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American Morning

Author of 'Walking the Bible' Describes Travels in Holy Land

Aired April 10, 2001 - 09:41   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: This is an important time of year for both Christians and Jews, this past weekend marking the beginning of Passover, and for Christians, Easter, on Sunday.

This morning, we're going to discuss some of the landmarks of both religions with the author of the book "Walking the Bible: A Journey by Land Through the Five Books of Moses." The journey extends from Turkey and Israel to Egypt. Here to talk about it, right here with us in our CNN studios in Atlanta, is Bruce Feiler.

Bruce, good morning. Thanks for joining us.

BRUCE FEILER, AUTHOR, "WALKING THE BIBLE": Good morning. Thank you for having me.

KAGAN: Tell me about this journey. The number one thing I want to know is why. How did you come up with this brilliant idea to travel 10,000 miles?

FEILER: About six years ago, I decided I wanted to reread the Bible. I hadn't read it since I was a kid, which meant I hadn't really read it. So I took it off my shelf, put it by my bed, and it sat there untouched for several years, gathering dust and making me feel guilty.

Then I went to visit a friend in Jerusalem in the summer of '97, and he took me to this promenade overlooking the city, and he said over there is this controversial neighborhood, and over there is the rock where Abraham sacrificed Isaac. And it just hit me like a bolt of Cecil B. DeMille lightning: These are real places you can visit.

So I met this archaeologist, and he agreed to travel with me, and we went. It was three continents, five countries, and four war zones. It took us almost a year of visiting the actual sites in the story.

KAGAN: Was it one continuous journey, or did you go back and visit different places?

FEILER: We would go for a spell and come back because it was very emotional. We weren't trying to prove the Bible or disapprove it, but more experience it. For example, the Dead Sea in Israel is the lowest spot on Earth. It means there is more atmosphere because atmosphere pushes down on the water. The water pushes down on several miles of salt deposits, which then sprout up in the ground in these two- or three-story salt pillars that all Israeli schoolchildren calls Lot's wife. So the idea was to read the Bible in these places; it makes the places come alive, and it, certainly, changes the way you read the stories themselves.

KAGAN: As you went, you could just go and look and say there's the place that this happened -- this is the burning bush, this is Mt. Sinai. You talked to the people as you went, too.

FEILER: In fact, there is a monastery in the southern Sinai where there is an actual burning bush, the monks claim. The first American monk in this 1,500-year history of the monastery lives there. I actually went and sat by this bush, which is a raspberry bramble that's about 6 feet tall, like that raspberry in the backyard that you can never quite control.

As I was sitting there trying to have this experience with the bush, I noticed that off to the left was a fire extinguisher. At first I thought this was an eyesore, and then I realized the unintended humor that this was in case the burning bush caught on fire -- and if it did catch on fire, would you put it out?

I think there is some humor here, but there's also a certain degree of profundity. The land changes the way you read, walking in these places and being in this. That's essentially the offer I'm making to people here: If you read the Bible every day, or if you haven't read it in 20 years, come spend a year in the desert with me, and you'll be changed.

KAGAN: How did it change you?

FEILER: I remember, when I was starting this, I had spent a year reading books about the Bible. And I went to meet my archaeologist and there I was in my brand new Banana Republic pants.

KAGAN: Looking sweet, I'm sure

FEILER: Yes, with enough sunblock for five years. And there he was spilling out of his trousers and his sandals, and I realized that all of my learning was in my head, and all of his learning was in his feet. That's essentially what happened to me: In a sentence, my learning went from my head to my feet.

By walking in these places and being in the land, I developed a really profound physical connection. It's not this abstract spirituality we hear so much; it's very physically connected to the land and to these stories that we all know so well. And it turns out we carry them around inside of us.

KAGAN: Did you find for you the Bible becomes an allegory or something that's handed down from God?

FEILER: I think that that's a matter of belief. I certainly think the stories have allegorical power. But to me, what it does is it takes the stories out of those black covers, those gilt-edge pages, and it replants them into the ground. There's real history here, real politics of the time, and a real connection today. I mean, when crossing the Red Sea, I was in this rowboat with a 16-year-old boy rowing us across the Red Sea. And you get the sense not only of the liberation of the story of the Exodus that we talk about so much this time of year, but also the sense of fear because they are going into the desert. They were leaving the most civilized place on Earth -- Egypt -- for the desert, which is so scary. And that's what I want to do: put people in that boat and make them experience the emotion that the people in the stories actually went through.

KAGAN: Because, of course, everyone doesn't have the time to do what you did in going on the 10,000-mile journey, they can check it out in the book "Walking the Bible."

Bruce Feiler, thanks for stopping by. We appreciate it. Good luck with the book.

FEILER: Thank you very much. My pleasure, Daryn.

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