the audience applauded

Sick Product of a Sick System

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

This full length documentary is not strictly for believers, rather it consists of a series of commentaries by academics, secular and not so, on the books that could have gone into the Christian "Bible" but didn't. Some were lost, unintentionally or otherwise, some were not considered authentic, and some were a definite no-no. This is not the "Apocrypha", but books like the "Infancy Gospel Of Jesus" that shows a somewhat different and some might say unacceptable side to the boy Christ. The Council Of Nicea is covered but not the later Council Of Trent. Sadly, feminist propaganda is injected into the film by a female contributor; women were seen to be unworthy of becoming disciples, we are told, which is why the "Gospel Of Mary" was mislaid. In view of the fates of the Disciples, this was not necessarily a bad thing for women.

I am a graduate student in Christian Theology and I found the information in this documentary pretty comparable to what we study in class, so therefore in sync with contemporary scholarship. There is a lot of information that goes into understanding the Biblical texts, and part of that understanding comes with knowing the historical context that brought about the composition of the Canon. There were various texts being used depending on what part of the world you were in. Also, some words, symbols, or actions had cultural significance and even different meanings from what they would mean today, and we don't pick up on these things automatically as the ancient Jewish culture would have because our society is so different. I think this documentary did a good job of representing the scholarship in its time frame. It wasn't a perfect representation of all of the scholarship that's out there, but it was still decent.

Kudos for attempting such an ambitious and controversial look at ancient books that relate to scripture and might even have become scripture. There is a lot of information here, and much of it is even true. I must complain that I disagreed with the assertion that bishop Arius believed that Jesus was just human. He thought Jesus was of like substance with God the Father, which was not the answer his colleagues were looking for (they said, exact same substance) but neither is it the same as saying Jesus was not divine: like substance sets Jesus apart from ordinary men; he was divine according to Arius, just distinguishable from the Father. Talking head John Dominic Crosson implied this and would have said it, but the filmmakers had made up their minds and went with the simplistic characterization. Anyway, I recommend this documentary for its breadth despite my quibbles.

I found this documentary incredible. This is information that is almost never mentioned in any of the "religions of the book". Not only Catholic, but also Protestant, and even Muslim.Here the history of the "construction" of the Bible (New Testament) is investigated. Several "refused" gospels are described and even certain gospels not in the official New Testament but which are found in certain Eithiopian or Marionite Catholic bibles. There is even a "refused" gospel that is found in the Muslim Koran.I found the explanations clear and well commented. A very good documentary that I first saw on the History Channel in the USA.I recommend it highly to those who are interested in the origins of religions and the "process" of how a "offical" religion gets built.