Competing (quietly) with Mel Gibson’s Passion for the New Testament film audience this year is The Gospel of John. Unlike Gibson’s hotly contested film, the new movie — which is being marketed only to Southern Evangelicals — is more sensitive to the New Testament’s history of anti-Semitic interpretation:
Rabbi Eugene Korn, director of interfaith affairs for the Anti-Defamation League, saw the movie at a screening on Wednesday. A critic of the Gibson movie, he pronounced “The Gospel of John” a “responsible” treatment of the text. For a Jewish viewer, “it’s difficult and some of it is offensive, but that’s the Gospel of John,” he said. The movie makes clear John’s depiction of the Crucifixion as part of a divine plan, Rabbi Korn said, adding, “The implication is that no people are responsible for the death of Jesus.”
(“Appeareth St. John, quietly, cautiously.” Daniel J. Wakin. New York Times 9.29.03, reg req’d; thanks, onReligion.com!)