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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/greatestadventurebackart.png]]
2[[caption-width-right:350:The main characters (in modern-day clothing) listening to the story of The Garden of Eden.]]
3
4->''"While surveying the site of some ancient ruins, two young archaeologists, Derek and Margo, and their nomad friend Moki find themselves trapped and sinking in a whirling pool of sand. And when the dust settles, they stare up in awe at a vast chamber, filled with giant relics and artifacts from another civilization... And there, at the far end of the cavern, a door with a strange inscription - 'All who enter these portals pass through time!'"''
5-->-- '''OpeningNarration before each episode'''
6
7Developed by Creator/HannaBarbera from 1985 to 1993, ''The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible'' was a 13-episode direct-to-video series that featured three young explorers, Derek, Margo, and Moki, traveling through time via unexplained Doorways of Time, which allow them to witness some of the major events recorded in Literature/TheBible. Often even within the same episode, they would stumble across one of the Doorways, allowing them to witness events from the same story that took place years later.
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9Similar to ''Anime/{{Superbook}}'' and ''Anime/FlyingHouse'', the series tried to focus on making the characters from the biblical stories relatable and believable. Surprisingly, it also adhered as closely to the original stories as possible, keeping many of the elements that most MoralGuardians quietly edit out to make the stories "appropriate" for children, editing only the relative closeness of events in order to keep within the 30-minute time frame.
10
11The series was a personal effort from Joe Barbera, a lifelong and devout Catholic. Because of the close adherence, the series took the biblical stories very seriously; it was usually the side adventures of the time travelers that featured any comedy, although they often overlapped with the main story as the heroes tried to help the Biblical figures out in whatever way they could.
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13These cartoons are still often shown to kids in Sunday School.
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15It also shares an art style with ''WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers'', as Ted Turner helped fund the project.
16----
17!!This video series provides examples of:
18* AdventuresInTheBible: An entire series based on this trope.
19* AmbiguouslyBrown: Moki, who is described as a "nomad". His accent sounds vaguely Indian, but his actual ethnicity isn't made clear.
20* AnachronicOrder: While the videos do not have any sort of overarching narrative, there ''is'' a chronological order, and they weren't made in this order.
21* ArtisticLicenseEngineering: While the exact shape that was given to the Ark, assuming a real historical Ark, varies constantly amongst scholars, modern naval engineers now argue that it would most likely have resembled an oversized Babylonian/Sumerian cargo vessel. Such a model would have been most adept to the Ark's purpose: to float around aimlessly on an ocean for 40 days and 40 nights amidst massive geological activity under the ocean causing violent waves. The popular "box model" by Henry Morris would have also worked, but made for a much-less-comfortable ride. However, everything from the shape to the lumbering and planking of ''Greatest Adventure'' and its version of the Ark does not appear like it would have been very seaworthy at all. Even at several points in the episode itself, the writers reveal the Ark to have design weaknesses that would have been more consistent with 18th-century English naval engineering.
22* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Since these videos [[AnimationAgeGhetto were made for children]], it was assumed that they wouldn't question the animals that were placed in the Garden. However, baraminologists and taxonomists would agree that placing ''modern'' species and sub-species in the garden when Genesis ''clearly'' states "created kinds" is a bit of a problem. Especially since it increases several thousandfold how many animals Adam would have had to name. It also complicates things for the Noah episode, an issue ignored by that episode as well.
23* AnimationBump: Compared to the usual stuff by Hanna Barbera. In all fairness, these were made in the late 80s and early 90s. When the studio's output as a whole was beginning to show higher quality animation than their 70s and early 80s works.
24%%* BibleTimes: Well, duh!
25* BigEater: A RunningGag seems to be Moki complaining all the time that he's hungry.
26* BloodlessCarnage: "David and Goliath" opens with a village being attacked by the Philistines. While people are shown being speared, cut down with swords, and dragged behind horses, there is no blood visible. Averted later on, with Goliath's surprisingly [[FamilyUnfriendlyDeath gory]] death at the hands of David.
27%%* ButtMonkey: Moki
28* CaptainObvious: It's Hanna-Barbera. What do you expect? At least one LampshadeHanging:
29-->'''Margo''': ''[upon arriving in AncientEgypt]'' A real Egyptian!\
30'''Moki''': You were expecting an Eskimo?
31* ClipShow: A very brief one at the start of "The Miracles of Jesus". For about a minute and a half, Benjamin describes the history of the Hebrews with the help of StockFootage from previous episodes.
32* CompositeCharacter: In the Bible, Delilah ordered a servant to cut off Samson's hair. In the ''Greatest Adventure'' version, she does the deed herself.
33* DoNotTauntCthulhu: In the episode "Noah's Ark," the man leading the mob denies the flood as merely a shower and even shout claiming that Noah's God is a sham. He nearly gets struck by [[BoltOfDivineRetribution lightning]].
34* {{Fanservice}}: Delilah from "Samson and Delilah" and the belly dancers from the infamous party in "Daniel and the Lion's Den".
35* EveryoneHasStandards: Segal, the party organizer for Belshazzar, remarks that he isn't a Jew, but is fearful of blaspheming the Jewish God by using the vessel used for their religious ceremonies for Belshazzar's party.
36* EvilSoundsDeep: Creator/JamesEarlJones as Pharaoh, Creator/VincentPrice as Herod, Creator/TonyJay as Caiaphas for a start.
37* FedToTheBeast: In "Daniel and the Lion's Den," a tamer found Tribulus the lion to be untamable and considered selling it to Babylon so that he could be an addition to the lion pit where they throw the criminals. Of course, since this is the story of Daniel, he called upon God to send an angel to protect him so that he could praise his name.
38* FishOutOfTemporalWater: The time travelers are out of place in the distant past.
39* FlamingSword: "The Creation" concludes with God's flaming sword blocking the entrance to Eden for eternity.
40* FramingDevice: In "The Creation", "Jonah", "The Miracles of Jesus", and "The Easter Story", the time-travelers hear about biblical events instead of witnessing them firsthand.
41* GodivaHair: In the creation story. Also has some [[SceneryCensor clever scenery placement]].
42* HumansAreWhite: While the magi in the nativity scene make sure to depict Balthasar as darker skinned (which he is often depicted as) and plenty of extras and characters are depicted as being a tan colour, most people in BibleTimes are white.
43* ImprobableAge: According to the "Queen Esther" episode, Margo is still in high school. Presumably, Derek and Moki are around the same age.
44* KillItWithFire: Some of Noah's neighbors gleefully plan to set the ark on fire, with Noah, his family, and our heroes inside. They're interrupted by the rain beginning to fall, causing panic.
45* LargeHam: Most of the actors playing major religious figures were very big and bombastic. In the retelling of Exodus, Moses and [[Creator/JamesEarlJones the Pharaoh]] particularly engage in some delicious HamToHamCombat.
46* MacGyvering: Derek uses the materials in a temple to invent a makeshift glider in "Samson and Delilah"
47* MistakenForServant: In "Moses," the gang arrives in Ancient Egypt only to be immediately mistaken for escaped Hebrew slaves and sent to work in a brickyard.
48* NamedByTheAdaptation: Benjamin, the trio's guide during "The Miracles of Jesus", reveals his backstory as the widow of Nain's son, whose name goes unrevealed in the original account.
49* NoEnding: There's no GrandFinale in which the time-travelers return to the present. For all we know, they live out the rest of their lives in the biblical era. In fact, they seem curiously unconcerned about returning to their own time.
50* OurTimeTravelIsDifferent: Our 20th-century heroes travel through time not so much by any device, as because they keep finding holes in the Space-Time Continuum.
51* PoliticallyCorrectHistory: Lucky for Margo, [[SarcasmMode there was no sexism during the biblical era]]. Averted in "Queen Esther", which is explicitly about such things.
52* PragmaticAdaptation: The "Nativity" episode shows the Magi walking into the manger in Bethlehem where Jesus was born - rather than arriving several years after the fact (either at his baptism or not) not on his actual birthday but on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epiphany_(holiday) Epiphany]]. This was done to avoid plot holes and to give a conclusion to their 'story'.
53* QuicksandSucks: Rather than drowning our heroes, it behaves as a PortalToThePast-specifically bible times.
54* RegretfulTraitor:
55** In "Samson and Delilah," Delilah is shown throwing away the money she got for betraying Samson. (The Bible doesn't actually mention whether she felt guilty for her actions.)
56** In "The Easter Story," Judas regrets selling out Jesus Christ to the Sanhedrin so much that he throws the 30 Silver reward at their feet and ran away with his face covered in shame.
57* ShadowDiscretionShot: In "The Easter Story," the flogging of Jesus is depicted in shadow to hide the gore.
58* ShoutOut:
59** Moses wears the same outfit worn by Charlton Heston in ''{{Film/The Ten Commandments|1956}}''. Also, the scene where Egypt's water is turned to blood is a nearly shot-for-shot copy of the same scene from ''The Ten Commandments''.
60** The Creation of Earth bears some resemblance to ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}'', with all the volcanoes and such.
61* ShownTheirWork: "Moses" correctly features Aaron doing most of Moses' dirty work, whereas [[Film/TheTenCommandments1956 more]] [[WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt famous]] adaptations have Moses performing all the wonders himself.
62* StandardSnippet: "The Easter Story" ends triumphantly with the "Hallelujah" chorus from Music/GeorgeFredericHandel's ''Messiah''.
63* SpeaksFluentAnimal: Moki can talk to animals, somehow.
64* TakeAThirdOption: The show has done this a couple times with Biblical controversies:
65** Traditionally, Vashti is seen as a wicked StrawFeminist while Esther is praised for being a properly submissive wife. Since the 19th century, there has been a feminist [[invoked]]AlternativeCharacterInterpretation that views Vashti as an independent-minded heroine and Esther as [[RealWomenDontWearDresses a worthless pushover]]. In the ''Greatest Adventure'' version, both women are portrayed sympathetically, with the apparent reasoning that Vashti only had herself to be concerned about whereas Esther did what she had to do to save her people. This third interpretation is probably more common in contemporary Judaism and Christianity than either of the first two.
66** "The Easter Story" dodges the whole issue of responsibility for the death of Christ. When Derek, Margo, and Moki start to go down that path, Mark puts the issue aside by saying that it doesn't really matter since Christ was fated to die for humanity's sins anyway.
67** There are brief shots of dinosaurs in "Creation," but they only appear prior to the creation of Adam. This leaves it ambiguous whether the "seven days" are metaphorical, thus avoiding siding with either Young Earth creationism or Old Earth creationism.
68* TitleSequenceReplacement: There are two subtly different versions of the intro. In the first, the writing on the Doorway of Time is in Egyptian hieroglyphics. Perhaps associating a magic time door with the Ancient Egyptians was too pagany, because subsequent episodes (and re-releases of earlier episodes) replace it with a generic Middle-Eastern-looking script. It was sort of a moot exercise anyway, as the chamber itself is still clearly Egyptian-themed.
69* UselessProtagonist: The three young explorers really don't do anything to interfere with the Biblical events, they are merely witnesses and commentators at most.
70* WeirdnessCensor: Only a few episodes have the other characters find Derek, Margo, and Moki's clothing and 20th century mannerisms confusing (for instance, their modern slang confuses Mordecai and Esther when they're saying goodbye). Most others just take it in stride.
71* WhosLaughingNow: Shem smirked that the people that were laughing at them is no longer laughing when the flood came. Noah, however, expresses pity toward their destruction and tells his son the same.
72-->'''Noah''': "Be not vindictive, my son. True, they themselves were the cause of their own destruction, but I grieved for them and pray for their souls."

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