This evening I recieved the opportunity to watch the DVD Read and Share: The Jesus Stories, Life and Miracles. I was excited to watch this DVD for several reasons. First, I am thinking about what children's videos might be appropriate for the congregation I am a pastor of. Second, I am a father of an infant looking for videos that would properly teach my baby girl about Jesus from early in her life. Finally, I was interested in how a publisher would choose what to show and what not to show in their videos.
Many videos in this series are chopped into short three minute segments of parts of the Bible witness about Jesus. This section of the series was a half of an hour long. The video quickly moved from the flight from Egypt, to Jesus in Nazereth, to the Miracles and Teachings of Jesus, to Maundy Thursday. Each of the stories were told pretty close to the Biblical text.
There were several things I enjoyed about the video. There were several attempts by the creators of the video to be true to Jesus' Jewish heritage. I have no idea if they did this correctly or not, but I thought the effort of presenting Jesus as a Messiah in a Hebrew context was worthwhile.
Also, I enjoyed the simplistic animation the video was presented with. I think this would be especially appropriate for young children, much like Blue's Clues works with its simple presentation.
Unfortunately, as I watched I wondered about some of the choice of content for the video. For instance, some of the teaching they featured is highly metaphorical, and thus difficult to understand by younger children. Also, I wondered why there was such a strong emphasis on Judas.
Overall I would recommend this video for a nursery/preschool audience, and their adult caregiver who both need to learn a little bit more about the Bible.
(Thomas Nelson gave me this video in exchange for reviewing this video. No favorable or unfavorable review was required in order to receive the video)
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