Quick Notes on the Bible Mini-Series

My son and I just today sat down with a bowl of popcorn and Netflix Streaming to watch the Bible Mini-Series that we have heard many good things on. Yes, we heard that a few little things were slightly off, but we figured we wouldn't let that bother us.

My 10 year old saw and verbally noted the following things that annoyed him in the first half (not even a full half!) of the first episode - and when our internet momentarily dropped and I started to refresh the page, he said, "perhaps we can just watch something else. Artistic liberty should NOT CONTRADICT the Bible in a show ABOUT the Bible!"

• the ark would not have leaked - covered inside and out with pitch (tar)
• it likely didn't rock very much - think cruise ships
• no sunlight entering (God sealed them in)
• could not have walked on the deck (God sealed them in)
• Abraham/Abram was called earlier in life - events re: Egypt and his wife being so beautiful as to be brought in with the concubines of Pharaoh - making all his wives infertile until he released her)
• God changed their names after they had been traveling a while - so should have said Abram, instead of Abraham when God first called him
• Abram/Abraham gave Lot the choice of direction
• artistic liberty is great as long as it doesn't CONTRADICT the text: the wives did not act like that - Lot's wife isn't recorded as saying much; Abram's wife didn't hate Ishmael until Isaac was weaned (at age 3) - the dates are off in all of that too

If this is a person's only exposure to the Bible - let's at least be accurate. Visual impressions are strong and lasting. 

I am not sure we'll come back to this....