So, I'm watching "Movies That Shook the World," and they're talking about The Last Temptation of Christ. I just don't understand why people got so riled up about that movie. It was a good movie. I doesn't say that Jesus wasn't the Messiah -- although I don't see why a movie can't be free to make that claim. It actually shows that Jesus was the Messiah, wholly man and wholly God. It shows Jesus living a real, full life. He gets married, he has children, and all that stuff... but it's fiction! I don't just mean that it's a movie, but that in the context of the movie, Jesus's life beyond the Calvary is just a fiction, presented by Satan as a temptation. Is it that they see Jesus doing things that they don't think he did (getting married, having sex)? The movie then asserts that these things didn't happen. Are the images themselves offensive for some reason? It can't just be that we're seeing Jesus tempted and conflicted. We see that already in canon. Most people who protested did not, presumably, see the movie. Someone told them about the movie and told them that it was bad. What was the stake of the people giving those instructions?
It was a good movie. What was everyone so upset about?
Did you not see all the mess with the cartoons of Mohammed? You will always get a group of people that do not like something for what it represents (whether fact or fiction).
I am a fundmentalist Christian and have no problem with that movie. I just won't watch it, even though I know it is "fiction". If it was being presented as "fact", then I would have a problem with it.
Some people groups take themselves waaaay too seriously.
IIRC it crossed some theological line. The author of the book it was based on Nikos Konstantinos (no doubt horribly misspelled) was excommunicated by the Greek Orthodox Church. What was the exact offense I don't know.
Re: the last temptation of christ
rjbs on 2006-05-05T11:32:56
...but if we take it as read that Jesus was celibate and unmarried, it doesn't matter. The movie doesn't say he was married or uncelibate!Re: the last temptation of christ
sigzero on 2006-05-05T11:44:27
Actually since there is no mention of a wife, then we have to infer that he was unmarried and being unmarried he would have been celibate because the only "good" sex is in the context of marriage according the word of God and he would have been bound by that.
And no, it doesn't matter a flip because IT'S A MOVIE.
Re: the last temptation of christ
davorg on 2006-05-05T14:32:19
Actually since there is no mention of a wife, then we have to infer that he was unmarriedActually, I don't think that we do.
Firstly, pretty much every religious leader was married at that time. If Jesus hadn't been then that would have been unusual enough to have been mentioned in the gospels.
Secondly, at the time women (particularly wives) we're very highly regarded so it would unsurprising if Jesus's wife wasn't mentioned.
Thirdly, doesn't John's gospel keep mentioning "the disciple that Jesus loved".
I'm not saying for a second that any of these are conclusive proof - just that it's not necessarily as cut and dried as christians like to make it out to be.
Re: the last temptation of christ
sigzero on 2006-05-05T17:21:46
While women may not have been highly regarded by "man" that isn't so with "God" as there are many women mentioned in the OT and NT in pretty significant roles.
Every Jewish Rabbi would have been married (probably) but Jesus was NOT a Rabbi (except in a teaching role). Traditions encouraging a dedicated single life also existed elsewhere in Judaism. Members of the ascetic Jewish sect of the Essenes were known for their emphasis on celibacy. All of Jesus' family is mentioned in scripture yet his "wife" would not be? When Paul was defending his right to have a wife (1 Corinthians 9:5), he mentioned that Peter and Barnabas had wives. Had Jesus been married, Paul would have certainly mentioned such an important detail; it would have clinched his argument.
Thirdly, doesn't John's gospel keep mentioning "the disciple that Jesus loved".
I hope you are not buying into that Da Vinci Code mess. The apostle John identified that he was that disciple and many other scriptures point to that fact as well. The phrase disciple whom Jesus loved or Beloved Disciple is used several times in the Gospel of John. It is the Beloved Disciple who asks Jesus during the Last Supper who it is that will betray him. During the crucifixion, Jesus indicates the Beloved Disciple and tells his mother "Woman, here is your son." To the Beloved Disciple (Greek male pronoun) he says, "Here is your mother." When Mary Magdalene discovers the empty tomb, she runs to tell the Beloved Disciple and Simon Peter. The Beloved Disciple is the first to reach the empty tomb, but Simon Peter is the first to enter.
All that being said, it doesn't matter as both of those movies are fiction. They can say what they want and people shouldn't wierd out over it. The world will do what the world will do.
Re: the last temptation of christ
davorg on 2006-05-05T19:00:18
I hope you are not buying into that Da Vinci Code mess.Certainly not. I got all my christian conspiracy theories from "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" over twenty years ago
:-) Re: the last temptation of christ
sigzero on 2006-05-05T21:10:10
Well that explains it!:-) Re: the last temptation of christ
davorg on 2006-05-05T11:45:39
Oh absolutely. The film only says that on the cross he might have considered what it would have been like to have been married and uncelibate.
So, yes, like you I find it really hard to see what the christians find so upsetting in this film.
