The Bible and Music

During our class on April 11^th, we were shown a music video for “Creeping Death” by Metallica. Scenes from this video were taken from the movie The Ten Commandments. I thought it was quite funny because, as a child during my faith formation classes, I had been terrified watching that movie. Hearing the story told from Bible vs seeing it depicted on a screen were two different experiences for me at that age.

The music of “Creeping Death” was an accurate representation of how I saw the plagues from the story of Moses as a child. Now, watching scenes from the movie during class, it seems a bit less threatening because I have a wider perspective of the story of Moses and the reason for the plagues. From what I can remember, God sent down the plagues to set the Jews free from Egypt, using Moses as a means of communicating with the Pharaoh. As a child, all I saw was the Nile turning to blood and a huge green fog coming to kill everyone without lamb’s blood painted on their doors’ first born son. I feared plagues like that coming to hurt the ones I loved for my wrongdoings in life. However, having become more familiar the Bible and its stories as I have matured, I see the production of The Ten Commandments as another experience in understanding my religion as a child.

Metallica did a wonderful job setting the story of Moses to music, in order to give an intense interpretation of the plagues to listeners.