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Polygamy, and Slavery, in Ben Hur (1959)

FollowingHim

FollowingHim

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We just watched the original 1959 Ben Hur movie, and two rather interesting conversations jumped out. Sure it's all fiction. But still...

Here is Ben Hur talking to a wealthy Arab Sheikh about wives:
Sheikh: And perhaps you will come back. And when you do, bring your friends, bring your wives.
Ben-Hur: I have no wives.
Sheikh: No wives at all? Well I have six, no, seven.
Belteshazzar: I've counted eight, and that is because he is travelling, at home he has more.
Sheikh: Hehe believe me my friend it is a great advantage having many wives!
Ben-Hur: Some day I hope to have one.
Sheikh: One wife! One God, that I can understand, but one wife?! That is not civilised. It is not generous. ... Take my advice. Buy yourself some wives.
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Let us all aspire to be generous and civilised!

And here he is talking to the steward of his business about slavery. This is an entirely fictitious conversation, however it is an interesting representation of the relationship between slave and master as family & trusted friend, and the care and concern of a master towards his slaves. I haven't seen the 2016 version of Ben Hur but I highly suspect that this conversation won't be in it...
<servant presents gifts to Ben-Hur and his family>
Ben-Hur: Not to mention the best gift of all, your presence
Steward: You do your servant honour. I also bring good news from Antioch
B: The caravans from Petra
S: Have all arrived. Here is the accounting. ...
B: Once a year you bring your accounting, once a year I find myself wealthier. But my greatest treasure is my steward.
S: My life belongs to the house of Hur. Nothing else exists for me, except my daughter.
B: She must be a young woman by now.
S: Yes, and your property, since she was born the daughter of your slave.
B: When I inherited you I inherited a friend, not a slave.
S: Still, Esther has come with me from Antioch to ask your permission to marry.
B: Permission granted. I wish you the joy of many grandchildren.
S: If it is the Lord's will, I shall rejoice.
<Esther comes in>
S: With your permission, Esther wishes to speak to her master.
B: You are eager to marry, Esther?
Esther: It is my father's wish.
B: Your husband will be fortunate. ...
S: He is a free man. ... He is a merchant, well thought of in Antioch. He will pay for Esther's freedom.
B: Her freedom will be my wedding gift, to Esther.
E: You are generous, master.
B: Do you love this man?
E: I will learn to love him.
B: You have my permission to marry <but displays genuine concern for her happiness on his face>
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Long story short, Ben-Hur ends up marrying Esther himself.
 
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Wow. OK, I say that a lot, but that was great. I need to watch that again. Don't think I've seen it since I was a kid.
FollowingHim said:
I haven't seen the 2016 version of Ben Hur but I highly suspect that this conversation won't be in it...
Click to expand...
Ha! ya think?
 
I bought a DVD for the children. It was an animated version of Adam and Eve, narrated by Charlton Heston. In the first 20 minutes or so, fish come out of the water and turn into tigers during the creation period in order to promote evolution, Adam and Eve ride around on bears and talk to them for a while before realising they don't have names for them and so they name them together, and when God spoke to them He was a giant floating eye in the sky, he didn't walk with them.
I lost all respect for Charlton Heston after watching that. I can't believe that any solid Christian would put their name or voice to it. He was much older when doing this, so perhaps he lost his way over time.
 
Charlton Heston's theology was always dodgy. In the 10 Commandments Moses concludes the movie by announcing that they were going to preach freedom to the people of Canaan. No, they were going to kill them and enslave the survivors. In Ben Hur, Jesus is said to be preaching that "God is in every man". No, that would be pantheism. I really feel that Heston got to make such massive movies because Satan knew he would make them both high enough quality to impress the Church into seeing no need to bother making another film on those events, while screwing up the theology enough that Hollywood could promote the films to make money without actually evangelising.
 
I realise I should not blame the theology of either movie on Heston as he was only the lead actor, not the writer or director. However he did choose to take the role. According to Wikipedia the role of Ben-Hur was turned down by seven other actors first, with Burt Lancaster rejecting it in part because he felt the script was "belittling to Christianity". Heston was originally cast as Messala and switched role when they couldn't get a decent actor for Ben-Hur. The director was a Jew, and the dialogue was largely written by Gore Vidal, who was gay and outspoken about homosexuality. He told the man acting Messala to act as Ben-Hur's jilted gay lover.

It's interesting to dig into these things!

The director of The 10 Commandments, Cecil DeMille, was a Freemason. The script had multiple writers, I haven't found much info about them except that one, Jack Gariss, was a "spiritual teacher and meditation instructor" who had radio shows entitled "The Mystic Circle" and "Bio Meditation".
 
So, how about that polygamy and slavery, huh? Wasn't that something...

Anyway, can we clip the last half of this thread and move it to its own? It's a good subject and I really like all the information presented, but we kind of got off-topic a wee bit. (Yes, I contributed.)

@FollowingHim I hope you're recovering quickly.
 
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