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Barnard
Jewish Studies Professor Alan Segal Serves as Religion Expert
in Making of New Movie The Gospel of John
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Alan
Segal
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New York,
NY— Alan Segal, Professor of Religion and Jewish Studies
at Barnard College, and a renowned expert on Judaism in the
time of Jesus, was invited to work on the authenticity of
"The Gospel of John," a three-hour epic movie about
the life of Jesus, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival
on September 11.
Segal called the movie a beautifully crafted, historical recreation
that attempts to capture the Gospel of John on the screen.
The movie, a 15-million dollar Canadian-British production,
is due to be released in four U.S. markets on Friday, September
26, and then in 75 others throughout the fall.
"The goal was to produce a more authentic portrayal of
the time than has ever been produced before. The fact that
we did not deviate from the Gospel in any way resulted in
a more valid depiction of the Gospel and a very different
movie experience than an American movie audience has ever
seen," argues Segal.
The script of the movie "The Gospel of John" is
a word-to-word version of John’s Gospel whereas Mel Gibson’s
"The Passion" is a medieval passion play, according
to Segal. Gibson’s movie on the same topic has not been
released yet.
Gibson’s graphic portrayal of Jesus’ death and the
involvement of Jews in the events leading to the crucifixion
have caused widespread debate, while "The Gospel of John"
has caused much less controversy. "One of the ways we
tried to defuse the issue in the script was to use the American
Bible Society’s 1966 Good News Bible’s translation,
which interprets the original Greek version of ‘Jews’
as ‘Jewish authorities.’ We also tried to get at
the ambiguity of what the term ‘Jew’ meant in the
first century," said Segal.
The advisory council of scholars, which consisted of Segal
and nine other Protestant, Catholic and Jewish experts, worked
extensively with the screenwriter, John Goldsmith, and the
creative/production team of the movie, led by a Canadian producer
Garth Drabinsky, to address the perception of the polemic
of the Jewish and Christian conflict on many levels and helped
the creative team to understand life in the first century,
as well as the first-century context of the Bible. The archeological
sites were thoroughly researched; for example, the synagogues
for the movie were constructed in the first-century style.
Even the music for the movie was played using ancient instrumentation
and melodies.
"Everybody agreed that the casting of Jesus and all of
his disciples should have an Eastern-Mediterranean look and
the movie should not be a vehicle for any particular star.
Gibson makes the mistake of making his movie a vehicle for
his own religious beliefs, though he does not cast himself
as the star in the movie. We made an effort to stay close
to the consensus of the meaning of the Gospel all the way
through," Segal stated.
Segal believes that with the help of the advisory council,
the creative team of the movie has managed to capture the
intimacy of the relationship between Jesus and his disciples,
as well as show Jesus’ most spiritual qualities, as portrayed
in the Gospel of John.
Segal also pointed out that some debate will most likely come
out of the movie, since John’s Gospel represents a conflict
between Jesus and the Jewish authorities. "It does raise
serious questions about the polemic between Judaism and early
Christianity. However, the difference between this film and
Gibson’s film is that it displays the word-to-word conflict
which the Gospel portrays and not a single director’s
interpretation of it," said Segal. "Gibson’s
version will be needlessly inflammatory and will therefore
take away from the film’s religious value."
According to Segal, there are plans to make a series of films,
which would cover all the Gospels, and ultimately the entire
Bible. The Gospel of Mark might be next and eventually the
plan is to turn to the Hebrew Bible for the subject matter.
"The fact that there are four very different canonical
Christian Gospels gives the New Testament depiction of Jesus
a "Rashomon" quality. Each of the Gospels portrays
Jesus differently, sometimes in a contradictory way that seems
to portray a different position about him in the early church.
This is part of the mystery of the Christian message. I think
that "The Gospel of John" does something that has
never been tried before; it depicts Jesus with all the mystery
and differing points of view that we find in the New Testament.
I think by working with the different gospels one at a time
we will show the movie-going public both the value of the
Gospels as historical sources in all their ambiguity and also
bring out their enormous religious significance," Segal
concluded.
Contact:
Petra Tuomi, 212-854-7907, ptuomi@barnard.edu
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