As I put up the Ten Commandments movie last week and since it is the Easter weekend, I thought it right and proper to put up something that I hope will please my Christian readers.

In my view, this film version of the life of Jesus produced by Lord Lew Grade in the 1970’s is probably one of the best. It has a stellar cast including Robert Powell as Jesus of Nazereth, Anne Bancroft as Mary Magdalene and Rod Steiger as Pontius Pilate. This version is based on the Synoptic Gospels and the Gospel of John from the Christian Testament. It was directed by Franco Zefferelli and made a huge impact, especially on British audiences, when it was first shown.

Lavishly filmed and several hours long, this film tells the story of a Jewish carpenter from the town of Nazareth who, according to the Christian tradition, became a teacher or Rabbi and eventually was crucified to death by the Romans, who in the first century CE occupied what is now the land of Israel.

There is very little known about the historical Jesus outside of the Synoptic Gospels and some speculative writing from what later became known as the various Christian ‘heresies’ such as the Arian Heresy. If he was indeed a Rabbi and an individual and not a composite character, as some say Moses is, then it is likely that he was a student of, and a promulgator of the teachings of the School of Hillel, one of the two main schools of Jewish thought during that period of ancient history.

It took several hundred years from the death of Jesus for Christianity to become established in the Roman Empire under Emperor Constantine in the 5^th Century CE. Before that, there was much debate among Christians about the nature of Jesus, was he man, was he divine or was he both? Like the story of the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt that went up here last week, the story of Jesus and the creation of Christianity is one of those that have inspired many people. Sometimes it has inspired people to do good and sometimes at various periods in history, like other beliefs and ideologies, it has inspired people to do bad things.

This is probably the best filmed version of the Jesus story in the public domain and it is well worth taking the time to watch.

I’d like to end this introduction by wishing all my Christian readers a very happy Easter and if you are not Christian then have a very happy ‘stuffing your face with chocolate day’ on Sunday.