NINE SENTENCES, OR TEN COMMANDMENTS?

Recently I watched, for the first time, the entire 1956 blockbuster movie THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, starring Charlton Heston (I had started to watch it on local TV in April, 1995, but got diverted to Moses Znaimer on another channel), and that gave rise to a number of thoughts, which I herewith share.  My first impression was that the Biblical Moses was much too Jewish for Hollywood, so they tried to make him into a Christian.  Many of the thoughts expressed by the movie-version Moses differ sharply from those expressed by the Biblical Moses.  Most of these are in the category of ecumenist thought, i.e., that the God of Israel was a God for all people, not just the chosen.  This thought did not arise in Judaism until seven centuries later, when it was expressed only by a minority of thinkers who followed the Hosea-Jeremiah-Habakkuk school.  Main-stream Judaism to this day remains exclusivist.  Hollywood put words into the mouth of Moses which are directly contrary to the thrust of his mission – to define a racist, exclusivist and patriarchal religion which differs substantially from all other religions.  The main event of the movie, the Exodus from Egypt, is commemorated in the Jewish Passover to this day, and it is an exclusivist feast.  [For more on that point, read the review of Jesus Against the Rapture at http://nebirucrossing.blogspot.com/2011/03/jesus-against-rapture-jewett-unexpected.html  ].  

In addition to presenting a Moses who differs substantially from the Biblical Moses, the movie contrasts to what we now know about the historical Moses.  That difference can be excused, because most of the pertinent historical research was done after this movie had been made – the movie dates to just a few years after the discovery of the Dead Sea and related scrolls (and before English translations of them had been released) which became the impetus to intensive research from the 1960s to date. [For detail, see http://nebirucrossing.blogspot.com/2011/03/scrolls-and-tablets-part-one.html .]

The historical Moses was actually two people living about a century apart, both named Tutmosis.  [Tutmosis is a variant of Thoth-Moses which means ‘son of’ or ‘follower of’ Thoth.]  The first Tutmosis was the Shepherd King Pharaoh who brought monotheism to Egypt; the second Tutmosis was disqualified by his marriage from becoming the Pharaoh he was destined to be, and instead, led the escape from his half-brother, i.e., the Pharaoh who took the throne in Moses’ place.  Each Tutmosis served for two decades or more as the high priest of the Temple at Heliopolis, and both were thus accustomed to dealing with violent religious dissent.  The actual staff used by the historical Moses has been found.  [For details and a good current summary of the historical Moses, read the review of The Moses Legacy at  http://nebirucrossing.blogspot.com/2011/03/review-moses-legacy-phillips.html ].

Thirdly, the movie makes no reference to the ultimate destination of Moses’ soul.  He [literally!] struck out -- he went to hell -- he failed the perfection test.  The sin of pride got in his way:  God had told him to speak to the rock to bring forth water; instead, Moses struck the rock with his staff – that had worked previously, and it did work this time, too.  But the Mosaic God is jealous and particular and a stipulator of detail.  Because Moses disobeyed God, he could never enter into God’s rest.  For this reason, the devil had a legitimate claim to Moses’ body (since he also had the soul); and thus:  the dispute between God and Satan over the body of Moses, recorded in the Book of Jude.

And, finally, the very title of the movie is historically misleading.  What the early Christians, and Jews to this day, call the Nine Sentences, was first called the Ten Commandments by Mohammed circa 640 ad.  There is only ONE commandment, first stated by Jeremiah in First Jeremiah [also called Deuteronomy, see http://nebirucrossing.blogspot.com/2011/03/scrolls-and-tablets-part-two.html ], from whence it was quoted by Jesus.  The ONE commandment has three parts [all truth is Trinitarian in nature]:  love God; love neighbour; love self.   Jesus quoted [Matt. 22:36-40] the preamble of the Ieremaic re-statement [second giving] of the Mosaic law as THE WHOLE OF THE LAW.  Followed by nine corollaries towards achievement of obedience to the ONE commandment.  The number had to be nine because that is the number of completion, fulfillment, perfection and divinity in both Christian and Jewish numerology.  In Islam, the divine number is ten; hence Mohammed was the first to re-name the Nine Sentences as the Ten Commandments.  Since the time-frame of this movie was about two millennia before Mohammed, it ought to have been titled The Nine Sentences.