. But when God said to Moses, "The place where you are standing is Holy Ground," he may have set in motion several thousand years of Western civilisation. Moses, of course, was by the burning bush and God was leading him to the promised land. Still promised it seems. To so many.

Bill Priest has compiled what his book's end-paper calls a "non-essential bible trivia quiz". Two thousand questions in sets of ten about biblical history and folklore, it is ideal for cold nights with mulled wine around the fire in the ski-lodge. Or for whisky priests in guilty monastic gloom.

It is a remarkable piece of work. Someone wise once said that theology is all anthropology. This book is a good example. At the very least one has to compliment the author's prodigious research--the Vatican would probably be jealous of his database. Ignoring centuries of historical dispute, Priest embraces not only all the books of the Apocrypha but also the rejected remnants of abandoned Gospels in what he calls the New Testament Apocrypha (Thomas, Andrew, Mary, and lots more). But he goes further. In afterwords he discusses the flood legends and creation myths of the Mesopotamian regions, and also mentions various rainbow legends of the Teutonic, Inca, Iroquois and Aboriginal histories. He lists various versions of the underworld found throughout the world and history. He refers occasionally to the Koran ("Like the Bible but without the jokes"). Endearing, but not explored.

This should not however diminish the great virtue of this book. It serves to remind us that the whole basis of Western civilisation has been formed largely by memories, stories and truths of the Judeo-Christian tradition since at least the calling of Abram from Ur. I may not be able, because I had no Marist Brothers to beat it into me, to recite the Catechism or the Ten Commandments, but I have many friends who can. And even with my Protestant-Lite education I still know two versions of the Lord's Prayer and two Creeds. I have a nasty feeling there are three. I must check.

When I first opened this book a group of friends suggested we try naming the Twelve Apostles. Writing the names on a bar tab we could only come up with eleven. A quick glance at Priest's index assures us that the King James Version doesn't mention Bartholomew, at least not in the Synoptics. But in John he may be Nathaniel. And was Mathias the replacement for Judas? It seems agreed that he was. However, in a quick sculling of various apocryphal (that is, not just second-ranking, but rejected) gospels, Priest reveals that no fewer than twenty-nine apparent apostles claim to have been close to Jesus.

We should all be grateful that the early Fathers and the Council of Trent worked so hard to ration all this wisdom to ...