The Passion of Christ

Three chapters can be accessed by clicking their titles below:

The Passion of Christ: In Scripture and History

Chapter 1
THE HISTORY
OF THE PASSION PLAYS

The central message of the Christian faith is the incarnation, life, suffering, death, Resurrection, ascension, and Return of Jesus Christ. Of these, the death and Resurrection of Jesus form the pivotal part of the Gospel’s message because they reveal God’s provision and power for the salvation of believers.
In his movie The Passion of the Christ (henceforth The Passion), Mel Gibson focuses almost exclusively on the suffering and death of Jesus, with only a moment’s reference to the Resurrection. For him, the most important part of the Gospel story is the relentless, brutal torture of Christ unto death. Since the Gospels’ account of Christ’s trial and crucifixion is very brief and cryptic, Gibson ultimately writes his own Passion story.
In his detailed analysis of The Passion, John Dominic Crossan, Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at DePaul University, notes that only “about 5 percent comes from the Gospels—that is, the general outline and the sequence of events; about 80 percent comes from Emmerich [nineteenth-century German mystic who authored The Dolorous Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ]—that is, the details and characters that carry the best and the worst of the non-Gospel additions and expansions; and about 15 per cent from Gibson—that is, everything that escalates the violence above that already prevalent in Emmerich.”1
Questions Raised by The Passion
Since Gibson’s vision of Christ’s suffering and death derives mostly from non-biblical sources, some important questions need to be addressed. Why does Gibson portray Christ so bloodily when there is only one brief reference to blood in one of the Gospels? We read: “One of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water” (John 19:34). Why does Gibson give us Christ’s blood, not in a communion cup, but by the gallon? Why does blood flow freely from the flayed flesh of Christ’s body from the moment of His flogging until His crucifixion?
Why does Mary play such a prominent role in The Passion, sustaining her Son and sharing in His suffering throughout the ordeal? How can we explain the prominent co-redemptive role of Mary throughout Gibson’s movie? In the Passion narratives, Mary is mentioned only once, when Jesus entrusts her to the care of John, saying: “Woman, behold your son,” and to John, “Behold your mother” (John 19:26-27). By contrast, the movie showa the blood sluicing from the Cross covering Mary when she embraces her Son’s feet and later cradles His bloody body in the same position as that of Michelangelo’s Pietà.
Why does the scourging of Jesus—described in a total of three lines in the four Gospels—take up thirty minutes of the film? Why does Gibson portray Caiaphas and the Jews as bloodthirsty villains, collectively determined to see Christ crucified at any cost, when the Gospels tell us that the Sanhedrin was divided in their deliberations over the fate of Christ (John 11:47-48; 10:19-21), and that a great multitude of Jews “bewailed and lamented him” (Luke 23:27) on the way to Golgotha? In other words, why does Gibson choose to disregard those aspects of the Passion narratives that depict the positive response of many Jews to Christ?
Furthermore, why does Gibson emphasize the sufferings and death of Jesus at the expense of His life, teachings, Resurrection, and heavenly ministry? Why is the flashback to the Last Supper placed in conjunction with the Crucifixion, rather than before Christ’s arrest in Gethsemane when it occurred? Is Gibson portraying in a veiled way his Catholic belief in the juxtaposition between Christ’s sacrifice at the Cross and its reenactment at the Mass?

Gibson Adheres to the Traditional Passion Plays
The answers to these and similar questions are to be found in studying the history and theology of the Passion Plays, which have developed in Western Europe since the thirteenth century. Such a study will show that Gibson did not invent the script of The Passion. As a committed traditional Catholic, he adheres strickly to the traditional pre-Vatican II Passion Plays, which have been influenced more by mystical visions than by biblical, archeological, and historical sources. For example, Vatican II acknowledged that Passion Plays have often inflamed angry mobs, leading them to pillage, burn, and murder thousands of Jews in Europe. Thus the Council issued a document, Nostra Aetate-—Our Age, which officially repudiates the traditional deicide charge (God-killers) against the Jews and urges great caution in any future dramatic presentations of the Passion of Christ.
The directives of Vatican II were expanded in 1988 by the United States Catholic Bishops Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs. The committee issued a pamphlet, Criteria for the Evaluation of Dramatizations of the Passion, which stresses that Passion Plays must be accurate and objective in their use of biblical and historical sources to portray the final events of Christ’s life. Unfortunately, as Catholic reviewers point out, Gibson largely ignores these recent Catholic directives, choosing instead to follow his own pre-Vatican II traditional mystical beliefs.2
The Objective of This Chapter. This chapter looks at Passion Plays in general and Gibson’s movie in particular from a historical perspective. The aim is to help Christians understand some of the factors that have contributed to the development of the narrative and theology of the Passion Plays. This historical survey sheds light on such pertinent questions as these: Why do the Passion Plays promote the notion that Christ had to suffer exceedingly more than any human being in order to meet the demands of divine justice? Why have Passion Plays encouraged the physical abuse of one’s body (flagellation) as a way of salvation? Why do Passion Plays exalt Mary as a partner with Christ in our salvation? Why have Passion Plays fostered a deep contempt for the Jews, inspiring countless Christian viewers to pursue the Jews, mass murdering them in numerous European cities?
Regarding the role of the Passion Plays in fueling hatred for the Jews, Hitler himself, after attending the renowned Passion Play in Oberammergau, Germany, in 1930 and 1934, acknowledged that the production was “a convincing portrayal of the menace of the Jewry” and a “precious tool” for his plan to liquidate the “muck and mire of Jewry.” 3 Most likely, the Nazi’s plan to exterminate the Jews would have been carried out irrespective of the influence of the Passion Plays. But it would be hard to deny their influence in predisposing Christians to accept the “final solution.”
The widespread Christian support for Hitler’s efforts to liquidate the Jews can be understood in the light of the contempt for the Jews promoted by the Passion Plays. The lesson of history is hard to miss. By portraying the Jewish people as murderers of Christ, Passion Plays set the stage for Christians to become murderers of the Jews. The crime initially committed by some Jews against Christ was later repeated countless times by Christians against the Jews.

The Value of a Historical Survey of the Passion Plays
This historical survey is designed to help especially the people of the United States, who have a relatively short social history, to look at The Passion from a historical and theological perspective. Most Americans view Gibson’s movie ahistorically—that is, without a historical perspective. They assume that the film is an accurate portrayal of Christ’s Passion produced by a gifted filmmaker. Thus, they wonder what the fuss is all about. But The Passion was not produced in a vacuum. There are seven centuries of history behind the Passion Plays. During these centuries, distinctive Catholic belief became embedded in the plays. Also, thousands of Jews were attacked, beaten, and murdered by inflamed Christians who left the annual Passion Plays raging against the “Christ-killers.”
European nations like France, Austria, Italy, and Germany have a longer history and a fresher memory of how the entire Jewish population of certain cities was murdered by angry mobs inflamed by Passion Plays. In fact, the anti-Semitism promoted by Passion Plays like Gibson’s movie is still very much alive today, as Jewish synagogues have been burned down recently in several European cities. This explains why French, Austrian, and German political and religious leaders have strongly opposed the release of The Passion in their respective countries.
This chapter traces briefly the history of the Passion Plays, focusing especially on the best-known European Passion Play of Oberammergau in Germany. We seek to understand those factors that contributed to the origin and development of the Passion Plays and their impact on popular piety and anti-Semitism.
The next chapter builds upon the findings of this chapter by taking a closer look at the theology of the Passion Plays. Consideration will be given to the influence of the Passion Plays in promoting the Catholic view of the Mass as a reenactment of Christ’s sacrifice; the Catholic view of Christ’s brutal suffering and death to satisfy the demands of a harsh, punitive God; the mystical view of “suffering unto glory”; the use of images, statues, and crucifixes as aids to worship; the prominent role of Mary as a partner with Christ in His suffering and intercession; and the portrayal of the Jews as murderers of Christ.
The intent of this historical and theological survey of the Passion Plays is to provide a much-needed background for people to evaluate Gibson’s movie from a historical and theological perspective. An understanding of why the Passion Plays came into existence—and of how they have promoted unbiblical theological beliefs, popular piety, and a deep hatred for the Jews—will help sincere Christians to recognize Catholic heresies subtly embedded in The Passion.
The act of pointing out the problems of The Passion must not be interpreted as an indictment against Gibson’s sincerity, or a denial of the providential way the movie may lead some people to appreciate, perhaps for the first time, the price Christ paid for our salvation. Gibson is sincerely committed to promoting his traditional, pre-Vatican II Catholic faith. We can only wish that more Protestants would display the same commitment to their faith.
God can use bad things to good ends (Rom 8:28). Thousands of people every day claim to have found Christ on a pilgrimage to a holy shrine or at a Pentecostal crusade where charismatic preachers like Benny Hinn effectively manipulate people’s emotions, deluding them into deceptive healings and salvation. The fact that in His providence God can communicate even through the mouth of an ass (Num 22:28) does not make what is intrinsically bad a good thing.
ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT
OF THE DEVOTION TO CHRIST’S PASSION
During the first ten centuries of our era, the devotion to Christ’s wounds and sufferings on the Cross were practically unknown. Paul speaks of dying with Christ and rising with Him through baptism (Rom 6:3-6). This is an existential experience of victorious living, not a devotional imitation of Christ’s sufferings. In other places, the New Testament encourages believers to be “partakers of Christ’s sufferings” (1 Peter 4:13; 5:1; Phil 3:10), not through self-flagellation, but by accepting the “reproach for the name of Christ” (1 Peter 4:14). By the late first century and early second century, Clement of Rome and Ignatius of Antioch were calling upon Christians to follow the example of Christ in His Passion by being willing to suffer and die for their witness to Jesus. The notion of suffering with Christ through self-inflicted wounds is absent in the Christian literature of the first millennium.
In the early Christian inscriptions, the symbol of the cross are relatively rare. Only about twenty crosses have been found in the Roman catacombs, mostly in the form of + or a T in tombstones accompanying the name of the deceased. Contorted figures of Christ on the Cross were unknown in the earliest centuries. In obedience to the Second Commandment, there was no pictorial portrayal of Christ’s appearance, life, and suffering during the first three centuries.
Important iconographic changes began in the fourth century with the entrance of pagan masses into the Christian church. Statues, pictures, relics, and crucifixes were introduced into the churches and popular piety. The alleged discovery of the “true Cross” by Constantine mother, Helena, in 326, contributed in a significant way to the devotion to the Cross. Pieces of the “true Cross” were distributed throughout the world. Pilgrimages to Jerusalem to visit the sites of the Passion became increasingly popular.
Pilgrims normally went in procession to the traditional sites of the scourging, crucifixion, and burial of Jesus. Monks promoted the view that the true disciple of the crucified Christ must follow Him in suffering in order to join Him in glory. The notion of “suffering unto glory” by inflicting pain upon one’s body became part of the medieval monastic discipline and popular piety. The devotion to the crucifix became widespread, encouraging Christians to imitate Christ’s physical sufferings.
The Devotion to Christ’s Humanity
Significant shifts in devotional practices occurred in the 12th and 13th centuries. Among them was a new devotion to the humanity of Christ, both among the monks and the laity, known as the “New Piety.” This devotion led to an identification with Christ’s suffering and a desire to suffer with Him in His Passion as a way of salvation. The Passion Plays were the natural outgrowth of this new devotion to and imitation of Christ’s human suffering.
The participation in Christ’s Passion derives from the belief in the reenactment of Christ’s sacrifice at the altar when the Mass is celebrated. This doctrine, known as “transubstantiation,” was defined at the Lateran Council of 1215. This dogma teaches that the bread and wine are converted into the whole substance of the Body and Blood of Christ by the priest during the celebration of the Mass. Consequently, Christ offers Himself afresh for our salvation every time the Mass is celebrated. This belief in the salvific value of the reenactment of Christ’s sacrifice at the Mass made it possible for Passion Plays to bring that sacrifice dramatically before the people for their own personal redemptive involvement. This consisted of imitating and participating in Christ’s redemptive suffering.
This teaching is foreign to Scripture where we are told that Christ “offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins . . . [and] by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified” (Heb 10:12, 14). These developments of the doctrine of the Mass and of the devotion to Christ’s human suffering were a precondition for the origin of the Passion Plays. All these beliefs and practices, as we shall see, represent human attempts to make salvation a human achievement rather than a divine gift of grace.
It is important to note that a Passion Play is in many ways an animated Mass for devout Catholics. As Gibson himself said in an interview, “The goal of the movie is to shake modern audiences by brashly juxtaposing the sacrifice of the cross with the sacrifice of the altar—which is the same thing.”4 The two are the same thing for Gibson simply because Catholics believe that at the altar the priest offers Christ afresh as a sacrifice for our salvation. This teaching exalts the power of the priest, while obscuring the once-for-all sufficiency of Christ’s sacrifice.
Devotion to Christ’s Wounds
Bernard of Clairvaux (died 1153), author of the hymn “O Sacred Head Now Wounded,” is generally singled out as the initiator of the devotion to the humanity of Christ, especially His wounds. In one of his sermons, Bernard writes: “What can be so effective a cure for the wound of conscience and so purifying to keenness of mind, as a steady meditation on the wounds of Christ?”5
In the monastic literature of the time we often find reference to the five wounds of Christ. Each of the five wounds was intended to heal the entry of sin into our bodies through the five senses. Peter Damian (1007-1072), an influential monastic reformer, explains this point with clarity: “Jesus is stripped of His clothing; he is beaten, bound, and spat upon; his flesh is pierced by a fivefold wound, so that we may be healed from the entry of vices which reach us through the five senses.”6
Many popular prayers and religious practices developed at this time centered on the five wounds. A prayer attributed to Clare of Assisi consists of five sections, each of them devoted to one of the wounds. “A Pater and an Ave [two popular Catholic prayers] followed each section, with the following versicle and response:
V. The five wounds of God
R. Are my healing medicine.
V. By thy five wounds
R. Deliver me, O Christ, from ruin.
V. Grant peace, O Christ,
R. By thy five wounds.”7
The Catholic devotion to Christ’s wounds helps us to understand Gibson’s confession that he survived a near suicidal period of his life by meditating on Christ’s wounds. “I had to use the Passion of Christ to heal my wounds,” he told an Australian newspaper.8 Gibson’s mystical understanding of healing through Christ’s wounds goes beyond Isaiah’s words: “with his stripes we are healed” (Is 53:5). The prophet speaks of stripes, wounds, and bruises in the context of the death of God’s Servant for the “transgression of my people” (Is 53:8). But in Gibson’s mystical thinking, Christ’s wounds have healing power per se, because they can be identified with our own wounds. “His pain is ours and our pain is His, all obediently borne.”9 In other words, believers can participate in Christ’s redemptive suffering by bearing physical pain. This notion is foreign to the Bible and ultimately enables believers to redeem themselves through their own sufferings.
Devotion to the Passion
The devotion to Christ’s Passion assumed new heights in the thirteenth century with the coming of Francis of Assisi. He is the first person in the history of Christianity to claim to have borne the stigmata—that is, Christ’s wounds in his hands. In a Testament drawn up in 1226, shortly before his death, Francis claims to have received the wounds of Christ on September 17, 1224. In Catholic thinking, the stigmata are the decisive sign of complete identification with Christ by penance and prayer and a qualification for sainthood.
The preaching of Franciscan, Dominican, and Carmelite friars during the thirteenth century led Christians all over Europe to accept the belief of suffering as the sole way to glory. The Christian devotion to Christ’s Passion focused especially on His physical sufferings. But, more importantly, the devotion to Christ’s Passion gave rise to Passion Plays and the so-called Stations of the Cross, which soon became very popular in central Europe. By 1700, Passion Plays were staged in 160 places in Bavaria alone and a similar number is documented in nearby Tyrol. The best-known European Passion Play is that of Oberammergau, which will be considered shortly.
“A feature common to all these phenomena,” Jesuit Scholar John O’Malley explains, “was the practical neglect of the Resurrection. The Stations of the Cross, for instance, were precisely that. They ended with the placing of Christ in the tomb.”10 In his blink-length portrayal of Christ’s Resurrection, Gibson faithfully follows a well-established mystical tradition in which “suffering has meaning of its own and the ‘resurrection’ signals little more than that the mystical ordeal is over.”11 In Gibson’s mystical Catholic tradition, Christ’s teachings and active ministry are overshadowed by the attention paid to the mocking, scourging, torture, and death He endured for the sake of sinners.
“Mystics built devotions around his scourging after a Cardinal returned from the Holy Land bearing the pillar to which he said Christ had been chained. Flagellant lay groups clogged the streets, seeking bloody identification with the flayed Christ.”12 So dominant grew the devotion to the Passion, writes Catholic historian Gerard Sloyan, that believers felt “meditation on the Passion alone could achieve unity with Christ and yield some share in the work of redemption He accomplished. . . . It came to overshadow not just the Incarnation, but even the Resurrection.”13 The mystical emphasis on Christ’s suffering, at the expense of His Incarnation and Resurrection, is clearly evident in Gibson’s movie where one can miss the Resurrection by a blink of the eyes.
THE ORIGIN OF PASSION PLAYS
The devotion to the Passion inspired the staging of Passion Plays which portrayed the trial, scourging, torture, and crucifixion of Jesus. In the earliest stages, the Passion Plays consisted merely of the reading of the biblical accounts related to the major events of Christ’s life. Eventually, the sacred readings grew into Passion Plays with dramatic readings scripted and worship leaders acting the roles of key persons. Well-developed texts are available from the thirteenth century. Initially, Passion Plays were presented as part of the worship service inside a church. As the script became more elaborate, it became necessary to move them outside the church, staging dramatic presentations stsged in town squares.
A major contributing factor to the origin of Passion Plays during the thirteenth century is the catastrophes and tragedies that changed the shape of European life and with it of Christian piety and prayer. Europe was ravaged by wars, disease, and famine. Among these were the Crusades (1095-1396), the Hundred Years War (1337-1453), and, in the midst of these, the Black Plague of 1348-49 that took the lives of over twenty million people. The specter of death was ever present. Most people lived mean, brutish, and short lives. In the midst of these multiple calamities, people became fearful, apprehensive, and superstitious.
By portraying Christ’s patient response to brutal sufferings, the Passion Plays became a source of encouragement for average believers facing misery and terror. Such believers thought that no matter how badly they suffered, the Christ of the Passion had suffered much more. One mystic reported that Christ told her: “I was beaten on the body 6,666 times; beaten on the head 110 times; pricks of thorns in the head, 110 . . . mortal thorns in the forehead, the drops of blood I lost were 28,430.”14 By dedicating their suffering to Christ’s, believers sought to atone for their sins and to avert divine judgments.
Suffering as a Way of Salvation
With such a mentality prevailing in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, devout Christians sought various ways to imitate Christ’s sufferings as portrayed in the Passion Plays. “Bridget of Sweden burned herself with a candle wax every Friday, to remind herself of Christ’s wounds and ate bitter herbs to recall the gall (reminiscent of Jewish seder practice memorializing Egyptian slavery). Jeanne Marie of Maillè thrust a thorn into her head during Passion Week one year; it fell out on Holy Thursday without leaving a scar. Peter Olafsson wounded himself with hair cords and the briars and brambles on which he lay, adding to this self-flagellation.”15 Devout believers took no pleasure in their pain. It disgusted them, but they bore courageously their self-inflicted wounds in order to participate in Christ’s Passion in the present and to share in His glory in the future.
Flagellant confraternities developed in various parts of Europe. “Their whipping of themselves to atone for their sins spread all over northern Europe as an attempted means to check the Black Death (1347-49) and more generally ward off the wrath of God. They read letters that purportedly came from God threatening earthquakes, famine, and the devouring of people’s children by wild beasts if they did not repent.”16
People responded with outbursts of emotion to the display of Christ’s suffering portrayed by itinerant flagellants and the Passion Plays. The plague of 1347-48, the poverty, and the urban unemployment made people susceptible to the superstitious belief that by sharing in Christ’s sufferings they could atone for their sins and bring healing to many.
One may wonder how Christians could believe that Jesus had to suffer and die again and again, even through the sufferings of His followers, in order to dispense the benefits of His redemption. The major reason is to be found in their ignorance of Scripture. The Bible was unknown to the laity. Their faith was nourished by superstitious stories and drama such as the Passion Plays rather than by the teachings of the Word of God. The problem still exists today, as several subscribers to my ENDTIME ISSUES newsletter expressed appreciation for the vital information about the prominent role of Mary provided by The Passion, though it is absent in the Gospels. For them, what they saw in the movie is more enlightening than what they read in the Gospels!
The Passion Plays Undermine the All-sufficiency of Christ’s Sacrifice
The once-for-all character of Christ’s sacrificial death, as explicitly taught in Hebrews, was unknown to Medieval Christians. “Christ has entered . . . into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God in our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the Holy Place yearly with blood not his own; . . . But as it is he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Heb 9:24-26).
This fundamental biblical teaching of the all-sufficiency of Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross is apparently unknown to Mel Gibson and to countless millions of Catholics who have been blinded by the Catholic teaching on the salvific value of the reenactment of Christ’s sacrifice at the Mass. Gibson is determined to promote the Catholic heresy of the Mass. In an interview he stated his determination “to shake modern audiences by brashly juxtaposing the sacrifice of the cross with the sacrifice of the altar—which is the same thing.”17 This means that for devout Catholics The Passion is an animated Mass, which many unwary Protestant viewers accept as a biblical teaching.
There is considerable variety in the texts of the Passion Plays. For the German-speaking regions alone, there are approximately 50 different plays. Among the best known fifteenth-century plays are the Vienna Passion, the St. Gall Passion, the Frankfort Passion, and the Maestrich Passion. Doubtless the best known European Passion Play is that of Oberammergau, which began in 1634. While the scenes of the plays cover mostly the same final events of Christ’s life, there is a tendency, even in the oldest Passion Plays, to break away from the biblical text by incorporating popular non-biblicalbeliefs.
CHRIST’S BRUTAL SUFFERING
TO SATISFY DIVINE JUSTICE
One belief which is a central element of both classical Passion Plays and Gibson’s movie is that Christ had to suffer exceedingly more than any human being because He had to satisfy the demands of divine justice for all the sins of humanity. This belief is found especially in mystical literature. For example, in her book The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Anne Emmerich describes how angels “showed him [Christ] the satisfaction which he would have to offer to Divine Justice, and how it would consist of a degree of suffering in his soul and body which would comprehend all the sufferings due to the concupiscence of all mankind, since the debt of the whole human race had to be paid by that humanity which alone was sinless—the humanity of the Son of God. . . . No tongue can describe what anguish and what horror overwhelmed the soul of Jesus at the sight of so terrible an expiation.”18
This belief is reflected in the brutal torture of Jesus both in the Passion Plays and Gibson’s movie. Contrary to the brief and sober account of the scourging of Jesus that we find in the Gospels (Mark 15:16-19; Matt 27:27-31), in The Dolorous Passion, Emmerich devotes a whole chapter to the scourgings of Jesus, describing in minute details the four scourging of Jesus carried out on an alternating basis by six drunk and sadistic Roman soldiers, who escalated the torture with their arsenal of instruments until they reduced His body to a bloody heap of shredded flesh.19
With unsurpassed cinematic skills, Gibson gives a stunning dramatization of Emmerich’s description of the scourging of Jesus. He has Christ tied to a post in Pilate’s courtyard, and then follows a ten-minute sequence in which “first, the Savior is whipped with a stick until his back is raw. Then he is whipped with a cat-o’-nine-tails that has metal barbs at the end of each tether; in one shot we see the hooks dig deep and tear out his flesh. Then Christ is rolled over and he is flayed from the front. Later, after the long march to Golgotha, he is nailed to the cross in slow-mo close-ups in which each hammer stroke brings forth a fresh gout of blood. . . . To Gibson, each drop is holy, so the more of it the better. Each chunk of flesh dug out by the lash is Christ’s sacrifice in all its beauty, so bring it on. The cumulative effect, however, brings only numbness.”20 This graphic violence is essential to Gibson’s theological understanding of the intensity of Christ’s sufferings in order to satisfy the demands of divine justice. We shall return to this point in the next chapter in the discussion of the Catholic satisfaction view of Christ’s suffering and death.
THE PROMINENT ROLE OF MARY
Another significant feature of the Passion Plays is the prominent role of Mary in sustaining her Son and sharing in His suffering from Gethsemane to Golgotha. At the foot of the Cross she even utters a formal condemnation of the Jews, known as the “lament-planctus,” saying: “Oh the crime of this hateful race, the animal-like hands of those crucifying you. Oh this barbarous people, oh blind, deplorable race! Oh He who is innocent is condemned by a damnable people, fulfilling what is necessary. Oh Men of blood rate against the Lord of salvation.”21 This lamentation and imprecation of Mary against the Jews has been a standard feature of the Passion Plays until recent times.
Spielleitung Stückl concisely summarizes some of the Marian scenes present in Passion Plays, but absent in Scripture:
“1. Planctus Mariae (Mary’s lament or complaint): Mary expresses her sorrow over Christ’s passion and death in a long poem or lament. In some plays Mary’s lament follow immediately after Christ’s death and the witness of the Roman Centurion (St. Gallen), in others her planctus begins already during the way of the Cross and is pursued after the death of Jesus.
2. Mary’s pleading with Judas and Jesus: in some plays Mary pleads with Judas to spare Jesus’ life or she pleads with Jesus to choose a different way to bring about redemption, a request Jesus must decline. Mary then accuses the angel Gabriel who declared her blessed among all women. The angel reminds her of Simeon’s prophecy. But Mary visits and reminds Jesus of his obligation to the fourth commandment [that is, the fifth commandment about honoring parents]. He in turn draws her attention to His obligation to the Father in Heaven.
3. Mary plays a role in the paschal events of Passion plays, especially in scenes where Christ appears to his mother. Sometimes this apparition is announced already at the Annunciation.”22
The traditional prominent role of Mary in the Passion Plays is reflected in Gibson’s movie, in which Mary follows her Son along the Stations of the Cross. She urges Him to choose a different way to bring about redemption. She gathers His flesh and blood after the scourging. She comforts Him, embracing His bloody feet at the Cross, and holding His body on her knees in the famous Pietà pose. The message is clear. Mary actively participated with her Son in our redemption. In the next chapter we will examine what contributed to the development of the Catholic theology of Mary as a partner in Christ’s Passion on earth and intercession in heaven.
THE HOSTILITY OF THE JEWS TOWARD CHRIST
Another major theme developed in the Passion Plays is the hostility of the Jews toward Christ. Samuel Weintraub notes that “there are at least six anti-Jewish themes that are developed and belabored in most Passion Plays.
“(1) The Jewish antagonists of Jesus—and by implication all Jews—are depicted as degenerate, loathsome, almost subhuman creatures. The Jewish priests in particular are hateful and bloodthirsty, zealous in defense of their own privilege, and obscene in their pleasure over Jesus’ suffering. These priests lead a corrupt religion, whose vindictive legalism is juxtaposed to Christian love, mercy and universalism.
“(2) The crowd before the Roman Governor’s palace becomes a Jewish ‘mob,’ echoing their priests’ sadism. They—and again by implication all Palestinian Jews—clamor for the death of Jesus. Gleefully, they welcome the responsibility for his execution, upon themselves and their descendants. Thus, Jews are judged to be collectively guilty of deicide, and permanently rejected by God.
“(3) These plays either obscure or deny the Jewish background of Jesus and the apostles. Their commitment to Jewish religion and ethics is concealed; indeed, many plays represent them as total renegades from Jewish traditions.
“(4) The most damaging perversion of history involves the characterization of Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor who ordered Jesus’ execution. Pilate, whom responsible historiography has described as a ruthless tyrant, is pictured as a fair ruler who was unfortunately swayed by Jewish pressure to order the crucifixion. Thus, the role of crucifier, and responsibility for the execution, is handily shifted from the Romans to the Jews.
“(5) The use of Christian Scriptures is one sided and highlights texts with real or potential anti-Jewish import; New Testament passages which suggest more positive images of Jews and Judaism are frequently neglected.
“(6) There is a tendency to sever the story of Jesus from its historical context in first century Israel. Thus, the plays dissociate the life of Jesus and the primitive Church from their setting in Jewish religion and social life. Similarly, they fail to present the realities of Roman oppression, which are necessary to understand both Jesus’ ministry and the actions of his Jewish antagonists.”23

The Jews Were Progressively Demonized
In his classic book, The Anguish of the Jews, Jesuit Scholar Edward Flannery refers to the centuries which saw the development of the Passion Plays as “the centuries of woe, in which the Jews were progressively demonized, that is, portrayed first as in league with Satan opposing Jesus and then as Devil themselves.”24 The latter was achieved by placing a monstrous horned headgear on the Jewish priests and leaders, making them look like the Devil himself. It was only in 1990 that significant changes were made in the Oberammergau Passion Play, which included the removal of the horned headgear from Jewish leaders.
Bishop Eugene Fisher, Director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, points out that “during the centuries which saw the development of Passion Plays, Jews were increasingly blamed for all the ills of society, from killing Christian babies and poisoning wells to spreading the Black Plague. Though the popes and responsible Church officials condemned these absurd charges (pointing out, for example, that Jews drank from the very wells they were accused of poisoning), people became more and more vulnerable to believing just about anything evil that was said about Jews and Judaism.”25
The Persecution of the Jews
The mass hysteria provoked by the Passion Plays found expression in two different ways. On the one hand, it inspired self-flagellation to atone for personal sins and to ward off the wrath of God. On the other hand, it fueled the persecution of the Jews. People who left their annual Passion Plays would be inflamed, raging against “Christ-killing Jews” and accusing them of being responsible for well poisoning, causing the Black Plague, and ritual murder. These accusations led to the dehumanization, brutalization, expulsion, and murder of Jews throughout Europe.
The tragedy consequence of the Passion Plays has been the creation of a powerful melodrama foreign to the Bible. A clear distinction has been made between the good guys and the bad guys. The good guys are the “Christians”—Jesus, His apostles, Mary His mother, Mary Magdalene, Veronica, and so forth. The bad guys are the evil “Jews”—the high priests Caiaphas and Annas, Judas Iscariot, and the Jewish mob that called for Jesus’ crucifixion. The fact that Jesus and His disciples were Jews themselves does not seem to matter. Nor does it matter that even after the Resurrection there were no “Christians.”
The distinction in the book of Acts is between believing and unbelieving Jews, not between Christians and Jews. The latter distinction is a later development due to the intensification of the conflict between believing and unbelieving Jews. Yet, in the Passion Plays, including Gibson’s movie, Jesus and His followers have been portrayed through the centuries as innocent and holy Christians, and the Jews as corrupt and brutal thugs.
This stereotyped image of the Jews as a wicked people has been fostered by the Roman Catholic doctrine that blamed them collectively as a people for the crucifixion of Christ. This doctrine prevailed until Vatican II in 1965. In a document called Nostra Aetate,“Our Times,” Vatican II rejected the deicide charge leveled against the Jews: “True, authorities of the Jews and those who followed their lead pressed for the death of Christ (cf John19:6). Still, what happened in His Passion cannot be blamed upon all the Jews then living, without distinction, nor upon the Jews of today. Although the Church is the new people of God, the Jews should not be presented as repudiated or cursed by God as if such views followed from the Holy Scriptures.”27
Historical Catholic Anti-Semitism
The infamous Catholic teaching that blamed the Jews as a wicked people guilty of killing Christ has been promoted by some of the greatest Catholic saints until Vatican II. For example, John Chrysostom, a famous Catholic preacher and saint who served as Patriarch of Constantinople (397-403), preached a series of sermons against the Jews. He said: “The Jews are the most worthless of men—they are treacherous, greedy, rapacious—they are perfidious murderers of Christians, they worship the devil, their religion is a sickness . . . The Jews are the odious assassins of Christ and for killing God there is no expiation, no indulgence, no pardon. Christians may never cease vengeance. The Jews must live in servitude forever. It is incumbent on all Christians to hate the Jews.”28
In a similar vein, Gregory of Nyssa (330-395), a renowned Catholic theologian and orator, describes the Jews as “Slayers of the Lord, murderers of the prophets, adversaries of God, haters of God, men who show contempt for the law, foes of grace, enemies of the father’s faith, advocates of the devil, brood of vipers, slanderers, scoffers, men whose minds are in darkness, leaven of the Pharisees, assembly of demons, sinners, wicked men, stoners and haters of righteousness.”28
The stereotyped notion of the Jews as wicked and murderous is also reflected in medieval poetry and art, where the Jews are identified with the Devil and are pictured with the Devil’s horns, tail, and a goat beard. Satan himself is pictured as a Jew, or in the company of the Jews, or riding on the back of a Jew. The Passion Plays reinforced these stereotyped images of the Jews by portraying them with horns and tails, sadistically torturing Christ’s body.
Passion Plays Fueled Bloody Reactions against the Jews
Historically, Passion Plays not only helped people to get ready for Easter, but also to fuel their hate against the Jews as “Christ-killers.” Lethal bloody reaction against the Jews often followed the performance of medieval Passion Plays. The physical attacks against the Jews were so violent that in some cities the whole Jewish population was murdered. “In Rottingen, Germany, in 1298, the entire Jewish population of the city was put to the stake. Then the angry mob spread through Germany and Austria, pillaging, burning and murdering about 100,000 Jews. In Prague in 1389, 3,000 Jews killed; in Seville, Spain, in 1391, 4,000 Jews killed. In three months that year, the slaughter spread across Spain, with a death tally of about 50,000 Jews. The year Columbus ‘discovered’ America, the nation that sent him out, Spain, expelled its entire Jewish population.”30
The slaughter of the Jews that followed Passion Plays became so frightening that both civil and ecclesiastical authorities forbade the production of Passion Plays in such cities as Freiburg in 1338, Frankfurt in 1469, Rome in 1539, Paris in 1548, and Strassburg in 1549.
In Rome, the Passion Play was staged in the Colosseum by the Confraternity of the Gonfalone—a male-dominated institution actively involved in the social life of the city. In 1539, about 70,000 people viewed the play at the Colosseum. After the play, the crowd led by the Confraternity passed through the Jewish Quarter, killing Jews and destroying their properties. The violent incident prompted Pope Paul III to outlaw the play, despite the repeated attempts of the Confraternity to start it again.31
During the eighteenth century, local governments banned the Passion Plays in many parts of Europe. The people of Oberammergau pressured the Bavarian government to grant them a special permission to continue its play because of the solemn and binding vow they took in 1633 to stage the Passion every ten years if God would halt the spreading of the Bourbon Plague in their town.
In the nineteenth century, Passion Plays regained popularity, partly because of the attacks of the French Revolution against Christianity and their impact on the European religious life. Concerned Christians felt that the world was becoming more sinful and more hostile toward Christ and His message. To make reparation for the hurt caused to Christ by the anti-Christian philosophies, Passion Plays were revived to inspire Christians to imitate Christ in suffering for the sins of the world. Unfortunately, these plays also revived the historical “Christian” hate for the Jews.
The ultimate consequence of the superstitious and violent anti-Semitism fueled by church teachings and dramatized through the Passion Plays was the Holocaust. Hitler could not have carried out his Final Solution without the cooperation of many Christians in Germany and other European countries. Hatred for the Jews, nourished by centuries of church teachings dramatized by Passion Plays, eventually transformed Europe into a fertile ground for the mass murder of the Jews.
The Oberammergau Passion Play
The best-known European Passion Play is that of Oberammergau. This village, located in the Bavarian Alps, began the regular performance of the play in 1634. The story of its origin is well known. In 1633, during the chaos of the Thirty Years War, the bubonic plague was ravaging southern Germany. When the plague reached the isolated village of Oberammergau, it threatened to decimate it. The town council took a bold action. They pledged to perform a play depicting the life and death of Jesus the following years in 1634 and then every ten years thereafter, if God would spare the town from further ravages of the plague. The plague subsided and the villagers performed the Passion Play in 1634; with few exceptions, they have continued to do so each decade.
During the eighteenth century, the Bavarian government banned the Passion Plays because they were superstitious and impious with the devil and his minions active on stage, inciting the Jews to torture and crucify Christ. The Oberammergau town fathers showed an amazing persistence and succeeded in obtaining special permission to continue the play.
To keep authorities from banning the play again after 1800, the script was rewritten. In each successive decade, significant changes were made to the text in response to political and theological pressures. Major revisions were made in 1990 and 2000 as a result of pressure put on the villagers by Catholics, Protestants, and Jews. Gone were the devilish-looking horned headgear of the Jewish leaders, and the blood curse from Matthew was diminished to a single line in 1990 and totally eliminated in 2000. The new revised Oberammergau Passion Play has become the model for the plays staged throughout the Christian world.
Anti-Semitism in the Oberammergau Passion Play
It is fair to say that the people of Oberammergau most likely have never intended to present an anti-Semitic play. After all, there were no Jews living in their village during the nineteenth century. What they presented in their play reflected the mainstream Catholic tradition of branding the Jews as Christ’s killers, condemned to live under a perpetual curse. Pope Honorius III speaks of “the perfidy of the Jews, condemned as they are to perpetual slavery because of the cry by which they wickedly called down the blood of Christ upon themselves and their children.”32
We noted earlier that Vatican II attempted to make amends for the millennia of Catholic hostility toward the Jews by rejecting the traditional charge of deicide that accused the Jews of being Christ-killers under a perpetual curse. The current pope, John Paul II, has gone further than any previous pope in history by apologizing for the past Catholic atrocities committed against the Jews. There is no doubt that the Catholic Church, as well as Protestants in general, has developed a more positive and tolerant attitude toward the Jews.
Unfortunately, Gibson’s Passion Play is in the trajectory of the medieval Passion Plays in its portrayal of the Jews as bloodthirsty people, sadistically determined to see Christ tortured to death. He ignores the teachings of Vatican II and more specifically the guidelines for the production of Passion Plays which were published in 1988 by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.33 His use of the Gospels is one-sided, selecting texts with a potential anti-Jewish import while ignoring those texts which portray the Jews in a more positive light. Specific examples will be considered in the following chapter.
The dramatic concept of the older version of the Oberammergau Passion Play (followed by Gibson) is the melodrama, which contains a clear contrast between the good and evil people. The good people are the “Christians”—Jesus, His disciples, Mary His mother, and so forth. The evil people are the “Jews”—the high priest Caiaphas, the leaders, Judas Iscariot, and the Jewish mob who called for Jesus’ crucifixion.
The portrayal of the Jews in the Passion Plays as corrupt and brutal reflects the prevailing nineteenth-century view of the Jews as unbelieving foreigners who should be allowed to reside in European countries only by special permission. Occasional attempts by local authorities to grant to Jewish subjects something approaching equal rights were opposed because of religious prejudice. For example, a petition signed by the leading citizens and the priest of Hilders, Bavaria, in 1850 expressed outrage that civil and political rights might be granted to Jews, “an alien people that is hostile to Christians everywhere, and that to this day harbors the same hate toward our religion with which it once nailed the Savior to the Cross!”34
Adolf Hitler Loved the Oberammergau Passion Play
It is not surprising then that Adolf Hitler knew and loved the Oberammergau Passion Play, which he saw in 1930 and 1934. He spoke glowingly of the play, saying: “It is vital that the Passion Play be continued at Oberammergau; for never has the menace of Jewry been so convincingly portrayed as in this presentation of what happened in the times of the Romans. There one sees in Pontius Pilate a Roman racially and intellectually so superior, that he stands out like a firm, clean rock in the middle of the whole muck and mire of Jewry. If nowadays we do not find the same splendid pride of race which distinguished the Grecian and Roman eras, it is because in the fourth century these Jewish-Christians systematically destroyed all the monuments of these ancient civilizations.”35
Most likely the people of Oberammergau had no intention of inspiring the Holocaust as they staged the play that Hitler saw. “The Nazis,” as Prof. Gordon Mork points out, “would doubtless have gone their genocidal way without being able to include Oberammergau in their propaganda bag of tricks. But Oberammergau has had to bear a burden because its traditional play was fully capable of being exploited by Nazi anti-Semitic propagandists.”36
Passion Plays and Anti-Semitism Today
Are Passion Plays or films still capable of fueling anti-Jewish hostility and propaganda? The answer appears to be “Yes.” For example, Steve Purham, the chief executive of SurfControl, notes that websites espousing religious hatred have increased 26% during the first four months of 2004. Some of the “news events that appear to have triggered the recent sharp increase in hate sites, include the controversy over gay marriages and the release of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, which has been used by some extremists as a platform to express hatred of non-Christians.”36
In surfing the Internet, one can find numerous examples of anti-Jewish propaganda. For example, an anonymous “angry white female” writes: “The fact that Jews control so much of what we think via Hollywood, lends an air of mystery and awe to this Gibson vs. the Jews dispute. The man just may be something like William Wallace and The Patriot! Just imagine the Jews in power shaking in their boots at the prospect of being accurately portrayed as Christ-killers, rather than their usual arrogant churning out of anti-White and anti-Christian movies designed to promote self-loathing and hatred of White western culture, people and history.”38
Fortunately, such anti-Jewish voices in America are relatively few; but let us not forget that Adolf Hitler also was dismissed during the 1920s as a lunatic fringe of German politics. The history of the Passion Plays we have briefly surveyed teaches us that anti-Jewish sentiments can be fanned into conflagration, causing untold sufferings to the Jews.
We need to learn from the mistakes of history so that we can avoid repeating them. One wonders whether Gibson has ignored the mistakes of history, or wishes to repeat them. One thing is certain. The timing of the release of The Passion was particularly poor, given the current rise in anti-Jewish as well as anti-Moslim sentiments in the world today.
CONCLUSION
Our survey of the history of the Passion Plays indicates that their origin goes back to the thirteenth century, as a result of two major contributing factors. The first is the devotion to Christ’s human sufferings, especially the wounds of His Passion. The preaching of Franciscan, Dominican, and Carmelite friars promoted the devotion to Christ’s Passion, which in turn influenced the staging of Passion Plays, focusing on the trial, scourging, torture, and crucifixion of Jesus. Devout Christians sought various ways to imitate Christ’s sufferings as portrayed in the Passion Plays as a way of salvation.
A second contributing factor to the origin of Passion Plays is the catastrophes and the tragedies that changed the Christian life and piety at that time. Europe was ravaged by wars and diseases like the Black Plague of 1348-49 that took the lives of over twenty million people. In the midst of these calamities, the Passion Plays became a source of encouragement for the misery and terror facing average believers. By dedicating their suffering to Christ, believers sought to atone for their sins and to ward off the wrath of God.
In many ways, the Passion Plays became a dramatic and visible portrayal of fundamental Catholic beliefs and piety. One of the beliefs is that Christ had to suffer exceedingly more than any human being because He had to satisfy the demands of a punitive God for all the sins of humankind. In the next chapter we shall see that this Catholic view of God as a sadistic, exacting, and punitive Judge bound by a law outside Himself reduces the Cross to a legal transaction in which a meek Christ suffers the harsh punishment imposed by a punitive Father for the sins of humanity. This is a gross distortion of the Gospel, because the Cross reveals how the righteous and loving Father was willing through His Son to become flesh and suffer the punishment of our sins in order to redeem us without compromising His own character.
Another significant Catholic belief that became embedded in the Passion Plays is the prominent role of Mary as a partner in Christ’s Passion on earth and intercession in heaven. During Christ’s journey along the Via Dolorosa on the way to Golgotha, Mary is portrayed in Passion Plays as always being near Christ, acting as His comforter and coach. Through their eye contact, Mary infuses mystical power on her Son. In the next chapter we shall see how the elevation of Mary to a co-redemptive role with Christ has resulted in the widespread idolatrous worship of Mary in the Catholic Church—a worship condemned by the first and second commandments.
A most disturbing feature of the Passion Plays is the portrayal of the Jews as a wicked, bloodthirsty people, collectively guilty for Christ’s death. We found that this infamous teaching was promoted by some of the greatest Catholic saints before Vatican II. This teaching has led to the dehumanization, brutalization, expulsion, and murder of countless Jews throughout Europe.
In his movie The Passion, Gibson follows the traditional script of the Passion Plays by portraying the Jews as a sadistic and bloodthirsty people, collectively guilty of Christ’s death. The next chapter will show that Gibson intentionally disregards the positive Gospels’ scenes where multitude of Jews follow Jesus throughout His ministry all the way to the Cross. For example, he does not show “all the multitude who assembled to see the sight [of the crucifixion], and when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breast” (Luke 23:48). The reason for disregarding the positive response of many Jews to Christ is Gibson’s determination to follow the pre-Vatican II Catholic tradition that stereotyped all the Jews as a wicked people under God’s curse for killing Christ.
Summing up, this historical survey of the Passion Plays has shown that the dramatization of Christ’s Passion during the past seven centuries has served to promote fundamental Catholic beliefs and piety. Unfortunately, these beliefs grossly misrepresent the biblical view of God’s nature, the meaning of Christ’s suffering and death, the role of Mary in our salvation, the use of images in worship, and the responsibility of the Jews for Christ’s death. The next chapter takes a closer look at these Catholic theological beliefs that are embedded in the Passion Plays, especially in Gibson’s movie.

ENDNOTES
1. John Dominic Crossan, “Hymn to a Savage God,” in the symposium Jesus and Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ.” The film, the Gospels and the Claims of History (New York, 2004), p. 12.
2. John Dominic Crossan notes that “this film managed to breach every single one of the Criteria for the evaluation of Dramatizations of the Passion issued by the US National Conference of Catholic Bishops in 1988.” Ibid., p. 21.
3. Adolf Hitler, Hitler’s Secret Conversations, 1941-1944 (New York, 1954), p. 457; dated July 5, 1942.
4. “The Passion of Mel Gibson,” by Terry Mattingly, Scripps Howard News Service, January 21, 2004; also Christianity Today 2, 23, 2004.
5. Sermon 62, Bernard of Clairvaux: Selected Works, trans. Gillian R. Evans (New York, 1987), p. 250.
6. Peter Damiani, Opusculum 43 chap. 5 (PL 145, 683); see also Felix Vernet, Medieval Spirituality (St. Louis, 1930), p. 91.

7. Gerard S. Sloyan, The Crucifixion of Jesus: History, Myth, Faith (New York, 1995), p. 170.
8. David Van Biema, “Why It’s So Bloody,” Time (March 1, 2004), p. 66.
9. Gerard S. Sloyan, note 7, p. 135.
10. John O’Malley, S. J., “A Movie, a Mystic, and a Spiritual Tradition,” America (March 15, 2004).
11. Richard Kieckhefer, Unquiet Souls: Fourteenth-Century Saints and Their Religious Milieu (Chicago University Press, 1984), p. 3.
12. David Van Biema, “Why It’s So Bloody,” Time (March 1, 2004), p. 66.
13. Gerard S. Sloyan, note 7, p.176.
14. David Van Biema, note 12, p. 66.
15. Gerard Sloyan (note 7), p. 177.
16. Gerards S. Sloyan (note 7), p. 179; see also Richard Kieckhefer, “Radical Tendencies in the Flagellant Movement of the Mid-Fourteenth Century,” Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies 4 (1974), pp.157-176.
17. “The Passion of Mel Gibson,” by Terry Mattingly, Scripps Howard News Service, January 21, 2004; also Christianity Today (February 23, 2004).
18. Anne Catherine Emmerich, The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ (New York, 1904), p. 105.
19. The Dolorous Passion, pp. 183-189.
20. Ty Burr, “‘Passion of the Christ’ Is a Graphic Profession of Mel Gibson’s Faith, Globe (February 24, 2004).
21. Eugene J. Fisher, “Passion Plays from a Christian Point of View,” http://www.passionplayusa.net/dialog.htm.
22. Spielleitung Christian Stückl, The Passion Play of the Community of Oberammergau (Germany: Oberammergau, 1990), p. 16.
23. Samuel Weintraub, “Passion Plays in the United States,” http://www.passionplayusa.net/antismtsm.htm.
24. Cited by Eugene J. Fisher, in “Passion Plays from a Christian Point of View,” http://www.passionplayusa.net/dialog.htm.
25. Eugene J. Fisher, in “Passion Plays from a Christian Point of View,” http://www.passionplayusa.net.
26. Alexis P. Rubin, Editor, Scattered Among the Nations—Documents Affecting Jewish History 49-1975 (Northvale, New Jersey, 1995), p. 302.
27. NOSTRA AETATE: Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religion, Proclaimed by His Holiness Pope Paul VI, October 28, 1965, paragraph 4.
28. Allan Gould, What Did They Think of the Jews? (Portland, Oregon, 1997), p. 24.
29. Ibid., p. 25.
30. Richard Nilsen, “Fear of the ‘Passion,’” The Arizona Republic (February 22, 2004).
31. Anne Sarzin, “Passion Plays that Inspired Violence in Rome,” The University of Sydneys News (February 24, 2000).

32. Leon Poliakov, The History of Anti-Semitism (New York, 1962), vol. 2, p. 307.
33. Criteria for Evaluating “Passion Plays,” www.nccbuscc.org.
34. James Harris, The People Speak! Anti-Semitism and Emancipation in Nineteenth-Century Bavaria (Ann Arbor, 1994), p. 252.
35. Adolf Hitler, Hitler’s Secret Conversations, 1941-1944 (New York, 1954), p. 457; dated 5 July 1942.
36. Gordon R. Mork, “Christ’s Passion on Stage—The Traditional Melodrama of Deicide,” Journal of Religion and Film (February 2004), vol. 8, p. 9.
37. Patrick Barkham, “Religious Hatred Flourishes on the Web,” The Guardian (May 11, 2004), p. 12.
38. http://www.angrywhitefemale.net/mel-gibson.html.