Hello mlbstud~
In brief, the answer is ?yes.? Yet there are some ?buts.?
?The Passion? follows the gospels with a good degree of accuracy.
However, it is a movie, and therefore must condense the story. In
addition, the script adds content not found in the Bible. Non-Biblical
add-ons include:
? Jesus confronting Judas, after the arrest, while chained
? The scenes showing Jesus? family life.
? After denying Christ, Peter tells Mary not to touch him; this is an
added detail, not Biblical.
? Pontius Pilate?s wife bringing towels to Mary
? A crow poking out the eyes of the unrepentant thief on the cross
? The dead animal that Judas comes upon
? The soldiers throwing Jesus off of a bridge
? Demon-children taunting Judas
? The Bible does not record Jesus falling while carrying his cross,
nor Mary running to assist him, nor a woman offering him water when he
falls
? The thieves crucified alongside Jesus are not named in the Bible
? Satan holding a grotesque demon baby
? The film shows Mary Magdalene as being the woman caught in adultery;
in the Bible, the two women are completely different.
? Some of the Jewish men are shown wearing yarmulkes; this is
historically inaccurate, experts say.
? Satan?s temptation of Jesus in Gethsemane; this includes the
stamping of the snake. Biblically, Jesus? temptation happened at a
different time, and while the Bible does refer to Christ stamping on
the head of the snake (i.e. Satan), the Bible is speaking
figuratively.
? Jesus? arms being shown too short, and the ?solution? to this dilemma.
? Jesus being put face down in the dirt, while on his cross.
In addition, the movie sometimes jumbles up dialogue, no doubt due to
the constraints of making a film that isn?t overly-long. For example,
some dialogue given during the flashback Last Supper scenes have Jesus
saying things that in the Bible he said at other times.
There are other?historical--details which are debatable, but which
some feel are inaccurate:
? Some people say the Romans only drove nails through their victims
wrists, not their hands, as shown in ?The Passion.?
? ?The Passion? shows John sitting on the left side of Jesus at the
Last Supper. But some scholars say that (as alluded to in John 13:33)
John was seated on Jesus? right side.
? In the film, Jesus carries his full cross; scholars mostly believe
he would have carried only the cross-beam.
As for the historical accuracy of the gospels themselves?whole volumes
have been written about this :) However, here are a few points to
consider:
? There are more existing copies (25,366) of the New Testament than
any other ancient text. In terms of existing ancient copies, the
runner up is Homer?s Iliad, and only 643 copies of it have survived.
Scholars tell us that the Iliad?s purity is 95%. Scholars consider
this excellent; it?s the major reason they say our modern copies of
the Iliad are reliable and accurate to the original. Yet the New
Testament, which is older, is 99.5% pure. Those who claim the New
Testament has been tampered with must also claim that all other
ancient documents currently believed to be accurate by scholars are
also unreliable.
? Jesus is a historical person; religious and secular scholars agree,
and can point to evidence about his existence outside of the Bible or
other Christian writings.
For more information about the accuracy of the Bible and the
historical Jesus, I recommend ?Evidence That Demands A Verdict? by
Josh McDowell (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0785243631/qid=1082417604/sr=8-1/ref=pd_ka_1/104-1342861-7771903?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
)
Here are some articles which may also prove helpful:
??The Passion:' Accessing its Accuracy,? BP News:
http://www.baptistpress.com/bpnews.asp?Id=17789
?One Rabbi?s Review of ?The Passion?? Resource Publications:
http://www.rpinet.com/wwwboard/forum5/messages/1128.html
Regards,
Kriswrite
KEYWORDS USED:
"The Passion" accuracy
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Clarification of Answer by
kriswrite-ga
on
19 Apr 2004 19:15 PDT
Certainly :)
Let me begin by saying that there are people who believe the original
Biblical account of Jesus' crucifixion is anti-Semitic. However,
several points should be made:
* Whatever happened to Jesus, from the Biblical perspective, God
planned it all and Jesus chose to go through it--indeed, felt he
*needed* to go through it.
* The Bible does not blame anyone for Jesus' death.
* In the Bible, while some Jews certainly played a part in the
crucifixion of Jesus, other groups of people played at least an equal
role.
* In the Bible, almost all of Jesus' early followers (including the
first Christians) were Jews.
* Logically, one could thank the Jews for being a part of Jesus'
crucifixion, because, from a Biblical perspective, it helped lead to
the "saving of the world."
The film "The Passion" does not add anything anti-Semitic to the story
of Jesus' crucifixion. If anything, the filmmakers went out of there
way to show both good and bad Jews (and good and bad Romans, too).
Vignettes were added to the film (not found in the Biblical account),
which show all groups of people involved as human beings--with good
and bad traits, some evil, some compassionate and good.
I will end by including a person opinion: In this Researcher's view,
no one can legitimately argue that "The Passion" (or the New
Testament) is anti-Semitic.
I hope this helps,
Kriswrite
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