Why Does Closing Your Eyes Keep You From Being Killed by the Ark of the Covenant?

The crucial scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark is the scene in which Belloq performs an ancient Hebrew ritual to open the Ark destroying himself and the Nazis in the process. However, Indiana Jones and Marion are spared because they close their eyes. I question this scene because there is no Jewish location or ritual for opening the Ark of the Covenant, and nothing in the Bible says that closing your eyes will protect you from the “wrath of God”. We can assume that there is some Hebrew ritual for opening the Ark that we don’t know about. However, the main problem with this scene is that Indiana Jones and Marin survive the “wrath of God” simply by closing there eyes. Even though there is no reference to closing your eyes to protect yourself from the power of the Ark, there is a similar instance in the Bible in Genesis In the account of Sodom and Gomorrah. The information that allows the audience to accept the scene in which Jones and Marion are spared from God’s wrath by closing there eyes is through a similar instance in the Bible In the Bible God is planning to smite the evil cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. However, Abraham’s nephew Lot and his wife and children are told they will be spared if they leave and do not look back. However, as they are leaving, Lot’s wife turns to look back at the evil cities and is turned to a pillar of salt. Lot and his children are spared from God’s wrath because they did not look back.
It is because of this information that the audience is able to accept for the time being that closing your eyes (not looking) would spare Indiana Jones and Marion. The similarities between the instance in the Bible and the scene in the movie allow us to accept there logic of closing their eyes. Through this the audience can accept and enjoy the movie