The Bible Mini-Series Part 1

THE BIBLE: produced Roma Downey and Mark Burnett (Note: Both are Roman Catholics. Roma Downey is also pastor via the internet.)

The Bible: Part 1 of 5 (Creation-Spies in the Land of Canaan)

The comments below are this writer’s observations from watching part 1 tonight. My desire was to base both pros and cons on biblical accuracy, not visual and acting quality.

Note: Too often it’s what is omitted that reveals what kind of story a person is trying to tell. Granted, the History Channel’s movie is meant to be a “docudrama”, and there are many constraints in attempting to pictorially portray God’s Word, however people are very influenced by sights and sounds. We must be careful to weigh everything against the actual Bible.

Some Pros from the Movie-

• Creation was read as a literal 6 days. See Genesis 1
• Noah’s Ark was to scale. See Genesis 6
• The whole world was flooded. See Genesis 6-9
• Israel is called God’s chosen nation. See Jeremiah 31:36, 46:28, etc.

Some Cons-

• God’s angels never killed people with swords in Sodom. There are no examples in God’s Word of the Lord’s angels ever killing people. See Genesis 11
• The sacrifice of Isaac left much to be desired. The biblical description of a ram caught in the thickets by his horn was made out to be a little lamb in the movie. There is important biblical symbolism to the ram. The horn represents power, and only Jesus had the power necessary to overcome sin. Although other OT places talk of the lamb as a sacrifice, the ram here is key. Also during the sacrifice Isaac cries and begs Abraham not to do it. Isaac is a type of Christ, and the Bible says nothing of Isaac begging his dad to stop. Isaac trusted Abraham just as Christ trusted to Father all the way to the cross. After the sacrifice, Isaac pulls away from his dad and runs to his mother who is at the bottom of the mountain. See Genesis 22
• Again, according to the Bible, Abraham’s servants went with Isaac and him. The movie has Sarah running after them as if to stop Abraham. The movie is very misleading as to how Isaac’s family ended up in Egypt. The movie states that the Israelites all left the Promised Land due to a famine and went into Egypt where they were slaves for 400 years and Abraham was just a distant memory. Unfortunately there is no mention of Joseph, even though there dozens of parallels between Joseph and Jesus. See Genesis 30-50
• The key prophetic details of the lamb’s blood in the tenth plague in Egypt are omitted. See Exodus 12:6-7
• In part 1, God is never referred to as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob even though this is one of His names in the Bible. Even Muslims recognize God as the God of Abraham. See Exodus 3:6, etc.