Review of "Greatest Heroes & Legends of the Bible"

Overall Rating:  A Mixed Bag

If you're looking for animated Bible videos to use within Rotation Model Sunday School, the series "Greatest Heroes and Legends of the Bible" by Good Times Entertainment is a mixed bag at best.  Our church has purchased a number of the DVDs "Joshua and the Battle of Jericho," "Samson and Delilah," "Jonah and the Whale," and "The Apostles," basically to fill in the gaps left out of our Nest Family Entertainment Bible video collection.

The series is widely distributed in Christian bookstores, at Wal-Mart and on Amazon.com.

Each DVD comes with a commentary introduction hosted by actor Charlton Heston.  The commentaries are interesting, but I would use them more for teacher training than as something I would show the kids during class time.  That time would be better utilized by a teacher led introduction.

The animation is not nearly as professional as the Nest Family videos, plus they lack the interactive on screen Review Questions of the Nest Family collection.  This means your curriculum creative team will need to do more work in writing lessons for the Video Learning Center if you choose to use these DVDs.

The real issue with this series is biblical accuracy. Some titles, like "Joshua and the Battle of Jericho" and "The Apostles" remain fairly consistent with Scripture.  Other titles, like "Samson & Delilah" and "Jonah and the Whale" add more fictional elements to tell the story than I would like.  Still other titles, like "Adam & Eve" (which I don't think made the switch from VHS to DVD) are so fictional that I wonder how they can even be included in a Bible video collection.  The bottom line is that Christian educators need to plan to review each individual DVD that they purchase before including them in their church's Rotation Model Sunday School curriculum.

As a pastor, I'd endorse "Joshua & the Battle of Jericho" and "The Apostles" and perhaps "Samson & Delilah" for use in the classroom.  Folks looking for a Jonah movie would better off finding the Testament DVD version.  As far as the rest, I'd stick with the videos from Nest Family Entertainment.  They may cost a lot more, but are worth the money in quality of animation, biblical accuracy and interactive teaching features.  Some titles from"Greatest Heroes and Legends of the Bible" are useful, but I'd advise that one only use this series to fill in the gaps of Bible stories that you can't find elsewhere.  Even then, review them diligently and be prepared to pass on some titles if they don't pass your church's biblical accuracy test.

Review by title:

• The Garden of Eden - so fictional that I wonder how they can even be included in a Bible video collection
• The Story of Moses
• Joshua and the Battle of Jericho - remains fairly consistent with Scripture
• David and Goliath
• Jonah and the Whale - more fictional elements to tell the story than I would like, better off finding the Jonah (Testament Series) DVD instead.
• Daniel and the Lions' Den
• The Nativity
• The Miracles of Jesus
• The Apostles (Disciples) - remains fairly consistent with Scripture
• The Last Supper Crucifixion and Resurrection
• Joseph and the Coat of Many Colors
• Sodom Gomorrah
• Samson and Delilah - more fictional elements to tell the story than I would like, but useful if nothing else available