Most people raised in the church grew up watching Bible movies, from TV show adaptations to feature films. They’ve also watched their fair share of movies inspired by biblical events, like “Ben-Hur” or “The Little Drummer Boy.” Obviously, not every adaptation was great. Some were liked very much while others weren’t the movie that was expected. Some were funny in the way filmmakers maybe didn’t intend. Many times, even the flawed Bible films surprised them and challenged them to read the Bible better. Here are some things that you can learn from watching Bible movies, including recommendations for some good ones.
The best Bible films come from unexpected places.
Sticking with the Bible films we were given as kids is tempting. Sometimes, those films are great. However, the more you expand your sights, the more you discover treasures. Movies made in different countries can challenge you to see Bible stories differently. For example, “Joseph the Dreamer,” the first stop-motion film made in Israel, can help you consider how Jewish audiences interpret Jewish people’s suffering in the Bible. Movies with uncommon perspectives are equally interesting. For example, “Genesis: Creation and the Flood” features how essential the nomadic tribe context is in the Old Testament.
You can also find well-crafted Bible films in unexpected places, like “Testament: The Bible in Animation,” a series of biblical cartoons by Russian and Welsh animators. Despite a modest budget, it produced better-told and better-looking Bible stories than most glossy American cartoons. Seeking Bible films outside Christian bookstore shelves or our church library can be challenging. However, they’re often easier to find than we assume. Looking outside familiar territory shows us that Bible films will entertain and challenge us more than we expect.
Bible movies are typically about when they were made.
Every Bible film is informed by its filmmaking period. They all begin with a basic story to retell, like Moses and the burning bush or Joseph and his brothers. When they made these movies, they created factors influencing how they told that story. These factors include what filmmaking styles were fashionable, what was happening in world politics, and how biblical scholars interpreted texts at the time. Once you recognize every Bible movie is a time capsule of its period, you can consider how time affects the story. For example, the 1956 version of “The Ten Commandments” was informed by the Cold War.
Moses and Pharoah were two significant power blocks refusing to back down from each other’s wishes. Nowadays, we try not to complain about a Bible movie if we haven’t considered its context, and we remember that each one was made by people moving with the times and that those people typically talk about today as much as they’re talking about the Bible.
Even Bible movies have cliches.
As you watch Bible films from different styles and periods, you realize how much you’re informed by the ones you grew up with. We all create biases from the first Bible story adaptations we encounter, like books, cartoons, or movies. As we grow, we should examine those biases. For example, you may be surprised that “The Bible Collection: Joseph” made Potiphar sympathetic. In this version, Potiphar doubted his wife’s claims that Joseph attacked her and imprisoned Joseph as a compromise. However, Genesis 39:19 says that Potiphar was upset when he heard about what Joseph allegedly did. Most Bible adaptations we were raised on showed Potiphar as an angry man who believed his wife and punished Joseph with prison time. However, we should also consider Richard James and E. Randolph Richards’ book Misreading Scripture with Individualist Eyes.
The authors emphasized that Potiphar could’ve killed Joseph because he was a professional executioner, and everyone would’ve expected him to kill Joseph. The fact that Potiphar only imprisoned Joseph means that something else was going on. His culture emphasized the family’s good and the estate’s future, so we were likely enraged at his tough position. The issue wasn’t the movie. The problem was that we’re used to Bible adaptations that show Potiphar in a certain way. Part of watching Bible movies well is loving God with all our minds, as detailed in Mark 12:30, including developing discernment. As we learn to discern, we should look at Bible movies and ask whether the film engages with the text’s context or follows cliches. Every Bible film is informed by what came before, and the best filmmakers realize this and do their homework to stop rehashing the past.
The Bible isn’t always kid-friendly.
Since most of us find the Bible in Sunday School, we typically assume Bible movies must be family-friendly. When we re-read Bible stories as adults, we realize that those stories often have mature moments. We also learn that the Bible has things we might find strange. We can particularly appreciate how “The Bible Collection: Jeremiah” reminds us that God told this Old Testament prophet to do drastic things while giving His prophecies. The Bible has shocking and strange ideas, and at least some of the Bible movies we watch should reflect that variety. This isn’t an advocation for X-rated Bible movies, but the opposite doesn’t help either. We miss the point when we expect every Bible story adaptation to be family-friendly. However, there are some family-friendly Bible movies, like “The Ballad of Little Joe,” the VeggieTales adaptation of Joseph’s story and “The Bible Collection: Joseph.” Our vision for Bible movies should include both options, giving adaptations to every age group and challenging us to study the Bible better.
Every Bible film balances several elements: past and present, cliches, creative vision, budgets, and new research. The best ones take all of these elements and produce something entertaining, but they make us think more about the Bible’s teachings.
