Since the History Channel series premiered, some people have criticized “The Bible” for not being very true to the book and leaving certain facts and stories out. One example, that could have been easily included, was Lot offering up his virgin daughters in place of the angels (Genesis 19:8). But last night’s episode showed such a blatant inconsistency that any first grader would have noticed.
In the story of Samson and Delilah, Samson is asked by the Philistine woman what made him strong. According to Judges 16:6-16 she asked him more than three times. Actually, according to Judges 16:16 she “nagged” him day after day until he had to tell her. In the TV series she only asked once before he told her. It is understandable that the series could not fit the three falsehoods of Samson before he told her the truth of what made him strong. But where the blatant inconsistency lies is when Samson’s hair is cut. According to Judges 16:19, Samson only had seven locks of hair (in the series he had more than anyone could care to count), they were all completely cut off to make him bald (in the series they were cut to about shoulder length), and perhaps the most glaring inconsistency is…Delilah did not cut his hair. Judges 16:19 says Delilah called in another man (presumably a Philistine) to come in and “shave” the seven locks off his head.
Although I understand the series has too much material to cover in ten hours, mistakes like these could be easily avoided with more bible literacy. Hopefully we will not see any more of these.
What do you think? Are there other inconsistencies in “The Bible”?
