He may not have been faster than a speeding bullet. He wasn't more powerful than a locomotive. But he did split the Red Sea!
And in America, he became an inspiration for the country's leading superhero and the star of the Hollywood's fifth-highest-grossing movie.
This month proved pivotal to the influence of Moses on American pop culture. (For an overview of how the story of Moses shaped American politics, from George Washington to Barack Obama, read the first entry in this series here.) Moses helped shape many of the defining symbols of America. The Liberty Bell has a quotation from Moses on its side, even the Statue of Liberty was cast in his image. Sculptor Frederic Bartholdi modeled the statue on a Roman goddess, but he imported two icons from Moses: first, the rays of sun around her head, and second, the tablet in her arms, both of which come from the moment Moses descends Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments.
Fifty years later, two bookish Jews in Cleveland, Ohio channeled their religious anxieties into a cartoon character modeled partly on the superhero of the Torah. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster drew on numerous sources for Superman, including Greek mythology, Arthurian legend, and Edgar Rice Burroughs. But its backstory is taken almost point-by-point from Moses.
Just as Moses was floated down the Nile in a basket to escape a people facing annihilation, Superman is floated into a space in a spaceship to escape a planet facing extinction. Just as Moses is rescued by the pharaoh's daughter and raised in an alien environment where he conceals his true identity, Superman is rescued by the Kents and raised in an alien environment where he conceals his true identity. Just as Moses is called to liberate a people from tyranny, Superman is called to liberate humanity from evil.
Even Superman's name reflects his creators' biblical knowledge. Moses is the leader of Israel, or Yisra-el in Hebrew, "one who strives with God." Superman's original name was Kal-El, or Swift God. His father's name was Jor-El. Superman was clearly drawn as a modern-day god.
And like Moses, Superman was a great defender of Jews. In Superman #1, published in 1939, Clark and Lois Lane travel to a thinly disguised Nazi Germany, where Superman saves Lois from a firing squad. In Superman #2, Clark visits faux Germany again and meets Adolphus Runyan, a scientist clearly modeled on Adolph Hitler. (By the time the television show debuted this month in 1951, these themes were downplayed.)
Americans may or may not have noticed Superman's Jewish identity, but Hitler sure did. In 1940, Hitler's chief propagandist, Josef Goebbels, denounced Superman as a Jew and called Jerry Siegel "an intellectually and physically circumcised chap."
After the war, it was Cecil B. DeMille who turned Moses into a full-throated symbol of the American century. Released 54 years ago next week, The Ten Commandments became the fifth-highest-grossing movie of all time. And it was designed to reflect DeMille's anti-Communist views. When the movie opened, DeMille appeared on the screen. "The theme of this picture is whether men ought to be ruled by God's law or whether they are to be ruled by the whims of a dictator," he said. "The same battle continues throughout the world today."
His message was clear: Moses represented the United States; the pharaoh the Soviet Union. To drive home his point, DeMille cast mostly Americans as the Israelites and mostly Europeans as the Egyptians.
Politics even entered the ten plagues. DeMille showed three plagues. For turning the Nile into blood, he used a garden hose with dyed water. For the hail, he used popcorn. The tenth plague was often portrayed as an angel with a bloody knife, but DeMille thought the image wasn't scary enough. He used a green fog that swooped down out of the sky in the shape of a claw to simulate nuclear fog.
But DeMille's most political act was having Parmount pay for 4,000 replicas of the Ten Commandments be placed on courthouse lawns across the U.S. One of these monuments, in Austin, Texas, later became the basis for the Supreme Court decision in 2005 that allowed the display of Ten Commandments if they were used for secular purposes. A publicity stunt for Paramount became the basis of landmark U.S. law.
In the final scene, Moses blesses his successor, Joshua, then proceeds toward the summit of Mount Nebo. He turns and quotes the words on the Liberty Bell, even though they come from Leviticus, not the end of Deuteronomy.
Moses then continues to the top of mountain, where he turns and raises his right arm in a perfect tableau of the Statue of Liberty. In the final shot of his valedictory film, DeMille crowns his paean to the greatest prophet who ever lived by parading him through the medley of American icons to which he had been compared over the years -- the Liberty Bell, Lady Liberty -- until he becomes the embodiment of America enlightening the world.
This entry is part of a series, "This Month in Moses," chronicling the 400-year relationship between the United States and "America's Prophet." For more information, and to read the entire series, visit www.brucefeiler.com, or sign up at twitter.com/brucefeiler.
Follow Bruce Feiler on Twitter: www.twitter.com/brucefeiler
An earlier poster suggested that Akhenaten may have been the source of the Moses story and I concur. It seems the Jews were not above taking others into their tribe and then inventing a back story for them. The Egyptian historian Manetho had some things to say about this.
And archeology tells us that the Jews were already in the hills over Palestine when they were supposed to be lost in the desert. The one thing missing from their culture in that period was writing - they did not so much as make scratches on a rock to count their goats or their wives.
"and israel was the mighty hand wherewith hashem smote the egyptians and believed in hashem and in hashems servant moses.
i alway thought the movie was anti semitic. i felt they turned moses into a jesus figure but this article explains the real way they insulted the jews.
“When the Holy One Blessed be He created Adam, He took him and caused him to pass before all the trees of the Garden of Eden. He said to him, ‘See how beautiful and praiseworthy are my works; and all that I have created, I have created for your sake. Take heed that you do not damage and destroy my world.’†(Koheleth Rabbah 7:28)
Know nothing. . .
No god?
No problem . . .
Five doo's and five dont's.
Five thou shalts about loving and putting God first.
Five thou shalt nots about loving your neighbour.
The juicy bits I like about Moses. Like Zipora cicumsizing him because God was going to kill him.
Or He had the moxey to argue with God. Take me out of the book of life but let my people go..God lisened up he kept him back and let the peoplle go with Joshua.
He got pissed off at the people bellieaching and he whacked the rock twice because God did not move fast enough. I think he just had enough of those stubbern people. Jesus solved this in saying "Not my will but thine will ".
It must have been sad though God saying You did not glorify me before the people and you cannot go into the promised land. Big sacrifice like Jesus. America must have a providential purpose.
Then Satan fighting over his body. With Michael.
Rebuke you Satan..
My worry is one of these days America might wake up and have lost the blessing of God.
Looking at the last recent history we must admit there is some writing on the wall.Elishia , Moses, and jesus. No body evidence yet they all showed up on the mount of transfigureation.
He said you were the brewed of viper and of your father the Devil and your will was to do your fathers desire. he said If you knew Moses or even Abraham you would have known me. moses also said Reconsile with your brother before you place and offering on the alter of God. Jesus was trying to teach us one thing . have your own relationship to God . Jesus was an anointed man and not God a person cannot be God but we can be in the image and reflect his nature in our own personality. Through our hearts we can relate to God directly now in perfect love. Jesus Christ did not come to die he was murdered . There was no imaculate conception His Father was Zacariah same as John The Baptist. There was no resurrection . There was no death in the fall. The volenteer commitment of Jesus life was acceptable to God and we recieve the remission of sin.
you are a little mixed up on the story of zippora and the circumcision exodus 4:25-27
jews throughout the tanakh are constantly arguing with hashem. a elementary jewish religious question is the differences between abarham arguing with hashem when hashem says he will destroy sodom and gemorrah while noah doesnt when hashem says he will destroy the world.
israel means wrestles with hashem.
“When the Holy One Blessed be He created Adam, He took him and caused him to pass before all the trees of the Garden of Eden. He said to him, ‘See how beautiful and praiseworthy are my works; and all that I have created, I have created for your sake. Take heed that you do not damage and destroy my world.’†(Koheleth Rabbah 7:28)
“Waiting for ‘Superman’ is a documentary on education by Guggenheim…â€(It} doesn’t always ask enough questions….we hear nothing about disruptive…students, dysfunctional…parents and an entire proud-to-be-dumb society….There are larger issues of class and culture at work here…(Stephen Whitty/The Star-Ledger).
In Israel’s (Jewish) tradition Abraham is “our fatherâ€. Moses is “our teacherâ€. Perhaps Moses revealed God’s solution to our societal problems?
Print a retraction, as your statements have been shown to be false.
If you have any dignity at all, you will.
The real origin of the name of Moses was probably a very real prince in Egypt named Thutmoses (notice the "moses" at the end of the name?). There were 4 kings in the 18th dynasty by the name of Thutmoses. Wedged in between a couple of them was the king who renamed himself Akhenaten, and rewrote all of Egypts religious laws, preferring a monotheistic deity to the traditional pantheon (sound familiar?) After Akhenaten died (c. 1336 BCE), all of his followers were declared heretics and exiled from Egypt. It is quite possible that one of his priests, possibly even a son, named Thutmoses, was among the group, and led the remainder of his followers to refuge in Midian and Sinai. The chronology is close to what is described in the bible.
Then there is Sargon, king of Akkad, whose mother bore him in secrecy and hid him in a reed basket and floated him down the Euphrates river, where he was discovered and raised by the gardener of the king. This story was invented at least 1,000 years before the one we read about in Exodus.
And don't forget about King Hammurabi of Babylon, who created hiw own law code, not too different from Leviticus, but hundreds of years earlier.
golda mier
why wont the jews listen to bush --- they last time they listened to a bush they spent 40 years wondering in the desert
“When the Holy One Blessed be He created Adam, He took him and caused him to pass before all the trees of the Garden of Eden. He said to him, ‘See how beautiful and praiseworthy are my works; and all that I have created, I have created for your sake. Take heed that you do not damage and destroy my world.’†(Koheleth Rabbah 7:28)
It's not related to the Buybull.
Albert K. Echt
This is either out of complete ignorance, in which case you should be a bit embarrassed, print a retraction, and educate yourself and start acting like some kind of real professional.
Or it is the result intentional deception to sell books to ignorant people. If this is the case, I invite you to remember the 9th commandment at least!
Either way, you own this site a retraction, and Frédéric Bartholdi an apology.
So it wouldn't be Moses as the model of the statue of Liberty, but a make-believe Moses piggybacking on the Statue of Liberty for corporate profit.