|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The story of the rise of David, a shepherd boy, into a hero, a king and one of the great religious lyricists, is a phenomenal drama that Hollywood has fumbled again and again. For different reasons.
1951’s ‘David and Bathsheba’ was the typical clunky overdramatized spectacle of the era and the less said about Richard Gere as David the better. NBC’s Kings was an interesting, but baffling TV series, setting the struggle between Saul and David in a modern-day New York City ruled by kings.
Amazon Prime ‘House of David’ is more repugnant, but that has more to do with our own age than anything else. Our age is woke, Amazon Prime’s originals are particularly woke and ‘House of David’ starts out by jettisoning the Jewishness of the story in the most woke way possible by replacing both Saul and David with Arab Muslim actors.
David, traditionally seen as a redhead, becomes the latest ‘ginger’ to bite the dust and be replaced by what woke Hollywood decided is a more diverse appearance.
I recently wrote about a William Tell adaptation bringing in Muslim characters to show how diverse 14th-century Switzerland was. Biblical Israel was also apparently a very diverse place. But in typical woke DEI fashion, that diversity only goes one way, sidelining people who ‘look’ the wrong way and replacing them with more ‘diverse’ Arab Muslims who look the right way.
Woke replacement theology stems from the conviction that Jews are colonial invaders in Israel and the Arab Muslim invaders are the legitimate residents. Having transformed Jesus into a ‘Palestinian’, the next inevitable stage is an Islamic reading in which King David is ‘Daoud’, a Muslim, not Jewish figure.
There is no reason why King David needs to be played by a Jewish actor and the role rarely has been played that way. No more than Saul needs to be played by a Jewish actor. But replacing them both with Arab Muslim actors in a movie that was filmed in Greece and was certainly not a case of staffing lead roles with locals is not a coincidence, it’s a deliberate statement of the woke view of history.
Amazon Prime has long made a point of its diversity quotas which are even more militant than those of any other streamer leading to Rings of Power, a Lord of the Rings multicultural knockoff series, and now a King David story with the protagonist recast to symbolize the replacement of the Jewish population.
What’s at stake in such narratives is that they deny cultural history. The conviction that people in the Middle East must have looked like the Arab Muslims who would later go on to conquer it reverses history. It also covers up the Islamic conquests that actually made much of the Middle East look the way that it does.
An Islamic ‘David’, like an African Cleopatra, also pushes the false genocidal notion that ‘native peoples’ are more authentic as they get darker, and more invasive as they get lighter. This kind of thinking helped justify the ISIS atrocities against the Yazidis, who in many cases had light hair and eyes. It’s used to justify a good deal of the woke racism today.
Woke replacement theology feeds racism and antisemitism. It justifies genocide. And it shows a complete disrespect for the culture and the biblical narrative that it claims to be interested in.
I’m looking forward to seeing a woke version of the true story of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, where men, women, and transsexuals of all races and religions crewed the Japanese aircraft carriers, planes, and submarines.
I doubt that there were any trannies in the Imperial Japanese Navy…
What a load of bovine offal…
Unless you can keep your presence of mind, don’t smoke pot first thing in the morning with your cup of java – Seems to make you paranoid and not read what you are looking at – fact is Admiral Yakamoto always kept a pair of smart pumps for Saturday afternoon missions
Fraud!
It is a fact that perverted behavior wasn’t tolerated in pre-Pearl Harbor days. In fact the kamikaze pilots would have quartered Yakamoto in his sleep and refuse his orders calling them to sacrifice their lives for such a pervert.
It was just a joke.
I just read an article by Batya Unger – Sargon who thought it was fantastic and an accurate portrayal of Jews. She did not mention that King David was portrayed by an Arab actor. Thank you for pointing that out. You are right that it is likely that the casting reflects the current popular and false narrative that the Arabs are the indigenous people of the Jewish homeland. Interesting contrast in both your perspectives. She said she loved that Christians made a nice movie about Jews.
You forgot your sense of humor at home, go get it.
still waiting for black gay Hitler
I would watch that movie.
Hmmmm? And here I thought Hitler was a grannies. Who knew? Ha! 🐻🇨🇦🥴
Perhaps with Chinese, Koreans, Filipinos, East Indians, and other Asian victims of Imperial Japan.
This is absolutely disgraceful and sick.
Hope it fails and is relegated to the far end of the trash heap of woke garbage.
i saw the title and avoided it by instinct.
Daniel,
The greatest Irony of it all is the Islamic / Arab World will ABHOR it more than the Yahudi ( Jewish / Israelite) world.
Depicting prophets in Islam is forbidden… Muslims believe King David was a prophet. . Remember the controversy around the Movie Noah, it was banned even in Egypt.
I believe they are just stirring the pot for attention ( publicity) and to offend as many religious people that they can, be they Arab, Jew, or whatever….
Muslims aren’t killing people for depicting Moses and David, just Mohammed.
Mohammad had dark hair.
I’m guessing maybe purple. Only his hairdresser knew for sure.
Old movies are the best, and now in many cases they’re available in 4K and with 5.1 audio. If you have big screen TV and good audio system (as I do), you can see a lot of great movies you saw as a kid, in a much higher quality. Since I’m in my early 70’s, I saw the majority of these movies on a 20″ black & white TV screen. But now, they’re glorious. Every now and then, I’ll watch a brand new movie, but if it smells woke, I’m out.
Thank you for confirmation, sir. I saw this appear and thought “this might be good”, then immediately thought “nevermind, it’s going to be a woke piece of trash”.
The forces of darkness stsrted by removing God from our no longer Judeo Christian foubdation and next, dumbing down the nation with de-education. They have replaced truth with lies, Any remaining light had been replaced with their darkness and evil. Obama told everyone he would fundamentally change America and the worthless Republicans sat on their faces and did nothing to put Mr. High Crimes and Hillary in prison where they belong.
You sound offended because you are Jewish. I am not. I find the show to be quite good! I don’t care if they have Martians playing the roles, as long as they look pretty authentic (all the actors are Semites, after all) and can act.
I’m offended at having Muslims attended to the stories of Robin Hood and William Tell despite being neither English or Swiss. And I don’t care for a multicultural Lord of the Rings despite being neither an elf nor a hobbit.
As stated, I am not a Jew. We non-Jews look at the screen and see Semite actors and actresses. We don’t care to separate them. They pretty much look the part and that’s Job 1. It’s not like they have Chinese and Blacks playing the roles. Job 2 is ‘Can they act?’ and they got that down, too. I’m considered a pretty easily offended guy, but I just can’t get worked up over this.
Why get worked up about others being what you call worked up?
Why get worked up about me being worked up over something?
but David killed palestinians, how about that?
Philistines. They were from Europe.
They were probably Greeks. Second cousins of step sisters, I suppose, but they had that olive oil in their blood. That explains why they were such a thorn in the side of the Jews. They were a formidable people and very advanced cuturally in a very barbaric part of the world, like the Jews,
David fucked Sampson up, though.
sephardic jews are mideastern looking and the true jew bloodline so arabic types would probably be closer to physical truth. ashkenazim caucasian jews were converts and would not look like original jew bloodline. but i digress. the true israel are those who recognized the true Messiah who fulfilled the promise of the people and king chosen to bring Him to the world. God blessed David with Jesus Christ Messiah as His descendant. Jesus is King of kings
Sephard refers to Spain. Which is Europe.
Ashkenaz refers to Germany. Again, Europe.
Neither of the Jewish communities were ‘converts’.
Sephardi Jews cover a wide range much like ‘authentic’ Mediterranean types including in Greece, Italy and Lebanon do.
The idea that ‘arabic types’ are more authentic is woke racialist propaganda.
Careful, or those Black Panthers will get you!
And Sephardi Jews spread where Spain (and France) had influence in Northern Africa, particularly Morocco (where there’s still a vibrant Jewish community) and Tunisia, but also across Libya, Algeria, and Egypt (although not so much today).
The Ashkenazi were not converts to Judaism. That is said by those fooled by anti-Semites supported by the mistaken Arthur Koestler who tried to portray Jews as a religious identity without an ethnic component because they were killed in the Holocaust on racial instead of religious grounds.
First things first. Biblical Jews and the yet to become Muslims are the same people genetically and observably the same people.
Second , there was never a red headed David. The mideastern biblical Jew had yet to reach the Western European nations and racially mix with the population of fair skinned red heads.
Third. The story of David and what recorded history says of him and his deeds are what is most important. Shepard boy to king is inspirational to the Israeli people who still inhabit and continue to fight for their homeland. It really is not important who acts as David or what he looks like as long as the story stays accurate and truthful.
There are several errors in your thinking.
1. True that Jews and Muslims are both from Abraham, but common genetically heritage does not mean the same people. Using your reasoning, we all share the same genetic heritage (Adam and Noah) and are thus the same people. Nations become distinct in both genetics and appearance over the course of just a few generations. The Samaritans were an example. Americans are an example. Ethnogenesis happens very quickly.
2. David’s appearance is described in 1 Samuel 16:12. One of his distinctive and handsome attributes was his redness. Being “ruddy” was not limited to David as it also described Esau, who was NOT a man after God’s own heart.
3. David’s importance is solely due to the LORD making him a “man after God’s own heart.” His accomplishments were all wrought by God in faith. He is a prototype of the King of Israel Himself – none other than the LORD God Who alone is and can be the eternal King.
4. The story of David is an inspiration to the Jews and Christians. David, as prototype of Messiah, was a Jew and should look the part. Jesus is David’s greater son, a consummate Jew Who lived a perfect sinless life under the law and covenants, ushering in the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31 et. seq.). All actors who might aspire to represent Jesus would necessarily look Jewish. It might not be important that the actor be Jewish, but he should aspire to look and act as Jesus would have acted – and that would have been rooted in Jewishness of the 1st century.
Jews and Arabs are not the same people. They’re related peoples. In the same sense that everyone from Ireland to the Russians in Siberia are ‘the same people’.
King David is described as being Admoni or ‘red’ in the Bible.
If you want to believe racialist nonsense over the Bible, go for it.
There is neither evidence that David had red hair, nor that the surrounding cultures did. The creators of the story are simply trying to stay true to what the people of the Bible more than likely would have looked like! I love the series so far.
David likely had red hair. See 1 Samuel 16:12.
Whatever evidence of David we have comes from the Bible. Which describes him as Admoni or red.
That same description is previously used for Esau.
The notion that the Middle East had to be dark and arabic is woke racialist nonsense.
You Jews were noticed in the Near East of the Ancient World by your fair skin. That’s a well documented fact. The Romans kept good records. They were more than a bit reserved when it came to scribing down shit that made them look bad but they kept meticulous records. Boring actually, like Ancient Egyptian granary records and Mycenean harvest accounts.
King David was white, and it was no surprise that he slew Goliath and became the King. He used to kill lions in defense of his flock of sheep, which was no small feat, as the Bible notes. He was bad ass. The greatest King that Empire ever had, that’s for sure. And his personal story is cool.
David had Ruddy cheeks
“So he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, with beautiful eyes and a handsome appearance. And the LORD said, “Arise, anoint him; for this is he.”
Good enough for me.
Yeah but you lick dicks. Nobody cares what you think.
Michael Iskander has been on a number of interview shows, wearing a Cross, praising “The Chosen” (about Christ) expressing faith and humility. He says, “You’re making a TV show, and it’s really fun, and your makeup and hair — it’s all fun and cool, but the reason is to glorify Him, and to honor Him, and to put Him first,” I’m not sure where the “Muslim actor” charge comes from. He speaks of the Holy Spirit moving in the room during one scene. Criticize the show if you want, but do a little research before defaming.
Michael Iskander is a Coptic Christian.
I’m lost in the new woke time-warp. David was declared King of Jerusalem about a thousand years PRIOR to Mohamed introducing his Muslim faith and its eventual Sharia. So, with this intentional DEI rewriting of history maybe Moses, Elija, and Nehemiah were pseudonyms for Ali, Hassan, and Malcom X? I’m surprised we’re not being taught that it was the “Jews” who rounded up black Africans and put them on slave ships to the Caribbean and our East Coast. That might explain American’s current nasty Anti-Semitism problem – it’s really a statement about how, after Jews created slavery (never being slaves themselves), they are actually responsible for our society’s ‘black’ and ‘hate’ crimes. I now realize Dearborn and Minneapolis are violent Jewish enclaves.
From a Christian: Have a wonderful Seder and Passover, Daniel.
The black Africans were rounded up by their own people and sold into slavery. The Jews were not alone in buying these slaves. Slavery has been common since the very beginning of humanity.
The Bible does not portray slavery as a universal wickedness. God gave Abraham and David slaves and concubines. The LORD condemns stealing a person to sell him into slavery and mistreating the slaves in one’s household.
The people of God are spoken of as His willing slaves. Slavery to the righteous is better than free poverty among the evil.
The nation of Israel are servants of God, not slaves. We were slaves in Egypt. Now we are free in our land. We serve God. We praise God.
To quote the words of the “Sefat Emet”, moniker for Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter (1847–1905), meaning “language of truth”:
Servitude is usually accompanied by unhappiness and depression, causing the slaves to seek ways of escaping from their master to attain freedom. Serving God, however, brings happiness; the Jew seeks ways to serve God and joyfully accepts the yoke of Divine Sovereignty.
A “sharath” (Strongs 8334) is what we think of as a minister / servant (like Joshua to Moses). The scriptures consistently speaks of Israel in relationship to the LORD as “ebed” (Strongs 5650) which is more akin to a lowly slave.
Isaiah 49 is a good place to illustrate because the LORD speaks to Israel. Every use of the term “servant” is from the Hebrew “ebed” meaning the lowest form of slave. Even verse 6 (which can apply to both Israel and her Messiah) uses the term “ebed.”
Isaiah 49: 3 He said to Me, “You are My Servant, Israel,
In Whom I will show forth My beautiful glory.”
4 But I said, “I have toiled in vain;
I have spent My might for nothing and vanity;
Yet surely the justice due to Me is with Yahweh,
And My reward with My God.”
5 So now says Yahweh, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant,
To return Jacob back to Him, so that Israel might be gathered to Him
(For I am glorified in the sight of Yahweh,
And My God is My strength),
6 He says, “It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant
To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to cause the preserved ones of Israel to return;
I will also give You as a light of the nations
So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
Can you give me the verse(s) that show me my error?
Psalm 113, verse 1:
Praise God
Praise, servants (“avday”)of God, praise God’s Name
From the morning prayers:
Blessed are You, God, our God, King of the universe, who did not make me a slave
(“aved”)
The Hebrew has context, a frame of mind, nuance and depth. Not so with English. The superficial English translation serves less as an exact translation and more as a misinterpretation, which leads to a faulty conclusion.
MJ: Thank you for the verse! I love the Scriptures passionately and study them each morning, having done so for a long time. And what you say about the connection between slavery and unhappiness is absolutely true – because the LORD looks upon the heart and does not accept that which is offered without love and gratitude.
Two magnificent chapters tell of Hezekiah’s most beautiful Passover in 2 Chronicles 30 and 31 (ending with 31: 21: “…and [Hezekiah] did it with all his heart, and prospered.” It was a “bad” Passover – wrong time, unconsecrated priests, etc. but the LORD was pleased with it and accepted it.
Likewise, the LORD hates worship without a heart of love and gratitude (very frightening because my heart tends to grow cold):
https://www.esv.org/Psalm+50:8;Hosea+6:6;Psalm+51:16;Psalm+40:6–8;Isaiah+1:11–31;Jeremiah+7:21–23;Hebrews+10:4–10/
As for your verse, it still uses the term “ebed” which I understand to be the lowest form of slave – but still a slave that can be valuable for his loving service. Do not be offended by the term, MJ. Israel’s Messiah came to the world in the form of an ebed. See Isaiah 53: 3; Isaiah 42: 1; Isaiah 52: 13 – 14.
The fact is that the word for slave and servant in Hebrew is the same and its meaning depends on its context. There’s a
Divine reason why this is so. It makes us think. The freedom to think already sets us apart from the slave mentality…..
I would describe the difference in our outlooks this way: I look at the meaning of the word from the inside and you look at it from the outside.
Also, the correct pronunciation of the word is eved, with a ‘v’ sound, not a ‘b’.
MJ, I thought of you in my morning study yesterday in which “minster” / “sharath” is applied to the Priests when they “minister” on behalf of Israel before God. So this, technically, proves your point in an oblique way – because the priests are Israelites. Look here:
https://biblehub.com/hebrew/strongs_8334.htm
If you go there, you will see every time the root “sharath” and all its derivatives appear in Scripture. You will see the difference between “slave” and “minister.” It is interesting that Gehazi is most often identified as “slave” while Elisha is “minister” to Elijah.
That same day, I read Isaiah 41:8 ““But you, O Israel, My servant [ebed], Jacob, whom I have chosen, descendant of Abraham My friend….”
So I clicked on the verse to see its Hebrew roots and found this:
https://biblehub.com/hebrew/strongs_5650.htm
The word “ebed” occurs 800 times and this page shows every occasion of the word in all its forms (noun, adjective, etc.).
Agree that we have differences in our approach. But I do think the two words do not mean the same thing, and I try to discover the differences in meaning from these words in all their derivative forms appear in the context of every usage.
And the spelling and pronunciation of the Hebrew words will vary as each word is translated – but that will not affect the original intent and meaning of the Author in historical / grammatical context.
Thank you, MJ, for grappling with me! it helps me to learn new things that I cannot otherwise learn alone.
That is exactly the Islamic view of history. All of mankind used to be Muslim. Then Jews and Christians (monks and rabbis in the Islamic texts) corrupted the scriptures so that we all have to be forcibly reverted to Islam.
I have no satellite or cable tv – yay – I cancelled Nutflicks years ago because the movies sucked then the commie Obama was appointed to the board at Nutf**cks. – I pay for Amazon prime to get free shipping that includes their movies. Most of the movies suck or are old movies and boring. And the damned commercials! I am not paying more than the obscene fees Amazon charges!
I do not watch Tv series on TV and I am not about to watch Tv series on streaming Amazon.
I don’t trust HellyWeird to make Biblical movies especially now!
Purposely choosing Arab actors to play Hebrew people in the Bible is an antisemitic attempt to blur the lines.
Erase the identify of Hebrew peoples! Jews are still involved in HellyWeird and the entertainment industry – no doubt vile self loathing Jews!
A friend of mine who is a retired successful producer and writer of several hit television series. The biggest hit was “King Fu” in the 1970’s. He told me over the phone last April, 2024: “Because of the diaspora, Jews have lost our identity and they keep voting for the wrong people”. That was a bucket of ice water thrown at me – and how accurate this is.
Hebrew people better get it together and unify because this antisemitism that has become fashionable and vogue since the genocide massacre in Israel 10-7-2023 is not going away anytime soon and may very well be here until the antichrist comes to create a false peace for a few months then Yeshua Messiah returns, boots the SOB devil back to hell and rules. At that time will people wake up and claim they did not know and cry out for the mountains to fall on them! (Revelation 6:16 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb) Lots of self proclaimed Christians who were never mentored and taught right will be in that lot as will many Hebrew-Jews and all the izzylams
I used to watch and love “Kung Fu.”
I have also wondered about the self-loathing of many Jews. I am told Israel is actually very liberal – lots of gay pride parades and such. I do not know if that is really true, though. I do find that progressives have a lot of latent self-loathing, though.
Israel is like America or Europe. There’s a strong traditional element and a very aggressive left.
But conservatives have been winning elections for a while now and the left is on the run.
Re do art to be more P.C. so those idiots from Just Stop Oil can smear soup on them
The word Islam means submission.
Surah 2:191: “And kill them (non-Muslims) wherever you find them … kill them. Such is the recompense of the disbelievers (non-Muslims).”
Surah 9:5: “Then kill the disbelievers (non-Muslims) wherever you find them, capture them and besiege them, and lie in wait for them in each and every ambush …”
I 💯 agree. This is a very good show…. But it’ is 💯 inappropriate and insulting especially in the current political issues to replace Hebrews and Jews with Arabic Muslim….. Only two Jewish actors. This is wrong on so many levels. Would Islam tolerate us making a story of Mohammed with Christians and even worst Jews? And David had red hair and light eyes.and was attractive…… He was not an unattractive Muslim Egyptian.
I have many awesome Muslim friends but this is from the old testament / Hebrew Bible and what the producers did is sooooo wrong.
Wow! No one ever made me root for Goliath before.