Original version

BBC World Service Online

Heart and Soul

Documentaries

Religion & Ethics

Personal approaches to spirituality from around the world.

Heart and Soul: The Prophets: The Prophets - Part Two

Magazines & Reviews

Factual: Health & Wellbeing

The Prophets - Episode 2

14/12/2013 GMT

The Prophets - Part Two

The Prophets

BBC World Service - Heart and Soul, The Prophets, The Prophets - Part Two

The stories of the Prophets Miriam and Elijah of the Old Testament

The stories of Prophets Miriam and Elijah of the Old Testament, their ideas and how these relate to Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths.

In the second part of his exploration of four of the Prophets of the Old Testament, Clive Lawton tells the story of Elijah, a miracle-working, thundering, wild-eyed and somewhat anti-social itinerant. Elijah is very much the prototype Old Testament prophet, and only one of two people in the Jewish Bible who, strangely, does not die. 

As a result, he is thought to be almost still hovering around, ready to intervene when the right time comes. Jews open their doors to Elijah each Passover and pour him a cup of wine. He has a special seat at every circumcision and they sing of him at the end of every Sabbath. 

Clive then tells the story of Miriam, the ‘Prophetess’. She is one of the few women in the Bible to be called a prophetess, though it's not entirely clear what that means. In some ways, she is an essential counterbalance to Moses who is always referred to by the Jews as the greatest of the prophets and the transmitter of the core of Jewish teaching and tradition, the Torah. However, without Miriam and her resourcefulness Moses would not have survived, and according to rabbinic tradition without Miriam, Moses would not even have been born.

(Picture: A prophet speaking to the people in the animated Old Testament stories)

Heart and Soul: The Prophets

BBC World Service

Clive Lawton travels to the Holy Land to tell the story of some of the prophets of the Bible.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Heart and Soul

The Prophets

The Prophets - Part Two

Genres

Formats

Brand

Series

BBC World Service Online

About BBC World Service