Patterns of Evidence:The Moses Controversy Blu-ray (Director's Choice Edition)4-10-19

[HDTV1080P]

Patterns of Evidence: The Moses Controversy

(Brief user review for the Director’s Choice Edition)

Patterns of Evidence The Moses Controversy on Blu-ray is a sequel to Patterns of Evidence: Exodus on Blu-ray. Patterns of Evidence: The Moses Controversy is based on historical and scientific facts in regards to the archeological evidence. This was another interesting Blu-ray from Thinking Man Films (Timothy P. Mahoney is an Investigative Filmmaker that grew up in an Assembly of God church and was raised by conservative Christian parents). The Torah is the first 5 books of the Jewish Bible and also the first 5 books of the Christian Old Testament. For thousands of years religious scholars and historians have believed that the author of the Torah was Moses (most held to the belief that Moses was a prophet inspired by God). However, in the 21st Century many mainstream scholars have come up with a theory that Moses was not the author of the Torah and these so called scholars even believe that Moses was not capable of writing in Hebrew language since they do not believe it was invented yet as a written language. However, all original copies of the Torah going all the way back to the dead sea scrolls was written in Hebrew with the author being Moses. The Torah is the foundation of one’s faith in God and there is a movement in modern times to try and destroy that foundation. According to the New Testament record Jesus quoted from the Torah and believed in the teachings of Moses. If the foundation of Genesis and the Torah is destroyed by incorrect reinterpretation of history then the teachings of Jesus Christ would also be destroyed. Timothy P. Mahoney as an Investigative Filmmaker and his goal is to search for historical truth when it comes to issues of faith.



According to both the Torah and Christian Bible, Moses was inspired by Yahweh and wrote the first 5 Holy books in the Torah and Christian Bible. Moses was a holy prophet of God according to the 3 Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The first book of the Torah is the historical Genesis account. It is believed that the book of Genesis information was supernaturally given to Moses by God and/or passed on by oral records. The first human language was a form of Hebrew spoken by Adam and Eve and their children. Before writing existed, human beings used an early form of Hebrew language and with oral tradition Adam and Eve’s life experiences with Yahweh would have been passed on to future generations, until one day Moses wrote the first 5 books of the Old Testament including the Genesis record. This documentary has some historical evidence to back up the following theory: The second most powerful man in Egypt known as Joseph, who is mentioned in the book of Genesis might have been the person that created the first written alphabet. It is believed that Joseph or another Israelite created the first written language using an alphabet that is the earliest form of Hebrew (Some believe the first alphabet might have been created by God by supernatural means so the world could read his written word one day. For nearly 4,000 years this simple alphabet technology is still being used by the human race and has not been replaced). Then Moses a very well-educated man inspired by Yahweh used the Hebrew language to write the first 5 books of the Old Testament.


The historical archeological evidence is pointing to events surrounding Moses happening during Egypt’s Middle kingdom timeline instead of the New Kingdom time period (For more details about the historical evidence for this concept see the first video in the series called Patterns of Evidence: Exodus on Blu-ray).



Patterns of Evidence: The Moses Controversy shows evidence that before there was the Old Hebrew and Modern Hebrew language there existed what the documentary has labeled Hebrew 1.0, Hebrew 2.0, and Old Hebrew being called Hebrew 3.0. Therefore, there is strong evidence that the first written language using an alphabet was an earlier version of the Hebrew language. The modern English language has changed a lot over the last 1,570 years in both its written and oral form. Something similar happen to the first written language known as Hebrew with improvements made over generations. Quote “Moses was the first wise man, and the first that imparted grammar to the Jews, the Phoenicians received it from the Jews, and the Greeks from the Phoenicians. (Eupolemus 150 BC)”. The script called Proto-sinaitic is really Hebrew 1.0 according to the evidence shown in the documentary.



Therefore, according to the historical record, the Hebrew language spoken by Adam and Eve was the first oral language. In later generations the first written language was most likely created around the time of Joseph who is mentioned about in the book of Genesis. There is a lot of evidence that Moses wrote the Torah using both oral records and divine revelation from God. Quote from the documentary “Traditionally, the understanding of who we are, where we came from, and what makes right and wrong came from the writings of the Bible.”



Patterns of Evidence: The Moses Controversy is recommended for both people into Judaism and the Christian religion. A lot of interesting historical information is covered in this documentary.

Video quality

This documentary did not receive the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray format treatment and instead was released on the standard 1080P Blu-ray format. Patterns of Evidence: The Moses Controversy uses a total of 23.1GB out of 25GB on the single layer Blu-ray disc. The main program (part 1 and part 2) uses the MPEG-2 codec with an average bit rate for many scenes being around 18Mbps. For a 2019 Blu-ray release it is almost unheard of to use the MPEG-2 codec for the main program. The last Blu-ray title released from Thinking Man Films used the better quality VC-1 codec. In the future standard Blu-ray releases from Thinking Man Films should use the better quality MPEG-4/AVC or VC-1 codec instead of the legacy MPEG-2 codec. However the lower bit rate 1080P MPEG-2 codec for this Blu-ray release still looks better then ones average 1080i cable tv or satellite tv channel. Color quality and resolution were fairly good for a single layer Blu-ray disc under the MPEG-2 codec. I preferred the look of the prior higher bit rate dual layer VC-1 29Mbps Blu-ray release in the series. This documentary is also encoded with English and Spanish subtitles.

Audio quality

What is disappointing is that this Blu-ray disc uses a lossy English 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtrack at 448kbps. This Blu-ray documentary from Thinking Man Films should have used a lossless soundtrack instead. A 5.1 PCM, 5.1 DTS-HD Master audio, or a 5.1 Dolby TrueHD soundtrack would be bit for bit exactly the same as the PCM studio master. Hopefully future Blu-ray titles releases from Thinking Man Films might port over the studio master soundtrack. If a dual layer Blu-ray disc would have been used instead of a single layer Blu-ray disc, then there would have been plenty of space to use PCM or lossless audio. This is a 2019 release where lossy audio soundtracks are very rare. Hopefully future titles from Thinking Man Films will receive the PCM or lossless audio treatment.



The English 5.1 Dolby Digital lossy soundtrack mix sounded ok. The dialogue was easy to understand when coming out of the center speaker. The left and right front speakers and surround speakers sounded ok. Once and awhile the surround sound mix activated the subwoofer for certain scenes in this documentary.

Bonus features

The main title menu is MPEG-2 1080P with 5.1 Dolby Digital at 448kbps. The setup menu, chapter menu, and extras menu is MPEG-4/AVC 1080i with 5.1 Dolby Digital at 448kbps. Fathom Panel Discussion lasts 18 minutes and 10 seconds (5.1 DOLBY DIGITAL 448KBPS, MPEG-2, 1080i). A Day In the Life of Filming lasts 3 minutes and 42 seconds (2.0 Dolby Digital 192kbps, MPEG-2, 1080P). The Moses Controversy lasts 2 minutes and 9 seconds (5.1 Dolby Digital 448kbps, MPEG-2, 1080P). What People Are Saying lasts 1 minute and 28 seconds (5.1 Dolby Digital 448kbps, MPEG-2, 1080P). The Exodus lasts 2 minutes and 23 seconds (2.0 Dolby Digital 192kbps, MPEG-2, 1080i). Young Explorers lasts 1 minute and 33 seconds (2.0 Dolby Digital 192kbps, MPEG-2, 1080P). About the Cast Video lasts 4 minutes and 47 seconds (5.1 Dolby Digital 448kbps, MPEG-2, 1080P). Resources contains 5 still slides (MPEG-2, 1080i). Endorsements contains 3 still slides (MPEG-2, 1080i).

Conclusion

Patterns of Evidence The Moses Controversy on Blu-ray contains evidence that the Torah (Old Testament) record is 100% historically accurate. This documentary was very interesting in regards to all the facts and theories when it comes to the Hebrew language. Moses inspired by God wrote the Torah in Hebrew, and this documentary shows the historical evidence to support this popular belief held by many for thousands of years. The 1080P MPEG-2 video quality at a low bit rate was around average (MPEG-4/AVC or VC-1 would have looked better). It was disappointing that this Blu-ray title uses a lossy 5.1 surround sound mix instead of a lossless soundtrack. On the positive side the 5.1 lossy surround sound mix sounded good at times. This Blu-ray disc is strongly recommended for people of faith who want to know more about Moses, the Torah, and the Hebrew language.