The Real Gospel of The Passion of the Christ

My latest article at The Reelists is on Mel Gibson's famous (or among some, infamous) The Passion of the Christ:

Much of the American church has lauded The Passion of the Christ for its stark and gory depiction of the death of Jesus for being “realistic”. However, having done historical studies on the subject, I can say that Mr. Gibson went far astray of historical reality. First of all, his sixty-plus lashing of Jesus would not be allowed. Even Jesus Christ Superstar only had the “forty minus one” legal limit of a public lashing. Also, although it was an occasional practice for the Romans to weave bone into their whips, it was not a perpetual or necessarily a frequent use. We have no proof that every whip on Jesus’ back ripped his flesh to shreds. And, frankly, an adult body can lose about 2.2 liters of blood before death. And long before the Jesus of the Passion carried his cross, he had lost that amount of blood.

Read the rest at The Reelists