The film’s protagonist, Charlton Heston, while himself not Jewish, had previously starred as Moses in The Ten Commandments (1956) took the title role in Ben-Hur (1959). They combine the Old Testament with the American Declaration of Independence. Their religious laws, which are set out in the Sacred Scrolls, are the state laws. The apes revere “the Lawgiver.” The Lawgiver holds the position of a prophet in a similar fashion to Moses. The apes believe in God, and that His prophet the Lawgiver set out the faith and wrote the Sacred Scrolls.
The Orangutans’ garments bear more than a passing resemblance to the breastplates and robes worn by the High Priests in the Temple. The ape society is a theocracy, run by a priest-like caste of Orangutans. Serling envisioned a society of the future in which elements of Judaism were clearly aped. If you’re looking, the influences of Serling’s background and ethnicity on Planet of the Apes are obvious.
