Review of “The Bible” on the History Channel #2

I was able to get to my recording of the 2nd episode of “The Bible” on the History Channel last night. Again, there were some things I liked about the episode and other things I did not like. Actually, from what I have been reading, since each week they are presenting two episodes, I watched episode 3-4 last night. I did find a list on Wikipedia of the advisors for the program and I was disappointed to see several “celebrity pastors” on the list but NOT ONE person who is a legitimate biblical scholar. I hope this is because the list is incomplete but it would explain some of the basic errors in the details.

That being said, even though they mangled a lot of the details in the David-Saul story, I think they got the basic point that the rivalry between the two had to do with the battle between a king who operated according to human principles like power, privilege and shame/honor and a king who operated in God’s strength for God’s purposes. Even though the Bathsheba incident is shown they didn’t present it as powerfully and forcefully as does the Bible. They miss the whole point of, even David and Solomon, being inadequate kings and the need for Israel to have a king who will perfectly keep covenant.

The worse section of the presentation was the Samson portion. Judges portrays Samson as the very bottom of a downward spiral of evil and unfaithfulness among the judges of Israel. He has the most potential of all the judges but fails because of his compromise with the values of the enemy. In the program he is presented as almost a “Christ figure” who gives his life for his people and ends with his mother, almost a Mary figure, mourning over his dead body. In my opinion, they missed the point of Samson and the Book of Judges completely. Again,I know that they have to pick and choose what they show but I am stumped as to why they would spend so much time on Samson.

I am going to keep watching it, mainly because I am very interested to see what they do with the Gospels and the story and significance of Jesus.