If you made a film about the life of Jesus, how do you know it wouldn't be heretical?

[Gift_from_God]

I recently watched parts of Zeffirelli’s Jesus of Nazareth. It’s often called one of the best depictions of Jesus’ life, and I really enjoyed watching it. Now then, Zeffirelli does interject dialogue that is not in the Bible. For example, conversations between Mary and Joseph when she goes into labour are not really stated in the Bible, but in the movie, they speak to each other. There’s also Jesus speaking to his disciples and being all fun-loving before he tells the story about the prodigal son, or Israelis calling Mary a whore . The Bible can be vague with dialogue at time, acting as a narration from time to time and for the sake of film, it does seem understandable to have these extra bits of dialogue, but is it ever heretical? Or does it not really matter as anything could have been said

 

[LilyM]

I recently watched parts of Zeffirelli’s Jesus of Nazareth. It’s often called one of the best depictions of Jesus’ life, and I really enjoyed watching it. Now then, Zeffirelli does interject dialogue that is not in the Bible. For example, conversations between Mary and Joseph when she goes into labour are not really stated in the Bible, but in the movie, they speak to each other. There’s also Jesus speaking to his disciples and being all fun-loving before he tells the story about the prodigal son, or Israelis calling Mary a whore . The Bible can be vague with dialogue at time, acting as a narration from time to time and for the sake of film, it does seem understandable to have these extra bits of dialogue, but is it ever heretical? Or does it not really matter as anything could have been said

The mere fact of Joseph and Mary speaking to each other is far from heretical. They were married, we know they MUST have spoken to each other at times!

If what they SAID in those depicted conversations is heretical - for example if Mary said to Joseph ‘I bet the baby will have your eyes’ (indicating that Joseph is Jesus’ biological father) then that would be heretical.

By the way, horrible as the suggestion is that Mary the Mother of God was even thought of as being an immoral woman, we KNOW from scripture that Joseph had doubts about her.

You must remember that there was no precedent for anyone becoming pregnant by the Holy Ghost - the only reasonable conclusion anyone could have reached would be that she’d been with a man, either Joseph or someone else, and since she didn’t cry rape or anything that it must’ve been consensual.

Joseph, of course, knew that HE wasn’t the father, so the only reasonable conclusion was that she had been unfaithful, hence his wanting to divorce her, without openly accusing her of adultery or fornication, in order to spare her the stoning which would inevitably follow.

The very reason Joseph had to be reassured by the angel that Mary had indeed conceived by the Holy Spirit, rather than by natural means, was that he was of course thinking the contrary - what else could he think?

 

[Hereswith]

Interesting question! I think that Zefferelli’s dialog adds to the story. It’s fine as long as the Christian message is not altered, which it isn’t. It is not a question of every word and gesture appearing in the Bible, it’s a question of the accurate portrayal of the story and its message.

I have mixed feelings about that film as a whole. The Jesus in the film is very emotionless and bland. I know that this portrayal adds to the other-worldly quality of Christ, and creates a sort of mystical mood. But in my mind, Jesus must have been warm and charming. I don’t recognize this Zefferelli Jesus as anyone I would want to follow!

It is one man’s idea of who Christ was while on earth. It is always interesting to speculate. Imagine what he must have been like - illiterate and poor, but possessing such a presence that hundreds listened to his every word. Imagine!