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Chanukah - by Mel (Suspected Antisemite Now Wants To Tell The Story Of Maccabees)
NY Daily News ^
| March 17, 2004
| DEREK ROSE
Posted on 03/17/2004 2:09:23 PM PST by 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.
TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: abefoxman; adl; antiochus; bookofjames; chanukah; judas; maccabees; martinluther; mattathias; melgibson; purgatory; septuagint; thepassion
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To: Ann Archy
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.
To: presidio9
I consider it a minor miracle that the Book of James didn't get kicked out, as well...
To: Rutles4Ever
It almost did.
To: MarkL
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!
44
posted on
03/17/2004 3:21:27 PM PST
by
Aquinasfan
(Isaiah 22:22, Rev 3:7, Mat 16:19)
To: Rutles4Ever
why are you surprised James made the cut?
45
posted on
03/17/2004 3:21:44 PM PST
by
votelife
(Elect a Filibuster Proof Majority)
To: nonsporting
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?
46
posted on
03/17/2004 3:26:33 PM PST
by
Aquinasfan
(Isaiah 22:22, Rev 3:7, Mat 16:19)
To: Rutles4Ever; Ann Archy
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.
47
posted on
03/17/2004 3:26:56 PM PST
by
presidio9
(the left is turning antisemitism into the new homophobia)
To: presidio9
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.
48
posted on
03/17/2004 3:28:35 PM PST
by
kidd
To: presidio9
"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.
49
posted on
03/17/2004 3:30:17 PM PST
by
jwalsh07
(We're bringing it on John but you can't handle the truth!)
To: presidio9
"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.
To: Rutles4Ever
Luther removed those problematic books from the Protestant canon. The books of the Maccabees were never part of the Hebrew scriptural canon.
51
posted on
03/17/2004 3:30:39 PM PST
by
Alouette
(Proudly overpopulating the planet since 1972)
To: presidio9
"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.
To: presidio9
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.
53
posted on
03/17/2004 3:31:55 PM PST
by
Yaelle
To: Rutles4Ever
I don't know where purgatory fits in with the Chanukah story.
54
posted on
03/17/2004 3:33:29 PM PST
by
Yaelle
To: montag813
55
posted on
03/17/2004 3:34:09 PM PST
by
Alouette
(Proudly overpopulating the planet since 1972)
To: votelife
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.
To: nonsporting
I don't remember any disclaimer, but I do remember that Spielberg totally BUTCHERED the account of Moses. And for what reason?
To: Ann Archy
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...
58
posted on
03/17/2004 3:36:10 PM PST
by
Yaelle
To: AnnaZ; HangFire
Mel Gibson bump
59
posted on
03/17/2004 3:37:02 PM PST
by
Feiny
(Drawing on my fine command of language, I said nothing.)
To: presidio9
You hit the nail on the head.
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