The Bible: For Unto Us...

I am starting to think "The Bible" is forcing people to read it by putting in these inaccuracies every so often. 

And by skipping large portions of "The Bible." 

There's a part of me that wants to go back to when they were deciding which stories to include and which to discard. Why eliminate Jacob and his sons? Elijah and Elisha? Solomon? What were the reasons to not include these people? 


Remember how last week ended with a young Solomon? That was the only sighting of the wisest king of Israel in this miniseries. This installment starts with the approach of Babylonian forces and Jeremiah's warnings being unheeded. Daniel rises among the people and becames a trusted advisor to the king. But he and his friends won't worship the Babylonian gods, so three of them are ordered to be burned. They pray as this happens and God saves them from the fire, causing the Babylonian king to lose his mind. This paves the way for the Persians to invade Babylon and free the Israelites. From there, the Persian king also befriends Daniel. But his advisors don't like it and trick him into issuing an edict Daniel will no doubt disobey. When he does, the king has no choice but to through him to the lions. Everyone knows what happens there--though it is worth noting the Bible says King Darius throws him to the lions BEFORE the Persians arrive. 

After Daniel is saved from the lions, the Israelites are free. The miniseries than heads into the New Testament. 

Before each episode, there is a disclaimer saying the producers strived to remain true to the spirit of the Bible stories, if not the letter. But in some ways, I feel the New Testament's start doesn't fit the spirit of the New Testament. It continues the theme of someone rising up to lead the Israelites to conquer their outside foes. So they focus on a few scenes which are historically accurate but never seen in the Gospels. A group of Jewish students did pull down an eagle erected over the temple the same year Jesus was born (4 B.C.) but I fail to see how it applies to Jesus. The Gospels are clear that Jesus isn't coming to free Israel from Rome but to save the world from sin. When they aren't focusing on being historically accurate, the New Testament scenes are pretty good. Especially the temptation of Christ. You know, Obama lookalike Satan aside. It looked like a scene from Star Wars to me. But I liked how when Satan was offering him all the power in the world, they showed Pilate crowning him then flashed to the crown of thorns, so on. 

I am not sure why they only chose to focus on Matthew's infancy narrative and not mesh in Luke's like our common understanding of the Christmas story does, but it's nothing to complain about. The series notes Herod's death and a mass crucifixation in Israel as Mary and Joseph return from Egypt with a young Jesus. They pass a crucified man as they return to Nazareth, which toddler!Jesus sees. The forced foreshadowing is clunky, especially compared to the later temptation scene. I have read a few other complaints about them not including the finding of the child Jesus in the temple. But then it wouldn't fit the atmosphere the rest of the episode set up: Jesus as a hero, not Jesus as a teacher. 

Once again, this is pretty well casted. The actor playing Daniel, Jake Canuso, carried the first half well. And the actors playing Joseph (Joe Coen) and Mary (Leila Mimmack) did a great job in the second half. It will be interesting to watch Diogo Morgado continue on Jesus' path in the next few episodes.