Preposterous dialectic: bad Jews and good Romans
• Christian Pop Culture , • Superstitious Folly
Elaine Pagels, best known for The Gnostic Gospels on Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ:
Mel Gibson denies any anti-Semitism, and I cant speak to his motives, Pagels went on, but there are narrative devices that are clear. The more benign Pilate appears in the movie, the more malignant the Jews are. To deflect responsibility from the Romans for arresting and executing Christ, which Gibson takes from the Gospels and makes even more extreme, is contrary to everything we understand about history. It is implausible that the Jews could be responsible and Pilate a benign governor. There are many examples in the film of a preposterous dialectic: the bad Jews and the good Romans. When the Temple police arrest Jesus, Mary Magdalene turns to the Romans as if they were the policemen on the block, benign protectors of the public order. But the very idea of a Jewish woman turning to Roman soldiers for help is ridiculous.
The New Yorker: Passions Past and Present