Exodus Vs The Exodus

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Recreating biblical narratives is a popular enterprise that can commonly be found as movies and television shows in today’s society. One particular Bible story that well known for being reproduced into motion pictures is the story of Exodus, specifically the parting of the Red Sea. Located in both The Old Testament written by Michael D. Coogan and in the biblical commentary Exodus written by Carol Meyers, both authors state that Exodus is marketable in the film industry due to its exceedingly dramatic effects. One particular recreation of Exodus I enjoyed was The Prince of Egypt. Nevertheless, whenever directors reproduce biblical accounts, they have to change the contents of the story to appeal more to their audience. While the Bible’s story …show more content…

In the Bible, God specifically hardens Pharaoh’s heart one final time so that He has the opportunity to display to all of Egypt how powerful He truly is. “By overcoming the Egyptian ruler, his officers, and his military forces, the greater power of the Israelite god Yahweh will once and for all be established” (Meyers, 114). The Lord spoke to Moses informing him of his plan so that Moses knew that the Egyptians would be pursuing them. Yet, in The Prince of Egypt, the last hardening of Pharaoh’s heart isn’t mentioned. Plus, in the movie, the Egyptian pursuit is seen as an unexpected great chase for the Israelite. This method is used in the movie to create a more suspenseful scene for the viewer. The director probably didn’t see the precise biblical version to be as entertaining. But, by subtracting those few critical points, the movie lost part of the message that the Bible was trying to …show more content…

In the Bible, the crossing of the sea is the most climatic part of the entire book of Exodus. Whenever God allowed Moses to split the Red Sea, the message He was trying to promote throughout the entire book of Exodus had finally been revealed. “The narrative proclaims that the outcome will be Egyptian knowledge of the Israelite god (v. 18)” (Meyers, 114). Since The Prince of Egypt is a cartoon, the director was easily able to make the parting of the Red Sea the liveliest scene in the whole movie. This allowed the movie to display its spectacular effects, but it didn’t give God the same stage as the Bible did. The only spoken lines mentioning God’s almighty power was when God stated to Moses “With this staff you shall do my wonders”. Maybe this was the director trying to get his viewers to read in between the lines, and see God as the most powerful being. But, I still firmly believe that the purpose of the scene wasn’t to get the audience to think more in-depthly, but only to enhance their amount of entertainment while

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