THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

[Music] [Applause] this is a reproduction of one of michelangelo's greatest works moses if you will be patient with me i'd like to talk to you about this wonderful soul that michelangelo caught so magnificently in marble for centuries people have been puzzled by these horns well in the original book of exodus the hebrew text tells us that when moses came down from the mount karen came from his head the karen is the hebrew word for horn but it also is the hebrew word for rays of light later artists like dorae show moses with rays of light coming from his head here is a photograph of the original statue in rome now notice notice the likeness to charlton heston who plays moses in the ten commandments we generally think of moses either as the prophet with a long white beard or as he is portrayed in this this canvas painted by van dijk in england about uh 1640 a baby found in the bulrushes by the daughter of pharaoh incidentally this is the first time this van dyke has ever been exhibited yet there is a whole lifetime between the baby in the basket and the bearded prophet receiving the tablets of the ten commandments on mount sinai these very tablets were actually carved from the red granite of the holy mountain itself this canaanite lettering of the late bronze age is a forerunner of the hebrew alphabet the greek alphabet and our own alphabet today the bible omits the first 30 years or so that brought moses to manhood to fill in those missing years we turned to ancient historians such as philo and josephus philo wrote during the lifetime of jesus of nazareth and josephus wrote some 50 years later these historians had access to documents long since destroyed or perhaps lost like the dead sea scrolls to film the ten commandments we we rolled our cameras on the very ground that moses walked here from the from the land of goshen across the red sea down through the deserts of sure and sin to mount sinai the holy place of god this this haloed sun was above the mountain as our caravan descended no moses life is one of the greatest adventure stories ever put between the covers of a book here here in the first chapter of exodus by the merciless edict of the pharaoh ramesses the first all the newborn hebrew male children were condemned to death to save the baby moses life moses mother yoshibel played by martha scott placed him in a basket dubbed with pitch and set him afloat on the great river nile the swift current as though guided by divine power sweeps him to the feet of bithya pharaoh's daughter played by nina fosh the princess having no son of her own adopts the baby and raises him in the very court which had condemned him to death where can you find greater drama than that moses grew to manhood and power a prince of egypt the old pharaoh had died and his son seti played by sir cedric hardwick had become pharaoh did seti find out this prince of egypt was a hebrew slave what did moses do when he learned the truth about himself that he a rich and powerful prince was less than the dust beneath the wheels of pharaoh's chariot and seth his own son the powerful magnificent fearless prince ramesses played by yule brunner who was it that betrayed moses to him was it the throne princess nefertari played by anne baxter or did the old nurse remnant played by judith anderson betray the secret of moses birth that she had kept for 30 years then there was the cynical fastidious backer the master builder of egypt played by vincent price was he the informer or was moses betrayed by dathan taskmaster over his own people played by edward g robinson very well i will bargain with you if what you say pleases me i will give you your price all of it if not i will give you the point of this blade through your lying throat agreed agreed when moses learned that he was hebrew and he looked upon the sufferings of his own people [Music] the bible tells us moses killed how did he escape from egypt and who gave him sanctuary from pharaoh's sentence of death strike your pose [Music] which of jethro's seven daughters did he marry from whom did he learn the ways of a shepherd was it from jethro's eldest daughter zephyra played by yvonne de carlo made moses return to egypt and almost certain death when the young rameses became the new pharaoh why did god command moses to bring the ten plagues upon pharaoh and the egyptians if there is one more plague on egypt it is by your word that god will bring it and there shall be so great a cry throughout the land that you will surely let the people go [Music] come to me no more moses [Music] for on the day you see my face again you will surely die did nefertieri revenge the killing of her own son how did the death of the firstborn free the slaves go out from among us you and your people set you free who organized the greatest migration the world has ever seen the exodus was a joshua the young leader played by john derek who became the powerful military commander of his people the bible tells us little of joshua's youth or his hopes and loves or of those who may have loved him like lilia played by deborah paget how did god harden pharaoh's heart that he called forth 600 of his war chariots to destroy moses and the children of israel how did they escape with pharaoh's chariots at their backs and the red sea before them was it because there were no graves in egypt but you took us away to die in the wilderness all this happened three thousand years ago but we're still fighting the same battle that moses fought are men to be ruled by god's laws or are they to be ruled by the whims of a dictator like ramesses are men the property of the state or are they free souls under god the story of moses as told in the bible is a life of struggle and defiance a life of love and battle and sacrifice and murder a life of achievement and disaster of humiliation and glory moses is one of the world's greatest human beings and human he was to the point of sin and holy to the point of seeing god and receiving from him the law by which men may live in peace and freedom the ten commandments you