The Jesus Papers; didn't Martin Scorsese already do this story? [View All]

[Atman]

In case you've not been following, an author is making the talking head circuit pushing his new book which asserts that Jesus did not in fact die on the cross, and actually went on to live another 14 years. The author further states that Mr. Christ was actually married to Mary Magdalen, and that Pontius Pilate was complicite in a "sham" crucifiction.

Mere lunacy to some, utter heresy to others, but the whole story seemed to have an curious ring of familiarity to me. Then it finally came to me...wasn't this basic story line already done in the film "Last Temptation of Christ?" I haven't seen the film in a while, but I do recall the scenes of Jesus and Mary moving to a nice little vineyard in the country, although I can't seem to remember the circumstances other than some vague hallucination sequences.

As an aside to this, I just have to add one observation I had after watching a segment on this subject, on one of last night's evening "newsiness" shows (Dateline, maybe?); a theologian scoffed at the entire thesis, of course. But what I found amusing was that he scoffed because he felt the whole notion of Jesus not dying on the cross and returning from the dead to be absurd. Really? To me, it seems the whole notion of a man claiming divine heritage dying on a cross, then rising from the dead, could certainly be considered a bit absurd, too. But hey, that's just me.

Anyway, I'm curious how many of you have seen this guy on teevee, and also seen "Last Temptation." If one guy can sue Dan Brown for pilfering ideas for The DaVinci Code, maybe Martin Scorsese has a case against "The Jesus Papers," too!


(edited for spelling)