(Image source: The History Channel )     BY ELIZABETH HAGEDORN     It doesn’t take Honey Boo Boo to get big cable ratings — but how about Jesus? “The Bible’s” debut on the History Channel at the beginning of March brought in 13 million viewers — more than any other cable show in 2013. [via The History Channel ] The husband and wife team of “Touched By An Angel” actress Roma Downey and “Survivor” producer Mark Burnett say they hope viewers will find the show educational. [via ABC News ] “It’s really an introduction to the Bible and our hopes were that we would engage people in dialogue, which has certainly happened.”  [via CBS News ] The episodes condense 66 books of the Bible into a five-part,10-hour gory miniseries some have compared to Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. [via The New York Times ] On the violence, a writer at the Christian Science Monitor says, “[I]f you’re not willing to let your elementary-school child watch ‘300’ and the 'Twilight' series  you should steer clear of this as a family viewing session.” Some say the show’s high ratings may be due to clever marketing on the part of the show’s creators who teamed up with faith based groups and mega church pastor Rick Warren to promote the show. A writer at The Baltimore Sun says the History Channel is doing what the other networks cannot. “It’s finding new viewers and scoring huge audiences in prime time. And it is doing that with programming ignored or dismissed by many mainstream critics.” And while the show’s a big hit with viewers, it’s fallen short with some biblical scholars. Huffington Post blogger Reverend Wil Gafney calls the series “a systematic whitewashing of the Bible” getting wrong, quote, “Not quite everything. Just geography, anthropology, archaeology, biblical studies, theology, race and ethnicity. Not all of them all of the time, but most of them, most of the time.”   Entertainment Weekly reports that while ratings were down slightly after the show’s premiere, you can probably expect a ratings boost when Jesus Christ makes his debut on the show Sunday.