Watch the Movie, Read the Book

Yes, I have watched a bit of The Bible on the History Channel, but since I do not watch that much TV, and Sunday Evenings are usually otherwise accounted for, I have not seen as much as I would like.  Having said that, the little I have seen, it is well produced and accurate, yet reading the overviews of each episode leaves me scratching my head at the leaps and edits made.  I know that there is a tremendous amount of material in the original, but so much has been left out, so it is a bit of a teaser.  Oh well, maybe it will send some folks who have never read the Book to the Book.

With this in mind, I had to laugh at the latest add from Church Publishing’s partner company Cokesbury.  For those who may not know, CP has downsized a bit and is using Cokesbury for distribution of resources.  Anyway, they sent out an ad for the “Companion Novel” to the Mini-series The Bible.  No seriously, they have a novel written in the way the series is written.  I thought we already had a book that the movie was based off, now we have a book based on the movie based on the Book?  OK, I am certain the novel will be useful, but what would you wager that the response would be to read the novel and skip the Book?  How many times have you said, “The book was not as good as the movie”?

Frankly, I wish they had added a spit take warning as I choked on my coffee when I read this: “Historically and theologically accurate, many prominent biblical characters are dramatized in the story: Moses, David, Daniel, John the Baptist, and, of course, Jesus. A 10-hour miniseries on the History Channel is the basis for the novel, and the script has been reviewed by seminarians for authenticity” (emphasis added).  That is a real corker.  I know seminarians, I was a seminarian, and most of us were in no position to make a judgment on the accuracy of a script.  There is a reason we were called “Semi-Arians” and the place of study, the “Semetary”, as in the place where good faiths go to die.  All joking aside, why use seminarians as the test audience and make them the authorities on the script?  Seminarians are being educated, they are not yet fully educated and formed, no offense intended to seminarians, but it would be like asking an accounting student to make authoritative comments on your tax situations.

Of course, the seminarians may not have been asked about the theology, they may have been asked about authenticity.  This word is a new favorite in the church as we should be authentic, but I believe it is overused. So did the seminarians say it was authentic? I hope so, it is a real authentic script written on paper or in digits!  Other than that, I do not know how authenticity could be judged.  I do believe the word means something other than accurate.

Anyway, watch the movie, it looks good, it has received good reviews, then read the Book.  Four out of 5 seminarians agree.