The latest Christian media event of note is the miniseries called The Bible on the History Channel. The opening preface in type on the screen gives us the philosophy of the presentation, curious for the way that it is worded: “This program is an adaptation of Bible stories. It endeavors to stay true to the spirit of the book” (capitalization theirs). We discover what they mean when watching it and comparing the presentation to the Scriptures it is adapting to screen. Nevertheless, for the faithful Christian who has only ever seen heresy proclaimed on the History network, it was refreshing to see this adaptation of the Bible stories by people who believe His (that is, God’s) Story on History.
Scripture is a challenging text to put on the screen. It was not written as a movie script and there are many stories in The Story. The way the miniseries deals with this is to tell some of the stories quickly via narration and skip others altogether. The miniseries begins with an exciting telling of the opening chapters of Genesis by Noah to his family on the ark. It was a fitting way to begin in light of the echoes of creation in the flood narrative in Genesis. And this opening makes the first episode worth watching.
Yet as the episode continues the story that unfolds is a curious selection of the stories of Scripture. The miniseries presents The Story as a story of faith and they seem to select stories and tell them with that theme in mind. Included in the retelling is the story of the destruction of Sodom, and the miniseries included suggestions of sexual sin though it did not mention specifically the sexual sin for which they are best known. The retelling did include Lot’s wife turning to salt. Also curious is what is skipped – no mention of the Tower of Babel, none of the stories of finding Isaac and Jacob their wives, nor anything else about Isaac and Jacob (nor Joseph!) after the sacrifice of Isaac. It is with the sacrifice of Isaac that the story fast-forwards to the people of Israel living in Egypt.
Lot’s wife actually was elevated to a more prominent role than in the Scriptures. For example, they added her encouraging Lot to separate from Abram. This is a plausible addition and one can see why they included it. And then presumably for storytelling simplicity also got creative with the daughter of Pharaoh telling Moses that he was born as one of the Israelites with a brother Aaron and sister Miriam. The opening part of the story of the Exodus is the one where they depart from the text more than any other thus far in The Story. It includes a whole ‘sibling’ rivalry kind of story between the man who will become the next Pharaoh and Moses.
The miniseries telling includes the plagues, even the Passover, and the Exodus event. Though it is worth noting that there are details in the miniseries that they changed that do not seem to add anything except perhaps for dramatic effect. For example, in the miniseries Moses lifts up his staff and hand and then strikes the water and it parts. But in the text of Scripture, Moses is told, “Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground” (Exodus 14:16).
The first episode of The Bible tells us of the giving of the law on Mount Sinai but skips all of the exciting stories in Numbers, like the story of Balaam’s donkey, neglects to tell us of Moses’ unbelief that will keep him out of the Promised Land, and thus ends not with the end of the Torah, but with the spies at Jericho in the book of Joshua. Thus you are ready to see what will come to pass in episode two.
This episode of The Bible (that is, the miniseries) is quite violent at times, though usually The Bible (that is, the text) will dismiss the bloodshed with a verse or less. You probably will not want to watch this miniseries with young children. And one cannot understate the difference that the medium makes to the message. Yet one might hope that the miniseries will encourage people to study the Scriptures and to read them. For example, I read The Lord of the Rings after seeing the movies. To be sure, some will not make it past the genealogies in Genesis (unless you read my posts about the genealogies in Genesis, in which you will see that they are some of the most fascinating parts of Genesis) just as some will decide The Lord of the Rings books move too slow. Unfortunately, there may be some who will assume that the miniseries has told the story the way that it happened and will add its telling to their interpreted Bible (that is, the way we remember the Scriptures) rather than checking it to the text. This is the danger. But, all in all, the danger is worth it if God will use the miniseries to lead people back into His word. And even if you do not watch the rest – watch the opening of the first episode. That creation-flood sequence really is done well.
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