Arnold Friberg’s first assignment on the film The Ten Commandments was creating the art for the Egyptian and Hebrew clothing for the principle male stars. Friberg’s artistic designs played a crucial role in the telling of the story.

For example, in the scene of Pharaoh’s court in which rods are turned into serpents, Friberg wanted to set Moses apart from the Egyptians, who traditionally wore light-colored clothing. The artist decided to have a strongly contrasting robe for Moses to wear during his return from exile in Midian to seek the freedom of his people from bondage. The greatest contrast seemed to be a robe of red design, to which Friberg added black and white stripes that would be women into the fabric.

The entire robe was created, using Friberg’s costume painting as model, from goat’s hair, the cloth woven on looms identical in design to those used in ancient times. Although the artist did not realize it at the time, by almost miraculous coincidence the colors he used were the exact colors of the tribe of Levi, the tribe of Moses’ parents, according to the Bible. Thus, an added dimension of authenticity was present, and the garment from then on was called “the great Levite robe.”