We all remember that the children of Israel danced around the Golden Calf while Moses was on the Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments. What we probably forgot is the cruel punishment of the reckless dancers. A furious Moses told his faithful Levites to "go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor". The Levites did as commanded and slaughtered 3000 fellow Israelites in one go, women and children included. Only one of the culprits was spared, ironically the ringleader of the calf-worshipping. Yes, it was Aaron who happened to be the brother of Moses. As much as I tried to stick to the original story, you will not see that mass murder in my new musical. I'm sure that Moses killed those people to please God. After all he was educated at the Egyptian court. I, however, have a problem imagining God as a tyrannic and bloodthirsty Pharao.Thursday, February 21, 2013
God As Pharao
We all remember that the children of Israel danced around the Golden Calf while Moses was on the Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments. What we probably forgot is the cruel punishment of the reckless dancers. A furious Moses told his faithful Levites to "go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor". The Levites did as commanded and slaughtered 3000 fellow Israelites in one go, women and children included. Only one of the culprits was spared, ironically the ringleader of the calf-worshipping. Yes, it was Aaron who happened to be the brother of Moses. As much as I tried to stick to the original story, you will not see that mass murder in my new musical. I'm sure that Moses killed those people to please God. After all he was educated at the Egyptian court. I, however, have a problem imagining God as a tyrannic and bloodthirsty Pharao.
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I'm sure that Moses particularly killed those people in order to remain the boss. I was reminded of the night of the long knives (Röhm-Putsch) in 1934. Hitler murdered his enemies inside of the fascist movement.
ReplyDeletePerhaps a fight between to brothers and their followers to proof the loyality of each one. Religion often was a vehicle for a fight about power and authority.
ReplyDeleteHere the plug was the tradionalist or the old tradionalist society (Abraham) agaist the visionist and his new social order(Moses).
So it is a very old story - and gods (Der Liebe Gott!) seems to like such stories!