5,000 pastors cheer Mel Gibson's 'Passion'

Washington Times ^ | 1/22/04 | Julia Duin

[ZULU]

As a studentof Roman history, I will not see the film - I have a weak stomach - but I wish it well.

Romans used a multi-thonged lash with bones or metal barbs on the tips - it WAS pretty brutal, but not necessarily terminal. Pilot obviously hoped that just scourging Christ would satisfy the crowd and they would leave him (Pilot) in peace.

[cookcounty]

" As is the selection of Latin as the primary language of the day rather than the actual but not Catholic-dogma-chic Greek language."

That caught my attention too. The soldiers of the 10th Legion and most of the Roman Army in the Eastern empire were Greek-speaking mercenaries. If it's conversations between officers, it could be Latin, but otherwise it's bogus.

I'll also be interested to see whether Jesus' quotations of scripture comes out in Hebrew (the language he learned it in) or Aramaic, the "common trade language" of Judea.

[Destro]

What proof? The fact that Pilate coined Roman money for Judea in Greek, the language of the area that the vast majority could understand. In addition Greek was the Lingua Franc not only of the Roman empire but of Rome;s enemies the Persians who coined their money in Greek and conducted all court records in Greek. Greek continued to be the Lingua France of the middle east well into the Arab conquest.The proof is that the first Roman catacoms Christians used Greek, including the first Pope's. See above.

Read also: How did Greek come to be the vernacular in parts of Southern Italy?

From the book Polyglot Italy

by Dr. Geoffrey Hull

In ancient times Sicily and the Italian Peninsula south of Naples were known collectively as Magna Graecia - 'Great Greece' because of the number and importance of the Greek settlements there. The coasts of Apulia, Lucania, Campania, Calabria and eastern Sicily were first colonized by mainland Greeks in the eighth century before Christ. Such celebrated figures as Empedocles, Theocritus and Archimedes were natives of 'Great Greece'. Sicily had already been settled by Phoenician colonists from Carthage in North Africa, and the western districts remained in their hands. Despite several attempts by the Sicilian Greeks (Siceliots) to gain control of the whole island. In both Sicily and Italy the Greeks preferred to live on or near the coasts, where they established their city-states and emporia. They left the less attractive inland regions to the indigenous peoples mainly Italici (in eastern Sicily, Calabria and Lucania) and in Apulia, Messapians, an Indoeuropean people from Illyria. These autochthonous tribes maintained their own languages for a time, but at the dawning of the Christian age they were largely hellenized.

The expanding Roman Empire had annexed the whole of Magna Graecia and Sicily by 241 B.C., and while the Romans planted Latin colonies here and there, on the whole they treated the Italian Greeks as confederates, respecting their language and culture. In Rome itself Greek was employed as a second language and in the first Christian centuries the city had a large Greek-speaking minority. Latin spread through the Greek cities of the South as an administrative language but Greek held its own as a literary medium and the speech of the common people in many areas. At the height of the Empire Vulgar Latin had inplanted itself as the vernacular only as far south as the Apulian towns of Tarentum and Brundisium, and the river Crati in Bruttium (present-day Calabria), the Salentine peninsula, lower Calabria and eastern Sicily remained for the time being strongholds of the Greek language.

In the last centuries of the Empire Latin began to encroach upon literary Greek in Magna Graecia, and it is possible that the Greek vernacular itself might have given way to early Romance had it not been for the Byzantine (= Eastern Roman Empire) conquest of 535. Once Constantinople had replaced Rome as the centre of government, Greek was restored as the official language of southern Italy and Sicily and cultural ties with the Hellenic mainland were reaffirmed. The seventh century saw an influx of Greek-speaking refugees from Syria and Egypt, recently occupied by the Moslems. These immigrants strengthened the reviving Hellenity of the Byzantine Themes (territories) of the South.

Before the coming of the Byzantines, Italian and Sicilian Greek (Italiot), known to the local Italian tribes as Gricus, had been a variant of the Doric (western) dialect of the mainland. The Byzantines now introduced the Neo-Hellenic koine based on the speech of Athens (Attic). The influence transformed the structure of Italiot, though some of the original Doric features survived, and constitute living proof of the unbroken continuity of the Greek language in Italy from ancient times.

Linguistic conditions in Sicily were to be drastically altered by the Saracen invasion of 832. By the tenth century Greek had receded into the south-eastern corner of the island. Then came the Norman conquest of the eleventh century, which struck a serious blow at the roots of Hellenity both in Sicily and on the mainland. The cultural policy of the Normans was ambiguous: while officially tolerating all languages and creeds within their realm they also promoted the use of contemporary south Italian koine (based on the contact language that had evolved in Naples, Amalfi, Salerno and other ports), and favoured the Latin-rite Catholicism of the Holy See, their political ally. The Byzantine Christians among their subjects were severed from the jurisdiction of the Greek Church, by now in schism from Rome, and throughout the kingdom the eastern liturgy began to be replaced by the Roman rite with Latin rather than Greek as the language of worship.

Soon in full decline, the Byzantine rite lingered on in some parishes of the traditional Greek areas of Apulia, Calabria and Sicily until the seventeenth century, when it fell victim of the centralizing policies of the Counter Reformation. From the fourteenth century South Italian began to spread at the expense of Greek in the Messina-Taormina, Milazzo triangle (definitively Italianized by the 1500's) and in southern Calabria and Salento. However there is evidence that Greek continued to be widely spoken in Calabria (at least by the lower classes) until the Renaissance period. The anonymous author of a French chronicle of the late thirteenth century noted that "through the whole of Calabria the peasants speak nothing but Greek". In 1368 Petrarca recommended a stay in the region to a student who needed to improve his knowledge of Greek.

In the early sixteenth century Calabrian Greek was still vigorous in the inland districts south of Palmi and Cittanova but by the close of the seventeenth century it had receded into the Aspromonte mountains of the southern tip of the peninsula, an area comprising hte towns of Cardeto, Bagaladi, Motta San Giovanni, San Lorenzo, Melito, Condofuri, Roghudi, Bova, Palizzi, Africo and Sant'Agata. For the next century and a half the Calabrian Grecia (Greek-speaking zone) remained fairly stable, until the Risorgimento and Unification unleased a new tide of Italian linguisitic influence which accelerated the process of erosion. By the 1920's the ancestral language of South Calabrians could be heard only in the small rural communites of Bova, Amendola, Condofuri, Galliciano, Roccaforte, Roghudi and Ghorio.

Salentine Greek at first declined more rapidly than its Calabrian counterpart. Around 1400 it was already confined to a territorial strip bounded by Gallipoli and the Gulf of Taranto in the west, and Lake Limini near Otranto in the east, with Struda and Alliste as its respective northern and southern limits. By the twentieth century this Grecia had shrunk to a compact district south of Lecce/Luppiu made up of the villages of Calimera, Martignano, Sternatia, Soleto, Zollino, Martano, Castrignano dei Greci, Corigliano and Melpignano.

By the time they became citizens of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861, the Italo-Greeks, mostly poor peasants, had long been severed from the Byzantine religious traditions and from the mainstream of Neo-Hellenic civilization, The modern Italiot renaissance began in the Salentine Grecia through the efforts of Vito Domenico Palumbo (1857 - 1918), a native of Calimera, who endeavoured to re-establish cultural contacts with mainland Greece. Although excluded from the churches, schools and government offices, Greek began to be taught in some villages in the decade following World War II on the initiative of private individuals. In 1971 the Unione dei Greci dell'Italia meridionale was founded to foster relations between the Calabrian Greeks (today numbering only 5,000) and the 15,000 Salentine Greeks. At least three bilingual journals devoted to the Griko language are now in circulation, and a number of mainland Greek intellectuals and cultural bodies have taken an interest in the welfare of their trans-Ionian brothers. Nevertheless, in spite of these developments, Italo-Greek continues to be ignored the the Italian government. Furthermore the Calabrian Grecia, already in an advanced state of decay, suffered a serious setback when the floods of 1970 and 1972 forced the evacuation of Roghudi and Ghorio. The inhabitants of these villages have since been resettled along the Ionian coast and in Reggio where the language has little hope of survival.

Ample traces of the recent Greek past of Calabria, Salento and north-eastern Sicily remain in the local Neo-Italian dialects (the Romance speech that replaced Greek), and in regional surnames like Argurio ('Silver coin'), Calabro ('Calabrian'), Calo, Cala ('good'), Cefali ('head'), Chiriaco ('lordly'), Condro ('fat'), Dascoli ('Teacher'), Foti ('bright'), Lagana ('greengrocer'), Lico ('wolf'), Macri ('long'), Papandrea ('the priest Andrew'), Patera ('father'), Pangallo ('very good'), Schiro ('hard'), Sgro ('curly-headed'), Spano ('beardless'), Trano ('adult'), Tripodi ('tripod'). The Hellenisms in the modern South Calabrian dialect include such common words as ciaramide 'tile', ahjeri'dish-rag', crasentulu 'worm', capura 'pail', scifu 'trough', tripu 'hole', cudespina 'old woman', cuddaraci 'Easter bun', fusca 'bran', hasmiari 'to yawn', milinghi 'temples', spissida 'spark', cilona 'tortoise', petula 'butterfly', praia 'beach', rosacu 'frog', zafrata 'lizard', and zimmaru 'ram'. South Calabrian offers many examples of Greek syntax in Romance dress, for example the periphrastic construction that replaces the Italian infinitive, e.g. vogghiu mu vajo 'I want to go' (literally: "I want that I go") = Bova Greek thelo na pao (It. Voglio andare), vinni mi ti dugnu 'I came to give you' = irta na su dhosu (It. Venni a darti). Similarly, the use of the preterite tense instead of the Italian present perfect betrays a recent Greek substratum, e.g. comu mangiasti? 'how have you eatern?' = local Greek pos efaje? (It. Come hai mangiato?), ci facistivu? 'what have you done?' = ti ecamete (It. Che cosa avete fatto?).

[Destro]

Hebrew was the language of the Scriptures and > the Synagogue, but despite attempts to prove otherwise, it appears > to have been a strictly religious language. The lingua franca of > Judea and Galilee was Aramaic, though with the Romans > occupying and all the trade with other nations, virtually everyone > was bilingual in Greek as well (Greek was the trade language of the > Roman Empire - do we suppose that Pilate and the centurions etc. > bothered to learn Aramaic?). Every so often somebody comes up > with a theory about the NT - or at least the gospels - being written > in Hebrew; it makes ripples for a while, then fades back into > obscurity where it belongs. --

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad at ioa.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/

[cookcounty]

"Thus, a Roman governor may communicate with a Jewish high priest in koine Greek, as Pilate probably did with Caiphas. However, when that governor talked with military officers and particularly the lower ranks, he would have reverted to his native tongue, much as a member of the Russian aristocracy would have done."

Your comment about the "Italian Regiment" in Acts 10 is interesting, making Italian communication possible. The fact remains that most "Roman" soldiers were neither Roman nor Italian.

[Destro]

The soldiers of the 10th Legion and most of the Roman Army in the Eastern empire were Greek-speaking mercenaries.

Acts 21:37 The soldiers were ready to take Paul into the army building. But Paul spoke to the commander. Paul asked, "Do I have the right to say something to you?" The commander said, "Oh, you speak Greek?

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

Since the Assemblies of God came into being at the height of the Pentecostal Movement, it is kind of tricky to call them a Protestant Church. They did not break away from the teaching of either the Roman Catholic Church, or any of the major Protestant Churches.

Do we recognize the authority of the See of Peter? No. Do we agree with all of the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church? No. Do we seek to denigrate the Roman Catholic Church? No.

If you were to define any Church that is not Roman Catholic as being "Protestant", then the only Church that wouldn't be Protestant is the Roman Catholic Church. If you were to define any Church that does not recognize the authority of the Pope as being "Protestant", then the only Church that wouldn't be Protestant is the Roman Catholic Church.

This would mean the Eastern Orthodox, the Greek Orthodox, the Russian Orthodox, and the Egyptian Coptic Churches are "Protestant". Clearly, this is not the case.

The Assemblies of God is a Pentecostal Church. It is part of the Evangelical movement of Churches. Ironically, it is a much larger Church in many countries than it is in the U.S. But I wouldn't call it a Protestant Church nor an anti-papist Church.

[ZULU]

The Romans were brutal to their enemies and kind to their friends.

The reason their empire was so successful was because they WANTED conquered people to become Romans. They WANTED them to learn Latin, dress like Romans, worship Roman Gods and become peaceable, tax-paying, soldier-producing, integral members of the Empire. Unlike predecessor Empires which were exclusionary - Rome was inclusionary. Look at the composition of their Legions and the ethnicity of later Emperors. A Roman could be an Italian, a Gaul, a German, a Numidian, a Pontine, a Thracian, etc. Only the Jews and the Christians later, refused to fit into the mould.

The Jews were a problem because they refused to accept Roman Gods. They rioted when the legionary shields and insignia with animal images on them were exposed in Jerusalem. They didn't eat Roman food, they excluded themselves from Roman Society. They were the only montheists the Empire encountered until they ran into Christians which they intially considered just another Jewish sect.

Palestine was an important place. It was the lynch-pin of Roman land connections between Egypt - the Empire's Grainery - and the west and connections with far eastern trade routes. Long before Christ there were problems there and long after. There were at least two revolts against the Romans later and the Romans ultimtely responded by destroying Jerusalem and scattering the Jews all over their Empire.

You're right about Pilot's final jab at the Jewish leaders. According to the Gospels he wrote on the inscription above the cross "Iesus Nazarathae Rex Iudaeorum"
- "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews". The Gospels also tell us that the Jewish leaders approached Pilot and said that it should be changed to read that He SAID He was the King of the Jews and Pilot said "What I have written, I have written."

Poor Pilot. He had no idea what he was getting himself into. His name went down in infamy. He should have listened to his wife.

[ZULU]

"The crucifixion was a theologicla event, not a political one."

Exactly. But modern revisionists want to rewrite the Gospels so they are more politically correct by stating that the Romans murdered Christ because of political motives. Otherwise, being total atheists, they believe the alternative was the Jews killed Him.

As Christians we understand neither the Jews, nor Pilot nor the Romans killed Christ, our sins did. As a matter of fact, read "The Day Christ Died" an old classic. In all probablity, the Hellenized, Roman-butt-kissing members of the Sanhedrin orchestrated Christ's death and the majority of the Jews were probably horrified by the entire episode.

[Wallace T.]

You are correct that by the 1st Century AD, most Roman soldiers were not Italians. However, the Roman Empire did have a policy of using soldiers from one remote corner of the empire to police another and quite separate corner. Thus, North Africans garrisoned Hadrian's Wall in Britain and patrolled the Rhine, and vice versa. The Soviets had a similar policy, using Central Asian and Siberian soldiers to suppress uprisings in Hungary (1956) and Czechoslovakia (1968). In Western and Central Europe (including the Balkans) and in the western parts of North Africa, Latin, not Greek, was the lingua franca. (The "vulgar Latin" spken in these areas was the basis for French, Spanish, Portugese, Italian, and Romanian. Until invasions by Slavs, Germans, and Arabs, most of the Balkans, the Rhineland and Alps, and much of North Africa spoke a Latin based language.) For example, the 4th Century Christian theologian Augustine, a native of Hippo in Numidia, which is part of modern day Algeria, spoke Latin as his first language. Thus, a legionnaire from these areas would have at least some knowledge of Latin, much as a Tsarist or Communist-era soldier from the "Stans" would know some Russian, if only to obey military commands.

It is thus at least possible that Latin was in usage in 1st Century Israel.

[ZULU]

"Greek was the lingua franca of the Eastern Roman Empire"

True, but the Eastern Roman Empire did not exist until the time of Constantine, the first Christian Emperor, centuries later.

"Jesus' conversation with the Roman captain who wanted his child healed, it is probable that Christ spoke koine Greek."

I doubt it. He probably spke Aramiac and the Centurion, who had been stationed in Palestine some time, as he was referred to as a friend of the Jews, probably had learned the local language. I don't believe Centurions who were the equivalent of non-commissioned officers and rose through the ranks, had enough education to learn Greek.

"The use of Greek by the Roman elite was not unlike the use of French by the upper classes in England, Germany, Poland, and Russia in the 17th, 18th, and 19th Centuries."

Precisely. And it was not known or employed by lower ranking officers and soldiers who spoke either Latin or their native Language which was probably not Greek Greeks did provide legionnaries.

Otherwise I agree with you.

[ConservativeDude]

great posts.

you know, i consider it a real privilege to communicate with so many intelligent well-informed and just plain good folks here at fr.

thanks to all of you who make this worthwhile and edifying.

[ZULU]

"Paul asked, "Do I have the right to say something to you?" The commander said, "Oh, you speak Greek?"

I read your posts. Members of the upper classes may have known Greek, but they were as likley to carry on conversations in that language as were upper class members of British nobility to carry on conversations with each other in French - that is rarely. The language of choice in communication among Romans in any part of the empire in this period was Latin. Official documents were probably written in Latin, that was the speech of the conquerors, not Greek. The Romans may have bowed to local custom in some areas by employing bi-lingual or tri-lingual inscriptions, but that doesn't mean Roman military officers or soldiers conversed in Greek, or in any language other than Roman or their native language, whatever that may have happened to have been.

The Tenth Legion was raised in Spain. Its men were either Celto-Iberians or sons of Roman settlers in Spain. They must have spoken Latin or Celto-Iberian.

The quote you gave above about the "commander" is a curious one. Paul says to him "May I speak to you?" The commander responds "Do you speak Greek?" Obviously they were speaking to one another in a language other than Greek otherwise that's a stupid question. Paul was a Roman citizen, he probably spoke Latin. As an educated Jew, he may have also known Greek as well as Aramaic. The commander probably only spoke Latin and Greek - which is curious given the ethnicity of the Tenth Legion. On the other hand, centurions came in different ranks and frequently transferred from one Legion to another for a promotion in rank. This individual may have come originally from another legion, possibly one stationed in Greece, or maybe the guy just happened to know Greek. If so, that a surprise because most, although not each and every centurion, was from the lower classes and was promoted from the ranks.

On the other hand, 'commander" is rather a loose term. He may have been a civilian commander - a government official, rather than a military commander.

[Wallace T.]

The Eastern Roman (later the Byzantine) Empire did not formally exist until the 4th Century AD. However, over 600 years before Constantine, Alexander the Great and his army of Greeks and Macedonians conquered the entire Middle East, as far as portions of Pakistan. After Alexander's death, his empire was divided among four of his generals. Israel fell under the control of one of the successor states and was ruled by a Greek, or at least a Greek-speaking, elite, up until the time of the Maccabean revolt in the 2nd Century BC, as outlined in the Books of the Maccabees. Even after the Maccabean revolt, families of Greek heritage, such of that of the Herods of Galilee, remained powerful even into Roman times. The same was true in Egypt, where Cleopatra, of Greek descent, reigned until the time of the Roman conquest. This Greek influence caused their language to become the lingua franca of the Middle East, as did English in the Indian subcontinent many centuries later.

In the 1st Century BC, the Romans conquered or absorbed the remnants of the Greek kingdoms in the Middle East, including Israel. They inherited the Greek established governing institutions. Additionally, Greek culture had a tremendous influence on the Romans, especially the elite. Not unlike the old Eastern WASP Establishment that mimicked the private boarding schools, the architecture, the clothing styles, and even the pronunciation of the British upper classes, the Roman upper classes were enthralled with all things Greek. To a Roman aristocrat, a post in government service in the Greek-influenced Middle East was far more prestigious than a similar one in then-barbarous western Europe.

In addition, there might have been some trickle down effect on upwardly mobile people, such as the centurion. Furthermore, it is possible his unit was drawn from an area like Asia Minor, where Greek was the lingua franca.

However, neither Scripture nor other sources provide a clear answer as to whether Jesus Christ spoke koine Greek.

[ConservativeDude]

"I hope it is as accurate to history as I would like it to be or as I would have made it if I had Mel's talent and money."

you know what is interesting about this lively and informative discussion about greek/latin/aramaic, is that I can promise you - any of you who are followers of Jesus Christ who see the movie - you are going to get about 2.5 minutes into the Garden of Gethsemane (the opening scene) and you aren't gonna be thinking about these nuances.

I PROMISE you that you won't. What you will do is be completely overwhelmed by the drama of the God/man struggling, submitting to the will of the Father and accomplishing the time and space redemption of all sinners like me....

Now all that said, I cant resist making another 2 points on the historicity. I think that the relatively quick death of Jesus on the cross could well be due to the fact that his scourging and all that preceded the final execution were enough to almost kill him.

With regards to the language controversey, it seems we have reached the point where there is a consensus that the legionairres could have and likely did use latin, the Jews used Aramaic, but that the top leaders like Pilate and Caiphas MIGHT have spoken in Greek; it sounds like we are probably 66% sure of that.

I say that only to note that you should not be surprised if in the final version Mel went back and recut a few of those scenes and made the actors learn Greek in order to make it a tad more historical. That is the nature of this project.

Finally, I have to convey to you what I heard Mel say to our group and he probably said it to many others when questioned about why he made such a "controversial" movie. He basically gave what we in low church protestantism call his "testimony" and then said that he knows this is probably the end of his career and he doesn't give a damn.

I left with the strong impression that I had had the rare privilege of encountering someone who fears no man, only God.

See the movie. Buy the popcorn. Be moved and weep.

Soli deo gloria.

[Benjo]

Benjo, it is not true to the Gospels.

Is there supposed to be something in it that contradicts the Gospels? Even the Pope (in the latest version of the story) said of the Passion, "it is as it was."

[ConservativeDude]

there is nothing in the film which contradicts the gospels. i'll stand on that.

there might be historical elements which are debatable and for which our preferences are derived from non-biblical sources.

about these there is room for debate, as has taken place here today.

but about this be certain: nothing in the film contradicts what the Bible says. And just for good measure, I will add what Mel told our group when someone said that the film was historically inaccurate when the underlying "inaccuracy" was actually something in the gospel text.

"The film is based upon the Gospels. They are the inspired Word of God and they don't lie." - Mel Gibson

[ZULU]

I agree with what you say for the most part, but the ruling class was sill Roman and these people spoke Latin as their primary Language. Generally the language of the conquerer supercedes that of the Conquered, although that is not necessarily true vis-a-vis English and Norman-French. I know that knowledge of Greek at this time was as much desirable from a cultural standpoint among upper class Romans as French among 18th Century Britons.

I guess you could be right about the Centurion. He was with the Italian Cohort but could have come from another Legion in his rise through the centurian ranks. But I think if he were actually stationed in Palestine for any period of time, and he was, as the Bible says, a "friend of the Jews" whatever that means - he probably knew Aramaic.

As for Christ, as the Son of God, He probably could speak modern English if He chose. Scripture doesn't tell us if He spoke Greek or Latin or Aramaic or any combination of the above, but I'd put my bet on Aramaic as his language of choice. I'm sure his apostles and the average Jewish person in the street spoke only Aramaic, possibly knew some sprinkling of Greek or Latin, and possibly knew Hebrew from a religious perspective. Pilot might have known Aramaic but of he didn't it is not unreasonable to assume interpreters were available. Someone who cared enough to learn the language of a subject people should have known enough not to allow Legionnaries to expose graven images in their holiest city.

[Wallace T.]

The Pentecostals are an offshoot of the Holiness movement that influenced American Methodism in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. Unlike other branches of the Holiness movement, such as the Nazarenes, as well as most other Christians, the Pentecostals held that the "gifts of the Spirit" did not die out in Apostolic times.

Most Pentecostals, other than those who belong to the Oneness Movement, hold to orthodox Christian doctrines, such as the Trinity, the Substitutionary Atonement, the Virgin Birth, the Resurrection, the nature of Christ as wholly man and wholly God, the plenary inspiration of the Bible, etc. In areas of sotierology, Pentecostals hold to Wesleyan/Arminian doctrine: man is sinful yet capable of responding to the call of the Gospel, Jesus died for all mankind, a person may be saved, but fall from grace, etc. Most Pentecostals judge the gift of prophecy in light of Scripture, and thus adhere to the Reformation doctrine of sola Scriptura. They do not hold to such uniquely Catholic doctrines as apostolic succession, Papal infallibility, the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Lord's Supper, etc. They hold to the priesthood of the believer, another Reformation doctrine.

While Pentecostals have certain distinctives, their overall theology has its roots in the Reformation era, specifically the Arminian/Wesleyan tradition. Therefore, it can fairly be considered Protestant.

[Truth Addict]

5,000 pastors?

The building holding the conference does hold 5,000, and it was very close to being filled, but not all attendees were pastors. Some may have been with para-church organizations, some may be employed by churches, but not in a pastoral role (administrators, pastors' wives, sectetaries, etc.). I was there and I am not a pastor. My guess would be roughly half of those attending could be classified as pastors.

Having said that, it still was an interesting experience to be surrounded with such a large group of "spiritual heavyweights". There was a great atmosphere of anticipation and excitement. During an early scene (sorry I can't be more specific due to the non disclosure form I signed), there was a huge response of cheering and applause that was electrifying.

Regarding the discussion about languages which has been discussed at some length, my impression was that the movie is so captivating, both in the message, and the visual experience, that which language was being spoken was not an issue for me. If I was a historian or a linguist, I may be more concerned about accuracy, but as an average viewer, it did not effect my perception of the film at all.