Hyper Speed and Scripture: The Bible

Overall, I was supremely impressed by the first episodes of the History Channel's miniseries The Bible. As Pastor Paul mentioned in the previous post I thought it was a masterful touch to start off in the Ark with Noah recounting the story of Creation, the Fall and subsequent cursing of the world to his children. In that four minute intro the tone was set for the entire 10 hour trek through the Bible.  The Ark was depicted fantastically well, Noah was well cast, and they set a solid background for the History of Israel.

Let me first say that I enjoyed the first installment thoroughly and will try not to pick apart the details too much.  I do feel though, that I must address a few inconsistencies I found within the first episodes as compared to scripture (I will not address the inconsistencies concerning Abraham and Isaac since they were addressed on Sunday).  I'm not trying to nitpick but feel that these should be addressed.

Things they "missed:"

1. The story of Abraham and Lot is difficult (especially the latter part of Lot's story with his daughters) to portray on TV but I thought they did relatively well.  One thing they did get backwards though was the separation of the two.  I realize that they changed this to add relational tension to the drama but it's still not scripturally accurate.  In the film it is Lot (more so his wife) that gets upset with having to share land with Abraham and they broach the topic of separation with Abraham.  Abraham tries to talk them into staying, rescues Lot, and tries to convince him again.  This isn't accurate.  In Genesis 13 we do find that quarreling arose between the two camps but it was Abram (his name had not changed yet) that suggests the separation in Genesis 13:8-9 and gives Lot the choice of the land.

2. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah: Let me preface this by saying I thought Abraham's bartering with God was one of the highlights of the episode, handled masterfully well and really dug deep into the heart of Abraham and God's relationship.  However, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah as it was told in the miniseries misses a few key elements.  First, they missed the part where Lot offers his own daughters up to the men wishing to rape his visitors (Genesis 19:6-8) which shows the reader that Lot himself was not a righteous man, but was saved for Abraham's sake and because of God's mercy (Genesis 19:16).  The other part of the scene where the angels fight off Sodomites to exit the city is a bit of an embellishment of Genesis 19:16 as well.  We are told that the angels led Lot and his family "safely from the city" but we don't know what that all entails.  Perhaps they did have to fight their way out?

3. Jacob through Joseph: I was really disappointed that these two families were only mentioned in passing.  I understand it because they are fitting 66 books and thousands of years into 10 hours but there is some rich Theology within these two stories that could have been fantastic to see depicted by film (such as Jacob wrestling with God!).

4. The Story of Moses: The story of Moses is so hard to do in an hour you have to take some liberties.  I thought their casting of Moses was very good, though I thought integrating Aaron into the speaking role a bit more would have reflected the story better.  Two things they missed that disappointed me were the real story of Moses' murder (read Exodus 2:11-14) as the Hebrews were the ones that ratted him out forcing him to flee, not the Egyptians.  Also, missing the Sinai revolt was really a downer to me, it informs the 40 year period that they jump to at the end of the episode, and also brings better light into the emotional leader that Moses was. (side note: anyone else notice that the 1956 version of The Ten Commandments is alive and well as this series represented the angel of death in the same way that film did?)

Five Favorite Things:

1. The Three Visitors: I loved how they depicted the Theophany of three visitors to Abraham prior to the Sodom and Gomorrah destruction.  God's appearance to Sarah telling her of the birth of Isaac was particularly well done as well.  I thought using three ethnicities to portray the three visitors (African, Asian, Caucasian) was especially done well to subtly point to God choosing Israel but blessing the entire world through Abraham's line (through Christ).  Having the voice of Jesus play the person Abraham interacts with in those scenes was fantastic as well as this points to Jesus being God later in the series.

2. The Parting of the Red Sea: I've never seen this done so well.  The fear was palpable, the rage of Pharaoh sending his troops to their doom through walls of water was felt and the scene was an appropriate length.  The special effects of the Noah scene and this scene were second to none.  Done masterfully well.

3. The Acting: specifically the major roles.  While the ages were definitely not portrayed well, I thought the acting was superb.  The man cast as Abraham really captured that role, and the man cast as Noah did a fantastic job as well.  I was particularly intrigued by their casting of the "older Moses."  I thought he represented Moses well with what he was given to work with.  The tension between Hagar and Sarah was real within those scenes without being distasteful and young Joshua showed up well as a brash but encouraging number two to Moses.  I thought the acting was some of the best I've seen in any scripture based film.

4. The Plagues: I wondered how they were going to get all the plagues in with the time constraints they had and I thought it was masterfully done.  While they didn't go in depth with each one, they did captured the heart of what God was doing to Pharaoh and Egypt through these plagues.  God was proving to Pharaoh that He, not Pharaoh, was God alone and could defeat any and all of Egypt's gods.  I thought this was handled particularly well with crossing of the Red Sea and Moses' statement: "Pharaoh, you are not God.  There is only one God and he's with us."

5. The Story: It's obvious that the writers of this miniseries are pointing to a specific watershed event in the history of our world and they highlight this by using key phrases like "Trust in God" and "God is with us" throughout the first few episodes.  The continuity of keeping Jesus as part of the Old Testament Godhead sits particularly well with me also.  You can tell that the producers want to do more than tell the Old Testament stories in an entertaining way, they want them to mean something and to point to something in the future.  I thought they did this smoothly.

Final Thoughts: 

I really enjoyed the start of the series and I cannot wait for this Sunday's episode.  While there were some minor inconsistencies with scripture, nothing was glaringly off and the action and story line were consistent with scripture.  These discrepancies do nothing to discredit the film makers in my opinion.  I am excited for the rest of this series as it is bringing the Bible alive on the screens of people who may never have cracked it open before.  I thought it was tastefully done, entertaining and spared no expense.  Can't wait to see what they do with the next two episodes!

-Pastor Josh