Maurice and the Pharaoh

In 1935, I was 15, a student in a Christian College. At that time a very important discovery of human paintings in caverns in southern Spain was publicized by archeologist Father Peyrony. Peyrony argued that ‘very likelythose paintings date back to about 15,000 years‘.  In my book of religious teachings, it stated that the first appearance of man on earth dates back to about 40 centuries BC.

I got back to my teacher with a question: ‘Which date is credible?’ The Father teacher responded emphatically: ‘Please, do not confuse two things; you have Science on one hand, and Religion on the other… if conflict arises, it is Religion that tells the truth’. I retorted: ‘But Father that is impossible! The new discovery seems to be a well established fact; the first appearance of man on earth cannot be traced to what it says in the Bible! It is impossible!’
……………………………………………………………………………………………….

We were educated Religion tells us something while Science proves otherwise.
I said to myself, something is missing here!’

Maurice Bucaille quoted from an informal speech to a group of US medical doctors and scientists in Chicago (1987)

Since that early encounter in his green years until the day he died in 1998, Maurice Bucaille, the successful gastroenterologist  and the active member of Paris’ French Society of Egyptology, has paid a great deal  of his life to scrutinize the potential harmony (or disharmony) of the seemingly two adversaries; Religion and Science. Bucaille had focused his search and field study on medical, empirical and historical sciences in relation to the three major monotheistic religions of today; Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

The scientist’s endeavour had immediately trumpeted an open call for controversy. Not only his approach to the purpose that was not always agreeable, but also the outcome of his studies in certain scientific disciplines. Those were certainly agitating in the Catholic circles and, for sure, hostile in the evolutionists’ playgrounds. The controversy that first flared in mainstream press dubbing his work as just ‘Bucailleism’, eventually developed into heated debates and rebuttals  into all media; in lecture rooms and live and on radio and television channels.  And of course it is still astir in the cyberspace.

In spite, and probably as a result, of all of this, the stream that Bucaille had enriched over the last three decades is gaining momentum, strength and presence in many regions  across the globe leaving an indelible mark on the study of Science and Religion.

Maurice and the Pharaoh is a visual endeavour to scrutinize Bucaille’s legacy. A good deal of the documentary aspires to touch upon one of those rare moments when the three major religions come to terms to assist Bucaille, and his Egyptian-Franco team, in combining scientific stamina with laboratory work to finally propose what came to be a definitive answer to a 3000 year old question;

In summer of 1976 Bucaille’s book ‘The Bible, the Qur’an and Science’ was first published. With the cream of his scientific studies in various disciplines in relation to religion at hand, the book had immediately enjoyed the ‘phenomenon’ status. To date it appeared in 27 editions in 12 languages, received the Golden Book Award in 1986 and France’s Best Seller Book Award in 1998, and scored a world sale estimated at 15 million copies.

The book argued an answer to the very old question!

So when the Pharaoh Ramses II arrived at Le Bourget Airport on September 26th, 1976, where he was received with full military honors, the famed monarch was thought for long to be Moses’ Pharaoh.

From the airport, the mummy had been transferred to the Museum of Anthropology for "hospitalization" and examination. On June 29, 1977, Paris Match reported that the truck containing the packing case and its occupant was ordered to pass by one of his two Luxor obelisks at the Place de la Concorde "so that the ancient monarch's soul could contemplate his glory inscribed on the stone in dithyrambic terms."

For Bucaille that was a crowning moment. A yield of two grueling years, aided by presidents Sadat and D’Estaing, to launch ‘Operation Ramses’ has finally materialized.

The outcome of Bucaille’s team work on the Egyptian mummies was made public in lectures at the Egyptian Antiquities Department at the Louvre, the Museum of Human Paleontology and at the French Academy of Medicine.  In appreciation of his scientific findings the Academie Francaise had awarded Bucaille’s book ‘Mummies of the Pharaohs; Modern Medical Investigations’ its 1988 History Prize. The Academie Nationale de Medicine had held Bucaille ‘in high esteem for the bulk of his scientific contributions’ in 1991. Bucaille’s final scientific contribution was published in his book; ‘Moses and Pharaoh: Hebrews in Egypt’ in 1995.

It seemed that a scientific answer to the ancient question has finally come into existence.
Who then was Moses’ Pharaoh?

This documentary suggests an objective view of Bucaille’s career. It took 15 months of work digging for persons who knew the late Doctor and a production process that covered locations in Egypt, France, Kuwait, US and Tunisia.