Posted on 03/29/2014 11:42:02 AM PDT by Star Traveler
The pre-release advertising promoting the movie Noah made a point of stating that while the director took artistic license in the production it was still faithful to the biblical story. Early theater previews were carefully edited to appeal to people of faith, but this is the least biblical “biblical film” of all time!
However, to be charitable, the bare outline of the Flood story is present, but after that artistic license has taken the film so far afield of anything resembling the Bible that it is offensive to people of faith. To say that the biblical story was watered down (pardon the pun) is much too mild.
Those who know the Bible were aware of how little the script followed Scripture. Those who didn’t know the Bible still didn't know it when the final credits appeared. It is to the movie studio’s credit that they chose to even make a film with a biblical theme, but the torturous fiction that was the final cut partly written and directed by an atheist is a discredit to both the studio and the actors and is, in result, worse than having not made it at all. Remember the old adage of making a bottle of poison look nicer by removing the ugly skull and crossbones label and replacing it with one that read “essence of peppermint?” The bottle now looks pretty, but is even more deadly because of its deceptive label.
To a generation that already rejects the Genesis account as pure fiction, mixing a little Bible with a film of impure fiction is even worse – and certainly more dangerous to faith. For those who have not seen the movie and may think my judgments too harsh, please consider the following.
The film presents the sole purpose of Noah and the Ark as the preservation of the innocent animals. The pre-Flood world is portrayed as barren and denuded as the result of human corruption. What could be more evil and deserving of judgment in ecologically-minded Hollywood? Therefore, as Noah interprets God’s purpose, mankind – all of mankind, including Noah and his family – are supposed to die so the new world can continue with only with an innocent animal population.
The Ark has nothing to do with the salvation of mankind, but with its punishment. Noah was only chosen to save the animals, and he is so intent on fulfilling his task to see humanity destroyed that he announces to his family on the Ark that they must all die, for “the Creation is only safe when mankind is dead.” For this reason, when Noah learns that Shem’s wife is pregnant, he declares that he will murder her baby, if it is a girl, as soon as it is born! The ensuing drama aboard the Ark has Mrs. Noah trying to help her expectant kids escape, a crazed Noah stalking his newly born twin granddaughters, and Shem and Ham trying to kill their father (especially after he sets fire to the couple’s escape raft).
Add to the drama the evil meat-eating king of the old world, Tubal-Cain, who sneaked on board and remained hidden throughout the voyage, only to finally die in a knife fight with Noah when the Ark lands and breaks in two.
In the end, Noah spares his family because of “love.” Mankind is not so bad after all, for as Mrs. Noah explains, “all the heart needs is love to be good.” God, who has remained silent through the drama on the Ark, despite Noah’s pleas for divine guidance, is shown to have stayed away because, as Noah’s adopted Cainite daughter (the wife of Shem who had been miraculously cured of bareness by a healing touch from Methuselah) states, God wanted to let Noah chose whether mankind should live or not.
So, in spite of the ecological hype, it is about humanism in the end. The film closes with newly sober Noah brandishing his snake-skin phylactery (a relic from the serpent in the Garden of Eden) and telling his kids to be “fruitful and multiply” as a rainbow appears (sans the Noahic covenant).
Yet this summary reflects the best part of the film. To get the real flavor of the added fiction one must consider the four-armed giant rock men, who are actually imprisoned fallen angels (“Watchers”) created on the second day to help mankind and aid Noah by building the Ark. For their good works they get redeemed and taken to heaven (and their wings restored) in explosive shafts of light as the rain starts to fall, but only after slaughtering the masses of mankind who were trying to kill Noah and take over the Ark. At the same time Methuselah eats a berry and is killed in the first wave of water from the Flood (he did die in the same year that the Flood occurred, but not as a result of the Flood). On board the Ark Noah’s family pleads with him to let in the screaming people scratching on the door of the Ark because “there is room,” but Noah as judge and jury says there is no room for such people, and then follows this with the aforementioned announcement to those on the Ark that God wants all of them dead as well.
If you ever wondered where the wood for the Ark came from, the film depicts a whole forest magically growing up around Noah’s family camped at Methuselah’s mountain from a seed from the Garden of Eden that Methuselah had been keeping all this time. And as for the innocent animals, they mostly come by the thousands (same species), mostly snakes, birds, and insects (more dramatic for the special effects guys), following a magic waterway that sprang from the Edenic seed and had spread over the world. Sadly, some species were made extinct on the Ark since Tubal-Cain kept himself alive by eating the animals on board the Ark. They were easy prey because Noah had drugged them all to sleep with sedative-laced incense.
Other fictional elements include a Zohar stone that instantly bursts into flame when struck, no wives for Ham and Japeth so only six people in Noah’s family go on the Ark (though eight get off), big windows staying open during the Flood (compare Genesis 8:6) and the family running around on top of the Ark while it rides out the Deluge, and the inclusion of evolutionary development on the fifth day of Creation (which is implied in the succession of creatures and landscapes as lasting for millions of years).
The producers tried to keep these details secret from the faith-based public in order to not have a backlash from negative reviews that would affect the all important opening weekend box office. I learned about some of these details last year from a French graphic novel (which I was shown in Germany) upon which the film’s script was based.
As far as I know this was not translated or released to the English-speaking market, presumably to prevent these fictional elements from getting out to the faith-based American audience. Now, the secret is out and it is hoped that informed audiences will, like Noah in the film, judge this parody of the biblical account, unworthy of cinematic salvation.
Since Dr. Price has been deeply involved with the search for Noah's Ark, Randall felt it proper to review the movie Noah for you our supporters and any interested friends.
You can go to www.worldofthebible.com and click on the top link to see the review.
There are also some new news stories posted, so enjoy the reading!
Concerning ministry activities, Randall has turned in his part of the manuscript for an apologetic handbook on Biblical archaeology that he is writing with Wayne House, but there is still final editing which will take awhile before the book will be published by Zondervan.
Please pray for Randall as he will be doing a week long apologetic conference in Redding, CA at Shasta Bible College and surrounding churches April 9th-13th. If you are in the Redding area you can find more info at the Shasta Bible College website: http://shasta.edu.
We thank you for your prayers and support!
Blessings,
Ken Stanford WBM
Having seen the movie this morning I can attest to the fact the above is a complete lie. It's more like a Scifi flick with a story line that resembles the Biblical account of Noah.
Perhaps they should have titled it LEGEND OF GILGAMESH, then no one would have complained.
In this case, the book will definitely be better than the movie!
Does Noah, played by Russell Crowe, hit Cain’s son over the head with a telephone?
That would be far more accurate, but then few would be suckered into going.
Noah is a movie pushing environmentalism and glow-bull warming (oh, sorry, climate “change”).
I liked it better back when it was called "Evan Almighty", it's basically the same plot.
No it certainly is not!
It is just another push to rewrite the Bible, just like those "churches" that do homo marriages or have active homo preachers.
Let’s quote the paragraph, instead of “making hay” out of a snip ... :-) ...
Those who know the Bible were aware of how little the script followed Scripture. Those who didn’t know the Bible still didn’t know it when the final credits appeared. It is to the movie studio’s credit that they chose to even make a film with a biblical theme, but the torturous fiction that was the final cut partly written and directed by an atheist is a discredit to both the studio and the actors and is, in result, worse than having not made it at all. Remember the old adage of making a bottle of poison look nicer by removing the ugly skull and crossbones label and replacing it with one that read “essence of peppermint?” The bottle now looks pretty, but is even more deadly because of its deceptive label.
Boy! There is really a FLOOD of criticism regarding this movie. I guess the producers and directors are all WET! However, the income from the box office indicates that the studio will not take a BATH from this release.
No, but he does throw it at him.
They still managed to make money because they did everything they could in the promotional materials to keep people from knowing what it was really about - as this article points out.
That fact, plus the fact that Christians find it rare to even “get a movie” in the theater about a Biblical story - caused many to be fooled into coming.
IN ADDITION ... all those who don’t really know the Bible at all ... are FOOLED INTO BELIEVING that this is actually the “Biblical account”!
The wood came from bray.....
BEEP!
I disagree, I don’t think it was concealment. The reason people flock to see these movies is due to the studios and their publicist’ ability to create a “controversy.” People are so trivial and vain that the excitement of a “controversy” causes them to attend in order that they “may judge for themselves.”
I don’t know what people expect. The Bible’s account on Noah and the arc is that Noah was to build an ark and grab two of each species and then get every animal inside and his family. How do you expect that to be two hours? Seriously you are asking too much.
Bloodthirsty Noah trying to kill his grand daughters: how lovely
Note that God caused those animals to come to Noah. Noah was commanded to bring them inside the ark, which he did. Also note (as a side note) that it was God that closed the door of the ark.
Genesis 6:19, 20
19 You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you.
20 Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive.
Genesis 7:8, 9
8 Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground,
9 male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah.
—
Genesis 7:16
16 The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the LORD shut him in.
I thought it was 7 pairs of each species? I guess I need to open a book
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