The Bible on TV
03/03/13 05:28
I’ve blogged before about the simple fact that I don’t watch too much TV. I like to watch British sit-coms on Saturday night, but if you count the number of Saturdays when public TV is raising money and therefore airing “specials,” add in the weekends when the station broadcasts high school sports tournaments, and throw in a few weeks when I have other activities on Saturday nights, I’m pretty sure that I don’t watch television more than 25 or 30 hours a year.
I watched part of one episode of “Survivor” at the home of our children. I caught an episode of “Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?” while staying in a motel once. I have never seen “The Voice,” “The Apprentice” (is that the one that ends with “You’re Fired!” each episode?) “Shark Tank,” or “The Job.” So it would be safe to say that I don’t know much about the work of Mark Burnett. They say that he is the king of reality television, but I don’t think that there is very much that is real about reality television.
So even though I am a religious person and I love the Bible and invest a lot of hours studying it, I am not particularly excited to learn that Mark Burnett is busy producing a 10-hour mini-series that is supposed to tell the story of the Bible. It is going to air on the History Channel. We don’t have cable TV, and so can’t watch tonight, but the History Channel posts a fair amount of its programming on YouTube so I may one day watch at least part of the series.
There have been a lot of attempts in the past to use audio-visual media to portray parts of the Bible. I’ve watched The Ten Commandments several times. I liked The Prince of Egypt. The Greatest Story Ever Told gave John Wayne the line, “Surely that man was the Son of God.” I thought The Passion of the Christ was a bit over the top with blood and violence. These projects, however, each took a portion of the Bible. If I understand the Burnett project, he is attempting to use 10 hours of television to portray the Bible as a single narrative story.
I’ll be blunt. I’m not impressed. The Bible is not a single narrative. It contains many different voices and many different types of literature. It is complete and whole, but it is not a single story. The attempt to treat the Bible as one grand story makes assumptions about the Bible that not only run contrary to history, but are not supported by the Bible itself. One of the reviews of the show that I read says it starts with Noah preparing the ark as the waters rise. When his family is fearful, he tells them the story of Adam and Eve. There have been plenty of attempts to put the Bible into a single chronological narrative. Each treats creation as an event. In the Bible creation is a continual aspect of God. There are multiple creation stories told from multiple angles. The theme of creation shows up in the historical books, but also in the Psalms and the prophets.
I could go on and on. Here is the truth. 10 hours of TV can’t show the entire book of Leviticus, (potentially a very boring program) let alone the entire Bible. So they left things out. Some of those things, I’m willing to speculate, are very important.
What is worse, in my opinion, is that they also added things in. That was Mel Gibson’s mistake in the making of The Passion of the Christ. He took incredible liberties in adding in dialogue and visual effects that simply aren’t indicated in a serious reading of the Bible. That didn’t stop him from grossing more than $600 million and becoming the highest grossing R-rated film of all time. I bought a ticket and watched the movie, and I’m a skeptic.
So Mark Burnett is likely to make the same mistake and add in elements that are not in the Bible. However, he may have a successful TV show in the works. He’s certainly achieved a lot of success with other efforts. And getting people to think about and talk about the Bible is a good thing.
I remember watching the movie “The Perfect Storm.” I went out the next day and bought the book and read it. I thought the book was better than the movie. Now if that would work for Burnett’s show, I’m all for it. I haven’t seen the mini-series, but I’m willing to bet that the book is better than the movie.
And the book isn’t the complete story. I know that sounds like heresy, and perhaps it is, but the truth is that the stories of our people are all about the relationship with God. The key element is the relationship, not the words on paper. The Bible is deeply valuable to bring people into relationship with God. And it has great worth to deepen that relationship through regular study and prayer. But to worship the book is to miss the truth.
Our people carried the stories of the Bible for generations by oral tradition. Throughout most of the history of the Christian church the majority of Christians were illiterate – they couldn’t read. But they knew the stories because they repeated them over and over again. It is only since the invention of the printing press that we have valued printed words over those spoken.
And our faith isn’t based on the words, but on the truth beyond the words.
It is a mistake for anyone, even an academically honored Biblical scholar, to assume that one can ever fully understand the Bible. You can study the Bible. It can become familiar. It can become a friend. But it is never fully known.
So I hope a lot of people watch Burnett’s show. I don’t know yet whether or not I will. But I don’t expect the show to be the final interpretation of the Bible. It is just one more element in a long history of people in relationship with God. Art is an important part of that relationship. Not every painting or statue is accurate, but they add to the total observance of faith. A television program is another piece of religious art. If it inspires a deeper relationship, I’m all in favor of it.
One of my teachers devoted most of his academic life to the study of the Book of Daniel. He translated it from Hebrew into Flemish, French and English. He wrote several commentaries. He once told me, “A lifetime is too short to understand even one book of the Bible.” He was, of course, right.
Mark Burnett may be the king of reality television, but he doesn’t fully understand the Bible. Maybe making the mini series will get Burnett to spend even more time studying the Bible. That would be a good thing.
I watched part of one episode of “Survivor” at the home of our children. I caught an episode of “Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?” while staying in a motel once. I have never seen “The Voice,” “The Apprentice” (is that the one that ends with “You’re Fired!” each episode?) “Shark Tank,” or “The Job.” So it would be safe to say that I don’t know much about the work of Mark Burnett. They say that he is the king of reality television, but I don’t think that there is very much that is real about reality television.
So even though I am a religious person and I love the Bible and invest a lot of hours studying it, I am not particularly excited to learn that Mark Burnett is busy producing a 10-hour mini-series that is supposed to tell the story of the Bible. It is going to air on the History Channel. We don’t have cable TV, and so can’t watch tonight, but the History Channel posts a fair amount of its programming on YouTube so I may one day watch at least part of the series.
There have been a lot of attempts in the past to use audio-visual media to portray parts of the Bible. I’ve watched The Ten Commandments several times. I liked The Prince of Egypt. The Greatest Story Ever Told gave John Wayne the line, “Surely that man was the Son of God.” I thought The Passion of the Christ was a bit over the top with blood and violence. These projects, however, each took a portion of the Bible. If I understand the Burnett project, he is attempting to use 10 hours of television to portray the Bible as a single narrative story.
I’ll be blunt. I’m not impressed. The Bible is not a single narrative. It contains many different voices and many different types of literature. It is complete and whole, but it is not a single story. The attempt to treat the Bible as one grand story makes assumptions about the Bible that not only run contrary to history, but are not supported by the Bible itself. One of the reviews of the show that I read says it starts with Noah preparing the ark as the waters rise. When his family is fearful, he tells them the story of Adam and Eve. There have been plenty of attempts to put the Bible into a single chronological narrative. Each treats creation as an event. In the Bible creation is a continual aspect of God. There are multiple creation stories told from multiple angles. The theme of creation shows up in the historical books, but also in the Psalms and the prophets.
I could go on and on. Here is the truth. 10 hours of TV can’t show the entire book of Leviticus, (potentially a very boring program) let alone the entire Bible. So they left things out. Some of those things, I’m willing to speculate, are very important.
What is worse, in my opinion, is that they also added things in. That was Mel Gibson’s mistake in the making of The Passion of the Christ. He took incredible liberties in adding in dialogue and visual effects that simply aren’t indicated in a serious reading of the Bible. That didn’t stop him from grossing more than $600 million and becoming the highest grossing R-rated film of all time. I bought a ticket and watched the movie, and I’m a skeptic.
So Mark Burnett is likely to make the same mistake and add in elements that are not in the Bible. However, he may have a successful TV show in the works. He’s certainly achieved a lot of success with other efforts. And getting people to think about and talk about the Bible is a good thing.
I remember watching the movie “The Perfect Storm.” I went out the next day and bought the book and read it. I thought the book was better than the movie. Now if that would work for Burnett’s show, I’m all for it. I haven’t seen the mini-series, but I’m willing to bet that the book is better than the movie.
And the book isn’t the complete story. I know that sounds like heresy, and perhaps it is, but the truth is that the stories of our people are all about the relationship with God. The key element is the relationship, not the words on paper. The Bible is deeply valuable to bring people into relationship with God. And it has great worth to deepen that relationship through regular study and prayer. But to worship the book is to miss the truth.
Our people carried the stories of the Bible for generations by oral tradition. Throughout most of the history of the Christian church the majority of Christians were illiterate – they couldn’t read. But they knew the stories because they repeated them over and over again. It is only since the invention of the printing press that we have valued printed words over those spoken.
And our faith isn’t based on the words, but on the truth beyond the words.
It is a mistake for anyone, even an academically honored Biblical scholar, to assume that one can ever fully understand the Bible. You can study the Bible. It can become familiar. It can become a friend. But it is never fully known.
So I hope a lot of people watch Burnett’s show. I don’t know yet whether or not I will. But I don’t expect the show to be the final interpretation of the Bible. It is just one more element in a long history of people in relationship with God. Art is an important part of that relationship. Not every painting or statue is accurate, but they add to the total observance of faith. A television program is another piece of religious art. If it inspires a deeper relationship, I’m all in favor of it.
One of my teachers devoted most of his academic life to the study of the Book of Daniel. He translated it from Hebrew into Flemish, French and English. He wrote several commentaries. He once told me, “A lifetime is too short to understand even one book of the Bible.” He was, of course, right.
Mark Burnett may be the king of reality television, but he doesn’t fully understand the Bible. Maybe making the mini series will get Burnett to spend even more time studying the Bible. That would be a good thing.