British survivalist and Man vs Wild host Bear Grylls has received backlash and ridicule online for promoting his new book about Jesus Christ in a short teaser which was riddled with inaccuracies. In a short blurb for his book, ‘The Greatest Story ever Told’, set for publication in 2025, Grylls wished his followers a “Happy Christmas” before introducing the tale about the birth of the central figure of Christianity. On Christmas Eve, Grylls posted the blurb along with a video of him reading a short extract from his book.
“In these next few days billions of us around the world celebrate the birth of a Middle Eastern refugee who, 2,000 years ago, changed the course of the world forever,” he wrote. “Let me tell you some of his story. This is just a short extract from near the beginning of the adventure.
When Maryam, a young, poor, and no doubt terrified Palestinian girl, gives birth in a run-down animal pen, to a baby who was foretold for hundreds of years.” In the video, Grylls read from an excerpt from his book which was set in “first century Palestine” and followed Maryam – the Aramaic for Mary - from a first-person perspective. Despite Grylls being a devout Christian, the adventurist and former SAS trooper was hit with a community note, a function on X which provides context to potentially misleading posts, which pointed out Jesus.
The community note immediately negated Grylls’ claim Mary and Joseph were refugees, adding that they travelled to the town.
