Chanukah - by Mel (Suspected Antisemite Now Wants To Tell The Story Of Maccabees)

NY Daily News ^ | March 17, 2004 | DEREK ROSE

[presidio9]

He has portrayed the Crucifixion - now Mel Gibson has his sights set on the tale that led to Chanukah. "The Passion of the Christ" director told WABC's Sean Hannity yesterday that he's planning a movie based on a Jewish rebellion nearly 200 years before the birth of Christ.

"The story that's always fired my imagination ... is the Book of Maccabees," Gibson said in the radio interview.

"It's about Antiochus, the king who set up his religion in the Temple, and forced them all to deny the true God and worship at his feet and worship false gods.

"The Maccabees family stood up, and they made war, they stuck by their guns, and they came out winning," he continued. "It's like a Western."

The revolt is said to have begun when a king's officer tried to force a priest named Mattathias to make a pagan sacrifice.

Mattathias killed the man instead, and he and his followers fled to the hills to wage a successful guerrilla war that eventually liberated Jerusalem in 165 B.C.

That victory led to the holiday of Chanukah, when a tiny amount of oil lasted eight days as the Maccabees purified the Temple in Jerusalem.

A story about heroic Jews might insulate Gibson from charges of anti-Semitism leveled by the movie's critics. But some Jews might not take kindly to Gibson, a conservative Catholic, interpreting their history.

Anti-Defamation League Executive Director Abe Foxman told the Orlando Sentinel recently that if Gibson dramatizes the rebellion, "we'll lose."

"He'll write his own history," Foxman said. "I would prefer to leave the fate of Jewish history and Hollywood to Steven Spielberg. The Maccabees ... are our sacred history."

Gibson, though, said the success of "The Passion" has silenced some of his loudest critics, and he repeated his view that the movie does not blame Jews for Christ's death.

Gibson talked politics as well as religion during the Hannity interview.

One of a small number of Hollywood conservatives, Gibson said he thinks "a lot of what" President Bush "does is good," but he has been "having my doubts of late.

"It's all to do with these weapons [of mass destruction] that we can't seem to find, and why did we go over there [to Iraq]."

The conservative talk-show host, a Bush supporter, quickly changed the subject.

[Rutles4Ever]

Maccabbees 2 contains explicit references to praying for the dead and offering sacrifices to help expunge the penalty of their sins...

I'm regrettably not well-versed on Maccabbees, but those particular references were "problematic" for Luther, who did not subscribe to Catholic teaching on Purgatory.

[Rutles4Ever]

I consider it a minor miracle that the Book of James didn't get kicked out, as well...

[Bonaparte]

It almost did.

[Aquinasfan]

Sean asked Mel if he had any other plans for biblical movies. Mel pretty much said not really.

I'm very disappointed. I hope he changes his mind. Don't leave Bible stories to the liberals to destroy!

[votelife]

why are you surprised James made the cut?

[Aquinasfan]

I wonder if Abe has read the disclaimer at the beginning of Spielberg's animated feature "Moses: Prince of Egypt." It would appear that Spielberg may not believe their "sacred history" is true.

What did it say?

[presidio9]

I'm regrettably not well-versed on Maccabbees, but those particular references were "problematic" for Luther, who did not subscribe to Catholic teaching on Purgatory.

Lutheran views on Purgatory are the very definition of the term "problematic." If there were no such thing as Purgatory, there would be absolutely no point in offering prayers for the dead, as is perscribed many many times in both the Old and the New Testaments.

[kidd]

A story about heroic Jews might insulate Gibson from charges of anti-Semitism leveled by the movie's critics..

Seems to me that he just made a movie about heroic Jews.

[jwalsh07]

"The Maccabees family stood up, and they made war, they stuck by their guns, and they came out winning," he continued. "It's like a Western."

Perhaps so, but rumor has it that the Maccabees never found the WMD's.

[montag813]

"He'll write his own history," Foxman said. "I would prefer to leave the fate of Jewish history and Hollywood to Steven Spielberg. The Maccabees ... are our sacred history."

As a Jew, I say this...Abe Foxman shut your stupid fat mouth. You do not speak for the Jews. You speak only for your bigoted, Socialist, slob of a self. Get lost you freak, stop insulting the Christian faith, and stop dividing Jews and Christians.

[Alouette]

Luther removed those problematic books from the Protestant canon.

The books of the Maccabees were never part of the Hebrew scriptural canon.

[montag813]

"He'll write his own history," Foxman said. "I would prefer to leave the fate of Jewish history and Hollywood to Steven Spielberg. The Maccabees ... are our sacred history."

As a Jew, I say this...Abe Foxman shut your stupid fat mouth. You do not speak for the Jews. You speak only for your bigoted, Socialist, slob of a self. Get lost you freak, stop insulting the Christian faith, and stop dividing Jews and Christians.

[Yaelle]

Wow, this is cool! I look forward to this. Of course, guerrilla warfare is violent... I am such a chicken when it comes to violence.

And Foxman is so hypersensitive that he is not doing us any favors.

[Yaelle]

I don't know where purgatory fits in with the Chanukah story.

[Alouette]

Abe Foxman, Please Shut Up!

[Rutles4Ever]

James epistle pointedly expresses the necessity of good works as a companion to salvation by faith. Protestants believe that faith alone is sufficient. Being that Protestants believe that the Bible is the entire resource of faith (minus Tradition), it challenges their assertion that good works do not contribute to our salvation...

Catholics believe that man is indeed justified by faith, but there need to be outwards signs of faith (i.e. works) in order to validate it. Think of it like this:

Catholics and Protestants both believe that Faith is the "engine" of salvation. Catholics believe that for the engine not to die, it needs to be fueled with good works. Protestants dispute this with the belief that Faith essentially "fuels" itself -- that good works are not necessary.

I hope that makes sense.

[Cinnamon Girl]

I don't remember any disclaimer, but I do remember that Spielberg totally BUTCHERED the account of Moses. And for what reason?

[Yaelle]

As a cradle Catholic, I have never heard that "purgatory" came out of Maccabbees.

LOL! As a Jew I also had no idea! I was trying to figure out where that came in...

[Feiny]

Mel Gibson bump

[Rutles4Ever]

You hit the nail on the head.