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As Mel Gibson’s latest movie opens in cinemas across France, French daily « Libération » published an interview today with Gérard Mordillat and Jérome Prieur, authors of After Jesus – Treaty on the Origin of Christianism (Seuil Editor). [translated from French by Chenapan]
In The Passion of Gibson, the Jews put Jesus on trial, sentence him to death and demand that he be crucified. What do we know of the historical truth ?
J.P : The Gospels say that there was an early death sentence pronounced by the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Tribunal. But the most plausible version is that of John : Jesus was arrested by the Guards of the Temple of Jerusalem because he had caused public disorder when chasing out the « merchants of the Temple », then handed over to the high priests. The latter get rid of a troublemaker by handing him over to the secular authorities, the Romans. The only trial that took place was a Roman trial for public disorder. The trial of the Jews against Jesus itself never took place. Gibson reproduces those old versions of the Medieval Passions.
G.M : There is no doubt that Jesus was executed by the Romans for a Roman offence and under a Roman authority. It would be called today a political trial : a young man stood against the authority of Rome. One only needs to read the historian Flavius Josephe to understand that Pontius Pilate and other prosecutors of the time hit back ferociously as soon as a new prophet came about. Roman repression is quick, people are killed as soon as possible.
Gibson filmed in Arrameic and Latin. Is this authentic ?
J.P : It’s a trick to make it look like a « historical » movie. The language of the Roman Empire was Greek, not Latin. And the Gospels were written in Greek. […]
G.M : This film is a joke, a total farce from a historical perspective. A few examples : Jesus speaking Latin with Pontius Pilate, the cross that weighs three tons, Jesus crafting tables in the Ikea style… « Carpenter » in Hebrew is a metaphor that means « The wise man ». Nothing to do with woodwork! Even those scenes that might appear well-documented, such as the torture and the crucifixion, are, from what we know from Roman historians and ancient texts, more linked to a tradition of Christian religious paintings than to the Gospels.
It is also an ideological movie. It opens with a caricature of antisemitism : the greedy Jew. Judas takes his thirty coins, sells Jesus and leaves with his money. It is the archetype of antisemitism through History.
J.P : If the Nazis had wanted to make a film to enroll Christians, they would have made that one.
What do we know of the crucifixion itself ?
G.M : The most radical critics admit only two things in the Christian narrative : the fact that Jesus was crucified and his accusation of being the King of the Jews. Jesus therefore died on the Cross, under the authority of Pontius Pilate, prefect of Rome between 26 and 36AD. We don’t even know the exact date. Historians are unanimous about one point however : the condemned were naked. They describe the crucifixion as the worst of deaths. Of course, the condemned would piss, vomit and crap on himself… There, Mel Gison hits the same problem that many Christian painters faced : how to represent this outrageous nudity. Other problem : showing Jesus naked would mean showing him circumcised. Jesus was Jewish of course, and this was not acceptable for Catholic painters. It seems to still be the case…
J.P : Another element linked to the crucifixion : it was a terrible death, by suffocation. Nails were only planted in the ankles, placed on either side of the cross. The condemned could only survive a few hours, for as long as they were still capable of doing lifts-ups with their arms to clear their lungs. Only one painting in history depicts the crucifixion in realistic terms : a painting by Russian artist Nikolai Gay at the end of the nineteenth century. [ …]
