Mel Gibson movie "The Passion"

[Paul Younan]

As a speaker of both Aramaic and English, I can pretty much tell you that the Aramaic of the movie sounded like it started off as English.

I spoke with Prof. Fulco (who translated the script for Mel Gibson) via email about a year ago. He stated that it was his intention to re-create "as realistically as possible" the "dialect that was probably spoken" at the time and place.

Now, take that for what it's worth. The Aramaic was ok - but not realistic at all, in my opinion.

For instance, during the entire film the word used for "lord" was the Hebrew "Adonai" - EVEN though the Greek versions of the NT themselves testify that the word used at the time was the Aramaic "Mar" (c.f., 1Cor.)

I can't imagine why Prof. Fulco would chose to ignore the testimony of the Greek witnesses, even, that people like Paul of Tarsus used the Aramaic "Mar" for "lord", rather than the Hebrew "Adonai."

All in all, like I said, the Aramaic was ok - but very unrealistic. Why didn't Prof. Fulco use the Peshitta for the translation? Well, think about it! Would he have earned his money by doing so? <!-- s:lookround: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/lookround.gif" alt=":lookround:" title="Look Round" /><!-- s:lookround: -->