The Passion

[Guest Peter]

As Easter approaches I wonder who saw The Passion Of Christ and what did you think, was it anti-semetic, or was it an honest attempt at the portrayal of Christs suffering

[Guest Guest 1]

I did see it and found it very moving. My heart broke as Mary watched her son. No, it was not anti-semetic. It did show the hierarchy of the temple who feared Jesus and were concerned about losing their power as being favorable to his crucifixion. What else is new. Hierarchy will ruin things every time. Anti-semetic, no, that is how the bible reads. It also shows Simon who was a jew come to the aid of Jesus.

[pube]

i thought the movie was pretty well done. it just dragged on far too much.. sure, it was incredibly accurate and on-point with the actual events, but i prefer a movie to have character development and a well constructed story.

yes, i know it's only based on the last, what, 12 hours of Jesus' life? regardless, as a movie, it's not something i'd watch more than once.

[Senshi]

I as well saw the movie. It was really well done, in regards to the subject. I enjoyed the music of the movie as well. While at some points it did seem kind of long, there were parts which I wish they would expand on. Itis defenitely a movie worth seeing at least once. I agree with Pube that you might not want to see it twice.

[HeyDuke.net]

2 hour beating

[Guest Another opinion]

The bible is a translation of a translation of an oral story-telling tradition predating (nearly) universal literacy. The bible is full of contradictions. The gospels contradict each other. It's based on history, but not history. The early Christians misremembered the story of the crucifiction in order to tailor their message to their Roman audience after rejection by the native Jewish population.

Gibson's depiction of the story is prejudicial and cast in a limited timeframe-it's out of context. The casting is prejudicial, the Jews look hideous, Christ is not of their ethnicity and yes, some 'facts' are wrong.

*Jesus' cross is manufactured in the Temple. This unbiblical and a-historical scene is analogous to asserting that the ovens of Auschwitz were constructed in the Vatican itself under the watchful eyes of Pius XII.

* The Roman governor Pilate--who, like all Roman governors of Judea, had the authority to appoint Jewish high priests--is intimidated and manipulated by a luxuriously garbed priest Caiaphas. Analogy: Those poor Nazi occupiers of mid-20th century Rome could not resist Vatican pressure to rid the city of Jews.

The problem with lumping all first-century Jewish leaders together is in Linda Chavez's August 6th CNSNews.com commentary. She said, among other things, that "Christ's death on the cross may have been ordered by Pontius Pilate at the urging of the Pharisee Caiaphas--following the judgment of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish religious court that judged Jesus guilty of blasphemy..." Any "New Testament 101" student knows that Caiaphas was not a Pharisee; he was, rather, part of the priestly aristocracy in league with Rome. That the Pharisees are the group who give rise to Rabbinic Judaism and ultimately the Judaism of today only makes her mistake worse. As for Pilate, he could not possibly have cared less about blasphemy: he executes Jesus as a political threat, the presumed "King of the Jews" as the inscription on the cross reads.

* Pontius Pilate was a brutal dictator - a butcher responsible for thousands of crucifictions, several each day for years, under scrutiny and censure by his Roman higher ups.

* Jews repeatedly and spontaneously torture Jesus, whereas the Romans need Satan's prompting. This is tantamount to saying that "the Jews" in Dachau tortured fellow Jews just because they felt like it, whereas the Nazis needed supernatural incitement.

I could go on, but you get the point. Question your questions, not the answers. In the past, these passion plays have incited bloody violence against Jews. Unfortunately, the Vatican has not seized the opportunity to comment. Hopefully, the movie can open a dialogue about the common shared relationship between Christians and Jews, not the differences and false beliefs.

[Guest Guest 1]

It's about power and who controls it and it always will be. Who has the money, who controls the media and on and on. I saw the movie and left with no negative opinion against jews. History has taught us that all races have been subjected to horrors. Blacks were maltreated, England methodically starved thousands of Irish people, yet England is our biggest ally. All have had crosses to bear. No pun intended. The analogy between the crucifixion and the holacaust is, in my opinion, inappropriate.