History Channel The Bible

The Bible (2013) History Channel 
March 7th, 2013

This past weekend I anticipated the premiere of "The Bible" on the History Channel. While I will continue to watch it, I was rather disappointed that so much information was skipped over. The story of Cain and Able is a great story, yet the creators just skipped over it and we land right in the lap of Abraham.

The story of Abraham is much more complex, an quite frankly could have been the first season holding it's own.  I would much rather tune into "The Bible: Abraham" and have the entire story, then the skipped over rushed version. Where to start? Well, when Lot leaves Abraham's troupe in the desert for Sodom. The story of Sodom was butchered in my opinion. This is a great story and life lesson about how our society can get out of hand.  Sodom was a place of wild lusting within the flesh. What this episode does not include is how when the Angels arrive, Gomorrah offer's his two daughters to the Angels (sexually). With the mentality that if they lay with his daughters then the Angels (rather, disguised visitors) would not be harmed by the mob that had formed looking for the "fresh meat." Within the story the Angels do give the town every chance to redeem themselves, however they fail and hence the Angels destroy Sodom.
This story continues, I believe, in that Gomorrah and his two daughters have fled to the desert. They live here for a while when his daughters start to complain that there is no one to have children with and they suggest that their father provide his 'seed' for their needs.  Gomorrah is outraged and said that this would be a sin again God. However, the daughters are manipulative and 'lay' with their father unbeknownst to him. I believe they give birth to an unclean nation? I would have to look that up though.

Back to Abraham, we see that his wife is not so young, and has been barren. What the History Channel does not include in their story is how his wife, Sarah, had a hand maiden.  When Sarah could not have children she told Abraham to lay with her maiden, so that she could give him a son. I believe, if I remember correctly, Abraham knows that this is not what he should do and against his better judgment listen's to Sarah (It probably can be argued that this is the origin of "sins of the father"). Abraham does sleep with the maiden and she does bare him a son.
Now, the drama really unfolds because the Angels appear to Abraham and Sarah speaking of Sodom and of Sarah's pregnancy. Meanwhile Sarah has been jealous of her maiden's ability to give her husband what she could not have done before.  Once Sarah has their son, she implores Abraham to declare their son his first born and giving him the special blessing. But, don't count the maiden out just yet. They do flee the encampment to get away from Sarah's cruelty. But in their desperation the maiden hatches a plan to fool Abraham (who is blind now) into believing that her son is Issac to give him the blessing instead. Again, it is a great story that alone could have been a series. Don't take my word for it though - read for yourself and then tell me your interpretation.

My favorite adaption of the story of Moses is "The Prince of Egypt" which is one of my favorite movies. And includes a lot of the information from the Bible. What I didn't like about the History channel's version was how it felt so rushed and over-acted. Again, this is another story from the Bible that could have held it's own "The Bible: Moses."  It is like they took so much information from this story and tried to cram it into it's twenty minute slot. I could hardly tell the story of Moses in twenty minutes, let alone depict it properly on the television. If you really want to be moved, watch "The Prince of Egypt" (1998) it is animated, but extremely entertaining and fills you with the spirit more then the History channel's adaption does.

Until next time or the next... dream
K.E.Nowinsky