Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
'Walking the Bible' Author Discusses Church of Nativity
Aired May 10, 2002 - 08:26 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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: As we've been reporting, the standoff in Bethlehem ended at dawn this morning and the world is waiting for final word from inside the Church of the Nativity to see what kind of shape the historic sanctuary is in after five weeks of gun battles, explosions and fires.
Now, we heard at the top of our show from a priest who lives in the monastery there, and he says as far as he's concerned, there seems to be very little damage; but we wanted to take you inside with journalist and author Bruce Feiler, knows the holy site very well. His best selling book, "Walking The Bible" is now available in paperback.
And I sat down with him earlier this week.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: The Church of the Nativity has been attacked from time to time over the last 1,300 years.
BRUCE FEILER, AUTHOR, "WALKING THE BIBLE": Yes.
ZAHN: It has survived every single one of those attacks. You have no doubt that it will survive what has gone here most recently?
FEILER: No, and I really think that is the headline. In some ways we see this church on the news every night and it is so enormous. I mean one thing, we see this door. I mean as you notice, the door of the church is very, very small. It's actually only about four feet high. And the reason is is because in the 16th century, they lowered the door so that you couldn't come in on horseback and attack the inside of the church.
ZAHN: Take us inside the Church of the Nativity.
FEILER: Inside what we see is this sort of dark building. This is actually not the original church. You see some holes in the floor there and those holes were, show the original floor that Empress Helena constructed in the fourth century. And then in the front we see here is the actual knave. And then what you do is you go around the corner, you go down some stairs and this is the actual room that they say is the grotto. And you see on the floor here is a 14 point star which marks the actual spot. And so that is the spot that people will go to and touch. ZAHN: Tell us a little bit about the construction of this place.
FEILER: It was Emperor Constantine's mother in the fourth century who traveled around the Middle East with her bible in hand and who said let's build a church here in Bethlehem. And she identified this spot. So it was 300 or 400 years already after the time that Jesus would have been born. And she was relying on local traditions and a little bit of sort of inspiration, and that's where the site came from.
ZAHN: Does archaeology tell us if she was anywhere close to being right?
FEILER: I think those of us in North America who are far away, we want to know the actual rock, the actual mountain. Is this the corner or that the corner? And the feeling that you get when you're there is that that doesn't matter so much. I remember talking to an archaeologist and he said to me I'm never going to find a card that said "Abraham slept here" or "Jesus walked here" and I don't care.
ZAHN: Why should people care so much about the site? No matter what religion they honor, or tradition.
FEILER: The feeling that I get, at least, when I go to these places, is that in the case of this church, for 1,500, 1,700 years people have gone, believing it to be that place. And they bring the meaning to that place and the meaning of them lives in that place. And that's what we can take away.
So I think the notion of a holy place is a really, really serious thing. And when you go there, you feel something, even if you can't, even if, oh, not that point, but that point. That matters less. What matters more is that we can make that personal connection.
ZAHN: Well, we...
FEILER: And that is not going to be affected by anything that's happened in the last month.
ZAHN: Well, we appreciate your letting us walk through the Church of the Nativity this morning.
Bruce Feiler, congratulations on your book.
FEILER: Thank you very much.
ZAHN: "Walking The Bible" did very well on so many best selling charts.
FEILER: It's my pleasure to be here.
ZAHN: It must make you feel good.
FEILER: It's great to be a part of something that's touched to many hundreds of thousands of people.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: And thank you all for joining us.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
