The final movie I want to discuss is the science-fiction film A.I. It is unique in that although it contains much of the same imagery and symbolism found in Pinocchio and the story of Jonah, and although the ultimate theme deals with the hope of re-creation and resurrection, A.I. in fact denies this hope. It ends up being a perfect example of…
One of the things I loved to do when I covered Jonah in my 9th grade Old Testament class was show my class the movie Pinocchio by Roberto Benigni. I wouldn’t show the Walt Disney movie because most of them had already seen it, and I wanted them to watch the story with different eyes….
Given the basic plot of The Matrix, there are five essential biblical themes, one of which is a “Jonah theme,” that are essential to furthering the plot. The other four must first be briefly mentioned so that the Jonah theme can be seen within the context of the whole. The Bondage of Sin The first…
As hard as it is to believe, The Matrix is 16 years old. As I sat in the movie theater, watching The Matrix for the first time, I had two distinct impressions. First, as I watched the black leather-clad Trinity vault herself into the air and commence to wipe out the police officers who were…
This evening, I noticed that Ken Ham had a new post on his blog, entitled, “A Hero in My Life.” No, he wasn’t writing about a hero in his life. He was writing about how children are telling him that he is a hero in their lives. It’s quite an extraordinary piece, really. He claims it was written by a…
It is ironic that the central question literary scholars ask concerning the identity of Moby Dick is virtually the exact same question biblical scholars ask concerning the identity of the “big fish” in Jonah. The question concerning literature scholars about Moby Dick is whether the White Whale is symbolic of God, whether it is symbolic…
One of the main questions concerning Moby Dick is the exact identity of the white whale: is Moby Dick symbolic of God himself, or just symbolic of nature, or just an extremely powerful whale? The identity of Moby Dick, though, does have a certain effect on how one sees Captain Ahab. As we will see when we…
At various times in college, I attempted to read Moby Dick—I failed every time. My natural inclination was toward poetry, and Moby Dick was a novel…a long novel…with long chapters detailing the specifics of whaling. I couldn’t get through it. But then, as I was researching Jonah for my master’s thesis, I decided to give…
Back when I was in graduate school at Trinity Western University, I wrote my master’s thesis on the book of Jonah. There was one chapter of it, though, that I ended up having to cut out of my thesis. It was a chapter in which I discussed “Jonah-themes” in modern literature and movies. My undergraduate…
Yesterday, I began assessing the assessment that Elizabeth Mitchell of Answers in Genesis gave to Karl Giberson’s book, Saving the Original Sinner. Today, I would like to finish it. As is already obvious from “Part 1,” Mitchell does not like Giberson’s book…at all. What is so unfortunate (yet altogether predictable) is that instead of writing…