A Thought on Cecil B. DeMille's "The Ten Commandments"

[patrick457]

Many had already commented on the fact that Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments”, both its 1923 original version and the more-well known 1956 remake, had influenced our view of Moses and our reading of the Biblical text. We may not realize it, but we often think of DeMille’s pageantry when we read about, say, the unnamed Pharaohs of the Exodus,the Parting of the Red Sea.

Which reminded me of how DeMille depicted the giving of the Ten Commandments.
Atop the mount of Sinai, Moses is given the Commandments and the Tablets of Stone by the Lord God while the people down below are ignorant of it, and are busy making the Golden Calf (complete with the debauchery that DeMille is often fond of putting in some of his films). In the 1956 version, God carves the tablets and the words Himself - the 1923 version, by contrast, has Moses carving the words down on the rock, with God finally hewing the Tablets into shape.

The Biblical account meanwhile (Exodus 20) apparently has Moses down with the people when God spoke His Laws; the Giving of the Commandments - as opposed to the Giving of the Tablets - is apparently a (semi-)public affair!

And it was on the third day in the morning there was thunder and lightning and a heavy cloud on the mountain, and the sound of a strong horn so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. And Mosheh brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their place at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire, and its smoke went up like the smoke of a great furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently. When the blast of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Mosheh was speaking and God was answering him with a voice.

And the LORD came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mountain, and the LORD called Mosheh to the top of the mountain, and Mosheh went up. And the LORD said to Mosheh, “Go down and charge the people, lest they force their way through to the LORD to look, and many of them fall. Let the priests also, who approach the LORD, sanctify themselves, lest the LORD break out against them.” But Mosheh said to the LORD, “The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai; because you – you charged us, saying, ‘Set bounds around the mountain and sanctify it.’” And the LORD said to him, “Go, get down, and come up, you and 'Aharon with you, but do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the LORD, lest He break out against them.” So Mosheh went down to the people and spoke to them; and God spoke all these words, saying: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Mitzraim, from the house of slaves; you shall have no other gods upon my face.
You shall not make for yourself an image, or any likeness that is in the heavens above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the waters below the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the sons, and upon the third and upon the fourth of those who hate me, but showing steadfast-love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments…”

…All the people were seeing the thundering and the lightning, and the sound of the horn, and the mountain smoking – and when the people saw it they trembled with fear and they stood from a distance. And they said to Moses, “You speak to us and we will listen, but do not let God speak with us or we will die.” And Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, and that the fear of Him may be before you so that you may not sin.” And they stood from a distance, but Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was.

So it would seem the people would have some knowledge that they are sinning when they worshipped the Calf - which makes it all the worse!

That does not mean that DeMille’s version is all bad, however. By showing God giving a certain commandment to Moses, while following it up with showing the Israelites breaking precisely one of those laws, he makes a nice contrast.

 

[Eucharisted]

True. But I didn’t know there were two versions of the movie.

 

[Tyuiop411]

Many had already commented on the fact that Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments”, both its 1923 original version and the more-well known 1956 remake, had influenced our view of Moses and our reading of the Biblical text. We may not realize it, but we often think of DeMille’s pageantry when we read about, say, the unnamed Pharaohs of the Exodus,the Parting of the Red Sea.

i’ve never seen the movie or heard of it until now so every time i’ve read that in Exodus i’ve painted a picture in my head and i’ve always come up with the “Moses on the mountain alone picture” so in a way i think he may have been portraying what most people think of when he made “The Ten Commandments” even though through study that picture is revealed to be wrong.

God Bless

-Tyler

 

[patrick457]

True. But I didn’t know there were two versions of the movie.

As an aside, the 1923 version is quite known for using Jell-O in the parting of the Red Sea.

That version was actually followed by a modern-day parable about two brothers. One follows the commandments and becomes a poor carpenter, while the other one breaks them and rises to the top. You get the drift: the bad brother falls into ruin at the end. All the while, a comparison is made between the good brother and his mother, who told them the story of Moses: the mother emphasizes the fear of God and strict obedience to Him, while the good son emphasizes the mercy of God (i.e. the NT).

Finally, I think that the introduction is as relevant today as it was back then (emphases in the original):

Our modern world defined God as a “religious complex” and laughed at the Ten Commandments as OLD FASHIONED.
Then, through the laughter, came the shattering thunder of the World War.
And now, a blood-drenched, bitter world - no longer laughing - cries for a way out.
There is but one way out. It existed before it was engraven upon Tablets of Stone. It will exist when stone has crumbled. The Ten Commandments are not rules to obey as a personal favor to God. They are the fundamental principles without which mankind cannot live together.
They are not laws - they are the LAW.

 

[patrick457]

i’ve never seen the movie or heard of it until now so every time i’ve read that in Exodus i’ve painted a picture in my head and i’ve always come up with the “Moses on the mountain alone picture” so in a way i think he may have been portraying what most people think of when he made “The Ten Commandments” even though through study that picture is revealed to be wrong.

God Bless

-Tyler

It is quite confusing - especially as the text describes Moses going up and down the mountain so many times before God hands down the commandments.

Now, for the Golden Calf. As mentioned, both of DeMille’s versions show the worship of the calf accompanied by much debauchery and spectacle, especially in the 1923 version, as that was before the Hays Production Code was released; DeMille therefore could put in as many a sin as he wanted. DeMille apparently had the Biblical warrant for it too:

And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies:) then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the LORD’s side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him.

Exodus 32:25-26 (King James Version)

The word rendered “naked” in the KJV is para’, which could mean “to be let loose”, “to be unrestrained” or “to be out of control” - many modern versions follow suit in rendering the passage thus. The idea seems to be that the people had broken loose and were undisciplined (not necessarily naked, however).

The Septuagint renders para’ as dieskedasen, translated as “scattered”. The Vulgate, meanwhile, has nudatus (“laid bare”, “stripped”, “left unprotected”) - which is followed by the Miles Coverdale Bible, the Bishop’s Bible, the Geneva Bible, and the King James Version.

 

[centurionguard]

Despite Cecile B. DeMille’s Classic Hollywood dramatized style depiction of (“The Ten Commandments”) I think most Christians and Jewish people identify with scriptural aspects of the movie. It was not so much the supernatural event between God Almighty and Moses that took place atop Mount Sinai that strikes me; though no less important. It was the fact of the stubbornness and stiff-necked people born out of the great Exodus from Egypt.
If a similar event with a different twist of circumstances were to take place in today’s modern world do you really think we humans would behave any differently even after the fact of God revealing His Only Begotten Son Jesus Christ to the world ? Have humans themselves really changed interiorly much since the time of Moses 4500 years ago ? Sure we have all are scientific techno wizardry. But what bespeaks of ourselves as a human race ?
Are we not still a stiff-necked people despite God revealing His Beloved Son to us ?