Editing Raiders of the Lost Ark (section)

===Rejection of Nazism===
[[File:Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-P049500, Berlin, Aufmarsch der SA in Spandau.jpg|thumb|alt=A photograph of Nazi paramilitary troops marching in Spandau, Germany|Nazi paramilitary troops marching in 1932 [[Spandau]], Germany. ''Raiders'' can be seen as a form of revenge for the Jewish people, showing the rejection of the Nazis by God.]]

''Raiders'' can be interpreted as a Jewish fantasy about punishing the Nazis for [[the Holocaust]].<ref name="ebertGreatest"/> Spielberg is Jewish, and the Ark is a Jewish artifact described as holding the [[Ten Commandments]] passed down to the Jewish people by God.<ref name="ebertGreatest"/><ref name="Cinephilia"/> In biblical descriptions, the Ark is a gold-plated wooden box that must be carried with poles because it is too holy to be touched.<ref name="EmpireMacGuffins"/> Although the Nazi regime persecuted the Jewish people, in the film, they needed to use a Jewish artifact to subjugate the world; however, the artifact was too pure and holy for them to touch and actively rejected them by destroying their symbol emblazoned on the Ark's transportation crate while leaving the crate itself unharmed. Eventually, it also destroys the Nazi forces that open it.<ref name="ebertGreatest"/><ref name="Cinephilia"/> The Nazis are stopped by the literal intervention of Godly power that leaves the perceived protagonists unharmed.<ref name="AVClub1981"/>

In another scene, Jones falls underneath a moving truck when its hood-ornament, a Mercedes logo, snaps, mocking Mercedes' involvement in aiding the Nazis.<ref name="ebertGreatest"/><ref name="Mercedes"/> Elizabeth Hirschman identified elements of the [[metaphysics|metaphysical]], believing the standard heroic quest was offset by the religious importance of the Ark, an item of [[Judeo-Christian]] belief. The image of God is one that is inherently on the side of the good, and the destruction of the Nazi villains draws parallels to [[Yahweh]] visiting [[Plagues of Egypt|plagues on Egypt]] for enslaving the [[Israelites]].{{sfn|Hirschman|2001}}