We were some of the millions of people who watched the mini series, "The Bible," Sunday evening. With much anticipation we watched the Bible come to life, an undertaking which hadn't been approached for over 45 years by Hollywood or anyone in the movie industry in such a realistic production. But in some ways I was disappointed.
My disappointment arose from the brevity of the scenes and from the multiple interruptions by commercials. Having been raised in church and being familiar with Bible stories, I felt like so much was missing, and it was. (For example, the Bible says that when Moses led the Hebrew nation out of slavery in Egypt, there were 600,000 men, besides women and children. The group portrayed in the series was a fraction of that number.) However, cramming the entire Bible into about 8 hours of television (the series is running for a total of 10 hours, but I'm sure the commercials cut out at least 2 hours!) is a monumental task and one which dictated curtailing the stories. It's my understanding that the hope of Roma Downey and Mark Burkett is that people who aren't familiar with the Bible will actually pick it up and start reading it for themselves. Their intent is to whet the appetites of viewers and create in them a desire to read what they've been watching on the screen.
I applaud Roma and Mark for this huge undertaking and thank them for their faith and fortitude in completing this huge project. The cost must have been staggering, but as believers, they see that some things are worth the cost ten times over. And some things are priceless.
If you haven't yet tuned into "The Bible", please check it out this Sunday on the History channel, and then pick up a Bible. You won't be disappointed in either the series or the written Word - the Word of God.
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