Customer Reviews

Biography - Moses and the Ten Commandments

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This 50-minute program from A&E's "Biography" series tells the biblical story of Moses, illustrating the story with footage from relevant locations in the Middle East and with artists' depictions of biblical characters and episodes. Jewish and Christian biblical scholars and others add background information, explanation, and interpretation.

One commentator seemed overly confident that he knew what was going on in Moses' psyche, but other than that, I found the commentary interesting and helpful, and it didn't overwhelm the simple telling of the story.

This video does a good job of bringing the story of Moses to life. I have used excerpts from it in teaching Judaism and Christianity to undergraduates and high school students, and I think it would also be an excellent resource for Bible study groups.

(Also recommended: Orson Scott Card's "Stone Tables," a novelization of the life of Moses.)

This depiction of Moses was not particularly compelling for me. There were so many biblical events that were omitted. Emphasis seemed to be placed on things other than the big issues in his life. Liberty with the script made me look to the scriptures and see if I really misunderstood who Moses was and what he was like. The video depiction of certain scenes did draw me into the history, particularly when his mother put him onto the river. I felt her anxiety as she saw the basket drift out of her sight. This is no where as majestic as his character portrayal in the Ten Commandments, but still an enjoyable and reasonably accurate description of the prophet.