Is the History Channel's "The Bible" mini-series biblically accurate?

Part 2: Homeland

By S. Michael Houdmann, Got Questions Ministries

The second episode of the History Channel's "The Bible" television mini-series first aired Sunday, March 10, 2013. It covered the time from Joshua sending the spies to Jericho (Joshua 2:1) until the birth of Solomon (2 Samuel 12:24).

After watching episode 2, I realized how incredibly difficult it must have been to select which biblical accounts to include in this mini-series. There are so many great stories worthy of being reenacted, but they only have five 2-hour episodes to work with.

Overall, I found the episode good and reasonably biblically accurate. However, the producers took much more "artistic license" than in episode 1. Also, the storyline departed from the biblical text seriously enough in a few instances:

1. Samson's Story

Samson is played by an actor of African descent, as were numerous actors and actresses in his story. Biblically, Samson was an Israelite, the son of an Israelite father and mother (Judges 13). While it is possible that some people of African descent had settled among the ancient Israelites, Samson was definitely not of African descent. As an Israelite of Semitic origin, his skin tone would have been light to dark brown at best. While it is not necessarily a huge problem to have Samson portrayed by a black actor, the true, historical Samson would not have been black.

The way the episode portrays the circumstances of Samson's birth makes it almost seem like a miraculous birth, along the same lines as Mary and Jesus. Samson's father was never mentioned in the episode, and Samson's mother says, "God gave [Samson] to me." Yes, Samson's conception was miraculous (see Judges 13), but it began from normal human conception, similar to the account of Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac.

Later in the Samson story, the Philistines kill Samson's first wife (and her family) by burning them alive in their home as punishment for her marrying Samson. Perhaps they were trying to make the story more emotionally dramatic for viewers, but this is not based on biblical history. In the biblical account, Samson challenges the Philistines to answer a riddle. The Philistines cheat by getting Samson's wife to get the answer to the riddle from Samson. In anger, Samson leaves. The Philistines then give Samson's wife to someone else. When Samson discovers this, he gets revenge by catching foxes, tying torches to their tails, and then setting them loose in the Philistines' fields, thus burning their crops (Judges 14-15). The Philistines then get revenge by burning Samson's wife and her family to death (Judges 15:6).

2. David's Story

In episode 2, the Prophet Samuel finds David alone in a field and anoints him there. In the Bible, Samuel meets with David's family first, with David being left in the field by himself, since he was the youngest. David was anointed by Samuel only after God revealed to Samuel that none of David's brothers was His choice to be the next king of Israel (1 Samuel 16).

The episode later portrays Uriah as David's right hand man, while in the Bible, that role is reserved for Joab (1 Chronicles 11:6). However, Uriah was one of David's mighty men (2 Samuel 23:39), so it is possible Uriah was with David when he conquered Jerusalem and the Jebusites.

The one artistic addition I have a very strong disagreement with happened while David was dancing as the Ark of the Covenant was brought into Jerusalem. During his dance, David stopped to flirt with Bathsheba, who was among the crowd of people present. In the Bible, David was "leaping and dancing before the Lord" — a pure act of wholehearted worship on David's part (2 Samuel 6:12-19). Yes, David had his flaws, and yes, David later sinned greatly with Bathsheba (as the episode reenacts reasonably accurately). But the fact that the producers had David stop worshipping the Lord at such a devoted moment so he could hit on Bathsheba is, well, disappointing to say the least.

There were several other minor issues, but the ones above are what I anticipate will receive questions about. Again, overall, the episode was good. Could it have done a better job at sticking to the biblical text? Definitely. Does the episode, and the series, receive my endorsement? Yes, but only in the sense that I endorse anything that gets people talking about, thinking about, and hopefully studying God's Word.

The Series:

Part 1: Beginnings
Part 2: Homeland
Part 3: Hope
Part 4: Mission
Part 5: Passion


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Published 3-11-13