Reply #7: An Envisioning of the humanity of Jesus that sometimes works, indeed

[papau]

often works better, IMHO, then the Gibson S&M "Passion" - As praise that is rather very thin gruel indeed.

And that is the last good thing I'd say about the film. It is fiction and says it is fiction, but it is a simple minded grade school fart joke at the beliefs of Christians - harmless but not a good movie, again IMO. The writing is as if an outline of shock value ideas to traditional Christian understanding were listed out and then the director filled in. It is a Porky's coming of age movie that somehow got awards. But while Porky's had a bit of entertainment for the teen value, this has value only if you like seeing folks having sex with a whore as Jesus waits his turn, or if you like shock value that uses a very deep knowledge of Roman and Greek Catholic thought.

In the Judas Gospel, Judas was just a good guy, a helper of Jesus, and better than the other helpers of Jesus. Here he is almost the conscience of a fallible, fallen man, who likes sin - a bit contrary to the idea of Jesus as fully God at the same time as fully human.

Indeed it tries to sell the atheist idea that Christ’s resurrection is more important that the historical truth, via Paul's dialog -which contradicts St. Paul’s "If Christ is not raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain… If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins, (and) those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished" (1 Cor. 15:16-18). So all those early believers were not believers - they just wanted to sell an idea for the betterment of society. It has Paul initially maintaining the truth of his message - but after a while more or less endorsing the notion of "Modernist theologians"/atheists that the gospel message was essentially "invented" by Paul himself, and that the faith and hope people draw from the idea of Christ’s resurrection is more important that the historical truth.

If you are into Mary Magdalene as a prostitute, with Jesus appearing to be waiting his turn, with a bit of background sex, this is a winner for you, Or if you resist the idea, that Jesus emphasized, of giving honor to your father and mother — a virtue that Jesus thought his society needed more of (cf. Mk 7:10-13), then you will like the rewrite of the scene where folks tell Jesus that his mother and brothers have come to see him, and Jesus responds to the crowd, "Who are my mother and brothers? Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and brother" (cf. Mk 3:31-35). The scene as rewritten for the movie has Jesus saying to his mother "I have no family," and turning his back on her as she breaks down in tears.

WOW - But they said it was fiction. I guess being fully human means being fully tempted, needing a whore every now and then, and giving the finger to your Mom when a statement is not phrased in a manner you want it to be phrased.

It is not a bad movie. Good Production values. And again I thought it did a fair job of showing the humanity of Jesus in some scenes. But overall it was a nothing movie - a waste of time and money since I am too old for poorly done analogs of coming of age movie's fart jokes.

At least that is my opinion.

:-)