HISTORY CHANNEL: Bible history???

Although we enjoy watching THE BIBLE series on the HISTORY CHANNEL, I drive my wife crazy by pointing out all the inconsistencies in this particular portrayal of Biblical stories.

The last episode we watched showed the Jews being forced into exile in Babylon under the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar which is fine but there were a number of factual errors in this segment.

The Persian King Cyrus eventually allowed the Jews to go back to Jerusalem but many of the Jews, after 50 years in Babylon, made a good life for themselves in Babylon and chose to remain while the movie portrayed the Jews as captives begging to go home; some of those younger Jews were never in Jerusalem and had nothing to return to.

Another famous error is the quote from the BOOK OF ISAIAH (7:14) which Christians have taken to predict the coming of Jesus (Emmanuel) born of a virgin but most historians say that it did not predict Jesus but someone else.

The very interesting part in this quote is that when the Old Testament was translated from Hebrew into Greek, the Hebrew word ALMAH (young woman) was translated as the Greek word PARTHENOS meaning virgin. The Hebrew word for virgin is BETHULAH.

From this one slip in translation the whole idea of a VIRGIN MARY was born and Christians (Catholics) have been trying to get around that fact for centuries…too late now!

Also, since the Bible mentions four brothers of Jesus (James, Joseph, Simon & Judas) some older than Jesus, the whole virginity thing becomes a little absurd. The Bible also mentions sisters but does not elaborate; the movie LIFE OF BRIAN was probably a better depiction of what really happened.

When the episode started telling the story of Jesus, the producers picked among the Gospels the stories we are most familiar with.

The trip to Bethlehem with a heavily pregnant “fiancé” to “register” for a Roman census lacks all historical credibility and is believed by scholars to be merely “symbolic” since Old Testament prophecies named Bethlehem (City of David) as the birthplace of the messiah.

There also is no record of a census ordered by the Romans historically at that time and logically it makes no sense to go back to your birthplace to register???

We are also familiar with the Three Kings (Wise Men or Magi) story told only in Mathew who does not even tell us how many of them there were but this story is mostly a traditional myth we grew up with.

The dates get all screwed up here when we find that there was a Roman census in 6-7AD, Herod the Great died in 4BC, Jesus was supposedly born in the year 0 so……things do not match up when it comes to Herod the Great looking for the new “savior” and then ordering all children under two (2) killed in Bethlehem to make sure Herod would not have a rival to his thrown…no evidence for that and the timing is all off.

I was a little surprised that in this particular TV series, Joseph was portrayed as a strapping young man who was not buying into the Holy Ghost impregnating his fiancé Mary…most Catholic apologists see Joseph as an old man, incapable of sex but induced to marry a pregnant woman to save her reputation. This portrayal does not see Joseph as an old man which is a different spin on the story….interesting!

I guess I expected more out of a HISTORY CHANNEL, at least a disclaimer that what you see on screen is fiction or just someone’s vision of what they think may have happened but hey they are getting a lot of people to watch $$$$$.

Did you notice the commercials for CHRISTIAN SINGLES; God’s choice for you…really???

I will remain silent the next time we watch the series or I may get something thrown at me.