ABSTRACT
This introduction chapter talks about Mel Gibson's movie, The Passion of the Christ and also presents the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters. The Passion of the Christ, which, among other artistic deviations from the biblical texts, offered its viewers an excruciating, extended portrayal of Jesus being flogged. As with Gibson's movie, the image of a Jewish Jesus is both contentious and symbolic beyond its literal parameters. In fact, no one in mainstream new testament scholarship denies that Jesus was a Jew, and so the acrimony connected to the issue seems to be generated by other, implicit or hidden concerns, which the issue of Jesus' Judaism is somehow, obliquely, communicating. Evidently, viewing The Passion inspired some Christians to insist on a return to the real meaning of Easter: bloodshed and torture. Prior to the movie's release, many critics feared it would inspire anti-Semitic outbursts; no one could have predicted that the real result would be an upsurge in anti-lapinism.
