How to Crucify your God according to the BBC

international | arts and media | other press Sunday March 16, 2008 04:10 by fancy that

Tonight the BBC will air the first part of their 2008 "Passion" drama in which Simon Elliott the production designer has chosen to depict a "historically accurate" crucifixion as possible. ""He was probably put on a crude wooden gibbet and made to stand in a loose, foetal position. It was fiendishly designed."" says Mr Elliott who admits his work might offend Christians who like the traditional nails through the hands & feet image of a muscular sort of chap who manages to just hang there without suffocation or his hands being ripped apart.

Pretty gruesome stuff you'll agree. You might even believe in it. In which case you ought jam the BBC switchboard tonight & write letters using the trusty name "disgusted".

The viable crucifixion uses nails through the arms & holds the body in foetal position

......"While acknowledging that his ideas are likely to upset Christians, Mr Elliott argued that the position so familiar to churchgoers was only one of a range of methods used by the Romans in crucifixions.

"It is a minefield, as everyone has such strong feelings about it. Our portrayal is based on lengthy research." In particular, he said they had been influenced by the discovery of a crucified skeleton, which was found near Jerusalem in 1968 and is the only such archaeological find.

This led them to believe that Christ could well have been crucified on a T-shaped gibbet, with his arms above his head and his legs tucked up and under him so that his chest was crushed and he died of asphyxiation. Instead of having nails through his hands, they could have been driven through his arms.
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The Passion has already proved controversial for appearing to exonerate Judas and Pontius Pilate for their roles in the Christ's death.

But Mark Goodacre, associate professor of religion at Duke University, who advised the producers, defended the decision to put forward an alternative representation of the crucifixion. "The Romans used a number of ways to crucify people and this was one of the most common and effective methods," he said.

"The makers wanted something that wasn't the typical image that would surprise the viewers. This is not an attempt to be iconoclastic, but to get people to look again at the events surrounding his death." He added that he thought the Bible did not actually explain in any detail the form of crucifixion employed.

Paula Gooder, a New Testament scholar, said that the traditional image had become important to Christians in understanding what the crucifixion was about.

"They have clearly decided to go for this option because it's unusual and will jolt viewers and challenge them about their assumptions," she said.

"Their portrayal causes a problem as it seems to ignore what the Bible says."

In the Book of John, Jesus says to Thomas: "Put your finger here; see my hands."................

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Of course it's not really important how he died. & if you believe in it all you can't go getting upset about it really. Because you know he rose from the Dead. That's why he is famous.
If you do get offended on the other hand you're really beyond understanding middle east peace processes, secularism in the XXI century, the challenges of marketing BBC drama in a society where most people of faith are muslim & forget the violent Buddhists.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/mar/16/bbc.television
http://www.colerainetimes.co.uk/news/Nesbitt-stars-in-3...83.jp