Customer Reviews

Ancient Secrets of the Bible: Sodom and Gomorrah / Walls of Jericho

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I find the "Ancient Secrets of the Bible" a very helpful tool in providing a very reasonable scientific expalanation to some of the stories in Scripture. My students ranging from 3rd grade to university level have been able to follow the contents of the program without difficulty. I do hope the company will continue to produce more of this kind of videos. I am a Catholic priest and a university campus ministry chaplain. I highly recommend this set to anyone studying Scripture at any educational level. It provides a good response to those seeking to reconcile both faith and reason. And for those who already believe in the Bible, it provides an added affirmation to one's faith.

This box set of 5 dvds actually contains 10 episodes, all about how modern science backs up the Bible. The series also visits counterviews to provide balanced arguments. You'll have your faith strengthened by this intriguing look at the ancient secrets of the Bible.

While many like to heckle science if it doesn't back up a Humanistic view of the world, these DVD's will be a very helpful addition to anyone's collection. It shows good solid proofs for many of the ancient events recorded in the earliest parts of the Bible while giving detractors a voice. It's so funny that when good science is done it's called bad, but when bad science is done it's called good. Fortunetly (besides the more then 2000 years of attacks upon it) the stories of the Bible prove true.

Don't bother with people who give a silly one star rating with useless and biased comments like this: "Amateurish, dubious archelogical references, this collection is poorly performed, edited, and researched. The bible stories are typically traditional. All in all, nothing new and intellectually painful viewing. I recommend Mysteries of the Bible for substance." You can tell by the rhetorical tone of their writing that their lying and are the ones with bad research. Everything in the show's are scientifically verifiable and the top scientists (who aren't Anti-Christian) in their fields confirm the findings, even if they aren't Christians.

This was a pretty fun and entertaining series. It was great to see many stories from the bible re-enacted and, like the Veggie Tales series, provided once again a reminder of the many bible's passages. Every now and again when one wants to watch something other than cable/broadcast TV it's great to flip on.

However, if one is looking for unbiased viewpoints and for an actual academic bible study, the series title is very misleading. When the main endorsement on the box is from the campus crusades for christ international versus a professor of a theological seminary, you realize the series is for entertainment and "spiritual" purposes and not for any actual theological or academic purpose. Even my friends who are ministers saw the series more as entertaining propoganda than revealing any actual historical or scientific secrets, but hey, I thought that all in all a pretty good effort. I would have given it more stars except for that the title of the series didn't really match the real intent of it.

The good thing about this box set is the price! That's about it. I wanted a deep and detailed documentary about the events advertised on the box, and I came away feeling that I had learned nothing. The acting is amateur but that isn't important to me. The critics demonstrated baffling ignorance, and the researchers interviewed seemed to offer only trite sound-bites. Its a pity that so much wonderful research has been done on this subject by so many people, to which this series seems to not even scratch the surface. A more accurate description for this box set would be - "Beginners guide to famous Bible events"

These DVDs give support for the supernatural events in the Bible, which are the most disputed parts of the Bible. I would highly recommend them for personal use or teaching purposes. I use clips from these DVD in my introductory Old Testament college course. Enjoy...

"Ancient Secrets of the Bible" is a series of videos that examines various people, places, and items from the Bible (the only exemption being the Shroud of Turin). The videos are kind of like documentaries because of the interviews, illustrations, documents, etc. that are connected by a narrator. However, about one-third to one-half of the tapes consists of dramatizations. Some of these scenes add to the overall documentary feel, while some of the scenes seriously distract from the main purpose and make the tape seem more like a bad Sunday School presentation. The videos do try to be fair in their approach by having interviews from both people who support the existence of the person, place or item being examined as well as interviews from people who deny the existence of the person, place, or item in question. The videos also tend to rather ambiguously, leaving the viewer to decide for themselves rather it's fact or fiction.

In this episode of the series, the filmmakers examine the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel. About half of the episode involves interviews and a look at other historical and archeological evidence and the other half of the tape consists of re-enactments. According to the filmmakers, the Tower of Babel was built by the Biblical Nimrod. This is an idea that many people believe, but the Bible doesn't say who built the Tower of Babel. It just mentions the location of the structure. It is true that the location, matches up with a list of territories the Bible says Nimrod was to have ruled, but other than that there is no indication that Nimrod was responsible for the building of the Tower of Babel.

TOWER OF BABEL--FACT OR FICTION isn't all that entertaining or informative. There are some interesting scenes of archeological work going on in parts of Iraq, but this is about the most interesting piece in the tape. There really isn't much information given and much of what is discussed is pure speculation (e.g. that Nimrod built the famous tower). Some of the suggested re-enactments are entertaining, but many of them on the tape are cheesy and over-the-top. The funniest thing on the tape happens toward the very end when an actor portraying Saddam Hussein is shown and the tape suggests that Saddam is planning to re-build or perhaps, has already begun re-building the Tower of Babel.

Overall, this tape isn't as interesting as other parts of the series. There is a little factual information contained within and there is a small audience who might really enjoy this episode. However, because of the numerous speculations the episode contains, I cannot suggest it for anyone who is series about studying the Bible.

This is perfect for people who love documentaries and research items. This dives into the Bible and the different stories in it. We are only human so the re-enactments are not the same as God doing them.

Happy with this. No problems surrounding the delivery and had really enjoyed watching this.

It's missing a couple of shows, but the title says it all. If you are a Bible believer you will like the videos. If not, there is really not that much information to change a person's already made up mind.