I was really looking forward to seeing the movie last night, which is based on the Bill O'Reilly book of the same name. I must say though, I was very disappointed. At the opening and each time the movie came back from commercial, it said that the movie was based on Biblical accounts, but I did not find that to be true at all. First of all there was no references to Jesus' birth which is a pivotal point in the Bible. The first appearance of Jesus was as a two year old being visited by the three wise men, and then boom! It skips 20 years and picks up with Jesus as a carpenter meeting Peter and Andrew. What happened to the stories of Jesus as an older child? The Gospel of Luke clearly says that Jesus grew in spirituality and knowledge of God during his childhood years. One of the better known stories about Jesus is when he went to the Jewish temple as a young boy and astonished the Rabbi's and teachers with his knowledge of God and the Torah. I'd say that that's a pretty important part of his life even if you are trying to take religious beliefs out of it. And here's what really gets me: in the movie Jesus didn't have knowledge that he was the son of God until later in his ministry. And even though John The Baptist told him and all of the people around him that he was The Messiah, he gets baptized and goes on as if nothing has changed. It is not until later that he realizes that his disciples see him as the son of God and so he then begins to believe it. In the movie we see the three kings (wise men/magi) of the east travel to Bethlehem and tell his parents that he is the Messiah and the King of the Jews. Pfftt...big deal. Not another word is spoken about his destiny until 22 years later, when he tells his mother Mary that he believes himself the son of God. And she's not real happy about him saying that, either. I understand that O'Reilly omits the angels telling Mary that she will bear the son of God. It's a miracle and O'Reilly purposely avoids those. No walking on water, no healing of the Lepers, etc. But c'mon now, you're going to show how three very important people travel hundreds of miles to tell Mary & Joseph that their child is the Messiah but then tell us that Jesus didn't know for another 30 years? For a movie that purports to be based on biblical text, I think that this was a very poor depiction of the life of Jesus.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/dec/18/killing-jesus-bill-oreilly-review http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/bill-oreilly-killing-jesus/
