It is unfair to assume that a son shares his father's prejudices. Mel Gibson has claimed that he is not an anti-Semite and that in no way does his film propagate anti-Semitism. 'The Passion is a movie meant to inspire not offend. My intention in bringing it to the screen is to create a lasting work of art and engender serious thought among audiences of diverse faith backgrounds (or none) who have varying familiarity with this story.'⁵

But how far has Gibson distanced himself from his father's beliefs? Not very far, if at all. When questioned about his father's beliefs he said, 'My dad taught me my faith and I believe what he taught me. The man never lied to me in his life'. So when Gibson Sr. says that the Holocaust was a gross exaggeration, this is not a lie?

‘I have friends and parents of friends who have numbers on their arms. The guy who taught me Spanish was a Holocaust survivor. Yes, of course. Atrocities happen. War is horrible. World War II killed tens of millions of people. Some of them were Jews in concentration camps. In the Ukraine, several million starved to death between 1932 and 1933. ⁶

I'm sure I'm not alone in finding this quote appallingly glib. He says 'atrocities happen' as if the Holocaust was par for the course. Note that only 'some' Jews died in concentration camps. It seems quite clear that Mel and his dad share more than their sedevacantist Catholic faith.

Gibson's depiction of the Jews in The Passion Of The Christ, is undoubtedly negative, often at odds with the Gospels. A huge Jewish mob bay for Jesus' blood (the Gospels don't specify numbers, Gibson plumps for about 150) and the High Priests take great delight in his suffering (this is not in the Gospels). The Jewish High Priests have large hooked noses in contrast to the slightly more European visages of Jesus, the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene. Unlike medieval Passion plays, we don't see the Jews in collusion with demons, however there is a scene where Satan walks among a crowd of Jews who are watching Jesus being tortured (this isn't in the Gospels either). Barabbas, who is released instead of Jesus at the request of the Jewish crowd, is not a revolutionary (as in the Gospels of Mark, Luke and John) but a barking-mad serial killer.

The Romans get a much better deal. Pontius Pilate and his second-in-command Abenader are shown to be concerned, noble, characters who don't want Jesus killed, or even flogged too severely. Pilate incredulously appears shocked at the Jews' brutal treatment of Jesus. Somehow, despite being a significant cog in one of the most successful empires in history, Pilate is bullied into submission by the very people he has a history of brutally oppressing. History tells us that Pilate wasn't the sensitive soul that Gibson portrays him to be. Philo of Alexandria, a philosopher and historian who lived from between 30 BC to 50 AD, described Pilate's tenure as one of 'briberies, insults, robberies, outrages, wanton injustices, constantly repeated executions without trial, and ceaseless and grievous cruelty'.⁷ Even by Roman standards – Romans, remember, watched people being killed for entertainment – Pilate was too barbaric: during his ten-year period in office, he crucified a quarter of a million Jews – that's roughly 480 per week. Eventually he was removed from office following a massacre of Samaritans.⁸

'I wanted to be true to the Gospels,' Gibson has said when asked about negative representatio
n of Jews. 'Holy Scripture and accepted visions of the Passion were the only possible texts I could draw from to fashion a dramatic film.' [Emphasis mine]. Whose visions was Gibson referring to? Mother Maria d'Agreda, a 17th century Spanish nun and Sister Catherine Emmerich, a 19th century German nun, both mystics and alleged visionaries. It is interesting that Gibson refers to these works as 'accepted' as Sr. Emmerich's The Dolorous Passion Of Our Lord Jesus Christ, which is the inspiration for many scenes in The Passion, has never been accepted by the Catholic Church. Sr. Emmerich uses the word 'Jews' 71 times in this text and almost every mention is accompanied by words like 'cruel', 'scornful' and 'wicked'. Many of the quotes from this book leave the reader in no uncertainty as to who was responsible for Jesus' death: 'I saw the empire of Hell divided against itself; Satan desired the crime of the Jews' [emphasis mine]. The most disturbing passage concerns the so-called blood curse:

Whenever, during my meditations on the Passion of our Lord, I imagine I hear that frightful cry of the Jews, 'His blood be upon us, and upon our children,' visions of a wonderful and terrible description display before my eyes at the same moment the effect of that solemn curse…this curse, which they have entailed upon themselves, appears to me to penetrate even to the very marrow of their bones, – even to the unborn infants … The last-mentioned were those who were converted after the death of Jesus, and who were in considerable numbers, for neither Jesus nor Mary ever ceased praying, in the midst of their sufferings, for the salvation of these miserable beings. ⁹