As an occasional contributor to The Patriot Post, on some opinions, I find we have to agree to disagree. Last week, when one of the staff writers, Thomas Gallatin, wrote a somewhat disparaging analysis about Amazon Prime’s blockbuster series “House of David,” stating that the show “ultimately disappoints” because it “fails to carefully and faithfully follow the Biblical record,” I thought a second opinion was in order.
For us younger folks, it seems when it comes to entertainment, legalistic arguments have become pervasive: This “Bible-based” thing isn’t 100% Biblically accurate, therefore I must reject it!
If that’s you, then you may not like “House of David” because, as Gallatin notes, it does not precisely follow the Biblical record.
However, this production takes three chapters of the book of 1 Samuel and turns it into an eight-hour dramatic series. You read that right — eight hours. That’s 2.66 hours per chapter, 4.14 minutes per verse, 8.5 seconds per word (KJV).
If you want a perfectly accurate telling of the story of David, maybe there is a recorded eight-hour reading of these 1 Samuel chapters in super … slow … motion out there, but Amazon won’t promote it to its 200 million customers.
Can we just acknowledge it’s a good thing that a viewership the size of the sixth-largest nation in the world now has access to a generally faithful retelling of a pivotal Biblical story that, if nothing else, teaches important Scriptural precepts about God? Is that a failure? Should we bemoan the idea that people around the world can spend eight hours consuming something that will point them to the Bible instead of the litany of garbage that is antithetical to God’s Word?
The show’s producers (The Wonder Project) lead each episode with the following disclaimer: “Some of the events depicted in this series may not accurately represent all historical and biblical facts or figures. While we have made efforts to portray certain aspects of history authentically, creative liberties have been taken for storytelling purposes.”
Do we honestly expect them, or anyone telling an Old Testament Bible story, other than a literal reading, to be 100% accurate to the stripped-raw version of stories passed down over thousands of years? That reading will be greeted by young audiences with the same reaction that most nonbelievers greet a reading of the Old Testament: This is long and boring.
“House of David’s” success is in its ability to turn three chapters of the Bible into a compelling, entertaining, and inspiring series.
The show culminates when David and Goliath finally meet face-to-face. As David, the boy who has been carefully and deliberately built up over the first seven hours of thoughtful character development to be the unsuspecting heir to the throne of Israel, finally takes the battlefield, his exchange with Goliath is taken verbatim from 1 Samuel 17:43-47. Then (spoiler) he kills Goliath.
Let’s be honest — this is far superior to anything from the secular Hollywood production houses.
When someone watches this series and wants to learn more about the Bible, and then turns to the internet for insight and reads, “We Christians disavow this show because it did what the disclaimer said it would do,” should we blame them for not being drawn to the faith?
The comparative arguments are fine for scholarly interpretation, but let’s celebrate that a generally faithful retelling of an Old Testament Bible story is at the top of the world’s second-largest streaming platform.
This is compelling, binge-worthy television that turns what for many is a storybook character into a relatable, dynamic person. We need more of this, not less.
We should be clamoring for Season 2, not bemoaning Season 1’s Biblical inaccuracies.
“House of David” is great. Go watch it and recommend it to your friends who are skeptical of Biblical truth — because it’s not only entertaining but also very close to the real story.
