Russ and Sylvia Davis Collection > SERIES I: Films & Audio Materials

Raymond Massey Reads the Bible: The Greatness and Divinity of Man, The Returned of the Ransomed, On the Bible

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You Our readings today are about the greatness and divinity of man So God created man in his own image in the image of God created he him male and female created he them and God blessed them and God said unto them be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth Tell me what do you think when you read these Familiar words from the book first book of Genesis I think of the King's treasurer the man the maker of coins who engraves the King's image on metal and stamps out hundreds of coins Each coin is alike each image exact The Lord also stamps out the King's image for each man and woman is in the likeness of the Lord yet Behold each man and woman is different and unique this is the glory of man his His greatness his divinity I read from the eighth Psalm When I consider thy heavens the work of thy fingers the moon and the stars Which thou hast ordained what is man that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that thou visitest him For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels and has crowned him with glory and honor Thou made his tim to have dominion over the works of thy hands thou has put all things under his feet All sheep and oxen yea and the beasts of the field The foul of the air and the fish of the sea and whatsoever passes through the paths of the seas.

Oh Lord our Lord How excellent is thy name in all the earth? Yes Man is a little lower than the angels Immortal yet mortal And perhaps this is the divinity of man that he is mortal that he is born that he lives to know good and evil and That he dies It is irony Man is greater because One day he dies.

I read from the book of Ecclesiastes the third chapter beginning with the 18th verse I Said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men that God might manifest them and that they might see that they themselves are beasts For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts every one thing befalleth As the one dire so direth the other Yea, they have all one breath So that a man hath no preeminence above a beast for all his vanity These readings were from Genesis Psalms the book of Ecclesiastes You Our reading today is about the return of the ransom Therefore prophesy and say unto them thus saith the Lord God Behold all my people I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves and Bring you into the land of Israel What a remarkable book is the Bible Think of the terrible annihilation of the Jews in Europe mothers fathers and children slaughtered and only a remnant left I read the prediction of Jeremiah And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them And will bring them again to their foes and they shall be fruitful and increase And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them and they shall fear no more nor be dismayed Neither shall they be lacking set the Lord Behold the days come set the Lord that I will raise unto David a righteous branch and a king shall reign and prosper And shall execute judgment and justice in the earth In his days Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely During the worst days of the Hitler terror when the congregation of Israel had in fact become a congregation of the dead Developed men and women would not abandon hope because they remembered the pledge of the scriptures I will restore thy judges as at the first and thy counselors as at the beginning Afterward thou shalt be called the city of righteousness the faithful city Zion shall be redeemed with judgment and her converts with righteousness And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads They shall obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall flee away Even the songs of the redeemed are written down.

This is Psalm 126 When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion we were like them the dream Then was our mouth filled with laughter and our tongue with singing Then said they among the heathen the Lord had done great things for us whereof we are glad They that sow in tears shall reap in joy he that goeth forth and weepeth beareth precious seed Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing bringing his sheaves with him This reading has been from the book of Ezekiel, the book of Jeremiah and the Psalms The Book of Jeremiah This is the book, the Bible.

There's no other book like it Here in my hand the word of God Between these covers the wisdom, the knowledge, the truth, the poetry and the law of life I read the first words In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth And the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters and God said let there be light and there was light And God saw the light that it was good and God divided the light from the darkness And God called the light day and the darkness he called night And the evening and the morning were the first day And God made the beasts of the earth after his kind and cattle after their kind And everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind And God saw that it was good and God said let us make man in our image after our likeness After our likeness Before God created man he created beasts of the field and all creeping things And this is a lesson in humility For when man becomes arrogant even a grasshopper or a fly can say to man I came before thee in creation I read further This is from Deuteronomy And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness And he humbled thee and suffered thee to hunger and fed thee with manner which thou knewest not Neither did thy fathers know that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only But by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord The prophet Isaiah in languages is a shadowing of things to come cries out almost with exultation The prophet Isaiah in languages is a shadowing of things to come cries out almost with exultation O every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters and he that hath no money come ye buy and eat Ye come buy wine and milk without money and without price Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? Incline your ear and come unto me here and your soul shall live These readings have been from the books of Jeremiah, Genesis, Deuteronomy, and Isaiah

Identifier
F.2008-04-0022
Date Of Production
1951
Abstract
Three brief episodes of a syndicated television show where actor Raymond Massey reads and discusses excerpts from the Bible. Shot live in one take with a 3 camera setup, Massey reads at a desk in a private study. In the first episode Massey discusses the divine origins of humanity. In the second episode he connects the Holocaust to the travails of the Jews in the Bible. In the third episode he discusses the origins of “man” and humility before creation.
Log
00:01 Opening titles over CU of hand opening Bible, MS of Massey reading from Bible in chair, ZOOM IN to Massey reading from Exodus, CU Massey reading from Psalm 8, alternate between 1 CU and 2 MS, Massey stands up and sits on desk and reads from Ecclesiastes, end credits, out 03:33.
Countdown
03:42 opening titles over CU of hand opening Bible, MS Massey sitting in chair reading from Ezekiel, alternates between 1 CU and 2 MS, reads from Jeremiah, Psalm 126, end credits, out 07:10.
Countdown
07:20 opening titles over CU of hand opening Bible, MS Massey sitting on desk reading from Bible, reads the first words of the Book, alternates between CU and 2 MS, reads from Deutoronomy, 09:45 at CU sound becomes noisy, Massey sits down in chair reads from Isaiah, end credits, out 10:44.
Run Time
0:10:50
Format
16mm
Extent
390 feet
Color
B&W
Sound
Optical
Reel/Tape Number
1/1
Has Been Digitized?
Yes
Language Of Materials
English
Element
Print
Genre
Educational
Religious
Form
Television series
Subject
Christianity
Religions
Holocaust
Related Collections
SERIES I: Films & Audio Materials

Related Places
North America ➜ United States

Distributor
Imperial World Films

Main Credits
Davis, Sylvia (is producer)
Davis, Russell (is director)

Additional Credits
Wishengrad, Morton (is writer)
Haug, Art (is cinematographer)
Pingitore, Carl (is editor)
De Rosher, Geze (is editor)

Participants And Performers
Massey, Raymond (is actor)

 
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