Language:
English
Year of publication:
2021
Titel der Quelle:
The Oxford Handbook of Feminist Approaches to the Hebrew Bible
Angaben zur Quelle:
(2021) 313-325
Keywords:
Bible In motion pictures
;
New Testament. Criticism, interpretation, etc.
;
Epic films History and criticism
;
Adultery Biblical teaching
Abstract:
Several biblical epics from the 1950s and 1960s with strong female heroes contain a narrative thread involving the stoning or threat of stoning of these protagonists. Notably, this motif is entirely absent from the biblical stories on which the films are based. This essay examines this feature in three films: David and Bathsheba (Henry King, 1950), Solomon and Sheba (King Vidor, 1959), and The Story of Ruth (Henry Koster, 1960). I argue that the motif of stoning is adopted from the New Testament story of the woman caught in adultery (John 7:53–8:11), and that this use contributes both to the subtle denigration of traditional Judaism and the reinforcement of gender hierarchies that are evident in many Bible films from the post–World War II period.
DOI:
10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190462673.013.20
URL:
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