"The Prince of Egypt" : Learning Through Exodus

The book of Exodus from the Torah and Bible can be portrayed in the movie, The Prince of Egypt. Both the written and visual works evolve around the main character, Moses. His job is chosen for him to free his fellow Hebrews from Egyptian slavery. The movie is significant because it depicts the Hebrew's most important book in the Torah (Kennedy). The book of Exodus is exceptional not only for Jewish people today, but also for Christians. This is because of the Sinai Covenant that is made between God and the former Egyptian slaves. Finally, this story follows many characteristics and patterns that coincide within biblical themes.

As a movie, The Prince of Egypt does a good job sticking close to the written work, not trivializing the story and showing reoccurring themes. While watching the movie and following along in Exodus, most of the wording remains the same if not just rearranged; only minor differences occur which is common to make a movie more successful. One might expect that since the movie is child friendly, it would stray from the main passages. However, this isn't the case because the movie is very well produced to not trivialize the story of Moses and keep to the basic concepts. The film does a good job to portray the formation of the Sinai Covenant in full form but doesn't succeed in portraying human's ways of backsliding into sinful lives.

An important part left out in the movie is that Pharaoh was warned before almost every plague that was presented to him, and yet he still persisted. Moreover, when Pharaoh asked Moses to pray to His God to take away the plague, God conceded. Yet, Pharaoh's heart hardened (Study Bible Exod. 7:13). This occurs throughout the ten plagues and each time Moses is able to receive more from the Pharaoh; offer sacrifices within Egypt (Exod. 25), sacrifice nearby in the desert (Exod. 28), allow adult males to go with to sacrifice (Exod. 10:11), allow all people but no flocks (Exod. 10:24), and finally Pharaoh agrees to Moses' demands and lets everyone go. The interesting part is that after Moses prays to God, Pharaoh's heart continues to harden even though the proof is right there for him. This is important not only because Pharaoh's heart harden from his will but also because of God hardening his heart (Exod. 10:1). From this event, it shows that all history is written the way God wanted it to be.

Watching the book of Exodus can have either positive or negative effects on people. If a person truly believes that the story of Moses, the slaves of Egypt, and the crossing of the Red Sea happened, than this would be an uplifting experience to see it as it might have actually happened. If, however, a person that doesn't believe this or is just starting on their path were to watch this movie, their belief could weaken. All of the plagues that occur in the story happen because of God's will. Some might be able to explain the famine, gnats, or locusts, but they could not explain that the troubles didn't happen to the Hebrews. They also couldn't explain that after every time that Moses prays, they stopped or went away. These are unbelievable occurrences except if a person has faith. A person that is just beginning their path would have a very hard time believing in God, that he could have this kind of power.

Exodus follows three major themes; God creates covenants with people on earth, human's corrupt nature to backslide into sinful ways, God's love toward His people. In Genesis, God creates a covenant with Noah stating the He will never again flood the earth (Gen. 8:21-22). Again in Genesis, He makes a covenant with Abraham saying that he will be the father of many nations (Gen. 17:4). He keeps his promise and Abraham, at close to 80 years old, has Isaac. From Isaac, we follow Jacob who has twelve sons, each of whom represents a differing nation. Descending from Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and possibly Levi because Aaron, Moses' brother, is a priest (Kennedy); along comes Moses. God makes the Sinai Covenant with Moses and the Hebrews so that in return for obeying His laws, He will provide the Promised Land to them. Exodus shows the pattern that people face that can even be represented at New Years; we want to lose weight, we set a goal, we are resolved in our goal, we fall short of our worth, we fail; at New Years we renew our want again with vigor. This happens throughout between God and His people. The final theme that is portrayed in Exodus is God's love for us. He may push us to do things that we don't want or think that we can't handle, but He will not do more that we can take. He shows that He loves when, although Moses is afraid, He provides support in saying that He will be there for him (Exod. 3:12). He also shows that He will stand by us because He told Moses what to do the entire way, didn't embarrass him or make him look like a fool. He was there for Moses during difficult times when Pharaoh needed proof shown to him.

While reading the bible as a young American with our views on people in society, it is hard to believe that slavery and disregard to women was so terrible to begin with, but also that it was such a common view and could never have been heard against. When Pharaoh started to allow Moses special privileges, the second to last consent was for women, meaning that they weren't as good as men but just above the cattle. Also, the movie generalized the story, making it easier to understand, but it wasn't the Pharaoh's wife that pulled Moses from the water, but Pharaoh's daughter. There wasn't a need in production to show any different in this part that the women played.

Exodus is an important chapter to not only Jews but also Christians. The same story is believed by both. Christians, however, do not have the same understanding of God's name that the Hebrews formed. YHWH is not present to the Christian community as it is for the Jewish community. From this simply line that God says, I am who I am, translated in Hebrew we get YHWH. It is hard to comprehend how to say this because these letters act as vowel sounds (Kennedy). Many times it is pronounced Yahweh or not at all because it is so sacred, but ancient rabbis actually believe that the name was unpronounceable (Breathe). The sounds the letters made were the sound of breathing. Now God's breath is used in Genesis when He formed dust and breathed into it. There is also a correlation between breathing and the spirit; they are one in the same. In Ecclesiastes, Psalms, and Genesis the story is told that we are formed from the dust and God breathed into us; or put the spirit in us. When we are born, the first thing we must do is breath and when we die the last thing we do is breath. If the ancient rabbis are correct and the name of God was actually the sound of breathing, then to live we must have His breath or spirit in us. Without the Hebrew name for God, their belief that God's name is unpronounceable, this conclusion may not have been met.

From reading Exodus, watching The Prince of Egypt, seeing the similarities between the Jewish and Christian religions, and learning about God's name from the Jewish belief, it is a wonder of what else may be missing from the Christian world. I have learned that the Old Testament is the same between the two religions (Kennedy) and I can actually apply Jewish beliefs to that of Christian beliefs. I already know a fare share from the Christian religion because of family history, but I do believe that it would be fascinating to discover what else the Jewish beliefs have to offer. Work Cited:

Breathe. Nooma. Produced by Flannel. Perf. Rob Bell. 2007. Short Film.

Kennedy, Kay. "Judaism." Hibbard, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. 1 Dec. 2009.

The New Student Bible: New Revised Standard Version. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress 1990. Print

The Prince of Egypt. Screenplay by Philip LaZebnik and Nicholas Meyer. Dir. Brenda Chapman and Steve Hickner.

Perf. Val Kilmer and Raoph Fiennes. 1998. DVD.