“The Bible” from the Pulpit to America’s TV’s

This year families across America spent Easter watching a new show, instead of watching the traditional film Jesus of Nazareth, History Channel took it to a whole other level by surprising everyone with “The Bible Epic Mini-Series.” The series reenacted the main stories from the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. The ten-hour mini-series aired every Sunday-night in 2-hour episodes. The premiere of the series aired on March 13, 2013, precisely four weeks before Easter, so that by the time the series aired their final episode, the scenes of Jesus’ crucifixion would coincide with Easter Sunday.

The anticipation leading up to the premiere night caused a ruckus on social media from major celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, Russell Crowe, P.Diddy, Usher and Shakira tweeting and showing their support through hashtags promoting the one-of-a-kind show. “The Bible” became an instant success reaching over 13 Million viewers on the premiere night and over 100 million viewers by the last episode. While “The Bible” producers were successful in their attempt to make biblical narrative appealing to the popular audience, scholars struggle to credit the accuracy of their production in comparison to the original text. However, despite the unfavorable reviews by religious scholars, the massive response from popular culture made the series a smashing hit which strongly suggests that there is a resurgence of faith in America.

In a culture where reality television and celebrity talk shows lead the prime-time space, the media was not expecting “The Bible” to be the leader the charts. “The Bible” mini-series was produced by the mastermind of the world’s biggest reality shows: “Survivor,” “Celebrity Apprentice”, “The Voice”, “Shark Tank”, and “Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader.” Why would then Mark Burnett and Roma Downey take such a drastic shift in their production from reality television to biblical television? Because they are devout Catholics and they felt the calling to make the stories of the Bible appeal to the popular audience as a way of evangelism.

The representation of the Bible through Burnett’s eyes is spectacular and full of momentum. However, because he added his own creativity to make the Bible stories stand-out to the viewer, he made certain parts of the Bible different than the original text. Some Bible Scholars called the production to be inaccurate. Specifically, the scholars’ problem with the narrative has to do with the chronology of the stories, character representation, and fidelity to the text used in the script.   

Some of these representations are readily noticeable on the first scene of the series, Genesis Chapter 1. The Bible reads: “In the beginning, God made the heavens and the earth...” The narrator is unknown in the Bible, but Burnett added his own dramatic style to this story by having the series begin with an alternate beginning with two stories told in one scene. The words “In the beginning…” are told by Noah while he’s in the ark with the animals during the great flood. “I only watched the first thirty minutes of it… it was cheesy,” said  Mark Pinsky, a veteran religion writer.  For someone who may have never read the Bible before they would find this cinematographic effect to be engaging as the story begins, but for Bible scholars, this was a big turn-off.

However, “The Bible” series is not the first story that deviates from the original text when it is adapted to film or televised productions. When one reads a novel that is later adapted to motion picture, it is often the case, that the book is considered to be better than the film. Similarly, “The Bible” producers did not adhere strictly to the Bible because this is not a documentary film; it is an epic, highly-creative production used as an evangelistic medium with the intent to: “Tackle bible illiteracy in young people.” (Burnett, M.) Therefore, the producers emphasized on key elements that would make the old bible stories appeal to a young audience. Burnett focused on incorporating special effects, dramatic dialogue, sex scenes and epic sword fights to give his own interpretation of the bible on cable television that would attract a modern audience.

In order to make the stories of the Bible stand out to popular culture, Burnett, known as the godfather of reality television added elements of drama within the script in that were nowhere to be found on the Bible, therefore the new lines really surprised the viewers.  An example of some of those scenes is when an angel appears to Sarah to tell her that even though she is barren, God will give her and Abraham a child at an elderly age. That is the gist of the story from what we get from the bible, but on the series, the story comes out more melodramatic as it reveals the marital problems between Abraham and Sarah. The script includes a dialogue that focuses on Sarah being jealous of her servant Hagar and her son Ishmael because they get all the attention from Abraham.

The shift in the dialogue from the scripture creates a dramatic scene between Sarah and Hagar, similar to the cat fights featured on Celebrity Apprentice as the celebrities compete against each other. To watch Sarah and Hagar give each other dirty looks and fight for Abraham’s love, is seemingly as entertaining as watching the girls on “Rock of Love” dissing each other to get to Bret Michael’s attention. Perhaps that type of added element of entertainment in the series contributed to “The Bible” becoming “the most popular show on television.” More than likely that same type of superficial portrayal is what caused religion critics to refer to the series as “cheesy or inaccurate.”  

Nonetheless, such inaccuracy in the bible stories is only referencing an extended representation of what the dialogue could have truly been like between the whole Abraham-Sarah-Hagar ordeal. Mark Burnett did not change the outcome or the main message, in fact the producers aimed to adhere to the Bible in its accuracy: “We had over forty theologians and academics advising us to ensure that we were accurate and always telling the story in the spirit of the book.” Said Roma Downey.  What they did differently was to adapt the story to entertain the popular audience, and with his expertise in the field of reality television, he knew what to focus on based on the demands of popular culture.

Whereas religion scholars believe that representation of the bible on History Channel cheapens the scriptures, the ratings of the series and the amount of coverage it has gained in the media demonstrate that there is a resurgence of faith in America. Harrisburg Catholic Diocese Bishop McFadden was asked for his thoughts on the rating success of "The Bible," McFadden responded: “Studies have shown that America is seeking a spirituality. All studies in the last ten years have pointed out that people are searching and have a thirst for spirituality in their own life.” (Cook, P. web.) “The Bible” Series confirms what those studies have shown.

When Oprah Winfrey, an avid fan of the series interviewed the producers Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, she asked them what was their inspiration to make the “The Bible Series,” they responded that they tried to get their teenagers to watch “The Ten Commandments” with them, but they could not engage, they felt it was outdated and could not wait until the movie was over. Hence, the producers’ goal was to bring The Bible to life with state-of-the-art special effects, and to attract a new generation to The Bible. Also, because this country was founded on the Bible, they felt it this series would entice people into opening their Bible again. Forbes magazine writer concurs that: “the success of this show is a testament to the fact that faith plays an important role in people’s lives.” (Jankowski, P.)  Ultimately, the producers mission was to use the series as an evangelistic tool to touch the lives of Americans and to reach millions of people in an engaging way.

In order to present the Bible as a story that would captivate a popular audience Christians and non-christians alike, the producers portrayed the Bible heroes in a radical way. Characters like Samson, The Angels, and the club-like party atmosphere that they gave to Sodom and Gomorrah were some of the astounding factors that made the series engaging. Most depictions of Samson from graphic Bibles, or Children’s stories have made Samson to look like a strong He-man type of character, Caucasian, long hair sometimes blonde or brown hair, but with a very typical hero look. In the series, Samson appeared drastically different with a heavy weight, of African descent, long dreadlocks and a dirty, sweaty appearance, not the big hunk he was thought out to be. But their interpretation of what Samson might have really looked-like worked just fine, and perhaps is closer to the realistic depiction of Samson. In the same manner, the Angels that came to Abraham did not appeared with white wings or robes; instead they appeared as three multi-race young ninja fighters. One of them was Asian, another one was bald and black, and the Angel Gabriel was Caucasian. The Angels were in several fight scenes full of action and credible martial moves, an effect that amazed the viewers.

Mark Burnett’s idea for making “The Bible” series as a medium that would attract the masses to read the Bible again has been proven successful by the massive amount of support from viewers, religious and non-religious alike, celebrities, and spiritual leaders. Further, this massive amount of attention from popular culture demonstrates that faith is an essential part of the American culture and that there is a resurgence of faith in America.

There is no other work that has covered The Bible from Genesis through Revelation in a complete television series or movie that would make the message of the Bible more accessible to a large audience. The previous films that covered biblical narrative, like “The Ten Commandments,” “Jesus of Nazareth,” and even Mel Gibson’s gruesome take on “The Passion of The Christ” are complete different representations of The Bible. First, neither of these works is concerned with covering the entire Bible, they only focus on specific sections, whether it is the Old Testament, or the New Testament.  Second, the older versions are completely outdated. They may worked for a few decades, but in a digital era like we live today, the masses demand top-notch visual and sound effects to appreciate the message and thoroughly engage in a long series like “The Bible.”

While critics and religion scholars deem “The Bible” series to lack scholarship and accuracy, the representation of this program is not aimed at scholars, it was uniquely made to appeal to a new generation that is highly entertained by media and technology, but at the same time is ignorant of the Bible’s teachings. Roma Downey says: “Why not do a series on the Bible, if anything, we wanted to set the record straight, I have heard people say: “So Sodom and Gomorrah lived happily ever after right?” The series script was written with the help of over 40 theologians, because it was necessary that in their attempt to make the Bible “cool” and poignant, the content stayed true to the message.  

Are scholars right in their accusation that the producers deviated from the text? Yes, to a certain extent, but by any means did they construct alternate endings, or characters. If in the series we would have found 13 disciples instead of 12, or if they had given Jesus a wife, then that would have been outrageous and completely out of the line. But simply because the plot changed Jesus words to Peter from: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations,” to “Change The World,” or when Jesus was dying at the cross he spoke to Mary, he called her “Mother” in the series, instead of “Woman” which is the original word in the Bible, it does not make the meaning and the context false as compared to the scripture.

Film and television are heavily concerned with creative ways in which to surprise the audience and motivate coherence and engagement with the stories and characters they portray, certainly “The Bible Series” was not the exception. The epic and modern representation of the greatest story ever told caters to high demanding audience, in which form is equally important as content. The success of the series reflects how important faith is for a nation that was founded on The Bible and where God’s name appears in our currency. For other atheist groups that are opposing God and Jesus to be in our bills and in our schools, certainly Mark Burnett and Roma Downy backfired at these types of groups with “The Bible Series,” because from the moment it came out, it has been the most talked-about show in the radio, television and churches across America. Even if the conversation stemmed from trivial thoughts about Satan’s resemblance with President Obama, or Diogo Morgado being referred to as “Hot” Jesus, “The Bible Series” achieved its main goal which was to reach millions with the word of God through television and DVD/Blue Ray. Certainly, it makes it easier for anyone to watch The Bible in five episodes, than to have a new year resolution of reading The Bible in one year, this is highly unachievable to do, but now we can all sit back and be entertained with “The Bible Series.”
http://www.history.com/shows/the-bible