As we all know, the content of the Bible has evolved over thousands of years, and various versions have emerged one after another. Which of them is the "original meaning" of the Bible has long been uncertain. For the History Channel, it just tried to move closer to the mainstream, and based on the popular version of the Bible, it almost perfectly reproduced the stories in the Bible on the screen.
For believers, the records in the "Bible" cannot be questioned; however, for most Chinese audiences without religious background, they still regard "Bible Stories" as a collection of magical short films. From the perspective of adaptation strategy, the original book of the Bible is voluminous, with many poems, proverbs, letters, and argumentative essays, many of which are not narrative. Therefore, "Bible Story" focuses on those miracles, visions and allusions, and outlines Sort out the most popular story points in the Bible. The whole play has ten episodes in one season, and each episode is divided into three or five short stories. There is no necessary connection between the stories. In short, it is shot according to the style of the Bible.
"Bible Story" uses the story of Noah's Ark as the opening paragraph of the whole play. In the face of the storm, Noah recited the content of "Bible·Old Testament·Genesis" aloud, which is also the beginning of the "Bible", and then, Through some short clips, the allusions of the first human ancestors such as God creating man, stealing the forbidden fruit, and Cain killing his brother were explained, which constituted the prelude of the series. It was not until Abraham became the protagonist that he officially entered the "Bible Story" At the end of the last episode, the apostle John was exiled to the island of Patmos, where he had a vision and wrote the prophetic book of Revelation, which ends the series, which also follows the Bible "The last content corresponds exactly. Therefore, the "Bible Story" can be regarded as the beginning and end of the "Bible" text, which is ingenious and worth pondering.
The first five episodes are mainly the content of the "Old Testament". The patriarchs, prophets, and kings became the protagonists of the episodes. Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Saul, David, Daniel, and the sages of the ancient Jewish nation appeared in turn. , performed a wonderful scene after scene. For the main miracles and visions, the series did not hesitate to use special effects to perform, and it should be said that the visual effects are good (but for some big vision scenes, the series did not show). However, some places are different from the descriptions in the Bible, such as the appearance of the "sons of God" such as angels and Satan. According to the descriptions in the Bible and folklore, these heavenly visitors usually have wings on their shoulders or horns on their heads. But in the Biblical Story, the angels are ordinary men in cloaks, and in the section where Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, there was even an East Asian face among the angels who reported the news—which may have It is also out of the consideration of "political correctness". The devil Satan in the drama is a thin old man with a black cloak and a dark complexion. Because he looks like President Obama, he has caused a lot of "innuendo" in American public opinion. However, the producers quickly refuted the rumor: the actor who played Satan had played Satan many times in film and television dramas before Obama was elected president. If there is any similarity, it is a coincidence.
The last five episodes are mainly derived from the content of the "New Testament", basically based on the four Gospels as the script, and the protagonist who does his part is naturally Jesus - compared with the scattered content of the "Old Testament", the "New Testament" story line is unprecedentedly concise . As the ending draws near, the pace of the narrative is gradually accelerated and the atmosphere more depressing. Jesus faced multiple pressures from the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Roman occupiers, if the latter was persecution by foreign oppressors, while the former were a tragedy of internal Jewish cannibalism. The Jewish priests who hold religious power have long been vested interests, and they are naturally apprehensive about Jesus' preaching activities among the lower-class Jewish people.
The ominous atmosphere peaked with the arrival of the last Passover in Jesus' life. According to the research of later historians, there were about 2.5 million Jews who came to the Temple in Jerusalem to participate in the Passover ceremony. They baptized and made atonement here—all of which had to be paid for. This is represented by Caiaphas. important way of making money for the upper priests of Judaism. And Jesus, who came on a donkey, first overturned the money changer's vendors, and then boldly predicted that the temple would be destroyed, publicly inciting the Jewish people to rebel against the upper class.
Leaving aside religious beliefs, but from a historical point of view, this is obviously a very radical religious reformation idea, and Jesus' claim to be the savior "Messiah" is also an act of disobedience. However, if we restore the historical scene at that time, the death of Jesus actually contains many intriguing clues-Jesus swaggeringly rode a donkey into Jerusalem, which should be in line with the long-held legend of the Messiah in Judaism; , also a little afraid that the world will not be in chaos; as for his disciple Judas Iscariot, Jesus also knew very well about his betrayal of himself, and he even hinted that Judas betrayed himself quickly... Of course, according to the later betrayal According to the teachings of St. Paul, Jesus knew everything, and his death was in his arrangement. It was God who offered his only Son to atone for the sins of the world. From the perspective of traditional Judaism, Jesus is obviously a heretic. He completely subverted the original beliefs of Judaism, and also claimed that he was a child of God. Caiaphas punished him, which is in line with Judaism. Therefore, Pilate, the Roman governor who sentenced Jesus to be crucified, symbolically washed his hands in front of the people to show that he had nothing to do with the death of Jesus; before, Pilate had an opportunity to forgive the criminals, but in unison of the Jewish audience At the request, Pilate pardoned the criminal Barabbas, while Jesus was put on a crown of thorns (sarcastically called "the King of the Jews"), carried a heavy cross, and was whipped all the way to Golgotha, where he was nailed to He suffered for a long time and died on the cross... If the death of Jesus is regarded as a criminal case, it is not difficult to find that Jesus seems to have come to "seek death", while Caiaphas is based on Jewish doctrine, Pilate is based on Roman law (Jesus Public sedition) charges, sentencing Jesus, and the Jewish people's distaste for the "madman" who came to trouble the Passover, was not entirely maddened.
Jesus was resurrected after his death, and his death also directly inspired the passion of Christians for sacrifice and martyrdom. Christians were brutally persecuted by the Roman Empire. However, after witnessing the vision of Jesus, the original persecutor, St. Paul, turned into a staunch defender of the doctrine. He wrote a book and wrote a book and became an important author of the "New Testament". On the basis of the "original sin" theory, the doctrine of Christianity was consolidated. . However, look at the process of Jesus’ preaching. He did many things like healing the sick, exorcising ghosts, letting the paralyzed walk to raise the dead, and so on. He was no different from a god. Therefore, Gu Zhun also said that the Christian doctrine expounded by St. Paul “is a This is a sensational doctrine. The missionaries of later generations vividly preached the story of the Lord Jesus' crucifixion in order to redeem the original sin of the world, and the foolish man and the foolish woman were in tears when they heard it. In this way, Christianity surpassed the Jewish one. spread to the 'Gentiles'."
"Bible Story" is a standard American-style religious themed drama. Although it has a legal environment of "separation of church and state" and "freedom of belief", Christianity is undoubtedly the de facto reality in the United States. The state religion (it's hard to imagine mainstream TV channels in the United States broadcasting dramas that promote other religions), the History Channel naturally dare not overstep such a religious classic, which makes "Bible Stories" appear closed, conservative, but firm as The face of a rock.
(Published in the 12th issue of "Blog World", 2013)
View more about The Bible reviews
