The oldest story in the bible has
been predicted to have been written about 3500 years ago. The bible is known to
have some of the oldest stories in it. The bible could literally be classified
as an instant classic. Filled with religious stories of creation, betrayal, serpents,
sacrifice, and many other things of that nature, the bible could mark as one of
the most interesting books ever written, in my opinion. It would only make
sense that writers, poets, play writers, and screenwriters be familiar with stories
in the bible. In fact, many books, movies, plays, etc. can relate to the
stories in the bible. With the many different plots the stories in the bible
have, this statement can’t be too hard to follow.
As many modern stories could relate
to those in the bible, I’ve chosen to elaborate on the relation the book of
Joshua has to the blockbuster hit movie Avatar. The movie Avatar basically
retells the story of Rahab and the spies in the book of Joshua. In this story,
Joshua sent two spies out to Jericho to gather information on this land that he
hoped to take over. The two spies traveled to Jericho and resided in a woman
named Rahab’s home. The King of Jericho found out about the spies and ordered
Rahab to give them up. In an attempt to spare their lives, Rahab hid the spies
and told the king that they were not in her care. In exchange for sparing the
spies’ lives, Rahab asks the spies to spare her family’s lives, when Joshua
were to take over the land of Jericho.
Similarly in the movie Avatar, main
character Jake is sent to another place as a spy. Jake is transformed into a
Na’vi (blue person) as an undercover spy and sent to the planet Pandora to help
humans attain a substance that could save the human race. On his mission, Jake
becomes very close to the native Pandora aliens and even falls in love with a
native named Neytri. After building this relationship with the Na’vi, Jake decides
to help defend them against the humans.
Both stories contain spies, a native hero, and
a plans to take over land. Both stories also contain powerful bonds between the
characters least expected to ever build strong relaionships. These two stories
relate so well they are kind of almost identical. But Avatar has even one more relatable
biblical reference and that is the Tree of Life.
On the planet of Pandora, the Na’vi
people worship a goddess named Eywa and a “Hometree”. The tree connects to all
living creatures on the planet. Similarly to the way the Tree of Life in the
Bible connects all humans to heaven and hell.
Supporting the ideas I have
expressed, Kwok Pui-lan, Professor of Christian Theology and Spirituality at
the Episcopal Divinity School, also describes Avatar as a movie that allows
viewers to look at the Bible from the side of the Canaanites (the people of
Jericho). Her article can be found at
religiondispatches.org/iavatari-a-subversive-reading-of-the-bible/.
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