Roman crucifixion was the most barabarous and horrible method of execution the human mind had devised at that time
Probably not, unfortunately. I was always taught that the point about crucifixion was that it was the basic method of execution; after all, on the evidence of the Gospels it was what the Romans used as the punishment for shoplifting. Persian impalement, or putting people in cold furnaces which were then stoked slowly (Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego) were each of them *probably* nastier (though one has to say that one is, here, talking about gradations of inconceivable agony). And I believe the Chinese may at that date have already come up with the tightly bound bamboo strip one described in Flashman and The Dragon which I don't propose to go into here.
I don't know if that's the Anti-Woman Version, he's got, but Satan is male in my Bible.
Since I argue strenously against those Christians who regard it as blasphemous to suggest that God might have any feminine characteristics (ie, the people who characterise translations of the Bible which refer to "parent" as opposed to "father" as "political correctness run mad") I think it would be hypocritcal of me to say that "Satan is male". However, given that many people claim that male is also the neutral gender where one does not wish to be specific, I find it an interesting choice...
I hope this film isn't going to stir up anti-Semitism
Of course it is. As (see my earlier post) Gallipoli stirred up Australian/English feeling, Braveheart stirred up Scottish/English feeling and The Bounty stirred up class prejudice. Something about the stories which Gibson seems bound to tell as an actor or director resonate with that need to be telling the story of a defiant, opposed, perceived minority against a smug, intolerant, perceived majority.
How far that seems consistent with someone who is the son of someone who believes that the Jews of the 1930s turned into the inhabitants of the Bronx rather than first the degraded inhabitants of Auschewitz-Birkenau and its ilk, and then to white ash on the winds of Europe is for each individual to determine. But for my part he seems to have a sort of hatred built into his talent, which informs everything he does. Has he ever made a film which celebrates love, or charity?
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2004-02-24 08:52 pm (UTC)Probably not, unfortunately. I was always taught that the point about crucifixion was that it was the basic method of execution; after all, on the evidence of the Gospels it was what the Romans used as the punishment for shoplifting. Persian impalement, or putting people in cold furnaces which were then stoked slowly (Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego) were each of them *probably* nastier (though one has to say that one is, here, talking about gradations of inconceivable agony). And I believe the Chinese may at that date have already come up with the tightly bound bamboo strip one described in Flashman and The Dragon which I don't propose to go into here.
I don't know if that's the Anti-Woman Version, he's got, but Satan is male in my Bible.
Since I argue strenously against those Christians who regard it as blasphemous to suggest that God might have any feminine characteristics (ie, the people who characterise translations of the Bible which refer to "parent" as opposed to "father" as "political correctness run mad") I think it would be hypocritcal of me to say that "Satan is male". However, given that many people claim that male is also the neutral gender where one does not wish to be specific, I find it an interesting choice...
I hope this film isn't going to stir up anti-Semitism
Of course it is. As (see my earlier post) Gallipoli stirred up Australian/English feeling, Braveheart stirred up Scottish/English feeling and The Bounty stirred up class prejudice. Something about the stories which Gibson seems bound to tell as an actor or director resonate with that need to be telling the story of a defiant, opposed, perceived minority against a smug, intolerant, perceived majority.
How far that seems consistent with someone who is the son of someone who believes that the Jews of the 1930s turned into the inhabitants of the Bronx rather than first the degraded inhabitants of Auschewitz-Birkenau and its ilk, and then to white ash on the winds of Europe is for each individual to determine. But for my part he seems to have a sort of hatred built into his talent, which informs everything he does. Has he ever made a film which celebrates love, or charity?