Dr Paul Allen

English: Moses striking the rock (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Timed for a Christmas season release, director Ridley Scott ’s intended blockbuster, Exodus : Gods and Kings hit the big screens this past weekend. On its opening weekend the movie shot to the top of the box office charts, displacing the latest Hunger Games movie, but falling considerably short of expected receipts. The best single line analysis of the movie and its failure to garner either critical acclaim or more viewers was offered by Eric D. Snider of Geek Nation: “This big dud isn’t blasphemous enough to be outrageous, emotional enough to be inspiring, or interesting enough to be good.” Well, I partly agree with the first two points of criticism, but I did find the movie interesting. Indeed, I even liked much of the movie, and I would not argue that mature and thoughtful Christians should not see it, even if the concerns about it are major. And make no mistake, the concerns are major. Earlier this year, director Dar...

Exodus : Gods and Kings  is a disaster of biblical proportions. Critics who have praised the film's lavish visual style are grasping at the only thing in the movie that works. Is  Exodus  riddled with biblical inaccuracies? Yes. But a Bible epic designed to appeal to the Richard Dawkins/new atheist crowd might find an audience. (Some people can rally around a film that has nothing for everyone.) But as a Christmas gift to moviegoers everywhere, let's look at three parts of the film that should keep any reasonable person away. BatMoses Despite his beard, Christian Bale is still locked into his Batman role. His armor is black. His horses are black. He is the consummate hand-to-hand warrior. And, often, his menacing presence is enough to get local bad guys to back off. Unfortunately, Moses can't always be in battle. When he is in the court of Pharaoh , Bale seems lost. An interrogation scene in which Pharaoh attempts to discover the truth about Moses' family origins...

PLAGUES OF EGYPT . In commissioning Moses to lead Israel out of Egypt , God had warned him that this would come about only through God’s supreme power overcoming all the might of Pharaoh, whereby Egypt would be smitten with wonders or signs from God (cf. Ex. 3:19–20).  After the sign of the rod that became a serpent and swallowed up those of the Egyptian magicians, which left Pharaoh unmoved, God’s power was demonstrated to him and his people in a series of ten judgments. They were so applied as to portray clearly the reality and power of Israel’s God, and thus by contrast the impotence of Egypt’s gods. The first nine of these plagues bear a direct relation to natural phenomena in the Nile valley , but the tenth, the death of the firstborn, belongs wholly to the realm of the supernatural. These first nine plagues demonstrate the divine use of the created order to achieve his ends, and recent studies tend to confirm both the reality of what is described in Ex. 7–12 and th...

MOSES. The great leader and lawgiver through whom God brought the Hebrews out of Egypt , constituted them a nation for his service, and brought them within reach of the land promised to their forefathers. I. Name In Ex. 2:10 it is said that ‘she called his name Mōšeh: and she said, Because I drew him (mešîṯī-hû) out of the water’. Most interpreters identify the ‘she’ as Pharaoh ’s daughter, and this has led many to assume an Egyp . origin for the name Mōšeh, Egyp. ms, ‘child’ or ‘(one) born’ being the best possibility. However, the antecedent of ‘she’ could as easily be ‘the woman’, i.e. Moses ’ own mother and nurse, who ‘had called his name … ‘(so W. J. Martin). Ex. 2:10 clearly links the name of Mōšeh with his being taken from the waterside (māšâ, ‘to draw forth’). This pun would come naturally to a Hebrew speaker but not to an Egyptian: which fact would favour the view just mentioned that it was Moses’ own mother who first named him, rather than Pharaoh’s daughter. Mōš...

Moses with the tablets of the Ten Commandments, painting by Rembrandt (1659) (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) MOSES [mōˊzəz] (Heb. mōšeh; cf. Egyp. mśy “to be born” or “son”). † The first great leader of the Hebrew people , regarded as author of the first five books of the Old Testament . Moses is revered by Jews, Christians, and Muslims for his daring leadership and diplomacy as well as his promulgation of the divine law. According to the biblical record, Moses was born in Egypt when the Hebrews were enslaved to Pharaoh, apparently during the early to middle centuries of the New Kingdom period (ca. 1550–1085 B.C.). His parents (or perhaps ancestors) were Amram and Jochebed of the tribe of Levi ( Exod. 2:1; 6:20). The account of Moses’ birth and his rescue from the drowning decreed by Pharaoh is presented at Exod. 2:1–10.  Believing that God had chosen him (cf. Heb. 11:23), Moses’ parents hid him for three months and then placed him in a papyrus basket among the reeds at ...