What Really Happened on Good Friday - Mel Gibson's Passion Movie and the New Testament
Although much of Mel Gibsons Passion of the Christ" movie comes from visions of a German nun, it nonetheless conforms to New Testament accounts. Of interest to editors and reporters covering religion, books, movies, feature news.
Atlanta, GA (PRWEB) March 18, 2005 -- While millions of U.S. Christians will observe Good Friday on March 25 with a variety of Passion devotionals, an Atlanta author points out that the fervor of the day had diminished until Mel Gibson renewed interest in it.
Noel Griese, who writes about Passion devotionals in a new edition of the book Mel Gibson used to script much of his Passion of the Christ" movie, notes that up until the 1960s, many businesses closed from noon to 3:00 p.m. in recognition of a crucifixion that occurred many centuries earlier, and the devout gathered for services, often involving Passion Plays, Stations of the Cross and other observances.
Griese relates the history of Passion devotionals in his introduction to a new edition of "The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ," an 1833 work in which German author Clemens Brentano related the visions of a 19th-century nun, Anne Catherine Emmerich, regarding the Last Supper, Passion, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. Mel Gibson used the book to fill in many of the scenes in his 2004 Passion movie, newly re-released to theaters this Lent.
Had Mel Gibson relied solely on the accounts in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and the Acts of the Apostles, he would perhaps have had only two or three minutes of film," said Griese. The visions of Anne Catherine Emmerich gave him many of the details that permitted him to create what is perhaps the most dramatic Passion Play yet produced."
Grieses introduction to the new edition of "The Dolorous Passion" links more than 40 scenes in the Gibson movie to the 19th-century German classic. Anvil Publishers issued the new English edition with his introduction on Feb. 9 (Ash Wednesday).
People who saw the movie will recall Judas hanging himself over the carcass of a flyblown dead animal," Griese notes. In the New Testament, only the Gospel of Matthew says Judas hanged himself, and it does not describe the locale. In Acts of the Apostles, Judas is said to have met his end when his insides burst out. Gibson takes his cue in the movie from Matthew, but his details of the locale are from Emmerich and Brentano."
Another example: one of the thieves crucified with Jesus is named Gesmas in the Gibson movie. The thieves, while not named in the Bible, have variously over time been identified in apocryphal material as Dismas and Cestas, Dumachus and Titus, Joca and Matha and Nismus and Zustin. Only Emmerich and Gibson identify the bad thief" as Gesmas.
Similarly, the Roman centurion Abenadar in the movie, the 'right-hand man for procurator Pontius Pilate, is an extrabiblical figure drawn straight from the pages of "The Dolorous Passion." Griese, a student of religious mysticism and the author of 16 books, says of Abenadar, According to Emmerich, he was converted to Christianity as a result of his presence at the crucifixion. She says he took the Christian name Ctesiphon, and became an evangelist."
Emmerich and Gibson place Abenadar at the trial of Jesus, the scourging and crucifixion. While Griese has found no record of Abenadar prior to publication of "The Dolorous Passion," there is a historical record of a first-century St. Ctesiphon, he says. This Ctesiphon accompanied the apostle James the Greater into Spain, where he helped to evangelize the Spanish at Verga. Later, when James was martyred in Jerusalem, Ctesiphon reportedly took his body back to Spain."
"The Dolorous Passion" was first published in Germany in 1833. To write it, Clemens Brentano sat beside the sickbed of ailing Augustinian nun Emmerich daily from 1818 forward, recording the spectacular visions she experienced up to her death in 1824.
Brentano, a friend of German author Johann Goethe and the Brothers Grimm of fairy tale fame, was a well educated and popular author of poetry and plays who first gained popularity as a collector and editor of German folk songs. Emmerich, whose visions he recorded, was a nun whose convent in Westphalia was closed in 1811 by Napoleon Bonapartes brother Jerome Bonaparte. In addition to being an ecstatic visionary, she was a stigmatic and an inediac (lived on water and communion wafers). She is currently a Catholic Church candidate for sainthood.
Brentano worked on his notes for nine years after Emmerich died in 1824 before publishing them in 1833 as "The Dolorous Passion." The book soon outsold even Goethe in Germany and became an international best-seller. The book was all but forgotten until Gibson resurrected it to script his Passion movie.
Dolorous Passion editor Noel L. Griese is available for interviews on the book, its influence on the Mel Gibson Passion" movie, and the history of Lenten Passion devotionals such as Stations of the Cross and Passion Plays.
About Anvil Publishers
Anvil Publishers of Atlanta specializes in nonfiction books, especially in the areas of American history and biography, communication arts, health and fitness and history of religions.
Book Summary
Title: The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ after the Meditations of Anne Catherine Emmerich as told to Clemens Brentano / with an Introduction by Noel L. Griese.
Publisher: Anvil Publishers, Inc.
ISBN: 0-9749721-1-8 (paper); 0-9749721-2-6 (case).
6x9 hardcover and paperback, 384 pp. with index, US$16.95 (paper), US$26.95 (case).
Available nationally at retail outlets. Distributed by Ingram, Quality Books Inc., Baker & Taylor, Lightning Source, Amazon.com, alibris and custserv@anvilpub.com
Contact information: Kathie Splinter, marketing and fulfillment manager, email: kspinter@anvilpub.com; phone: 770-938-0289, 1-800-500-FLAG (3524); fax: 770-493-7232; web: www.anvilpub.com
Media Contact:
Kathie Splinter or Lee Xavier of Anvil Publishers 770-938-0289 or 1-800-500-FLAG, ksplinter@anvilpub.com, lxavier@anvilpub.com.
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