Exod 4:23, the Death of the Firstborn and ‘Texts of Terror’ for Children: Following the ‘Angel of Death’ through (almost) a Century of ‘Exodus’ Films

 

Presented May 28, 2017 at Ryerson University in Toronto

Abstract:

In her contribution to the 2008 edited volume The Child in the Bible, Claire Mathews McGinnis borrows a phrase coined by feminist scholar Phyllis Trible and refers to the book of Exodus as a ‘text of terror’ for children. She offers YHWH’s slaying of the Egyptian firstborn and of Pharaoh’s son in particular as an example. While the slaughtered heir to Egypt’s throne need not be a ‘child’ understood exclusively in terms of either infancy or juvenility, this is how he is depicted in filmic adaptations of this terror-filled biblical story. In this paper, I will follow the ‘angel of death’ as he traverses nearly a century of cinema in retributive pursuit of Pharaoh’s infant or juvenile son. I will demonstrate how these movies interact with competing discourses on childhood in their wider social and historical contexts, presenting boys as both terrified and terrifying, and thereby expanding the sense in which Exodus could be conceived as a ‘text of terror’ for children.