Christ has finally gone on general release after months of debate.
Watched with enormous interest in the USA, the film caused some
cinemas to assume the air of churches. Millions of Christians have
queued to watch this important workabout Jesus (peace be upon him),
the corner stone of their beliefs.
One of the aspects most concentrated on by film critics is the way
that this film is not pure"entertainment," unlike classic Hollywood
movies. On the contrary, there are suffering and even torture in a
great many scenes. Christians believe that Jesus was killed by the
Romans by being crucified,and Mel Gibson shows what a dreadful form of
torture crucifixion and the cruelty that went before itwere.
The Jewish Reaction
The greatest reaction to Mel Gibson's film came from Jews, and is
indeed still doing so. Why is that? The answer to that question lies
in the historyof Christianity as describedin the Bible.
According to the Bible, Jesus is the savior whom the Jews had been
awaiting for centuries, in other words the Messiah. When he began to
preach his message, however, he both called on the Jewish people to
believe in God and also criticized the hypocrisy of various men of
religion who enjoyed great prestige among the Jews. For that reason,
although a large part of the Jewish people came tolove Jesus, the men
of religion in question had enormous hostility towards him and decided
to set a trap to kill him. Eventually they decided tocomplain to the
Romans, who ruled Palestine at thetime. Appearing before theRoman
governor, Pontius Pilate, they told him Jesus claimed to be a king
whereas their king was Caesar, and was causing political unrest.
Pilate questioned Jesus, and seeing that he had committed no crime
wanted to set him free. The Jewish religious leaders insisted,
however. They demanded he be crucified, and Pilate accepted that
demand.
Again according to the Bible, it was the Jews who were actually
responsible for the decision to executeJesus.
This led to some Christiansharboring an enmity for the Jews throughout
history. One of the reasonsfor the emergence of"anti-Semitism," or
hatred of Jews, is that Christians regarded the Jews
as"Christ-killers."
The reaction of Jewish leaders to Mel Gibson's film in recent months
has been that the film has revitalized this concept, which has
persisted for the last 2,000 years. In many scenes in the film the
hatred and anger of some Jewish religious figures towards Jesus are
depicted. This is an important point of conflictwhich divides
Christianity and Judaism, which have agreat deal in common, andeven
sets them in opposition to one another.
The Truth Revealed in the Qur'an
However, there is a most important truth behind the current debate
over Jesus between Jews and Christians.
This truth is revealed in the Qur'an. According to the verses of
Almighty God, Jesus was not actually put to death by being crucified.
The Jews set such a trap for him, butGod foiled that trap with
amiracle and rescued Jesus, with someone else being crucified in his
place. This truth is described in Surat an-Nisa':...:->
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