Passion of the Christ

The Passion of the Christ

Joseph Maczko

02-27-2008�

"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?�

"The Passion of the Christ" begins in the garden of Gethsemane were 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. 1977, pgs. 1208, 1235, 1280) When Jesus returns to where he had been praying Satan appears in the surroundings. Of the four Gospels only one has a guest to Jesus in the garden and that is in Luke 22:43, "and there appeared to him an angel from heaven strengthening him." (Oxford University Press p.

Stained glass at St John the Baptist's Anglican Ch...

First page of the Gospel of Mark, by Sargis Pitsak...

English: "The Judas Kiss", (Mark 14:45) by Gustave...

1280) The scene is further exaggerated when a serpent comes out from under Satan and crawls over to Jesus. Jesus then stands and crushes the head of the serpent linking this scene back to Genesis 3:15 (Oxford University Press, p. 5) 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. 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 sack of coins to Judas and then having him fail to catch it made for more dramatic scene.

A crowd came with Judas and the guards to seize Jesus. The description in the movie is more like what is recorded in the Gospel of John, where "Judas, procuring...