Vermes article in full

I mentioned earlier Geza Vermes's comments on The Passion of the Christ now that he has seen a preview (see earlier blog entry). Vermes's full article is not in the on-line version of The Guardian but I've found a version elsewhere, on Mathaba.net:

Celluloid brutality, Mel Gibson's 'The Passion of the Christ'
Mel Gibson's film about Christ is horribly gory, historically wrong - and it will inspire judeophobia
by Geza Vermes

I am still in a state of shock having sat through two hours of almost uninterrupted gratuitous brutality, Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. I hope I will never be obliged to see something as dreadful again . . . .

. . . . . The light element in The Passion of the Christ is supplied by the use of Latin and Aramaic. Not only are Pilate and Jesus(!) fluent Latin speakers, but even the soldiers of the Jerusalem garrison, who were most probably Aramaic- and Greek-speaking recruits from Syria, converse happily in a clumsy Latin with Italian Church pronunciation. I did not find it easy to follow the Aramaic which was mixed with unnecessary Hebraisms . . . . .

Update (Saturday): Vermes article now available on the Guardian Unlimited web site:

Celluloid brutality
Mel Gibson's film about Christ is horribly gory, historically wrong - and it will inspire judeophobia
Geza Vermes