{"id":421,"date":"2008-04-08T11:09:00","date_gmt":"2008-04-08T15:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/?p=421"},"modified":"2016-01-09T22:03:15","modified_gmt":"2016-01-10T03:03:15","slug":"pff-reviews-jesus-the-spirit-of-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/2008\/04\/08\/pff-reviews-jesus-the-spirit-of-god\/","title":{"rendered":"PFF Review: JESUS, THE SPIRIT OF GOD"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>Originating from Iran, Jesus, The Spirit Of God<\/strong> examines the life of Jesus of Nazareth not from the traditional European\/Christian perspective as the Son of God, but from the Muslim perspective of a human who foretells the coming of the final prophet, Mohammed.<\/p>\n

In broad strokes, the story is similar to the life of Jesus as portrayed in the Christian New Testament, though there are definite differences that may surprise viewers with little background on the Koran\u2019s version of his life. The most obvious is the subject of Jesus\u2019 divinity, which Islam does not believe in. A more glaring difference comes in the form of some of Jesus\u2019 teachings. In one instance, Jesus and his disciples share a meal in secret at the home of Nichodimus, a member of the Sanhedrin who is sympathetic to Jesus\u2019 teachings. There, Jesus blames the Jews for continually turning away from God, perverting his Laws and then killing any prophet God sends to bring them back to his path.<\/p>\n

Technically, the film is put together solidly, though without any real technical flair. The depictions of the miracles performed by Jesus are done simply through some basic editing and the actors\u2019 performances. The production design is not that lavish and at times looks like an old 1950s Italian sword and sandals programmer.<\/p>\n

There will be some who will rightly take offense to the Jewish high priests as schemers who ultimately pay Pontius Pilate to crucify Jesus. I\u2019m no scholar of the Koran, but based on current events, I suspect that it is susceptible to differing interpretations as the Old and New Testaments are. The film\u2019s depiction of God taking Jesus up to Heaven, while leaving a transformed Judas Iscariot to be crucified in Jesus\u2019 place is another interpretation of the Koran that is openly debated among Muslims. As such, one shouldn\u2019t take the film as the final official word on the Muslim religion\u2019s stance on Jesus, much like other cinematic interpretations of various religious scripture, such as Mel Gibson\u2019s The Passion Of The Christ<\/strong>, shouldn\u2019t be taken as a blanket statement for their creed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originating from Iran, Jesus, The Spirit Of God examines the life of Jesus of Nazareth not from the traditional European\/Christian perspective as the Son of God, but from the Muslim perspective of a human who [click for more]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[206],"tags":[8043,68],"series":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-421","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-review","7":"tag-jesus-the-spirit-of-god","8":"tag-philadelphia-film-festival"},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t