The latest big hit on the History Channel is the epic on the Bible. According to TV news, the first of the five sessions had 13 million viewers. And that is a shame. As a skeptic, I am offended – highly offended!
It is a shame because you never get from actors and script writers any of the truth. And the idea of Noah with a Scottish accent left me both cold and chuckling at the same time.
The big problem with this epic production is that they got a lot of it wrong, and left out some main points that might provide a more accurate take on the Bible.
For starters, they begin with Noah (flashbacks to the Garden of Eden to come, I guess). But how did Noah get the several million species of land animals onto the ark? There was not enough room for them.
How did a two-toed South American sloth get across the Atlantic and to the mid-East in time for the sailing date? Sloths can zip along at about a mile a month, but still leaves a lot of questions.
Then they used Abraham and Sarah for the names of Abram and Sarai in that part of the Bible before God changed their names.
Lot was Abraham’s nephew, but they left out the part in Sodom and Gomorrah where Lot tried to pimp out his two virgin daughters to the angry crowd outside of his home. Then there was fighting in the streets between the two angels in Lot’s house and the angry crowd. It never happened – read Genesis 19:3 – 18.
They also left out the details of Lot and his daughters in the mountains when the daughters had a sexual relationship with their father. However, the problem with incest was never mentioned in the Bible.
Then in this epic? the Pharaoh was floating around in the Nile while Moses’ brother Aaron struck the water with his staff to turn the water to blood. It never happened. As per the Bible, the Pharaoh was on dry land as this occurred. So much for accuracy.
In the Bible, Moses talks to his people as if the crowd was a small troop of Boy Scouts. Based on the later Biblical references (Numbers 2:34), the fighting men alone under Moses numbered 603,550. Those studying demographics and population dynamics calculate that the population of the Israelites would be between two and three million, plus 600,000 cattle.
Of course, in the TV show, Moses is able to talk quietly and be heard by all of these two million Israelis. Sure. And on, crossing the Red Sea after Moses parts the waters takes about a day. Sure. In reality, according to anthropologists, with people marching ten across, it would take about two to three weeks. So much for accuracy.
After they get across the Red Sea, Moses goes up Mount Sinai to retrieve the tablets on which God wrote the Ten Commandments. But the TV show left out breaking the first set, the episode with the Golden Calf, and then later killing 3,000 Israelis differing with Moses and God. I guess the God of the Israelites is not so tolerant after all and that the Biblical TV show is not so accurate.
There is more, but this is enough for the first of this five part series. It is a shame that they did not get a director like Ken Burns who did such a phenomenal job with his Civil War series. He would have done a great job. As it stands and as a skeptic, I am highly offended!
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