The Bible on the Big Screen: A Guide from Silent Films to Today's Movies

Written in a delightfully breezy style that makes admirably light work at providing the interested reader with a great deal of information, this is a book I can thoroughly recommend from my twin viewpoints as both a well-known film critic (at least in England, France and Australia) and Bible scholar. True, the author does make some offhanded observations I don't agree with, although some are rather puzzling. For example, "evangelicals prefer the New International Version of the Bible." Not any of the many evangelicals I know. In fact, they are all dead against it. "The Greek word 'lestes' can mean a Zealot or revolutionary." No way! It means some-one who 'plunders' such as a robber or a brigand. "John's Gospel was written by John the Apostle 30 years after the Savior's death." Wrong on two counts. John's Gospel could not possibly have been written by John the Apostle, that is, John, the son of Zebedee. See my book Essential Bible Wisdom: GOOD NEWS by John, the Beloved Disciple, and John, the Elder. But these are piffling issues. In this case, it's the movies themselves that count, and here the author's observations are always pertinent, insightful, informative and correct.