Crucifying Mel Gibson - a film called "The Passion"

Radiofree West Hartford ^ | August 23, 2003 | Alan Caruba

[ultima ratio]

"Jesus will be speaking English by the time it hits the big screen."

The writer is thinking in the box about this movie. One of the reasons for the film's impact, according to those who have seen the film, is that it uses Aramaic and Latin, ancient languages which powerfully transmit the illusion that what is happening is real. This was Gibson's whole point in making The Passion--a spiritually motivated one. It is not a commercial enterprise in the usual sense and there will be no compromises on this for the sake of better box office.

[ultima ratio]

Pilate was from Spain and would have spoken Latin. So too, the Roman soldiers who were from the Italian peninsula. The cultural language of the empire was Greek, but Latin was also spoken as well as the various indigenous languages.

[Lion in Winter]

I read in a textbook many years ago when I was in a college Theology course, that Greek( Koine)was the language of commerce and in some instances, culture, at the time of Christ.

[ultima ratio]

It was. But Pilate and his men spoke Latin. It was the official language of government. This is why the official inscription ordered on the Cross was in Hebrew, Latin and Greek.