I wish I’d had the presence of mind to bring a notebook with me to “Sherlock Holmes.” I should know better — that the Bible shows up everywhere. This movie was no exception. A fun flick — a little cerebral, lots of action, and a sobering reminder that what may seem to be convincing magic is sophisticated manipulation of the physical world. (And its seductive agent may be a malicious liar.) The movie has several biblical references that I just can’t remember in detail. In addition to the evil Blackwood’s overt associations with Jesus (busting out of his tomb after 3 days, eucharist-like ritual, and address as “Lord”), was it Revelation 1:18 that Blackwood cites? (And does the movie make the common mistake of identifying the book as “Revelations,” with an “s” on the end?) Also, I remember being startled to see several Hebrew Bible/Old Testament references in the iconography of Blackwood’s estate. For example, was it an altar or a kind of throne-like structure that was flanked by golden winged creatures (like descriptions of the biblical ark of the covenant… which serves in the temple as a kind of divine ottoman)? And what’s with the Hebrew shin, lamed, mem, vav, tav writing underneath some structure (again, was it a different scene with Blackwood on a throne)? In the Hebrew Bible that word appears as such as a proper name. It also appears as a word modifying “stones” in a couple of references to building an altar of “unhewn” stones (so translated because the word is based on the root shin, lamed, mem which can mean “whole”; that’s where the word shalom “peace” comes from, too). I still don’t quite “get” why it would be in that scene, though, unless it’s meant to mark an altar where a sacrifice would be perfomed (as in Deut 27:6 and Josh 8:31). Whatever the case, does this association of Hebrew with the occult have anti-Semitic implications? While I don’t think that that the movie is anti-Jewish (after all, the guy manipulating these symbols and appealing to New Testament texts is obviously mis-directed… to say the least), such associations can be problematic, given the long Christian suspicion of Jewish rituals and traditions. Overall, the movie was good, entertaining fun and gives astute viewers some intriguing things to think about.
