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Hollywood (and all the other movie/TV producers) has a split personality when it comes to putting Bible stories onscreen. Either it’s all wild Technicolor glory or it’s drab boring nubby linen. Further, the “bad guys” are the ones dressed in fabulous color, while the “good guys” are wearing dull stuff. I could go off on the philosophical reasons behind this, but I’d rather just poke fun at it because this is Snark Week, not Deep Thoughts Week.
And before anyone gets their puritanical panties in a bunch, while I’m a 1000% atheist, I’ve spent a lot of time in Southern Baptist church services, and I nearly added a college minor in world religions to my studies. I’ve read several editions of the Bible, not to mention spiritual texts of various cultures. Plus, because my favorite historical period is the 16th century, I’ve researched a fair bit of the background of the Protestant reformation since that had a massive influence on that period. I find the topic of religion fascinating in an anthropological way, probably because I don’t believe in any of it.
Since I dig research, let’s look at what people should be wearing in these Biblical epic frock flicks. Pinning down the specific date for any of the stories is impossible because they’re fiction (yeah, I said it), but the western European calendar is based on the concept of the birth of Christ, so let’s just say that Old Testament stories would be set before that (Before the Common Era, B.C.E.) and New Testament stories are set after (formerly called “A.D.” but Common Era, C.E. is more broadly useful, and that’s, y’know, what we’re in now!).
There’s this myth that ancient Greek and Roman garments were all white, due to the surviving marble statuary having lost any paint that may have been originally applied. But other artwork, especially frescoes, show lots of colorful clothing. While these images are mostly from Pompeii, they’re evidence of the variety of colors worn around the turn of the first millennium.





Lovely! And no indication that these are only villains wearing colorful clothes, just various folks, going about their own business.
Now some of the old-school flicks get it and give equal technicolor to everyone. The Ten Commandments (1956) shows the Egyptians as shinier, ‘natch, but the Jews aren’t stuck in 100% drab either. But then, that’s what happens when director Cecil B. DeMille is running the show and puts a whole team of Edith Head, Dorothy Jeakins, Ralph Jester, John Jensen, and Arnold Friberg on costume design.

OK, I’m not saying these are historically accurate as costumes, but at least they’re not drab and dull, which would be inaccurate!

While the high-ranking Egyptian characters get all the glam, Moses and his tribes get plenty of color — as they would!

The hair is all over the place, but the costumes do remind me of those period frescoes.

Let my people have colorful garments!

Alas, more recent tellings of the story just can’t measure up.

Wandering in the desert doesn’t mean you have to blend in with the desert.

If it’s not Egyptians wearing bright colors and gold lamé, it’s slutty women in Bible stories. Salome and her dance that gets John the Baptist killed featured all the flash with Rita Hayworth:

Pink and pearls could be period, though not in these styles…

Sexy belly-dancer in gold bling!

In the Biblical story taken from the Book of Judges, noted strongman Samson is in love with Delilah, who sneakily cuts off his hair to eliminate his strength. So the temptress (as portrayed by Hedy Lamarr) is dressed in some wild costumes, especially when Cecil B. DeMille is on it. The team of Edith Head, Dorothy Jeakins, Elois W. Jenssen, Gile Steele, and Gwen Wakeling do the costumes here.

Legs for days! Were there peacocks in ancient Gaza? Discuss.

Orange sparkle and lamé!

Likewise but with apparently lower budget, the bad girl still gets some of the few colorful costumes in a later version of the story:

Versus the good guys:

While it’s not clear where the Queen of Sheba comes from, other than south of Jerusalem, she’s an easy character to exoticize and make vaguely Egyptian, like this (played by Gina Lollobrigida):

Gold, baby! With obligatory bullet bra!

But that’s it! Otherwise, the Bible on film is costumed in drab, dully, boring, mud-tinged colors, especially the more modern you get. Which is weird because back in, say, medieval Europe, when the church dominated all aspects of society, the religious art (which was also the main kind of art!) was filled with color!

Sure, Jesus is in white in that 1st century depiction, but he’s also got a sassy colored stole (same colors as the tunic of one guy pouring wine and another guy’s leggings!). Not just plain ol’ white like this:

Or ratty old off-white like that:

Adding a dark bathrobe doesn’t help for these versions.


OK, Max von Sydow serves a cliché crucifixion look, but the costume is still boring.

And that’s not the only possible styling — medieval through modern artists have shown Jesus wearing red, brown, or pale robes during his final hours. The Bible mentions scarlet or purple robes as a ‘royal’ color to go with the crown of thorns that Roman soldiers make Jesus wear as “King of the Jews.” So flicks could jazz this up a bit.

Even a supposedly controversial version of the same old story does the same old costumes…


Jesus and Pilate could be dressed alike, sure, but that could also mean rich colors — like Jesus in a red tunic with blue stole, and Pilate in a blue tunic with a red cape.

This is us, looking on at more muddy brown:

At least one point back in time, there was excessive kohl to liven things up.

Maybe the flood washed that all away?


Because not even a king gets good clothes, just a weak-ass attempt at a crown:

Judging you:

Sad-looking families!


Hey, don’t the whores usually get fancy clothes? Not fair.

It’s all so much sad trombone it doesn’t make me want to watch any of this Biblical shit! Now you see why we skip over the vast majority of these movies.
Do you prefer colorful Bible stories onscreen too?
I guess The Chosen doesn’t completely suck by comparison? I may have caught a couple episodes at a church dinner.
The reviewer who reviewed the costumes in Bernadette Banner’s costume review in 2023 was unimpressed and she didn’t even mention the pink tie-dye looking headwrap worn by Jesus’ mother.
What bothers me personally is Mary Magdalene’s loose hair hanging down all the time. (NO HAIRPINS!) She has a veil but it’s pretty much an afterthought, which is a massive no no for a Jewish woman at the time.
One Night with the King – an adaptation of Esther- has plenty of color, especially in the court scenes, though I don’t know how accurate the costumes are.
One Night with the King – an adaptation of Esther- has plenty of color, especially in the royal palace scenes. Though I don’t know how accurate the costumes are.
I haven’t seen it but I keep getting clips of a new TV show The Promised Land on my social media. It tells the story of Moses but as a comedic mockumentary. Still quite a bit of nubbly linen but at least they have interesting colours of nubbly linen and the female characters seem to at least get some jewelry.
WHERE IS “THE LIFE OF BRIAN”?! (And what is your actual opinion of LoB’s costuming?) But I must admit that Gina Lollobrigida’s gold lame is beyond fabulous.
WE ARE HUGE LIFE OF BRIAN FANS. We quote it extensively to each other around HQ! But the costumes are pretty generic, lol!
Re peacocks in ancient Gaza: the peacock is native to India but was introduced into Greece via Persia in the 5th century BC, and made its way into Egyptian art and mythology, presumably around the same time. It’s anybody’s guess when the Samson story originated, but AFAIK the Book of Judges is currently thought to have been written around the 7th-6th century BCE. So probably a bit early for peacocks in Gaza, but not outrageously so.
https://persianthings.wordpress.com/2013/07/27/peacock/
The era when BCE met AD absolutely had colourful fabrics! As well as Pompei murals there are murals & mosaics in other parts of the Roman world showing how people dressed. As with most eras of history, it’s not colour but wearing white that showed your privilege!
I thought Journey to Bethlehem was pretty colorful and cute.
But yeah, nothing beats The Ten Commandments and its full use of Technicolor!
The Ten Commandments is my jam! I wanted to be Anne Baxter when I grew up. :)
I just get cranky when the only people in Biblical times who have invented hemming technology are the Romans. Let’s have cloth the texture of potato sacking, and let the edges ravel free! Who cares, fabric isn’t expensive or anything wheeeeeee!
Well how on Earth are we to tell the Godly are Godly if they don’t look elaborately indifferent to the finer things in life?
I’d take issue with The Bible being branded ‘fiction’ – if nothing else this is an over-simplification of that remarkable smorgasbord of sermon, propaganda, prophecy, genealogy, ‘Just So’ stories, folk tales and folk history transmitted by the longest, most complicated and most ferociously-controversial games of Chinese Whispers in human history – but that would not be in the spirit of Snark Week (and I doubt it would be a fun discussion for either of us).
On a less cantankerous note, I’d like to point out that using frescoes from the ‘Riviera of Ancient Rome’ to draw conclusions about what the Children of Israel might have worn in the lifetime of Christ Jesus is risky, to apply that approach to a period of at least two thousand years before the birth of Christ is best regarded as tongue-in-cheek (Think of the former as equivalent to using an Italian tourist trap to get an idea of what the Orthodox Jews of Israel are wearing, only more so).
On a less serious note, it’s always amusing to see reminders of Old Hollywood’s tendency to treat the Old Testament as a golden excuse for some hot odalisque action AND a gun-show.
On a note of sheer pedantry, might I please ask if those images from THE NATIVITY STORY (2006) and JESUS OF NAZARETH (1977) are meant to depict the Man Jesus? (The former depicts Mr Oscar Isaac as Joseph, Christ’s adoptive/Earthly father and the latter depicts Mr Ian McShane as Judas Iscariot, if memory serves).
As a Roman official shouldn’t Pontius Pilate be wearing a toga? At least when he’s conducting official business, he might go around in a tunic off-duty.
In which case his clothes should be white, but also elaborately draped. (Medieval art tended to depict Biblical persons in contemporary or almost-contemporary costume, so it’s not a good guide for Pilate specifically.)
So for anyone who hasn’t read the story of Samson and Delilah, it’s important to point out that Samson is DUMB AS DIRT. As in, everyone keeps telling him, “man, Delilah is just out to get you killed,” and he keeps talking to her, telling her all his secrets. (Incidentally, the bit about the hair has to do with a consecrated vow. It’s not that his power is in his hair magically; it’s that he was breaking the terms of the vow left and right, and losing his strength when his hair was cut was a means of showing him how badly he screwed up.)
In regards to Jesus, one of the Gospel depictions of the Crucifixion has the Roman soldiers dressing him up in a fine, brightly colored robe while they’re mocking him. Statues showing him in a red robe over a white garment with the crown of thorns are directly referencing that moment. Yes, they took it away before marching him off to the cross, but that’s because why would you destroy a nice garment? They even took his tunic, which is specifically mentioned to be one unstitched piece (therefore extra labor and more valuable.)
I’d love to see more color in historical films. There’s so much information about dyes available at various periods, so all you have to do is look up the people who have already gathered it!
In all fairness Judge Samson seems to be perfectly aware that Delilah is after something (Note his repeatedly misleading her as to his ‘Nazorite kryptonite’, quite possibly as one of the earlier cases of ‘poisoning the well’ when it came to an enemy agent), but seems to have found it impossible to permanently dispense with her (Possibly because she kept feeding him painfully optimistic Philistines, possibly because he was dangerously fascinated by a lady with the sheer brass to keep coming back to every Sunday School teacher’s favourite Person of Mass Destruction, after failing to betray him).
…
Never mind Hedy Lamarr, they should have cast Marlene Dietrich!