"THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST"

IS THE MOVIE ANTI-SEMITIC?

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About the Bible text:

One of the main sources of the screenplay, the Bible, certainly contains many anti-Judaic elements -- i.e. passages which portray some Jews in Jerusalem in about the year 30 CE in a negative light. But beliefs differ about the content and meaning of Bible passages:

About Catherine Emmerich's visions:

The diaries which describe the visions of St. Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774-1824) provided much of the content of the screenplay. These visions were collected into book form by a noted German writer of the time, Brentano. The book, 'The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ'," is currently in print and is also available on the Internet _3,4 Emmerich was an Augustinian nun who lived in Germany who has been accused of having been anti-semitic. Author Joe Nickell writes: "Although at times Emmerick simply speaks of Jesus 'malicious and cruel enemies' (122), at other times, whether intentionally or not, she appears to malign an entire people. She refers to 'the cruel Jews,' (101, 106,115), and other disparagements -- reflected in Gibson's The Passion in the sinister countenances and action of Caiaphas's followers." ₂ Rev. C. E. Schmoeger wrote a biography of biography of Emmerich in 1976. In an apparent reference to the blood libel hoax, Emmerich described one vision of an "old Jewess Meyr" who admitted "that Jews in our country and elsewhere strangled Christian children and used their blood for all sorts of suspicious and diabolical practices." ₅

The writings of a second anti-semitic nun, Mary of Agreda, were allegedly used to add ot the screen play. She wrot, in reference to Jews: "Although they did not die, they were chastised with intense pain. These disorders consequently upon shedding the blood of Christ, descended to their posterity and even to this day continue to afflict this group with horrible impurities." Father Michael Cooper, director of the Center for Catholic-Jewish Studies at St. Leo University in Florida said: "Such attitudes had a direct influence on modern anti-Semitism and even on the Holocaust." ₅

About movie scenes added to the Biblical account:

There are a number of scenes which do not appear in the Bible but which seem to be fictional creations added to flesh out the movie. This was a necessary task, because a blending of the Gospel accounts of Yeshua's arrest, trial(s), flogging and execution would only provide material for perhaps a half-hour movie. Some additional scenes had to be created to extend the film to a feature length. Some viewers viewers will interpret the following scenes as containing significant anti-semitic material:

A key event in the Bible that is missing in the movie:

There are two crucial passages in John 11 and 18 which appear to show the mind set of the Chief Priest Caiaphas concerning the fate of Yeshua.

This essay continues below.

Possible changes to the movie to minimize incitement of anti-semitism:

Through most of the history of Christianity, Christian Churches taught that all "the Jews" -- whether they lived in the 1st century or 20th century or sometime in between -- were responsible for Yeshua's death. This belief is no longer current. The Roman Catholic Church, for example, abandoned this position in the mid 1960's. However, with thousands of years of tradition behind it, one might expect that the belief is still circulating among part of the public. It rises to the surface regularly like a bloated corpse. Gibson could have displayed a pro-active disclaimer, as Cecil B DeMille did in his epic movie, "King of Kings," that would state directly that the Jewish people are not responsible for Yeshua's death.

Mel Gibson did make one significant change to the movie before it was released to the public. Matthew 27:25 describes the Jewish mob pressuring Procurator Pilate to crucify Yeshua. Matthew, and Gibson, has the mob say: "Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children." This one verse is probably responsible for more murders of innocent people than any other in the Bible. A. James Rudin, senior inter-religious adviser for the American Jewish Committee writes: "That curse appears only in Matthew, and is the religious taproot for the horrific charge that because the Jews killed Jesus, they merited eternal divine punishment for their 'crime.' Once an integral part of the world-famous Oberammergau Passion Play in Germany, all references to Matthew 27:25 were removed from the 2000 production and will not appear in future performances. It is ironic that Oberammergau, the 'grandparent' of Passion plays, no longer contains the incendiary verse from Matthew, but it does appear in Gibson's version." ₇ The statement from Matthew gave theological justification to the charge of deicide -- the belief that the entire Jewish people were and continue to be responsible for the murder of God. Like other statements by actors portraying Jews in the movie, the line was spoken in Aramaic. Gibson had the English sub-title removed, so that only those viewers who were familiar with Aramaic would be able to understand the statement.

Comments by the Anti-Defamation League^® (ADL):

Representatives of the ADL attended a private screening of a pre-release version of The Passion of the Christ on 2003-AUG.  They "voiced concerns that the film, if released in its present form, 'could fuel hatred, bigotry and anti-Semitism' by reinforcing the notion of collective Jewish guilt for the death of Jesus." Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, said: "The film unambiguously portrays Jewish authorities and the Jewish mob as the ones responsible for the decision to crucify Jesus. We are deeply concerned that the film, if released in its present form, could fuel the hatred, bigotry and anti-Semitism that many responsible churches have worked hard to repudiate." In a press release of 2003-AUG-11, ADL's expressed concern that: