1 Statistics compiled by http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=passionofthechrist.htm; accessed May 3, 2004. North American receipts as of May 2, 2004 are $367 million, and international receipts stand at $206 million.
2 Further information on recent exploration of the historical Jesus as well as a history of this investigation may be found in the Bibliography on p. 195. This is a categorized list of helpful material relevant to all the subjects under consideration in this book.
3 Mel Gibson, ‘Forward’, in Jim Bolton et al., eds., Ken Duncan, Philippe Antonello, photographers, The Passion: Photography from the Movie The Passion of the Christ (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 2004), p. v.
4 Diane Sawyer’s interview of Mel Gibson on ABC News ‘Prime Time’, February 16, 2004, available from http://abcnews.go.com/sections/Primetime/Entertainment/mel_gibson_passion_040216.html; accessed May 3, 2004.
5 David Neff and Jane Johnson Struck’s
interview of Mel Gibson for ChristianityToday.com, ‘Dude, That Was Graphic’,
posted February 23, 2004, available from http://www.christianitytoday.com/movies/interviews/melgibson.html;
accessed
May 3, 2004.
6 Steve Little’s interview of Ted Haggard for CBN.com, ‘The Passion of the Christ Is Historically Accurate, Not Anti-Semitic’, no date, available from http://www.cbn.com/CBNNews/CWN/080803tedhaggard.asp; accessed May 3, 2004.
7 This and many other supportive statements may be found at http://www.passion-movie.com/promote/comments.html; accessed May 3, 2004.
8 Available from http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/Movies/01/20/pope.gibson.reut; accessed May 3, 2004.
9 The Gospel of John (Philip Saville, 2003).
10 Gibson, ‘Forward’, p. v.
11 This work is published in several editions; e.g., Anne Catherine Emmerich, The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ (ed. by Klemens Maria Brentano; El Sobrante, CA: North Bay Books, 2003). References to The Dolorous Passion will use the abbreviation DP. The book is available for downloading from http://www.catholicplanet.com/ebooks/Dolorous-Passion.pdf, and available to read online at http://www.emmerich1.com/dolorous_passion_of_our_Lord_Jesus_Christ.htm; both accessed May 4, 2004.
12 Gibson, ‘Forward’, p. v.
1 Raymond Arroyo’s interview with Mel Gibson was on Roman Catholic Eternal Word Television’s ‘The World Over Live’, January 23, 2004.
2 John Dominic Crossan, ‘Anti-Semitism and the Gospel’, Theological Studies 26 (1965), pp. 189–214.
3 Crossan, ‘Anti-Semitism’, p. 204.
4 Arroyo, interview, January 23, 2004.
5 John Dominic Crossan, Who Killed Jesus? Exposing the Roots of Anti-Semitism in the Gospel Story of the Death of Jesus (New York: Harper SanFrancisco, 1995).
6 Josephus, Jewish War 2.1.3 (§10–13) = Jewish Antiquities 17.6.9 (§213–18). [Editor’s note: the use of = in these notes implies a similarity of references.]
7 Josephus, Jewish War 2.12.1 (§224–7) = Jewish Antiquities 20.5.3 (§106–12).
8 Philo, Embassy to Gaius, pp. 301–3.
9 Josephus, Jewish War 2.9.3–4 (§172–7) = Jewish Antiquities 18.3.1–2 (§55–62).
10 Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 18.4.1–3 (§85–95).
11 Anne Catherine Emmerich, The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ from the Meditations of Anne Catherine Emmerich (Rockford, IL: Tan Books, 1983). References to this work will use the abbreviation DP.
12 Peter J. Boyer, ‘The Jesus War: Mel Gibson’s Obsession’, The New Yorker (September 15, 2003); available from http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-chat/980753/posts; accessed May 17, 2004.
13 Arroyo, interview, January 23, 2004.
14 Diane Sawyer’s interview with Mel Gibson on ABC News ‘Prime Time’, February 16, 2004.
15 This document is available for download from http://www.usccb.org/seia/criteria.pdf.
16 James
O. Davis’ interview with Mel Gibson at the ‘Beyond All Limits 2 Pastors
Conference’, January 21, 2004.
17 Arroyo, interview, January 23, 2004.
18 Arroyo, interview, January 23, 2004.
19 E.g., Arroyo, interview, January 23, 2004.
20 The full text of this tract is available online at http://shop.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/atsdirect.storefront/EN/product/21402?AD=featured#etract; accessed May 17, 2004.
1 Bruce Chilton, ‘Mel Gibson’s Passion Play’, Bible and Interpretation, available from http://www.bibleinterp.com/articles/Chilton_Passion.htm; accessed May 3, 2004.
2 See Paula Fredriksen’s full, if somewhat polemical, account of this affair in ‘The Gospel According to Gibson: Mad Mel’, New Republic Online, July 25, 2003, available from http://www.tnr.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20030728&s=fredriksen072803; accessed May 3, 2004. There is no similar account available from anyone at Icon Productions.
3 The other credited consultants are Carol Osiek, Stephen Reid, Patricia Dutcher-Walls, Charles Hedrick, Bruce Waltke and Tony Michael.
4 For a list and a series of annotated links, see my New Testament Gateway: Jesus in Film, available from http://NTGateway.com/film; accessed May 3, 2004. For useful discussions of films pre-dating the late 1990s, see especially W. Barnes Tatum, Jesus at the Movies: A Guide to the First Hundred Years (Santa Rosa, CA: Polebridge, 1997).
5 The clearest exception to the rule here is Adele Reinhartz in two articles, the first written before the release of the film, ‘Passion-ate Moments in the Jesus Film Genre’, Journal of Religion and Film 8 (Special Issue 1, 2004), available from http://www.unomaha.edu/~wwwjrf/2004Symposium/Rheinhart.htm; accessed May 3, 2004; and the second written afterwards, ‘Jesus of Hollywood: From D. W. Griffith to Mel Gibson’, The New Republic, March 8, 2004, pp. 26–9.
6 Jesus is actually pretty faithful to Luke’s Gospel. One of the few major departures is its use of John’s Prologue at the beginning of the film.
7 See further, Mark Goodacre, ‘Do You Think You’re What They Say You Are? Reflections on Jesus Christ Superstar’, Journal of Religion and Film 3/2 (Fall 1999); available from http://www.unomaha.edu/~wwwjrf/jesuscss2.htm; accessed May 3, 2004.
8 A major exception to the rule on this identification is The Gospel of John in which the woman taken in adultery is played by Inga Cadranel, and Mary Magdalene is played by Lynsey Baxter. The Miracle Maker, in which Mary Magdalene’s voice is supplied by Julie Christie, does not identify those two women, goes to some lengths to draw out Luke’s comment (8.2) about the seven devils who were cast out of her, but then identifies her with the ‘Sinner’ of Luke 7.36–50.
9 Holly McClure, ‘Behind the Scenes of the Passion: On the set with Holly McClure’, Christianity Today Movies, available from http://www.christianitytoday.com/movies/special/passion-day1.html; accessed May 3, 2004.
10 Emily Cheney, ‘Gibson’s Gory Story’, SBL Forum, available from http://www.sbl-site.org/Article.aspx?ArticleId=CheneyLetter; accessed May 3, 2004.
11 Ched Meyers, ‘Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ, Anti-Semitism and the Gospel: Mark’s Trial Narrative as Political Parody’, available from http://www.bcm-net.org/frame_text_ta_articles.htm#Passion; accessed May 3, 2004.
12 Nikos Kazantzakis, The Last Temptation (ET, Oxford: Bruno Cassirer, 1960; London: Faber, 1975).
13 Paula Fredriksen’s complaint about the script that she saw is that its selections from the four Gospels are in the service of the contra Iudaeos (i.e., anti-Judaism) tradition, ‘Gibson, in his script, picked and chose from among all four Gospels – an element here, an instance there – creating from his montage a fifth ‘Gospel’ that has never existed. The contra Iudaeos tradition informed his interpretation of Gospel materials and his selections from them’, ‘History, Hollywood, and the Bible: Some Thoughts on Gibson’s Passion’, SBL Forum, available from http://www.sbl-site.org/Article.aspx?ArticleId=225; accessed May 3, 2003. But see Robert H. Gundry’s criticism of this article in ‘The Burden of the Passion’, SBL Forum, available from http://www.sbl-site.org/Article.aspx?ArticleId=GundryLetter; accessed May 3, 2003.
14 Mel Gibson, ‘Forward’, in Jim Bolton et al., eds., Ken Duncan, Philippe Antonello, photographers, The Passion: Photography from the Movie The Passion of the Christ (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 2004), p. v.
15 The Jesus Film Project, available from http://www.jesusfilm.org/languages; accessed May 3, 2004.
16 This is taken from the publicity for the DVD of Jesus of Nazareth, found in many places, for example available from http://www.ignatius.com; accessed May 3, 2004.
17 Paula Fredriksen, ‘History, Hollywood, and the Bible’, says that Gibson ‘has insisted, loudly and often, that his film is the most historically accurate of any Jesus-film ever made’. It is quite possible that this is the case, but I have been unable to find a single example of this.
18 The Passion of the Christ official website, available from http://www.thepassionofthechrist.com; accessed May 3, 2004.
19 David Neff and Jane Johnson Struck, ‘Dude, That Was Graphic! Mel Gibson Talks About The Passion of the Christ’, Christianity Today, February 23, 2004, available from http://www.christianitytoday.com/movies/interviews/melgibson.html; accessed May 3, 2004.
20 Diane Sawyer’s interview of Mel Gibson on ABC News’ Primetime, February 16, 2004.
21 Ray Richmond, ‘Passion – pornography for the whole family?’, MSNBC 2, March 2004; available from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4428753; accessed May 3, 2004.
22 Uri Dowbenko, ‘Passion of the Christ: Jesuit Theater of Cruelty’, Conspiracy Planet, available from http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=2&contentid=1108&page=2; accessed May 3, 2004.
23 Jonathan Foreman, ‘The Goriest Story Ever Told’, New York Post On-line, available from http://www.nypost.com/movies/18806.htm; accessed May 3, 2004.
24 George Pevere, ‘A dark and bloody spectacle’, in The Toronto Star, February 25, 2004, available from http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1077664212870&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154; accessed May 3, 2004.
25 Geza Vermes, ‘Celluloid Brutality’, The Guardian Unlimited, February 27, 2004, available from http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1157350,00.html; accessed May 3, 2004.
26 Andrew Wetmore, ‘Rhode Islanders Consider The Passion’, World Wide Faith News, available from http://www.wfn.org/2004/03/msg00006.html; accessed May 3, 2004.
27 This quotation appears in a variety of articles in which Crossan is interviewed, for example Jim Baker, ‘Biblical scholar criticizes Passion, Lawrence Journal-World, February 29, 2004, available from http://www.ljworld.com/section/citynews/story/162756; accessed May 3, 2004. Note also the comment in this article: ‘That has actually raised for me the issue of whether it’s actually pornographic to watch this for two hours.’
28 Perhaps the closest any of the reviews come to a definition of the pornography they are trying to describe is Andrew Sullivan, ‘By pornography, I mean the reduction of all human thought and feeling and personhood to mere flesh. The center-piece of the movie is an absolutely disgusting and despicable piece of sadism that has no real basis in any of the Gospels’, The Daily Dish, available from http://www.andrewsullivan.com/index.php?dish_inc=archives/2004_02_22_dish_archive.html#107777885354905430; accessed May 3, 2004.
29 Cf. Peter Chattaway: ‘As several characters begin to find the violence so unbearable that they have to look away, so does Gibson: his camera follows Jesus’ mother Mary (Maia Morgenstern) as she retreats to another room, where she tries to cope with the cries of pain that she can still hear.’ ‘The Passion of the Christ: Lethal Suffering: The Passion underlines Christ’s humanity like no film before’, available from http://www.christianitytoday.com/movies/reviews/passionofthechrist.htm; accessed May 3, 2004.
30 Mel Gibson comments, ‘But it has escape hatches. There are little places of respite within the film where you can escape from the violence and find lyricism and beauty’, interview with Peggy Noonan, Readers’ Digest, available from http://www.readersdigest.co.uk/magazine/melg.htm; accessed May 3, 2004.
31 Anne Catherine Emmerich, The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ (Rockford, IL: Tan Books, 1994).
32 Gibson himself comments, ‘From many accounts I’ve read, I think it was actually more violent than what you’re going to see in this film’, interview with Peggy Noonan.
33 Josephus, Jewish War 6.5.3 (§303–4).
34 ‘No human being could endure the kind of beating that Mel’s Jesus endures’, Gérald Caron, ‘The Passion (the Gospel?) According to Mel Anti-Jewish, Theologically Flawed and Historically Dubious’, Atlantic Jewish Council, available from http://www.theajc.ns.ca/passion.html; accessed May 3, 2004.
35 Jesus is on the cross for six hours in Mark (15.25, 33–34) and perhaps less in John (19.14). These time-spans may be shorter than was the norm.
36 One example among many is Gérald Caron, ‘The Passion (the Gospel?) According to Mel’, ‘the crucifixion comes almost as an anti-climax’.
37 Note, however, the anachronism of Jesus washing his hands before a meal as if to clean them rather than as a ritual act; see Jim Davila, ‘Review of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ’, PaleoJudaica, available from http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2004_04_18_paleojudaica_archive.html#108275896406512583; accessed May 3, 2004.
38 Krister Stendahl, for example, comments, ‘The way in which the movie describes the Passion . . . is a celebration of suffering and death instead of a celebration of life and of the triumphal resurrection’. Wetmore, ‘Rhode Islanders Consider The Passion’.
39 Baker, ‘Biblical scholar criticizes Passion’.
40 Yet the scene remains a favorite and features in both the other two recent harmonizing Jesus films, The Miracle Maker and the CBS Jesus.
41 Philo, Embassy to Gaius, pp. 301–3; Josephus, Jewish War 2.9.3–4 (§172–7) = Jewish Antiquities 18.3.1–2 (§55–62).
42 There has, of course, been vastly less coverage in the media of The Gospel of John than there has of The Passion of the Christ, but at least one reviewer is more concerned about The Gospel of John, Ty Burr: ‘But the film is also more troubling than Passion in the unexamined anti-Semitism it takes from its source. On one level, this merely reflects bad acting: As the head Pharisee, Hippola, Richard Lintern literally twirls his mustache in the tradition of Snidely Whiplash. But where Gibson made sure to provide “good Jews” and “bad Jews”, Saville gives us all bad Jews all the time.’ ‘“Gospel” aims for that old-time religion, but where’s the passion?’, Boston Globe, April 2, 2004, available from http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2004/04/02/gospel_aims_for_that_old_time_religion_but_wheres_the_passion/; accessed May 3, 2004.
43 Cf. Gundry, ‘The Burden of The Passion: ‘. . . It is less amusing to see scholars accuse Gibson of reading the Gospels through the contra Iudaeos tradition when these scholars themselves read his movie through that same tradition’.
44 Frances Flannery-Dailey, ‘Biblical Scholarship and the passion surrounding The Passion of the Christ’, Journal of Religion and Film, 8 (Special Issue 1), available from http://www.unomaha.edu/~wwwjrf/2004Symposium/FlanneryDailey.htm; accessed May 3, 2004
45 See, for example, Paula Fredriksen, ‘Pain Principle’, in New Republic Online, February 27, 2004, available from http://www.tnr.com/docprint.mhtml?i=express&s=fredriksen022704; accessed May 3, 2004, ‘The bad guys wear black, their Jewishness coded by prayer shawls, big noses, and bad teeth.’
46 Two exceptions here are Peter Chattaway, Review of The Passion of the Christ and Iwan Russell Jones, ‘According to Mel’, Ship of Fools, available from http://www.ship-of-fools.com/Features/frameit.htm?0304/passion_irj.html ; accessed May 3, 2004.
47 Cf. Iwan Russell Jones, ‘According to Mel’, ‘But, crucially, the film itself pulls the rug out from under any form of anti-Semitism . . . At this moment where Simon’s compassion and humanity become apparent, Gibson has provided a deliberate and forceful reminder of his racial identity.’
48 See, for example, Julia Neuberger’s comments in the article, ‘There was a rabbi, a vicar and a priest . . .’ in The Guardian, March 19, 2004, available from http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,4120,1172403,00.html; accessed May 3, 2004, ‘The crowd of Jews is given Jesus back after the obscenely vicious scene of the scourging – and it is then that “the Jews” bay for Jesus’s blood.’ To use ‘the Jews’ in quotation marks in this way is especially misleading. See also Frances Flannery-Dailey, ‘Biblical Scholarship’, ‘In this film, “the Jews” kill Jesus.’
49 Emmerich, The Dolorous Passion, ch. 33.
50 The only review to notice this feature is Peter Chattaway’s, which speaks of the viewer ‘being drawn into the flow of Jesus’ own memories’ and adding, ‘By giving us the feeling of experiencing Jesus’ thoughts, and by making us privy to the prayers Jesus offers up as he submits to the will of his Father, The Passion draws us toward Christ’s full humanity like no film before.’ But Chattaway misses the significance of the view of the resurrection. Chattaway, ‘The Passion of the Christ: Lethal Suffering’.
51 ‘Whose Passion? Media, Faith & Controversy’, event at UNC Annenberg, March 3, 2004; video available from http://annenberg.usc.edu/events/040303passionofthechrist/passionofthechrist.ram; accessed May 3, 2003.
52 Neff and Struck, ‘Dude, That Was Graphic!’.
53 I am grateful to Bible and Interpretation for permission to reproduce here parts of my earlier article, ‘The Passion, Pornography and Polemic: In Defense of The Passion of the Christ’, Bible and Interpretation, available from http://www.bibleinterp.com/articles/Goodacre_Passion_Defense.htm; accessed May 3, 2004.
1 E.g., Matthew 8.17; 12.17–21; John 12.38; Acts 8.30–35; 1 Peter 2.24.
2 E.g., Mark 10.43–45; 14.24; Luke 22.37.
3 E.g., Acts 2.23–24; Romans 4.25.
4 For further discussion, see the chapter on Judas in this book (Chapter 5).
5 Cf. the request by the Anti-Defamation League that this scene be removed, in ‘ADL Statement on Mel Gibson’s The Passion’, http://www.adl.org/presrele/mise_00/4275_00.asp; accessed May 11, 2004.
6 Gibson’s flashback picks up the Gospels’ statement that, after denying Jesus three times ‘Peter remembered’ what Jesus had said (Matthew 26.75 = Mark 14.72 = Luke 22.61).
7 Jesus’ prediction: Matthew 26.30–35 = Mark 14.26–31 = Luke 22.31–34 = John 13.36–38; Peter’s denials: Matthew 26.69–75 = Mark 14.66–72 = Luke 22.56–62 = John 18.25–27.
8 See the discussion of the extent of the influence of this work on Gibson’s The Passion in the chapter on Emmerich below. The edition used here is Anne Catherine Emmerich, The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ (ed. by Klemens Maria Brentano; El Sobrante, CA: North Bay Books, 2003). I will cite references to The Dolorous Passion by the abbreviation DP, and since there are several other editions, I will cite by both chapter and page number.
9 For further discussion see the chapter in this book on the women (Chapter 7).
10 Matthew 21.1–9 = Mark 11.1–10 = Luke 19.28–40 = John 12.12–19.
11 Matthew 26.26–29 = Mark 14.22–25 = Luke 22.15–20.
12 The sources for the sayings in this flashback are: flashback 12 part 2: John 15.13; flashback 12 part 3: John 13.33–34; 15.12; flashback 12 part 4: John 14.6; flashback 12 part 5: Matthew 26.26 = Mark 14.22 = Luke 22.19; 1 Corinthians 11.23–24; flashback 12 part 6: Matthew 26.27–28 = Mark 14.23–24 = Luke 22.20; 1 Corinthians 11.25.
13 See the discussion of the Jewish leaders in this book (Chapter 8).
14 I am indebted to Mark Goodacre for this suggestion. My thanks to Mark for reading an earlier version of this chapter.
1 See Anne Catherine Emmerich, The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ (Rockford, IL: Tan Books, 1983). Subsequent references use the abbreviation DP.
2 A good presentation of this view can be found in R. W. Funk, ed., The Acts of Jesus: The Search for the Authentic Deeds of Jesus (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1998), pp. 136–9.
3 William Klassen, Judas: Betrayer or Friend of Jesus? (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1996).
1 Mark Moring’s interview with Mel Gibson, ‘What’s Up With the Ugly Baby?’, March 1, 2004; available from http://kedesh.christianitytoday.com/global/pf.cgi?/movies/news/040301-passion.html; accessed May 6, 2004.
2 Moring’s interview, ‘What’s Up With the Ugly Baby?’.
3 Anne Catherine Emmerich, The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ (ed. by Klemens Maria Brentano; El Sobrante, CA: North Bay Books, 2003). Cf. the discussion in the chapter on Emmerich (Chapter 14).
1 Anne Catherine Emmerich, The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ (Rockford, IL: Tan Books, 1983). References to this work use the abbreviation DP.
2 Women are excluded from meal scenes like the Last Supper to fit stereotypical portrayals of Greco–Roman banquets. See Kathleen E. Corley, Private Women, Public Meals: Social Conflict in the Synoptic Tradition (Peabody, MA: Hendrikson, 1993).
3 Rabanus Maurus, PL 112, 1474b.
4 Alban Butler, Butler’s Lives of the Saints (ed. and rev. by Herbert Thurston and Donald Atwater; New York: P. J. Kennedy and Sons, 1962), Vol. 3, pp. 82–3.
1 This list has been augmented with the help of a very informative article by Philip Cunningham, ‘Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ: A Challenge to Catholic Teaching’, available from http://www.bc.edu/research/cjl/meta-elements/texts/reviews/gibson_cunningham.htm; accessed May 13, 2004.
2 This comes from personal experience. I was present at a showing of the film The Gospel of John for the Canadian Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Although the Christians in the theater testified that it was very helpful to their faith, the ADL was upset at the characterization of the Jews. It quickly became evident that they were unable to distinguish between the film and the Gospel of John, as they had never actually read John’s Gospel. Mel Gibson, on the other hand, did not allow anyone who might be critical of his portrayal to preview the film.
3 See the chapter on Anne Catherine Emmerich in this book (Chapter 14).
4 See Sawyer’s interview of Mel Gibson on ABC News ‘Prime Time’, February 16, 2004. Here Mel Gibson claims his own authorial freedom as an artist and that the film is accurate to the New Testament. Of course, it is not a Gospel, but rather a Passion Play, which for me means that it cannot be accurate to the New Testament, as the Gospels include the ‘Passion’ in a work that also stresses Jesus’ teachings. I do not believe that the Gospels meant the two elements to be understood separately.
5 I was on the Advisory Board of a film of The Gospel of John. We placed a caption at the beginning of the film, explaining that it reflected the Christian understanding of the polemic between Judaism and Christianity at the end of the first century. Otherwise, we kept strictly to the text of the New Testament. Even so, some critics found the film anti-Semitic. I would submit that they were responding to the Gospel itself. But that is another question.
6 J. Louis Martyn, History and Theology in the Fourth Gospel (2nd edn; New York: Harper and Row, 1968). Alan F. Segal, ‘Ruler of this World: Attitudes about Mediator Figures and the Importance of Sociology of Self-Definition’, in Jewish and Christian Self-Definition (ed. E. P. Sanders, A. I. Baumgarten and Alan Mendelson; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1981), pp. 245–68, 404–13.
7 See, for example, John G. Gager, Kingdom and Community: The Social World of Early Christianity (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1975); Alan F. Segal, ‘Jesus and First-Century Judaism’, Jesus at 2000 (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997), pp. 55–72.
8 Matthew 21.12–13 = Mark 11.15–19 = Luke 19.45–48 = John 2.13–17.
9 Matthew 22.21 = Mark 12.17 = Luke 20.25.
10 Matthew 16.28 = Mark 9.1 = Luke 9.27.
11 See the discussion of Pilate in Chapter 9 of this book.
1 See H. I. MacAdam, ‘Quid est Veritas? Pontius Pilate in Fact, Fiction, Film and Fantasy’, Irish Biblical Studies 23 (2001), pp. 66–99.
2 Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita (trans. M. Glenny; London: Collins and Harvill Press, 1967).
3 For fuller discussions of Pilate in each Gospel, see Helen K. Bond, Pontius Pilate in History and Interpretation (SNTSMS 100; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 94–193.
4 On the historical Pilate see Bond, Pontius Pilate, pp. 1–93; B. C. McGing, ‘Pontius Pilate and the Sources’, CBQ 53 (1991), pp. 416–38; D. R. Schwartz, ‘Pontius Pilate’, Anchor Bible Dictionary (1992), Vol. 5, pp. 395–401; and, for a harsher evaluation, P. Winter, On the Trial of Jesus (rev. edn; Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1974), pp. 70–89.
5 Philo, Embassy to Gaius, 302–3.
6 Josephus, Jewish War 2.9.2–3 (§169–74) = Jewish Antiquities 18.3.1 (§55–9).
7 Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 19.9.2 (§366).
1 See the discussion in Chapter 14 on Emmerich in this book.
2 Matthew 26.57—27.26 = Mark 14.53—15.15 = Luke 22.54—23.25 = John 18.12—19.16.
3 All of Jesus’ followers, according to Mark, have fled, including a young naked man.
4 I have argued elsewhere (‘Have Mercy On Me’: The Story of the Canaanite Woman in Matthew 15.21–28 [JSNTSS 228; CIS 10; Sheffield, 2002], pp. 118–19) that silence on the part of Jesus in this text is related to religious identity and fidelity. In 1 Maccabees 2.33–38, for example, the Jews refuse to answer the enemy and then say to each other: ‘Let us all die in innocence; heaven and earth testify for us that you are killing us unjustly.’ And, of course, they did die unjustly.
5 John P. Meier (Companions and Competitors, Vol. 3 of A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the
Historical Jesus [New York: Doubleday, 2001], p. 297) argues that ‘If
Caiaphas and Pilate worked well as a team at the time of Jesus’ trial and
execution, it was because they were well practiced in the game.’
6 See the discussion of the influence of Emmerich’s The Dolorous Passion in Chapter 14 in this book.
7 Caiaphas was the longest ruling high priest, 18–36 ce, in the first century, having been appointed by the procurator Valerius Gratus and then serving under Pontius Pilate. His father-in-law, Annas, was also a high priest and the two of them together are regarded as responsible for the prosecution of Jesus. As high priest, Caiaphas chaired the Sanhedrin and it is possible that he, as well as Annas, were sympathetic to the Sadducees who were the probable opponents of the historical Jesus. Caiaphas was removed from office by Vitellius of Syria. Interestingly, the ossuary containing the bones of Caiaphas and presumably members of his family was excavated in 1990.
8 Robert W. Funk and The Jesus Seminar, The Acts of Jesus: What Did Jesus Really Do?
The Search for the Authentic Deeds of Jesus (Polebridge Press Book; New
York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1998), pp. 144, 149, 155, 254, 429, 432–3.
9 Acts of Jesus, p. 146.
10 Acts of Jesus, p. 148.
11 Acts of Jesus, p. 152.
12 Acts of Jesus, p. 435.
13 Acts of Jesus, p. 147. Examples of historical problems include timing of the Passover meal, the improbability that the entire Council would gather to review the case, a meeting of the Council (or Sanhedrin) is forbidden by law to happen any time but daylight hours, and the manufacturing of false evidence. Hebrew Scriptures, as sources for the Passion stories, include Psalm 26.12 (LXX 27.12): ‘Do not deliver me into the hands of those who oppress me, for false witnesses have arisen against me.’ See also Psalm 2, Psalm 35.11 (LXX 36.11), and Psalm 38 (LXX 37). The stories of David in Hebrew Scriptures also influenced the Gospel writers. See, among others, Acts of Jesus, pp. 150–1.
14 John Dominic Crossan, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1994), p. 140.
15 Mary C. Boys, et al., ‘Report of the Ad Hoc Scholars Group Reviewing the Script of The Passion’, May 2, 2003, p. 3; available from http://www.bc.edu/research/cjl/meta-elements/texts/education/Passion_adhoc_report_2May.pdf; accessed May 13, 2004.
16 Boys, ‘Report of the Ad Hoc Scholars Group’, p. 3.
17 Boys, ‘Report of the Ad Hoc Scholars Group’, p. 4.
18 Boys, ‘Report of the Ad Hoc Scholars Group’, p. 7.
19 Boys, ‘Report of the Ad Hoc Scholars Group’, p. 7.
20 Josephus,
Jewish War, 1.4.3 (§88); cf. Boys,
‘Report of the Ad Hoc Scholars Group’,
p. 9.
21 Boys, ‘Report of the Ad Hoc Scholars Group’, p. 9.
1 For discussion of the history and meaning of the Stations of the Cross, see H. Thurston, The Stations of the Cross: An Account of Their History and Devotional Purpose (London: Burns & Oates, 1906); J. Wilkinson, The Stations of the Cross in Jerusalem (Jerusalem: St George’s Cathedral, 1963).
2 For a learned treatment of the Passion, readers are recommended to consult R. E. Brown, The Death of the Messiah: From Gethsemane to the Grave. A Commentary on the Passion Narratives in the Four Gospels (2 vols, ABRL 7; New York: Doubleday, 1994).
3 It should also be noted that, contrary to Dan Brown’s claim in The Da Vinci Code (New York: Doubleday, 2003), pp. 234–5 and p. 245, the New Testament Gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are indeed the oldest Gospels. The Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel much favored by members of the Jesus Seminar, is early second century – a few years after John and one generation after Matthew, Mark and Luke. Moreover – again contrary to Brown – there are no Gospels or writings about Jesus among the Dead Sea Scrolls.
4 See also Acts of Pilate 7.1 and the much later Mors Pilati (Latin: ‘Death of Pilate’). For discussion of these texts and the Veronica tradition, see J. K. Elliott, The Apocryphal New Testament: A Collection of Apocryphal Christian Literature in an English Translation based on M. R. James (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993), pp. 213–17.
5 Plutarch, Moralia, 554A-B.
6 Plautus, Carbonaria fragment 2; Miles. Gloriosus 2.4.6–7 (§359–60).
7 Cf. Epistle of Barnabas 9; Justin, Dialogue with Trypho 91.2.
8 Jehovah’s Witnesses argue for the vertical pole.
9 E.g., Josephus, Jewish War 5.11.1 (§451): ‘the soldiers out of rage and hatred amused themselves by nailing their prisoners in different postures’.
10 The Kidron Valley runs east and west, linking Jerusalem and the Dead Sea. In Jerusalem the valley separates the Mount of Olives (to the north) from the Temple Mount (to the south). Along the Kidron Valley just outside of Jerusalem are numerous tombs.
11 N. Avigad, ‘A Depository of Inscribed Ossuaries in the Kidron Valley’, Israel Exploration Journal 12 (1962), pp. 1–12, esp. pp. 9–11 and plate 4.
12 The evidence, while circumstantial, is quite compelling. It consists of three important points of coherence between the ossuary inscription and what we are told of Simon in Mark 15: (1) Alexander’s father is Simon (an unusual combination of Greek and Aramaic names – not attested anywhere else), (2) Alexander, like his father Simon, is associated with Cyrene, and (3) Alexander is buried in Jerusalem, thus linking him to the very city Simon of Cyrene visited, when he carried Jesus’ cross. Of course, there is no way to prove it and no way to move from possibility to probability.
13 For an authoritative distillation of the relevant sources, see M. Hengel, Crucifixion (London: SCM; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1977).
14 Curtius Rufus, History of Alexander 4.4.17.
15 Suetonius, Caligula 32.2. See also Dio Cassium 54.3.6–7; Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 5.1.44.
16 E.g., Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 15.11.4 (§409): ‘the king of the Jews, Herod’.
17 Isidore of Seville, Etymologia 5.27.34. Indeed, the words cross and crucify actually derive from the Latin word cruciare, which means ‘to torture’. For more grim descriptions of crucifixion, see Cicero, In Verrem 2.5.168; Seneca, Dialogue 3.2.2; Josephus, Jewish War 7.6.4 (§203); Juvenal, Satires 14.77–8; Suetonius, Augustus 13.1–2.
18 Pseudo-Quintilian, Declamations 274. Cf. Josephus, Jewish War 5.11.1 (§450–1): General Titus’ ‘main reason for not stopping the crucifixions was the hope that the spectacle might perhaps induce the Jews to surrender’.
19 S. R. Llewelyn (ed.), New Documents Illustrating Early Christianity (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), Vol. 8, pp. 1–3. For additional references to crucifixion victims being eaten by birds and animals, see Aristophanes, Thesmophoriazusae 1029, and Pseudo-Manetho, Apotelesmatica 4.198–200.
20 Josephus, Jewish War 1.4.6 (§97–8); cf. Josephus, Antiquities 13.14.2 (§380): ‘. . . before the eyes of the still living wretches’. Josephus’ testimony is corroborated by and helps explain a reference in the Dead Sea Scrolls, where in one of the commentaries on prophetic Scripture there is reference to the ‘Lion of Wrath’ (understood to be Alexander Jannaeus) who ‘used to hang men alive’ (4Q169 3–4 i 7).
21 Jewish burial customs resist the novel hypothesis, that Jesus’ body was left unburied, argued in J. D. Crossan, Who Killed Jesus? (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1995).
22 At Giv‘at ha-Mivtar: ossuary no. 4.
23 N. Haas, ‘Anthropological Observations on the Skeletal Remains from Giv‘at ha-Mivtar,’ Israel Exploration Journal 20 (1970), pp. 38–59; J. Zias and J. H. Charlesworth, ‘Crucifixion: Archaeology, Jesus, and the Dead Sea Scrolls’, in J. H. Charlesworth (ed.), Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls (ABRL; New York: Doubleday, 1992), pp. 273–89 and plates following p. 184. There is dispute over the evidence of the broken bones.
24 Cf. Digest of Justinian 48.20.1; Tacitus, Annals 6.29: ‘people sentenced to death forfeited their property’.
25 Jerome, Commentary on Matthew. This embellishment is repeated in later sources (cf. Historia passionis Domini folio 65, recto).
1 Among these was The Passion Play of Oberammergau (1898), which received its public debut in New York City, at the Eden Musée, a well-known entertainment establishment. The title suggests a relationship between what the viewer sees on the screen and the famed Passion Play of the same name. However, as an enterprising newspaper reporter soon discovered, scenes had been filmed not in the Bavarian village but on a rooftop in Manhattan.
2 See the chart of Jesus films on p. 150.
3 W. Barnes Tatum, Jesus at the Movies: A Guide to the First Hundred Years (Santa Rosa, CA: Polebridge, 1997). This volume, forthcoming in a revised edition, provides the basis and much of the documentation for this chapter. Support for the comments herein about the four Gospels and the historical quest can be found in: W. Barnes Tatum, In Quest of Jesus (rev. edn; Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 1999).
4 Lloyd Baugh, SJ, ‘Palestinian Braveheart’, America 190, No. 6 (February 23, 2004), available at http://www.americamagazine.org/articles/baugh-passion.cfm; accessed March 30, 2004.
5 See, especially, the recent survey and analysis by Adele Reinhartz, ‘Passion-ate Moments in the Jesus Film Genre’, Journal of Religion & Society 6 (2004), pp. 1–10; http://www.creighton.edu/JRS.
6 Austin Flannery, OP, ed., Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents (rev. edn, Northport, NY: Costello Publishing Company, 1992), pp. 740–1.
7 Robert Hewison, Irreverence, Scurrility, Profanity, Vilification, and Licentious Abuse: Monty Python the Case Against (New York: Grove Press, 1981), pp. 78–95.
8 Robin Riley, Film, Faith, and Cultural Conflict: The Case of Martin Scorsese’s ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’ (Praeger: Westport, CN, 2003), pp. 11–34.
1 Mel Gibson, ‘Forward’, in Jim Bolton et al., eds., Ken Duncan, Philippe Antonello, photographers, The Passion: Photography from the Movie The Passion of the Christ (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 2004), p. v.
2 See ‘Keble Chapel: The Light of the World’, available from http://www.keble.ox.ac.uk/life/chapel/light.php, accessed May 22, 2004.
3 See ‘The Miraculous Caravaggio’, available from http://www.bergerfoundation.ch/Home/high_caravage.html, accessed May 22, 2004.
4 John Bailey and Stephen Pizzello’s interview with Caleb Deschanel, ‘A Savior’s Pain’, American Cinematographer (March 2004), available from http://www.theasc.com/magazine/index.htm?mar04/cover/index.html~main; accessed May 25, 2004.
5 ‘Isenheim Altarpiece’, available from http://www.meredith.edu/art/research/Isenheim_altarpiece.htm, accessed May 22, 2004.
6 See ‘Warner Sallman Collection’, available from http://www.warnersallman.org; accessed May 22, 2004.
1 Mel Gibson, ‘Forward’, in Jim Bolton et al., eds., Ken Duncan, Philippe Antonello, photographers, The Passion: Photography from the Movie The Passion of the Christ (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 2004), p. v.
2 This work is published in several editions. The one used here is Anne Catherine Emmerich, The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ (ed. by Klemens Maria Brentano; El Sobrante, CA: North Bay Books, 2003). I will cite references to The Dolorous Passion by the abbreviation DP, and since there are several other editions, I will cite by both chapter and page number so that other editions can be used. The book is available for downloading from http://www.catholicplanet.com/ebooks/Dolorous-Passion.pdf, and available to read online at http://www.emmerich1.com/dolorous_passion_of_our_Lord_Jesus_Christ.htm; both accessed May 4, 2004. The book also contains nine meditations on the Last Supper, and a brief biography of Emmerich.
3 David Neff and Jane Johnson Struck’s interview of Mel Gibson for ChristianityToday.com, ‘Dude, That Was Graphic’, posted February 23, 2004, available from http://www.christianitytoday.com/movies/interviews/melgibson.html; accessed May 4, 2004.
4 Diane Sawyer’s interview of Mel Gibson on ABC News ‘Prime Time’, February 16, 2004, available from http://abcnews.go.com/sections/Primetime/Entertainment/mel_gibson_passion_040216.html; accessed May 3, 2004.
5 See the discussion of the women in Chapter 7 of this book.
6 It is possible but unlikely that Mary the mother of Jesus is identified as ‘Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses’ in Mark 15.40, 47; 16.1 (cf. Matthew 27.56, 61; 28.1).
7 Emmerich did not create this increased role for Mary out of nothing. She is dependent upon centuries of Catholic spirituality and theology that has heightened her role in both story and doctrine. In part, for example, she is dependent on ‘The Stations of the Cross’ (or the Via Dolorosa), fourteen scenes in the suffering of Jesus Christ which form special points of devotion for those who wish to meditate on the mystery of his suffering and death. The first Station is Christ being condemned to death by Pilate, and the fourteenth Station is him being laid in the tomb. The fourth Station is Jesus meeting his mother. Interestingly, Emmerich traces the origins of the Stations of the Cross to the contemplation by Mary of the places where her son suffered (cf. DP, ch. 18, titled ‘The Origin of the Way of the Cross’, pp. 120–2).
8 Mary’s presence and involvement is
pervasive; a few other examples include DP,
ch. 5, p. 81; ch. 11, pp. 99–101; ch. 11, pp. 99–102; ch. 15, pp. 110–11; ch.
25, pp. 143–4; ch. 32, pp. 159–61; ch. 37, pp. 169–70; ch. 38, pp. 171–2; ch.
42. pp. 179–80; ch. 43, pp. 181–2; ch. 47, pp. 196–9; ch. 50, pp. 202–6; etc.
9 See the discussion of Satan and the demons in Chapter 6 of this book.
10 The death of Judas is reported in Acts 1.18 somewhat differently: ‘. . . and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out’. Emmerich attempts to blend the two biblical accounts together: Judas ‘. . . hung himself on a tree which grew in a crevice of the rock, and after death his body burst asunder, and his bowels were scattered around’.
11 A
little later in The Dolorous Passion
we read, ‘. . . the Pharisees . . . endeavored to the utmost of their power to
persuade the people to revolt, distributing money among them to effect this
purpose . . .’ (DP, ch. 21, pp.
130–1).
I understand that in an earlier version of the script, Jesus’ cross was being constructed in the Temple while these examinations were under way (Amy-Jill Levine, ‘The Real Problem with Passion’, available from http://www.beliefnet.com/story/130/story_13051.html; accessed May 10, 2004). This scene was almost completely removed from the release version (but see the discussion in Chapter 4 in this book on the flashbacks). It is based on Emmerich’s description of the construction of Jesus’ cross at Caiaphas’ house (DP, ch. 11, p. 100).
12 Kenneth Turan’s review of The Passion of the Christ, Los Angeles Times, available from http://www.fandango.com/reviews_fullreview.asp?mv=57327&from=&review=la; accessed May 13, 2004.
13 See the discussion of the procession in Chapter 11 in this book.
14 Matthew 27.31–32 = Mark 15.20–21 = Luke 23.26; only Luke 23.26 has ‘behind him’.
15 Numerous
reviewers of The Passion have pointed
out that Jesus’ ability to endure the pain as well as to continue carrying the
cross is an effort beyond human strength. One element in Emmerich’s work that
Gibson did not use, but that she
mentions several times, is that angels assisted Jesus. For example, here at the
beginning of the procession, Emmerich states, ‘I saw angels come to his
assistance, otherwise he would have been unable even to raise it [i.e., the
cross] from the ground’ (DP, ch. 30,
pp. 156).
16 DP, ch. 31, p. 158; ch. 32, p. 159; ch. 33, p. 161; ch. 35, p. 165; ch. 36, p. 166; the last two chapters combine the fourth and fifth falls, and the sixth and seventh falls. In the fifteenth century, the artistic representation of Stations at Nuremberg, carved by Adam Krafft, was ‘The Seven Falls’, which was, evidently imitated by other artists. For the history, see G. Cyprian Alston, ‘Way of the Cross’, Catholic Encyclopedia, available from http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15569a.htm; accessed May 14, 2004. This medieval tradition is what influenced Emmerich, which in turn was the influence upon Gibson.
17 It is also incorporated as the sixth Station of the Cross.
18 Matthew 27.35 = Mark 15.24 = Luke 23. 33 = John 19.18.
19 See the discussion of the crucifixion in Chapter 11 of this book.
20 For example, my favorite film of Jesus’ Passion is Jésus de Montréal (Denys Arcand, 1989; available in English, dubbed or sub-titled), a very creative and insightful film.
21 See the discussion in the Introduction to this book.
22 David Neff and Jane Johnson Struck’s interview of Mel Gibson for ChristianityToday.com, ‘Dude, That Was Graphic,’ posted February 23, 2004, available from http://www.christianitytoday.com/movies/interviews/melgibson.html; accessed May 3, 2004.
23 See the discussion of the Jewish leaders in Chapter 8 of this book.
1 These claims were made by Mel Gibson as well as various Christian leaders. For examples see the Introduction in this book.