Speaking as one who got all excited hearing that it was going to be in the original languages, I am seriously dissapointed.
If you are going to take such pains as to make the actors learn Aramaic, why not go all out with the “historical realism”? (I use the words in quotes because the Gospels are religious works, not histories).
I’m not a Christian, but I don’t mind if they depict Jesus performing miracles and stuff - that is what the story says. As a Jew, I don’t care much if the movie is anti-Jewish in tone - some parts of the Gospels are, so it doesn’t bother me if they choose to depict that aspect (and I suspect the foofarah kicked up over that issue of being at least in part a deliberate publicity stunt).
But why, oh why, not try to make the thing as accurate as possible to the times, within the limits of the story imposed by the Gospels - if that is the evident intention, what with the Aramaic stuff and all? If he wanted to go for the traditional Christian depiction, why not just use English and be done with it?
