George Lucas has absolutely nothing to do with the Bible beyond the fact that it was one of many inspirations for his most noted series of films and arguably the most popular film franchise of all time, the Star Wars Saga. In all honesty, can you think of someone who hasn't heard of Star Wars? But back to my point, I watch the Star Wars movies all the time and try not to question "where did Lucas borrow that from?" because it ruins the movie experience. However, while I am just thinking about the movies, (and the Bible in general since this class began), I think I finally made some connections.
As I said in my earlier post about pop culture drawing on the Bible, Anakin Skywalker is born to a virgin mother. Okay... and? Well, isn't that the start of the New Testament? Then I began thinking of the original trilogy (which stars Harrison Ford and Mark Hammil) and I made a comparison: The original trilogy (from the seventies and eighties) is to the Old Testament as the new trilogy (the films released since 1999) is to the New Testament. No, its not just "New" and "Old," I think the movies parallel the Testaments in certain themes of similarities.
For example, in the Old Testament God visits Adam and Eve when he wants to, has a chat with Abraham, commands Noah, and speaks with Moses (even lets Moses see his backside). God has debates and discussions with people (even Job to some extent) while in the New Testament, I do not think that God directly interacts with anyone. So here comes the comparison, when old Ben Kenobi dies in the first Star Wars film, he directs Luke Skywalker throughout the remainder of the story on his quest to defeat the Galactic Empire. Luke's connection to the force allows him to directly interact with Obi-Wan. In contrast, no one in the new trilogy ever speaks to a "higher being." (Except possibly Yoda, who claims that Qui-Gon can communicate from beyond the grave at the end of the last film, but we do not see this, Yoda only tells us) Much like the New Testament, there is plenty of faith in "the force" but no communication with it.
Then there's the killings. In the original trilogy, the forces of good obliterate not one but two Death Stars. Each the size of a small moon and home to millions of Imperials (the bad guys). Sure they are not as wholesome as you, but do you have to kill them? It looks very similar to the flood and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah where God, the force of good, destroys everyone even the innocent few to destroy the majority of them that are wicked. Much like Satan then (who I believe is responsible for ten deaths in total of the Bible), Darth Vader kills far less people than Luke Skywalker and the Rebels. (Okay, we all know that Princess Leia's home planet of Alderaan is obliterated by the first Death Star, but that was Grand Moff Tarkin, not Darth Vader, he only made Leia watch it happen.) Vader kills the guy on Leia's ship at the start of the movie, then Obi-Wan, and Biggs later, maybe another pilot or two. But that puts his total somewhere between 3 and 5 for the entire first movie. Then he chokes the guy in The Empire Strikes Back but not a lot of bloodshed after that (correct me if I'm wrong) and he kills the Emperor in Return of the Jedi. His complete body count in the original trilogy has to be less than ten! So Luke kills millions the first time around, Wedge and Lando do it the second time and Darth Vader manages only a small handful of murders. (This confuses me both in Star Wars and The Old Testament.) I guess in the new trilogy, you can argue that the "good guys" go off killing the "bad guys" because they are separatists much like in the New Testament when the Christians label the Jews as the enemy for no other reason than they are different.
Finally, does the Battle of the Heroes on Mustafar seem apocalyptic to anyone else? We have the ultimate good (Obi-Wan Kenobi) battling to vanquish the ultimate evil (Darth Vader) with rivers of lava and fire pouring down from a blackened sky. I hadn't thought of it before, but that sounds a little like the end of the world.
I would also like to point out that the phrase "In my beginning is my end, and my end is my beginning" is referring directly to Star Wars, even if it was written decades before the first films release. I say this because Lucas released the very first film as Episode 4, did 5 and 6, then made 1, 2, and 3 so that the beginning is the end and the end is the beginning.
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