Mel Gibson: Analyzing The Historical Jesus

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Recommended: Emergence of Christianity

Christian Davis
Christopher Mount
The Historical Jesus
19 November 2017
Analyzing the Historical Jesus There is a lot that can be said about the historical Jesus when trying to decipher the historical past from myth. When someone looks deeper into the judgement of Jesus at the trial by Pilate in Matthew 27:15-26, they can see a lot of things correlating between myth and history, from the size of the crowd, to even how Pilate allowed Jesus to be crucified. The life of Jesus is able to be seen and interpreted today through the eyes of many authors including Dominic Crossan, and even some movie makers like Mel Gibson. Everyone has their own different and unique interpretation of how the historical Jesus had lived. The interpretations from Mel …show more content…

Mel Gibson was very emotionally involved in his film, The Passion of the Christ, mostly because of his passion about the historical Jesus. In his movie, Mel Gibson had included himself in the movie in a very symbolic way. He was pictured as the man who was nailing Jesus to the cross, holding himself accountable for the death of Jesus (Syndicated). In this, the viewer can see the passion he had for Jesus. This interpretation, according to lecturette 12 Part B, includes atonement theology, which is the belief that because Jesus suffered and died on the cross, followers do not have to suffer for their sins. Now, when the viewer reaches the trial of Jesus in this film, the viewer notices a lot of different things when comparing it to the biblical scene in the Gospel of Matthew. The viewer can see that the high priests that are condemning Jesus, or asking Pilate to condemn Him, are much more present within most of the trial of Jesus. The people outside are a lot less present within this trial for some apparent reason. The changes were most likely for the sole purpose of the film, trying to make it more appealing to the audience. However, these changes don’t help Matthew’s reliability for reconstructing the historical Jesus. There are, on the other hand, a lot of ways that Mel Gibson’s portrayal help the analysis of Matthew’s Gospel passage. The way that Gibson dramatizes Jesus’ trial by Pilate, leaving him in bruises and showing the brutality of the guards when flogging him really gives a picture of what could have happened, putting it in a form that viewers can visually see. This helps us to see what had actually happened, allowing it to be easier to

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