{"id":840,"date":"2009-08-08T20:28:33","date_gmt":"2009-08-08T20:28:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/2009\/08\/chronicles-of-middle-earth--forewords.html"},"modified":"2009-08-08T20:28:33","modified_gmt":"2009-08-08T20:28:33","slug":"chronicles-of-middle-earth-forewords","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/08\/chronicles-of-middle-earth-forewords.html","title":{"rendered":"Chronicles of Middle Earth– Forewords"},"content":{"rendered":"

Long, long ago, in a land far, far away, there lived Hobbits and dwarfs and elves and orcs and ents and humans altogether.  To visit this magical land today still requires that one arise and go away into a far country, traveling many hours in metal angels known as aeroplanes.  Of course what one sees today is not quite the same as what one would have seen in the age of Hobbits. Like visiting the sights of mighty battles from days of yore, to visit Middle Earth today is to see the shards and shadows of what once was.  Yet still there is stunning beauty and troubling evidence of the shadow that fell upon the land.  For example, in a land which once beheld Ring Wraiths and Dragons in the sky, today the national bird is a small brown nocturnal flightless creature that eats bugs.  How the mighty have fallen.  And today the land has a modern name reflecting the zeal of its inhabitants no doubt — so for the record New Zeal-land = Middle Earth, as we will soon see.  <\/p>\n

Middle Earth is such a different place that for a modern person a guide is required so that one may see with old eyes the wonders there.  One possible guide would be a native Wellingtonian who is indeed a cinematic wizard, though sadly trapped in the body of a troll.    I speak not of Andrew Jackson or Michael Jackson, but rather Peter Jackson.<\/p>\n

\"peter-jackson-halo.jpg\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Here below is his home in Middle Earth, by the bay in Wellington.  You will see it does not much look like Rivendell or Hobbiton.
\"NZ<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Actually I am reliably informed he spends most of his time in a Cave, Weta Cave to be specific, where he works his magic.
\"NZ<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Upon entering Weta Cave, I found a guide who promised not to be ‘tricksy’ — whatever that might mean. <\/p>\n

\"NZ<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

But you need a more reliable guide. No, that’s not Gimli the Dwarf,  its Benli the Prof! <\/p>\n

\"NZ<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n

So come away with me to Middle Earth over the Misty Mountains,<\/p>\n

\"NZ<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n

to a land of light and revelation, yet within the shadows of Mordor. I promise you will not be disappointed. <\/p>\n

\"NZ<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/div>\n


\nLong, long ago, in a land far, far away, there lived Hobbits and dwarfs and elves and orcs and ents and humans altogether.  To visit this magical land today still requires that one arise and go away into a far country, traveling many hours in metal angels known as aeroplanes.  Of course what one sees today is not quite the same as what one would have seen in the age of Hobbits. Like visiting the sights of mighty battles from days of yore, to visit Middle Earth today is to see the shards and shadows of what once was.  Yet still there is stunning beauty and troubling evidence of the shadow that fell upon the land.  For example, in a land which once beheld Ring Wraiths and Dragons in the sky, today the national bird is a small brown nocturnal flightless creature that eats bugs.  How the mighty have fallen.  And today the land has a modern name reflecting the zeal of its inhabitants no doubt — so for the record New Zeal-land = Middle Earth, as we will soon see.  <\/p>\n

Middle Earth is such a different place that for a modern person a guide is required so that one may see with old eyes the wonders there.  One possible guide would be a native Wellingtonian who is indeed a cinematic wizard, though sadly trapped in the body of a troll.    I speak not of Andrew Jackson or Michael Jackson, but rather Peter Jackson.<\/p>\n

\"peter-jackson-halo.jpg\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Here below is his home in Middle Earth, by the bay in Wellington.  You will see it does not much look like Rivendell or Hobbiton.
\"NZ<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Actually I am reliably informed he spends most of his time in a Cave, Weta Cave to be specific, where he works his magic.
\"NZ<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Upon entering Weta Cave, I found my guide who promised not to be ‘tricksy’ whatever that might mean. <\/p>\n

\"NZ<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
In the end I figured you would want a more reliable guide, so I called upon the following chap. No, that’s not Gimli the Dwarf,  its Benli the Prof! <\/p>\n

\"NZ<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n

So come away with me to Middle Earth over the Misty Mountains,<\/p>\n

\"NZ<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n

To a land of light and revelation, yet within the shadows of Mordor. I promise you will not be disappointed. <\/p>\n

\"NZ<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Long, long ago, in a land far, far away, there lived Hobbits and dwarfs and elves and orcs and ents and humans altogether.  To visit this magical land today still requires that one arise and go away into a far country, traveling many hours in metal angels known as aeroplanes.  Of course what one sees…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nChronicles of Middle Earth- Forewords - The Bible and Culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/08\/chronicles-of-middle-earth-forewords.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chronicles of Middle Earth- Forewords - 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A graduate of UNC, Chapel Hill, he went on to receive the M.Div. degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from the University of Durham in England. He is now considered one of the top evangelical scholars in the world, and is an elected member of the prestigious SNTS, a society dedicated to New Testament studies. Witherington has also taught at Ashland Theological Seminary, Vanderbilt University, Duke Divinity School and Gordon-Conwell. A popular lecturer, Witherington has presented seminars for churches, colleges and biblical meetings not only in the United States but also in England, Estonia, Russia, Europe, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Australia. He has also led tours to Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. Witherington has written over thirty books, including The Jesus Quest and The Paul Quest, both of which were selected as top biblical studies works by Christianity Today. He also writes for many church and scholarly publications, and is a frequent contributor to the Beliefnet website. Along with many interviews on radio networks across the country, Witherington has been seen on the History Channel, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, The Discovery Channel, A&E, and the PAX Network.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/author\/bwitherington"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}