When the movie “Selma” came out critics accused the
film of being historically inaccurate. It is.
All movies are historically inaccurate. Even when the plot is “based on a true story”
Hollywood inevitably changes, cuts, and makes up key events, which is fine ---
for Hollywood. Not so good for historical
movie-watchers who don’t read history books. Those moviegoers learn history
wrong.
Too many Christian have learned Bible stories from
movies, cartoons, and other entertainment media rather than from the Bible, and
so they’ve learned the Bible wrong.
For example, most Christians think that the Ten
Commandments were first written on stone tablets and delivered to the people by
Moses. But that’s just how it happens in
the movies. To know the truth you need
to read the Book.
The Bible does say, in Exodus 31:18, that God wrote
the Ten Commandments on two stone tablets and gave them to Moses, but there’s
more that doesn’t usually make the Hollywood cut. Go back to chapter 19.
Three months after coming out of Egypt, God called
Moses up on Mt. Sinai, and the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I come
to you in the thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you,
and believe you forever.” (Exodus 19: 9)
Three days later, the entire Israelite camp came out
and crowded around the foot of Mt. Sinai, and in chapter 20, God spoke. Out loud, so all of the Hebrew ex-slaves
could hear Him.
He said: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you
out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. “You shall have no other
gods before Me.
“You shall not make
for yourself a carved image—any likeness of
anything that is in
heaven above, or that is in the
earth beneath, or that is in
the water under the earth; …
“You shall not take the name of the Lord your
God in vain…
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy...
“Honor your father and your mother, that your
days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
“You shall not murder.
“You shall not commit adultery.
“You shall not steal.
“You shall not bear false witness against your
neighbor.
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house;
you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female
servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”
The original Ten Commandments were orated by God to
all of His covenant people, but that scene never makes the movies.
Scripture doesn’t begin as a printed text. The written Word of God begins as the Word spoken
by God.
For 3 more chapters in Exodus, God keeps talking,
laying out His expectations for covenant behavior.
And Moses wrote all the
words of the Lord. (Exodus 24:4), but not on stone tablets.
We’re still 7 chapters away from stone tablets.
Before the permanent (stone) edition was published
the Commandments were faithfully written down by Moses. Ultimately the stone tablets were placed in
the ark of the covenant (Deuteronomy 10: 5).
For centuries, the ark housed the oldest surviving copies of the Ten
Commandments, but they didn’t have Moses’ original written text from Exodus
chapter 24.
Today, we don’t have any of the original texts of the
gospels and epistles. All scholars can give us are dates for the oldest
surviving copies. And yes, the Bible has
been scribed, translated, and republished by generations of human editors. But
God has paid as much attention to keeping our Bibles true to His original
spoken Word as He gave to keeping Moses transcriptions true to His original
spoken Word.
Knowing this first, that
no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for
prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit
(2 Peter 1:
20-21)
None of this makes it into the
Hollywood retellings of the Ten Commandments.
So don’t rely on the movies to teach you about your
faith. Watch the movies, sure. They’re often quite inspiring.
But read the Book.
---Anderson T. Graves
II is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry,
and rural leadership development.
Rev.
Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield,
Alabama; executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking
Organization (SAYNO); and director of
rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
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