Let's have one more bite at the apple with this Mel Gibson and the Jews thing. In the run-up to the release of The Passion of the Christ, I wrote about the general issue of anti-Semitism in the New Testament of the Bible. Now that the movie is out, we can look see what Gibson actually did with the source material.
In fact, based on what is actually on the screen, Mel Gibson clearly went out of his way to minimize the culpability of Jews in general- within the context of remaining true to scripture. As a Bible believing Christian, Gibson could not just change the plot points of the Book when making the movie. In the book, the characters- good, bad and mixed- were mostly Jews. He couldn't very well just pretend that the Jews had left the room when all this was happening.
However, he went out of his way to show different reactions among the Jews. Besides the obvious fact that Jesus himself, his mother, and the disciples were Jews, he emphasized dissent among the Sanhedrin.
Caiaphus, the high priest, was the principle bad Jew here, but even he left some doubt. You could watch this and think that he was deluded, and thought he really was taking out a bad guy. What exactly was he thinking?
Yes, Caiaphus whipped up a lot of the Jews into a mob frenzy as per the book. You couldn't very well tell this story without that. Again, however, as per the book Jesus judged that they merited forgiveness because they didn't understand what they were doing.
Gibson played up one somewhat marginal character in particular from the Book which emphasized that not all Jews were behind this action: Simon of Cyrene. Simon was the guy drafted on the road to help Jesus carry the cross.
Gibson depicts him as a mere bystander reluctantly drafted for duty. Soon, however, Simon is actively defending Jesus. He stands up to the extremely sadistic Romans, bravely insisting that they lay off the scourging of Jesus or he will not carry the cross one more step. "I don't care what you do to me." One of the Romans mocks him with the word "Jew" as an epitaph, and orders him to move on. How do you get anti-Semitic from Gibson out of all that?
Article comments
1 - Tom
99% my beliefs as well.
I did not walk out of that movie hating anyone.
Bad Joke Alert:
If it was the Romans who did the torture, does that mean there should be Anti-Italian bias?
2 - Tom
So, if we think of Caiaphus as a Muslim Cleric inciting an Arab mob to kill an innocent man because his existence and virtue is a threat to the power-base of the Muslim Cleric and his family's wealth and status; and that they try to get the US Occupying Authority to carry out the death sentence claiming he is a threat to them too........is that more transparent to a modern day audience than the situation 2000 years ago ?
3 - Justene
There were no Christians in Christ's day and the apostles never intended to start a new religion. At most, they expected a new sect of Judaism. Those Jews in the movie should be seen as our (Christians') forbears. The responsibility passes on to all of us, if anyone. Hence Gibson's hands placing the nails.