Gibson's Christ film is all Greek to me, says language expert

Published on Sunday 18 April 2004 01:00

MEL Gibson’s film The Passion of the Christ has been savaged for basic errors in its use of Latin and Aramaic.

Gibson’s depiction of the last 12 hours in the life of Jesus is, as the director has maintained, based on the New Testament.

However, his use of Latin and Aramaic, in an attempt to make the depiction of the crucifixion as realistic as possible, has been branded as farcical by a language scholar.

Edinburgh-based author Peter Burnett claims that not only is the spoken Aramaic and Latin full of errors, the use of Latin is completely incorrect.

Burnett, who studied Hebrew and Aramaic at Glasgow University, says the Romans in Jerusalem would have spoken Greek, the empire’s common tongue, and not Latin.

Burnett, 33, said: "It’s very Life of Brian to have the Romans speaking in Latin, and it’s just downright absurd to have the Jewish people talking in Latin.

"Think of the letters of Paul and of the gospels - all written in Greek, the common tongue of the day and of the empire.

"The Latin is creative to say the least, and is given a strong Italian accent to draw it away from the Latin reading contests we remember from school.

"Jesus speaking Latin is also a joke as he doubtless didn’t even know Greek, unlike his educated advocate, Paul."

The Passion, which Gibson had originally planned to be shown without subtitles, has taken more than $350m at the box office since it opened nearly two months ago.

Funded by Gibson himself, it took at least $17m over Easter, when performances were block booked by churches. One estimate has it as the eighth biggest earner of all time.

It is the first time Aramaic, which has links to both Hebrew and Arabic, has been used in a Hollywood blockbuster.

But Burnett pointed out that there are only incomplete records of the ancient version of Aramaic Jesus spoke.

He added: "There is only one bit of Aramaic in the New Testament - ‘Lord, Lord, why hast thou forsaken me?’ - so they use that to great effect."

Modern Aramaic is spoken by about a million people, mainly Christian groups in northern Iraq, as well as in Turkey and Iran.

But Burnett saves his heaviest attack for the film plot.

"The most outrageous part of the movie... is the very bizarre claim that Jesus invented the table.

"It comes in a flashback to when he was a carpenter, where he is shown with this modern table. It looks like it has come from Ikea.

"Back then, tables would have been very low, in a Japanese style, but Jesus shows people how to use his invention.

"When they had all the stories from the gospels to use, I don’t know why they put that scene in."