Wow. Episode #3 is just flat out brutal.
I forced myself to desensitize to violence because I didn't know what to expect in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. I watch Passion of the Christ almost every year. I can handle violence. The Bible, ep. 3 borders on the amount of brutality I can't handle.
I'm watching the episode as I write this so that I don't miss any little detail.
Don't get me wrong, The Bible episode 3 is very well made, very exciting, and accurate to the Bible. I still love it. I just want those of you who may be a little squeamish to brutality in media to be aware of things that might be difficult for you to watch. The fact that I'm having some trouble watching it without covering my eyes indicates that people who have trouble watching Narnia or Lord of the Rings would have trouble watching this episode.
This episode covers Nebuchadnezzar's attack of Jerusalem, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, the Birth of Jesus, and the Beginning of Jesus' earthly ministry. And thus, a lot of blood is spilled between the opening of the show and the end credits.
The Babylonian army literally massacre everyone in Jerusalem. Well, except for Daniel and his buddies, that is. Nebuchadnezzar has King Zedekiah's son's slaughtered moments before personally poking out King Zedekiah's eyes (we see this happening). Later, we see a now blind former King Zedekiah being led into exile, and we are not spared from seeing the gory sockets where his eyes used to be. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are, of course, thrown into the fiery furnace, but are not hurt because the Lord shows up and protects them. Nebuchadnezzar, on the other hand, reaches into the fire himself and is burned. After Daniel's episode in the lion's Den, two other guys are thrown in, and we hear them screaming off camera as, we assume, they are devoured by the lions.
400 plus years later, Roman soldiers sack the city of Nazareth, including breaking in on a Shabbat meeting, and randomly selecting prisoners. King Herod stabs a man in the neck, and squeezes blood from the wound with his hands. Babies are slaughtered, but we only see the soldiers take the children away from their parents, and the soldiers wielding swords. We see a ton of crucified bodies on a hill outside Galilee, some of which are pretty gruesome. We also see a couple guys being crucified. Near the end of the episode, we see a soldier swinging a sword toward John the Baptist's neck, but the scene cuts away before we see the actual beheading. But, we do get to see a silhouette of the soldier lifting John's severed head from the ground.
King Herod is shown with leaches on his back, and we assume he is very ill. Herod also, in a state of paranoia, has one of his sons strangled to death.
Another thing younger viewers should be aware of is that Satan is portrayed as being really creepy (which he is). But, this film portrayal may be a little disturbing for younger viewers.
As with the previous two episodes, some of the events have been completely brushed over or squashed to make them all fit into a two hour block of time. This, unfortunately, meant that some of the accuracy went out the window. As a filmmaker, I understand why they made some of the choices they made, but if you're an accuracy freak like me, you may be a little disappointed.
Don't think for a minute that I didn't enjoy episode 3 just because of the critiques and the list of gory, gruesome contents. I still loved the episode, and the whole show thus far. And, there are some good things about this episode.
The stories that are told are, more or less, told as accurately to the original text as the filmmakers could get them in the time in which they told the stories. Some of the details have been squashed together due to time restraints, but they are still the same events as told about in The Bible.
Also, I thought Mary and Joseph's relationship was very sweet. He compliments her, and protects her from the sacking Romans. Later, after Gabriel assures him that the baby Mary has conceived is really the Son of God, Joseph bursts through crowds of angry people to save Mary from people who intend to stone her. After Jesus is born, there's a scene where we see Joseph running through Bethlehem, calling desperately for Mary, juxtaposed with clips of the massacre of the infant boys of Bethlehem. It turns out to be a dream, but I thought that scene did a really great job of not only showing God's warning to Joseph to flee Bethlehem, but also to show just how much he really loves and cares for her, and for baby Jesus.
And, most importantly, Jesus makes His entrance in this episode. Everything from His birth to His first encounter with Peter.
The portrayal of Jesus was my main original concern with the series. I assumed that because the show was on the History Channel, that they probably wouldn't wan to portray Jesus as being the actual Son of God, since secular media and history buffs don't really like to admit the Bible is real, or that Jesus was really God Incarnate. However, so far, The Bible series seems to be portraying Jesus correctly, that is as the actual, honest to goodness Son of God, God Incarnate, The "With Us" God, as my Pastor calls Him. That made me very, very happy.
We'll get to see more of Him next week.
Now, I'm really curious. Will the remaining 2 episodes be about Jesus' earthly ministry, death, and resurrection? Or will at least one of the episodes cover the events that occurred after Jesus's ascension into Heaven? I guess we shall just have to wait and see.
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