It's difficult not getting emotional about Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ." After all I'm translating the Ancient Aramaic Scriptures into English and in the movie Jesus is supposedly speaking Aramaic.
This evening I saw a documentary on the making of the movie which will be released soon. There were extensive scenes from the movie itself where I finally heard "Aramaic" being spoken. This is not Aramaic. It's ... gibberish. Of course, one must allow for artistic license; I'm a filmmaker by profession myself.
I like the film from an artistic perspective. It's a well shot movie. The production value is excellent and the cinematography is beautiful. However, the film is not historically accurate, to say the least. I understand from this documentary that Mel Gibson is a conservative Catholic who believes in the pre-Vatican II style of Catholicism, so I'm assuming that he must also believe that the New Testament was originated in Greek. If Jesus spoke in Aramaic two thousand years ago and the language is "dead," as the documentary stated, then where did Mel Gibson learn about what Jesus said?
A few weeks ago, I saw Rabbi Marvin Heier, dean of the Simon Weisenthal Center, say that this movie is prejudicial toward the Jews, that it depicts the Jews as the killers of Jesus and so on. I agree that this movie is not only inaccurate about the Jews, but also wrong about early Christianity. In fact, most of the followers of Jesus were Jews, and not just the disciples. Of course, the Pharisees and the high priests in Jerusalem called for the death of Jesus, but most of the Jews did not. They came out by the thousands and cheered his entry into Jerusalem, laying palm branches under his feet. He taught in the synagogues and temples everywhere he went. The Jewish apostles spread Christianity among the Aramaic speaking Ashurai, Chaldeans, Greeks, Armenians, Coptic Egyptians, Ethiopians and others. Everybody knew the Aramaic language in the Holy Lands.
Today modern Aramaic is spoken by literally millions of people around the world. Eastern Christianity is a vital part of the Church as a whole. Mel Gibson's personal Catholic views have ignored all of Eastern Christianity. He's shot the movie in Italy and used no one who really speaks the modern Aramaic language. This goes beyond prejudice. It's a rejection of the truth about the Messiah. Even his name is pronounced wrong. The name of Jesus in the Ancient Aramaic language is "Eashoa."
Mel Gibson has Satan portrayed by a woman. Nowhere in the Bible Satan is depicted as a woman. I don't understand why Mel Gibson has made all these mistakes. This movie might be great entertainment, but it's not an accurate telling of the story of Jesus. Read more about this movie.
February 18, 2004