Analysis of “The Passion of the Christ”

“The Passion of the Christ” is one of the most graphic movies ever made about Jesus, but how does it hold up against Scripture? Does the movie take liberties in adding things to what we have in the Scriptures and if so, why?

“The Passion of the Christ” begins in the garden of Gethsemane and Jesus is praying. He stops and goes to where he left the disciples to pray. He finds them sleeping, wakes them and asks them why they could not stay awake. (Oxford University Press, Inc. [OUPI], 1977, pgs. 1208, 1235, 1280) When Jesus returns to where he had been praying Satan appears in the background. Of the four Gospels only one has a visitor to Jesus in the garden and that is in Luke 22:43, “and there appeared to him an angel from heaven strengthening him.” (OUPI, p. 1280) The scene is further exaggerated when a snake comes out from under a rock and crawls over to Jesus. Jesus then stands and crushes the head of the snake linking this scene back to Genesis 3:15 (OUPI, p. 5) as well as inferring that Jesus is the second Adam. It is only moments later that Judas and the guards arrive in the garden.

In the middle of the first scene there is a cut away to Judas negotiating his pay for betraying Jesus. This scene is not in order with the Scriptures. We have no idea how the exchange between Judas and the chief priests actually played out, but by having one of the chief priests toss a bag of coins to Judas and then having him fail to catch it made for more dramatic scene.

According to the account in the Synoptic Gospels, a crowd came with Judas and the guards to arrest Jesus. The account in the movie is more like what is recorded in the Gospel of John, where “Judas, procuring a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, went there.” (OUPI, 1977, p. 1313) What followed was a fight scene which is a clear exaggeration of what is recorded in the Gospels. All that is recorded in the Gospels is that one of the disciples reached out as Jesus was arrested and cut off the ear of a servant of the high priest. In the movie it is the ear of a guard that is cut off during the fight. The movie and the Scriptures do agree that Jesus did reattach man’s ear. The scene departs from Scripture when the scene cuts to Mary and Mary Magdalene. The addition of Mary in so many of the scenes would likely be associated with Mel Gibson’s Roman Catholic upbringing.

The Scriptures go from Jesus being arrested to being in front of the Sanhedrin. The movie creatively fills in the time between these two events. First, as Jesus is being led to the Sanhedrin he is thrown off the side of the wall they are walking on. Before being pulled up we see Judas crouching in the shadows and after Jesus is pulled back up a demonic spirit manifests and scares Judas. This would be the first, but not the last time that the movie depicts Judas’ tortured soul. The second piece that is filled in is when John barges in on Mary and Mary Magdalene telling them that Jesus had been arrested. While this is the first time that we see these three together, it will not be the last. They will remain together through out the remainder of the movie. This is fitting as at the end of the movie and in the Scriptures Jesus says “Woman, behold, your son! Then he said to the disciple [John], “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.” (OUPI, 1977, p. 1315)

As Jesus is brought to and is waiting for the high priest something Jesus see triggers a memory and we see the first of many flashbacks. Some of the flashbacks are things that been added that are not in the Scriptures, others, such as the flashbacks to the Last Supper, have been inserted to define certain scenes to bring better understanding to the viewer. The first flashback is one that has been added for dramatic purposes as it is not in the Scriptures. Mary has arrived in the Temple courtyard and this flashback, like the one as Jesus is carrying the cross, establishes the parent-child relationship between mother and son.

Caiaphis, having questioned Jesus and getting no response, finally says “I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.” (OUPI, 1977, p. 1209) At Jesus’ response that he is, Caiaphis “tore his robes” and says to the other “You have heard his blasphemy.” They responded that Jesus must die. In the movie when Caiaphis tears only a small section of his robes, but in the Scriptures when it say he tore them it makes it sound like he did more damage to his robes.

Although this is but a minor detail, it shows how different people can interpret the Scriptures in such different ways. Because they could not execute Jesus they took him to Pilate. Earlier in this scene we saw Claudia, the wife of Pilate, having a dream. It will not be until later that we find out that she had a vision that Jesus is a Holy man and that her husband should not have anything to do with his death. As Caiaphis finishes questioning Jesus Peter leaves, obviously shaken and unable to make any sense of what is happening. As he is trying to leave he is confronted by two men and a woman to whom he denies now Jesus. It is then that Peter makes eye contact with Jesus and we see the flashback to when Jesus predicts Peter’s denial of him three times. Peter then goes to Mary and confesses his denial of Jesus. Not in Scriptures Peter confessing to Mary shows how highly she is held by Roman Catholics. Jesus was led to a cell where he was mocked and beaten by the guards. As this is happening we see Mary wondering through the Temple. Suddenly she drops to the ground and listens as the viewer is taken below her to where Jesus is being held. This scene which is not in the Scriptures, like some of the flashbacks, serves to strengthen the bond between mother and son.

Increasingly being tortured by what he realizes he has done, Judas goes to the high priests and offers to give the money back because he has condemned an innocent man. The high priests want nothing to do with him as they finally have what they want, Jesus. Judas throws the money at them and leaves. Again we see more added what is not in the Scriptures as the movie fills in the time between Judas returning the coins and hanging himself. His soul tortured he sees demons in two young boys he see him sitting on the street and they begin to mock him. As they are doing this Judas sees demonic faces and tries to get away. The scene unfolds further as he is outside the city being chased, beaten and spit on by a group of children. Satan appears and the children disappear. It is then that Judas sees a dead donkey. He takes the rope from the donkey and hangs himself in the tree above the donkey. Just by the way that he looks at the donkey it makes one wonder if this was not the donkey that Jesus had ridden into Jerusalem just a week earlier, symbolizing the shift in people’s attitude towards Jesus.

Jesus is then taken before Pilate whose wife has now pleaded with him to let Jesus go based on her dream earlier. Not being able to find Jesus guilty he sends him to Herod to make the call. While the words in this scene are based on Scripture the movie took the opportunity to show what kinds of a lifestyle that Herod led. Unable to get Jesus to do a miracle he sends him back to Pilate. Pilate then lets the Jews choose what to do with Jesus as he has obviously been shaken by Claudia’s dream. In another departure from Scripture he tells his soldiers to chastise him, but not to kill him. During the beating we are given images that the Scriptures do not go into detail on. Obviously some research into the torture that was used was done as we see Jesus beaten with rods and then whips with sharp objects embedded in them so as to cause gashes when they hit. Stopped before they beat Jesus to death he was taken back to Pilate who asked the people if they wanted him to let Barabbas or Jesus go. The crowd, incited by the chief priests cried out to crucify him.

Interestingly the two criminals were not beaten as bad as Jesus and only had to carry the cross beam of their crosses. The movie has Jesus carrying a cross that is completely together. They symbolism of this being that Jesus bore the cross for us. The cross that was used for Jesus appeared to be a very nicely finished one, done likely to honor Jesus for what he did for us. While carrying the cross a man is chosen from the crowd to carry the cross for Jesus as he could no longer carry it on his own. This man was obviously affected deeply by this, especially after making eye contact with Jesus. A woman along the route was also affected and at one point was able to get to Jesus after he had fallen and he wiped his bloodied face on her head garment before she was told to get away. During this scene we also see Mary rushing to be near Jesus. Just before she is able to do so we see a flashback to when he was just a young boy and she was there for him. The flashbacks with Mary have served that purpose through out the movie, to show that she was there for him, just has he was there, on the cross for us.

There were many things that happened in the movie that could not be covered completely here, but the movie goes from being true to the Scriptures to adding things for dramatic effect. This then helps to better define the relationships between the people involved. The departures from Scripture also help the viewer to better understand the world as it was when Jesus was alive. In a creative venture as this it is hard for those who are creating it to not have their personal views show up. While that does happen the movie is still able to convey the long-suffering of Jesus which gives people hope. Just like the Scriptures, the movie can be interpreted in different ways. Because Jesus is God in the flesh, he chose to do what he did for us. It was Jesus the prophet and his admission to being the son of God that led to his crucifixion which showed him as the Messiah.

References
Achtemeier, P. J., Green, J. B., & Thompson, M. M. (2001). Introducing the New Testament: Its Literature and Theology. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.

Oxford University Press, Inc. (1977). The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press, Inc..