Dino De Laurentiis originally announced that this would be the first in a series of feature films based on the books of the Bible. The film lost Twentieth Century-Fox $1.5 million, and sequel plans were abandoned.
Filming ended in December 1964, but the film was not released until September 1966.
This was one of the first mainstream American films to feature male and female nudity, in the Garden of Eden sequences. Reportedly, neither Michael Parks nor Ulla Bergryd used body doubles for these scenes.
The film has no opening credits aside from the title, which is rare for 1960s films.