Martha and I had a great time Sunday night watching the History Channel’s mini-series on the Bible. We had a number of questions concerning how anyone would create a series to cover the Bible. Fortunately, the first installment answered most of those questions.
Hopefully, my observations below will answer some of your questions as well.
First, this series is well-done. In fact, it is intense and exciting, enjoyable and interesting.
Second, the series follows the Bible. In that sense, the series is not creative at all. It follows the Bible and does so in a way that is true to the Scripture. They present the material and follow the time sequence found in the Scripture.
Third, the creators cover the Bible in ten hours (five weeks of two hours each culminating on Easter Sunday night) by skipping large segments of material. The narrative basically moved from the crossing of the sea to Mount Sinai and the commandments to Joshua taking Jericho. Levitcus and Numbers suffered the wrath of the cutting room. Of course, they had to leave out something unless they lengthen the number of episodes.
Fourth, the authors do make some assumptions which cannot be proven. For example, the first installment spends a lot of time with Moses. Moses is seen as someone who closely grew up with the Pharaoh of the exodus. The series presents them as rivals growing up. All of that may be true (and certainly fits what we know), but this is not biblical fact.
Fifth, the editors apparently love violence and action and they presented plenty of it.
Six, this is a good way for new believers and those unfamiliar with the Bible to get a glimpse of the entire story.
Finally, after watching this first episode, I highly recommend that you pick up the Bible and begin reading. Read it to experience God. Do so daily and with the prayer that God would reveal Himself through the pages of His precious Word.
If you would like to receive a daily devotional in your inbox every morning, you can subscribe at the top of the page or you can email me and I will subscribe for you. It’s completely free.
12 Responses
The presentation was indeed interesting, what I saw of it. The dramatic license seemed liberal to me, but it did seem do so with the intent of making emotional and intuitive extensions of the narrative. If we could only look as good as Moses and Sarah did at their age. The anxiety of Sarah’s “Mother’s intuition” was interesting during and after the sacrifice. The scar on Pharaoh’s face was a nice touch as well.
The unchanging nature of God should not be lost.
The “I AM” has sent us.
Blessings
I believe Ed meant Abraham not Moses.
I few things that “bothered” me about the series were:
1. The serpent in the Garden of Eden depicted as a snake.
2. When Abraham was “bargaining” with the Lord over Sodom’s fate…the Lord looked like Jesus. I guess he could have.
3. Just before Abraham sacrafices Isaac, a lamb appears. Should have been a ram.
4. Why did Emperor Palpatine keep showing up. First in the Garden of Eden and later in Sodom?
Waylon. Thanks for sharing about the series. I found it interesting to see the human side of things. The markings on Hagar face. What a terrible way to go through life marked as a slave. Sarah running up the mountain was also a powerful moment for me. As you said so well there are things that are not biblical fact but could have easily happened. Abraham offering Isaac his hand after the attempted sacrifice and Isaac refusing it was equally as powerful for me. I shared with our church to watch with the big picture in mind and not critically. The producers goal is just as you have suggested. To get people to pick up the Bible and read it for themselves.
In your church context and ours, this may turn out to be very helpful to get people to consider the Bible. Good to hear from you. Please tell your family hello.
We continue to discover how little the average ‘church’ person knows about the Bible. I am getting questions along the lines of “Help me fill in the blanks”. It’s helping me rethink what and how to teach on Sunday mornings. Among other things. We do live in a post-christian world. My family says hello back. Tell your favorite youngest daughter I miss her greatly and pray she and family are well.
The presentation was indeed interesting, what I saw of it. The dramatic license seemed liberal to me, but it did seem do so with the intent of making emotional and intuitive extensions of the narrative. If we could only look as good as Abraham and Sarah did at their age. The anxiety of Sarah’s “Mother’s intuition” was interesting during and after the sacrifice. The scar on Pharaoh’s face was a nice touch as well.
The unchanging nature of God should not be lost. The “I AM” has sent us.
Blessings
Thanks Brett. Just back and had to see what I wrote, scary.
I was in the waiting room at the Doctor’s office with my wife when I realized I may have made that misstatement. Ever say one thing and mean another?
I appreciate you catching it quickly to keep others from confusion.
I agree with your thoughts as I hope with Dr. Bailey, the presentation will stir the spirit of the viewers enabling the Holy Spirit’s Work.
Blessings
Had to fill in a couple of the blanks for the two folks watching with me. Proud they got the holes filled for themselves. Not because they were Bible students, but because it gets confusing. Three types of folks will hopefully watch this: 1) people like my family who know the Bible and will enjoy the series helping them ‘see” the images in their minds ( Charlton Heston will ALWAYS be Moses in my minds eye ). 2) Those who are curious but have little real knowledge of God’s word. for them I think the violence will entertain but might turn off. Sign of our times. 3) Some who know nothing.
If God’s word does not return empty, we can only pray that the Producers’ intent was for that and that regardless it works for good. WE need to go back and read these sections if we get lost about the “Cliff Notes” version of the Bible that this seems to be. This is a good thing. Looking forward to next week! but Star Trek Visits Sodom was not as powerful and timely as it could have been. Easy to be a critic huh?
Thanks for your summary. What did you think about how they presented Sodom? I was late tuning in and I missed it, but I heard that they left out the reason Sodom was destroyed.
That’s correct, though they did have the men of the city coming for the two angels. They also left out Lot offering his daughters to the men.
Excellent critique of a very bold undertaking. I have hopes this series will encourage those who are weaker in the Word to check out some things themselves. In an interesting, at least to me, aside my son and I both realized that a lot has to be left out but had different views of some things that could have been cut to make room for inclusion of other events. Goes to show, just more than can be handled by one series. Hmmm, seems I read somewhere that the Bible itself could not contain everything that Jesus did. Glad they are doing this!!!