Latin in Passion of the Christ

The Passion of the Christ (2004) features spoken Latin. But how is the Latin? Watch this review to find out!
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Intro and outro music: Overture of Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) by Mozart
00:00 Intro
01:02 The origin of the Ecclesiastical Pronunciation
02:05 Pontius Pilate and Jesus
04:05 Why not Greek?
07:20 What pronunciation of Latin would Jesus use?
14:04 Pontius Pilate with his wife Claudia
20:45 Cassius

[@polyMATHY_Luke]

I have a written a new short story in Latin! with drammatically acted audiobook. Check it out: luke-ranieri.myshopify.com/collections/frontpage/products/fabula-anatina-a-duckish-tale-in-latin 🦆 It's a children's book about the odyssey of a duckling who wants to learn how to fly. 🦂 Support my work on Patreon: www.patreon.com/LukeRanieri 📚 Luke Ranieri Audiobooks: luke-ranieri.myshopify.com 🤠 Take my course LATIN UNCOVERED on StoryLearning, including my original Latin adventure novella "Vir Petasātus" learn.storylearning.com/lu-promo?affiliate_id=3932873 🦂 Sign up for my Latin Pronunciation & Conversation series on Patreon: www.patreon.com/posts/54058196

[@SchmulKrieger]

Would like to know why the /m/ at the end of words after a vowel just indicates a nasal vowel and isn't also pronounced with a nasal vowel before?

[@polyMATHY_Luke]

@@SchmulKrieger because of elision: the -im -em -um -am of Latin have to act as a vowel of some sort in that environment.

[@ldmtag]

With all those long and short wovels, I wonder how rap wasn't invrnted in ancient Roman empire😂

[@ldmtag]

I feel like we russians have a HŪGE advantage over English speakers learning Latin. We have 6 noun cases, 5 of which seem to be identical to latin, we have verb condju...gations?... whatever those are called, we have free word order, and we don't have difthonguisation problem. The worst we can do is turning hard consonants into their softer counterparts like "tjibji" instead of "tibi". And we have weird sound coming from our cheeks, which makes Russian a terrible singing language.

[@ldmtag]

Whenever I try pronouncing long wovels I sound like I'm making fun of italians: "pāsta italiāno ferrāri lamborghīni!, don't put pineāpples on pīzza! Thīs-ah īs-ah pipī-aquā, not-ah cōffee!"😂😂😂

[@Deerm3at]

You should go to a Traditional Latin Mass, Luke. They're very beautiful!

[@davidstanton4578]

I agree the traditional Latin mass is ipso facto the Roman church....or the mean trads because they are protective in the 60s ther was a concept by a movement to fix Catholicism to Lutherans etc...that's what the book Goodbye good men is about the Latin societies never left infact innovation on the liturgy was not accepted because ther is a seal over the Latin mass...today they are called the mean trads more Catholics are interested in the Latin mass and learning more about it and learning the language I applaud this

[@davidgiraldoguiral1022]

Yes but the fucking Pope forbidden them...

[@wopfrog007]

✝️🙏🏻📿

[@Straitsfan]

That’s where I go. SSPX

[@redneckpride4ever]

@Straitsfan I too attend an SSPX chapel.

[@rafaelalexie2417]

"Domne" is exactly how Romanians say "Sir" in the vocative case in a less formal way. I was a bit shocked to hear it in Latin. I was not aware of this short version.

[@polyMATHY_Luke]

Yes, you can see it in inscriptions in Pompeii

[@ancadragoslav7613]

Hai domne, lasă! Fugi cu cercu'!

[@rafaelalexie2417]

@@ancadragoslav7613 :))))))))))))))))

[@ejcaudilla2186]

In the Roman Breviary and in the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we say “Jube, domne, benedícere.” when it is recited in common (with the priest to whom it is addressed by the cantor). But when it is to be prayer privately, we say “Jube, Dómine, benedícere.” i.e. addressed to God.

[@PurpleDrac]

I prefer the proper historical (of course) given that it was the spoken language of this time. I'd of course want it to be the more natural sounding of the two given the choice. A very pivotal part of the film here .. I feel kinda bad for the actor and his English accent is that normal? Going either way for someone (myself) who don't know the language I would've never detected this cause I've not the slightest idea of what to listen for .. a huge part of why I came to Luke's channel for the details cause I want the facts. is this politically correct or is it (again) just for show?? Don't answer that cause I already heard Luke's take on this performance and the incorrect and proper use of the language as it seemed non apparent in some parts which he briefly explained but did so in such a way that makes it hard to see it as really nitpicking. To me it was more a proper rundown of how the speech was executed which again is vital to know as a viewer. For a film of this magnitude I'd want to know the truth about it and feel that is was in fact very important to hear his take on this cause I wouldn't want a falsely reconstructed version of the language I'd want the real thing. Luke (if you're here) please tell us your insights on how the film did overall and would you recommend language learners of any kind to watch it? Your input much like the reason for me coming to this channel is much needed here and would be very appreciated if you commented your exact thoughts on how the movie did and your thoughts on what needs to be done differently for the 2025 release if any changes at all. hope to hear from you soon! 🙂

[@blagheur]

As Italian....I prefer the classical pronunciation. Listening the ecclesiastical pronunciation it sound to me as a dialect of latin. Grazie Luchino, i tuoi video non mi deludono mai.

[@enriquebarbanera]

Well, to say that shows you have what we call classical Latin in a higher value than the one we call ecclesiastical pronunciation. But this does not mean, one is better than the other. And the term "Dialect" is really vague, in this case your are using it to referring to the Latin we classify as ecclesiastical as a subbranch, a variation of the big system called classical Latin. But this is more your perception most than anything else, cause of course "ecclesiastical latín" is not a distorted classical Latin. This is a reductive way of understanding languages brought by non philologists and common people who do not master sociolinguistics

[@MrPinoCavallo]

I don't know the philosopher's name anymore but he said something like: "The difference between a language and a dialect is that the language has an army behind it while the dialect does not." In other words, countries decide what a language is, not any logic.

[@Spvrinnaeli]

Dico sempre che la pronuncia ecclesiastica sembra soltanto l'italiano ma un po' più fancy, o come una persona che tenta di parlare un'altra lingua ma non se ne frega niente dell'accento (pensi, Renzi quando parla l'inglese). Non è scorretto per niente ma decisamente preferisco quello classicale.

[@Latnman101]

giusto

[@deaglanuafhlaithbheartaigh8241]

I remember watching The Passion of the Christ and thinking that it was great that it made use of the languages of Aramaic and Latin (and some Hebrew at parts) and that it made it seem so much more real and authentic, you can enter into it in a deeper way. I always thought that this was really cool - similar to how Mel also uses Maya in Apocalypto. Despite the fact that the probounciation isn't authentic to that of the time, it is in many ways much better than just using English.

[@thadtuiol1717]

Hi, Declan O'Flaherty, is that the Gaelic spelling of your name?

[@kitjohnson2767]

Alas, there was no Greek. Still peeved about that.

[@MichaelScheele]

I agree, the use of those languages increased the immersion factor.

[@goldbullet50]

Despite being the best TV series ever, HBO's Rome would've been even better if it hadn't used English, but rather Latin.

[@tsilaras_exposed3109]

I've had latin classes in high school here in greece and it was around that time that i first watched this movie, it was a treat!!

[@mirnacudiczgela1963]

I was in high school studying Latin here in Croatia too when I first saw this movie at cinema.

[@mjkelly9999]

When Christ and Pilate spoke together, they may have spoken Koine Greek.

[@kuyanicktv146]

Let me just mention, the Aramaic phrase which Pontious Pilate asked Jesus (in this film) was- ܐܢܬ ܡܠܟܐ ܕܝܗܘܕܝܐ Anth mælka d’Yehudaye? 𝘈𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘑𝘦𝘸𝘴? But I love how Jesus responded in Latin which made Pontious Pilate seemingly amazed. 😉👍🏻

[@PC_Simo]

Yep. As if Jesus was telling Pontious Pilate: ”I’m not as uneducated, as you think.”. 😅

[@jericho6657]

הה אנת מלך יהיודיה

[@johannchristian2551]

Our good and almighty lord knows all laguages 😜 haha

[@-Mitra-]

​@@johannchristian2551 why your god is a Jew who spoke Aramaic and learned Latin? 😁

[@chinngis83]

Masker.

[@MegaMayday16]

It's interesting how 2000 years later and only by growing up with Moroccan parents (north Africa far away from the holy land speaking an Arabic dialect which is far away from Arabic). I could understand so many Aramaic words. Makes you feel really emotional.

[@WarpRulez]

I think it would be quite easy for a native Finnish speaker to learn to pronounce classical Latin quite well, since the language share a surprising amount of phonemes. I would guess that a Finnish speaker would have a bit harder time learning the ecclesiastical pronunciation.

[@polyMATHY_Luke]

Agreed. Their only problem is oral posture and intonation

[@PaladinusSP]

Incidentally, Tolkien's Quenya is based on Finnish, but supposed to sound like Latin.

[@sulien6835]

@@PaladinusSP The word shapes like autas, poika, túrinasta and Laikolassë definitely call to mind Finnish but his description of the exact articulations definitely looks more like Classical Latin. I expect Quenya isn't too far from what a Latin speaker trying to speak Finnish would sound like. (though it retains some features of Finnish that were absent in Latin like the combinations /axt/ and /ɛçt/ and also had features not present in either language, such as a palatal stop /c/).

[@WarpRulez]

I noticed how similar classical Latin and Finnish are when you pronounce properly words like "caesar" and "romanus", and you pronounce them pretty much how a Finn would. Especially the vowels are very Finnish-like.

[@victorb976]

Maybe, but spanish and italian pronunciation are closer in terms of phonemes.

[@ExVeritateLibertas]

Mel Gibson stated the reason he did not use Greek was having 3 languages would have been confusing to the audience. If he had gone for full accuracy, all the dialog between Pilate and the Jews, and Christ should have been in Greek. With Pilate and his wife it could have been Latin, Greek, or a mix (Greek being to upper class Romans like a 2nd native language). And Greek is of course the language of the source material (the four Gospels).

[@Thelaretus]

Probably besides the philosophical 'τί εσθ΄ ἁλήθεια' (what is truth?), everything else between him and his wife would have been in Latin. I find the place of Greek in Roman society has been quite blown out of proportion recently.

[@ExVeritateLibertas]

OK just in response to both commenters saying the Romans would not have spoken Greek amongst themselves...to the Roman upper class Greek was as much a native language as Latin. Half (or more) of the ancient Roman literature was in Greek, especially histories and philosophy. As far as Josephus - he wrote in Greek. And he was a Roman citizen (like St. Paul) - there is no reason to think the average Jew knew Latin. As an example of how deeply Greek permeated into the Roman consciousness....consider that Julius Caesar's last words were reportedly in Greek "Kai su, teknon? (And you my son?)... as were his words when crossing the Rubicon: "Annariphtho kybos" (The die is cast.)...one would expect a man's final words on earth to be in his mother tongue...but Caesar chooses Greek. The emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote his most private thoughts (Meditations) in Greek. I think I've illustrated the point. I have nothing against Latin, it's just the Romans themselves (at least the elite) had a marked preference for Greek. That is not to say had no pride in Latin, especially after Virgil, and in the republican era Roman emissaries actually insisted on speaking it in missions to the Greeks, as a point of national honor, though most of them were completely fluent in Greek and could have spoken without an interpreter.

[@jpotter2086]

Having 3 languages would have been confusing??? LOLz. If that was his answer, it was a tossed off, ludicrous dodge.

[@stevied3400]

I’m catholic and I would have preferred if they used Classical Latin for this movie for accuracy. I understand that the actors would not have been perfect in speaking the Latin either way, but using Classical Latin would have been such an easy thing to do for accuracy. Yes, Greek may have been even more accurate but you know what I mean.

[@Thelaretus]

Same.

[@MariVelvet_]

They used Aramaic

[@magyarbondi]

We should write a petition for a Special Edition that would come with 2 soundtracks, one dubbed into Classical Latin. :)

[@GabrielSantos-vj9bk]

I thougt the same as you did

[@francisheperi4180]

What is done, is done! The ordinary person couldn't care less because the film has a lot to offer on many other levels. Gibson's film is a magnificent piece of Catholic art and who cares what the critics say, they are - nothing.

[@FatherJMarcelPortelli]

I definitely can hear the difference between classical Latin and ecclesiasitcal Latin (I studied mostly the latter). I grew up hearing a language with Semitic roots, and was able to understand a few Aramaic words in the movie. This movie "speaks" to me on many levels. :)

[@miguelluissousadias1371]

i assume you are maltese, my brother. the only semitic speakers of europe and of mostly southern italian ancestry! welcome friend!

[@YiannissB.]

Hahaha this is how we Greeks react to foreigners speaking Greek, and English speakers in particular doing their round "o" sounds and their t and aspirated k sounds. Essentially you're doing the same reactions for your 2nd language! They did their work and rehearsals I reckon, gotta give them that. I guess Mel Gibson thought their accent was good enough.

[@O_Rei]

Many thanks, I’ve been wanting an analysis of the Latin in that film for years now! ✝️

[@rodriguezpartners9147]

As a Spanish and Italian speaker, I really enjoy your videos, they are cultural dope in these "social" times. Thanks for sharing!!!

[@thadtuiol1717]

I study Latin and ancient history to escape these crazy modern times, especially woke politics and everybody talking about bloody Covid all the time. I'm so sick of it. When I study Latin or ancient history, I feel like I am escaping to another planet!

[@ihavenoname6724]

Honestly, you should be teaching at a University, your analyses are too good *just* for YT.

[@polyMATHY_Luke]

Very kind

[@krunomrki]

I agree with this statement totally. Did you ever consider trying academical path? It's not too late ...

[@thadtuiol1717]

@@krunomrki Seriously? Academia is hell these days, take it from me.

[@Glassandcandy]

Pontius Pilatus sounds like a Russian trying to speak Latin with an Italian accent. Edit: just got to the later point in the video and what do you know- Slavic speaker trying to sound Italian. I was close enough

[@pbkeyi]

And in Russia we are taught the "academic" Latin which is based on ecclesiastic one but with different pronunciation of certain sounds like "ci" would be "tsi" instead of "chi" and g is always pronounced as g not "dzh" as in Italian pronunciation.

[@user-xh7wg6yn5o]

bulgarian is one of the most similar to russian from all of slavic language

[@mrgsnv3632]

@@pbkeyi yeah, it’s based on the German scholarly tradition, because of the historical ties between the two countries. Even now Germans read Latin in almost the same way - just the “oe” digraph is pronounced as ö.

[@abrahemsamander3967]

Paimon, you can’t! That sounds like a unique system. Never heard it till now.

[@mirnacudiczgela1963]

@@pbkeyi Same pronunciation in Croatia.

[@mtblp7459]

Well, interestingly in Hebrew - to be more precise rabbinical Hebrew (which is the type of Hebrew spoken in the Roman period) and the subsequent eras of Hebrew (medieval and modern) - the name of Herodes is הורדוס (Hordos)

[@luciusael]

Even Latin can't escape Slavic people's intimidating way of pronunciation!

[@neveniusvondubowatz7705]

A message from a Slavic person - ROMANES EUNT DOMUS!

[@Michail_Chatziasemidis]

At first, I thought that the actor playing Pilate was Czech, but then, after hearing him say "Cllllaudia" I guessed that he was from Poland. When you revealed that he's actually Bulgarian, I did hear the similarity between his accent and my Bulgarian συντοπίτες.

[@polyMATHY_Luke]

Interestingly Polish is one of the few Slavic languages that doesn’t have the velar L, because the Proto-Polish velar L became ł which sounds like /w/

[@Michail_Chatziasemidis]

@@polyMATHY_Luke I guess I have to study more Polish phonology XD

[@user-xh7wg6yn5o]

@@Michail_Chatziasemidis polish phonology is hell if you are not a slavic speaker, it's harder than any other slavic language. but okay greek language has more similarities to slavic languages than english or any romance languages

[@janstaniszewski536]

@@user-xh7wg6yn5o :As a Polish native speaker I agree. Polish language is Hell. But at least we use Latin Alphabet.

[@enkor9591]

@@polyMATHY_Luke It used to be widely spoken in the eastern part of the country (kresy in polish), but after WWII it's inhabitants were mostly deported. Few who remained, for example in modern day Belarus, still use it where a speaker of Standard Polish would use ł.

[@vysheslavuzumati1269]

I have the dark Slavic L in my speech too because I spent a year learning Russian by literally only interacting with Russians and I developed a slight accent from it.

[@HighWideandHandsome]

Oh boy, I've been waiting for this!!

[@wilhelmjosephus4830]

Well done! I waited for this video for quite a lot of time.

[@RaySingh87]

Finally! Thank you! I have been waiting for you to cover this for MONTHS!!

[@ironboundfightclubnewark-n338]

Se hoje em dia existem diferentes acentos em todas a linguas faladas pelo mundo, imaginem no latim daquele tempo. Parabens pelo canal e pela iniciativa.

[@salazarway]

Concordo. Se já línguas como o Inglês Português espanhol francês é afins teem diferentes acentos, imagina o império romano. Apesar da distância hoje em dia Brasil Portugal é Moçambique estão incrívelmente mais conectados, que este e oeste do Império Romano. Devia ser uma loucura!

[@Thelaretus]

O latim era muito padronizado, na verdade, em torno do _sermō urbānus_ falado pela elite da cidade de Roma, fenômeno que não acontece, por exemplo, no português. Além disso, o latim é prescritivo e não descritivo.

[@Fetrovsky]

Especialmente la manera como se pronuncian los diferentes sonidos. A veces es diferente incluso en la misma región.

[@Svnfold]

Charlemagne speaking Latin with a Frankish/Germanic accent 🤣

[@Superwing]

The video I've been waiting 17 years for!

[@Romanophonie]

I finally started learning Latin 🥳 and now your videos are EVEN MORE useful, Luke 👏! I love ❤️ the content 🤗

[@pile333]

If I'm not wrong it was the first Hollywood movie completely spoken in Latin and Aramaic.

[@massimogiudici4190]

Luca....come al solito hai migliorato la mia giornata. Grazie di cuore😍😍😍.

[@ProximaCentauri88]

My favorite part of your analysis is figuring out the origin of the actors in the film. Geat video as always, Luke!

[@grafinvonhohenembs]

I could listen to you correct the Latin pronunciation used in movies/tv/etc. all day! This was great!

[@puerquilupusclamabat1485]

Great analysis of the film. I like the depth you go into explaining the pronunciation rather than just correcting it in favor of one or the other without saying why it would be pronounced one way or another

[@MichaelScheele]

On Good Friday this year, I had hoped for this very video. I re-watch "The Passion of the Christ" each Good Friday. Thank you! I would have preferred Classical Latin pronunciations in the movie, but I understand their choice to use more Ecclesiastical Latin pronunciations. Happy Easter, Luke!

[@polyMATHY_Luke]

Happy Easter!

[@evanmichael3387]

"Do you want to know my truth, Claudia?" Reflexively made me laugh. I appreciate the humour you bring to what can be a dense topic.

[@polyMATHY_Luke]

Thanks, Evan

[@dannyallen2894]

I used to only like the ecclesiastical pronunciation actually but ever since I really started hearing/trying the classical pronunciation, I have started to really fall in love with it!

[@LuisSantos-us1ww]

Very nice video about the latin spoken in Passion of the Christ. I was very curious about this subject, because this was one of the first movie I watched spoken in ancient languages (aramaic and latin).

[@silvermane5695]

I saw this movie in the theaters when it came out back in 2004 with my oldest brother. We don't speak Latin but Italian/Spanish and we could hear Italian pronunciation throughout the movie. I can't believe it has been 17 yrs that has passed since I've seen this movie.

[@emmanuelsepulveda1835]

I was waiting for you to do a video on how is the latin on this movie for a while now! Thank you for composing this video!

[@polyMATHY_Luke]

Thanks for watching and sharing it!

[@benedyktjaworski9877]

11:56: “Ergō rēx es” versus “est” - it sounds to me as “Ergō rēx es tū”. But with short vowel in non-stressed, weakly pronounced, “tu”, which perhaps kinda sounds like Italian speakers sometimes adding a vowel to avoid a closed syllable in the end of the word (“estu”, “estə”, or similar for “est”).

[@polyMATHY_Luke]

That must be it

[@luizfelipe5399]

I would say it's an unvoiced "u", it's rather common like in the Japanese word "desu" that sounds like "dess". We do that in Portuguese often too.

[@MAP2023]

I ALWAYS HEARD " ERGO REX ES TU?" "THEN, ARE YOU A KING?"

[@tubekulose]

Yes, that's what I always heard as well.

[@craighughes536]

You would definetley be one of a few people in the world to be able the translate the gospels and ANY other scripture of ancient times...I envy this so much

[@tristankramer4636]

There are thousands of latin scholars and same with Koine Greek and Ancient Hebrew. They just don’t all have YT channels lol

[@Spartan322]

@@tristankramer4636 The only other KZbin channel I know off the top of my head that has a scholar that can (and with them to a good bit does) translate the Gospels is Alpha & Omega Ministries, Doctor James White actually uses it often to explain textual transmission and context.

[@guillermorivas7819]

Thank you for analyzing the spoken Latin in The Passion of the Christ. This was my first time expose to Latin in film, probably where my interest in Latin started. I remember back then only being able to understand some phrases and words here and there like: "rex es tu?", "quid fecisti? "mihi trahiderunt" etc. WHICH in Spanish would translate to: "eres (tu) un rey?", "que heciste?" and "me trajeron". It would have been interesting if they had hired a Spaniard/Latin-American person to speak Latin in the film; see if they would have made any minor mistakes. And if they their accent would have been noticeable. One part of the Passion of the Christ film that one of the speakers sounded like Spanish was when the pharisee priests said: "su excelentia, quaeso" and then in the beginning when King Herod soldier told the Roman soldier that Mary Magdalene was mad -- by saying in Latin, "est mala". I prefer the Classical Latin pronunciation but still like the Ecclesiastical Latin. As you were analyzing the words/texts I was thinking of words.

[@therat1117]

I think if a Spaniard they might fumble the s to th sometimes, and Spanish speakers in general will have the same issues with long vowels as Italians as well as making v into a soft b around vowels as I catch myself doing in Latin (which would probably be the case in Hispanian Latin anyway, that the 'w' sound went to the b-v halfway point of 'β' and then 'b' rather than to 'v'), but generally Spanish speakers are the most suited to Latin speaking after Italians of the widely-spoken Romance languages.

[@guillermorivas7819]

@@therat1117 , Well I generally agree. Spanish is the 2nd closest to Latin from all the major romance languages. At times, though, it sounds closer than Italian does. In Although in Spanish we do have accent marks/tildes on words that are inflected to conserve the ancient pronunciation of Latin. For example: Commūnis (latin) Común (spanish)

[@therat1117]

@@guillermorivas7819 That's true, Spanish has certain features that are more conservative, and Italian has others. The stress system of Spanish is near-identical to the Latin stress system, yes, although it tends to also happily be more regular due to the nature of sound changes in Spanish than the relative anarchy of the Italian stress system.

[@guillermorivas7819]

@@therat1117 , What makes Spanish sound closer to Latin is its sibilant S, verb conjugation, and ossified words. Even counting the alphabet in Latin sounds A, B, C, D closer to Spanish than Italian. Old Latin actually looks/sounds a lot closer to Spanish than classical latin in terms of verb conjugation like fued (fue) and dipthongs like duenos (buen/bueno) In Italian the long and short vowels are a given -- i.e., there is no need for tildes/accent marks but in Spanish it is mandatory for writing. The following words are other examples: Aún Último Sólo Solo Adhuc Ultimus Sōlum Solus

[@guillermorivas7819]

Old latin: Esom/som Es Est Somos Esteis Sont Classical latin: Sum Es Est Sumus Estis Sunt Spanish: Soy Eres Es Somos Sois Son

[@FeliceChiapperini]

I love you Slavic accent! Makes me chuckle every time.

[@Nocturno19761]

Grande Luke! Ho visto anche che hai commentato sul canale di Roberto Trizio!!!!! Grandissimi entrambi!!!!

[@simonecordeddu4783]

That Slavic accent tho 😂 Funnier than it should've

[@polyMATHY_Luke]

Sono contento 😄

[@Brandon55638]

I agree. It's hilarious to hear Latin spoken with a Slavic or Russian accent.

[@carmensavu5122]

@@Brandon55638 One of my favorite things to do is swear in Romanian using Slavic words (we have a Slavic superstrate in Romanian), and then say "pardon my Latin".

[@andre1999o]

Even though I'm an atheist, there are aspects of this film that I admire. Having Pilate speak to Jesus in Aramaic and Jesus respond in Latin (even if it is inaccurate for the time) is one of this aspects. A genius decision from the director.

[@CarlosVelasquez-ns6xr]

For God's sake why is an atheist watching a movie about the Son of God??

[@shweshwa9202]

@@CarlosVelasquez-ns6xr for the same reason an atheist watches a movie about the son of wizards (harry potter)

[@CarlosVelasquez-ns6xr]

@@shweshwa9202 you mean Satanism is really behind atheism

[@shweshwa9202]

@@CarlosVelasquez-ns6xr LOL do you also believe in father christmas?

[@CarlosVelasquez-ns6xr]

@@shweshwa9202 I'm just trying to understand you, so you mean atheists can watch whatever as entertainment. (me" is not the subject).

[@kalinkapavlova9398]

I like these videos so much, you're always so positive in your criticism as well as your praise haha. It's a pity that the rest of your audience might not be interested in a review of "Somnus" from FFXV. My friends told me the Latin is janky, but they don't know Latin as well as you to explain why. Anyways great video, as ever, and I can't wait till you drop the Luna one! 🌙

[@wazzup233]

Nice analysis that you've made on The Passion of the Christ on how they'd used Latin on this film. I hope you could also make an analysis on this live action film, Thermae Romae as well soon and just like POTC, that movie also used Latin and the main actor who is a Japanese actor spoke it but you could hear his Japanese accent while speaking Latin. 😁

[@hugocastroesparza8671]

I just discovered Your Channel, and i find it wonderful, I am a classical languages lover. I learn ed them in the ecclesiastical form but I always like to learn more. Thank you

[@polyMATHY_Luke]

Great! Check out the many videos here; you’ll like them

[@AkaOzan]

Actually, the unstressed "o" vowels have become "u" in Bulgarian language, that's why the bulgarian actor was pronounciating sciu instead of scio

[@luizfelipe5399]

I'm surprised how many similarities there are between Bulgarian and Portuguese. Before knowing, I definitely thought the actor was Portuguese, maybe a bit drunk but still Portuguese haha

[@AkaOzan]

@@luizfelipe5399 Whenever I hear Portuguese out of blue, I always have this confusion if I hear some slavic language that I have no idea of :)

[@GabrielSantos-vj9bk]

Excelente vídeo! 👏👏👏

[@CouchPolyglot]

super interesting and entertaining, as always :)

[@pile333]

Long awaited video.

[@simonmonsour9289]

Thanks for commenting on this Luke! I’ve always wanted this Latin to be evaluated by an expert.

[@craighughes536]

Yes.. back to critiquing pronociation from ancient times...this is what brought me to your channels Luke...most fantastic historic language teacher...

[@PurpleDrac]

Same here. I knew this was the place to come for the truth. a very pressing matter if I was shooting this I'd want the correct language in it regardless of what I think or feel personally just for the simple fact that it's a movie about Jesus.

[@dimek1943]

Recent new subscriber here, this channel is fascinating, I'm eating up the content!

[@polyMATHY_Luke]

Thanks! Welcome

[@WaaDoku]

Always wanted to know how accurate the languages in that film were. Thanks a lot for the insight!

[@mesquijoanpius5644]

Gratias plurimas! Mihi placet Pilati bulcarica pronuntiatio. Quae sonat bellicossissima!

[@JillWouters]

I really love your pronunciation videos, getting in touch with the right pronunciation right away. Do you also have videos on which things to use to help you learn Latin? Like which apps are good and which apps to absolutely avoid if not all? I am only JUST starting my journey into Latin btw

[@aar5153]

¡Muy interesante! Gran vídeo. 👍

[@hephaestus198]

Latin sounds so elegant, probably the most beautiful language ever spoken, thanks Luke for bringing it to life again. In any case, if Jesus Christ decided to speak in Latin to Pilate He would speak it perfect, with no accent. And if anyone would sense that He had an accent, then immediately, it would be the right way to speak it from then on.

[@RichardDCook]

It would be interesting to find out how Aramaic speakers pronounced Greek and Latin. Greek had been spoken in the region long enough for a patois to develop, I wonder if there's any evidence.

[@hephaestus198]

@@kyrieeleison1243 Thanks for your educated comment. From my perspective (and I respect other's opinions of course) I believe that He is God. So, he invented Latin. He would speak it with no regional accent, but with "the universal Latin correct accent". My perception is that, the intention of Gibson is to indicate that Jesus Christ can speak Latin because He is God, not because he learned it. Again, it is my humble opinion, regards.

[@luizfelipe5399]

​@@hephaestus198 as a Catholic, I agree that Jesus is God, and that there is no limitations on God by definition. But, by taking the human nature, God by his own perfect Will imposed into Himself our human limitations. Therefore, God became one of us and as any of us He needed to be taught how to walk, and talk, he needed to be fed. He felt cold, and pain, He cried. With that in mind, it's not that Jesus could not speak perfect Latin if He wanted, it's that we know He wanted to partake in our nature, so He probably would have learned a second language just like He learned the first one, just like we learn and we have accents.

[@hephaestus198]

@@luizfelipe5399 You have a point. You wisely used basic theology and simple logic to conclude he would have had an accent. This changes my opinion, I approve yours. Greetings.

[@mirnacudiczgela1963]

@@luizfelipe5399 Agree!

[@EJ160E]

The unintelligible line Jesus says I believe is “Si fuisset?” (“If this had happened?” or “Would this have happened?”)

[@RobertRanieri]

Sensational and very clear

[@polyMATHY_Luke]

Grazie, papà!

[@alexd8570]

Bravissimo 😍

[@calciumchannel]

I've to say you spoil your viewers. Last week I asked a question if you'd do a video on the Passion of Christ and here you go... thanks!

[@mirnacudiczgela1963]

Thank you for doing this video at last! I've been waiting for it! In high school here in Croatia we were taught to pronounce it somewhere between Classical and Ecclesiastical, e.g. we pronounced UNDICI not with "ch" sound as in chair not "k" but "c".

[@Philoglossos]

'undici' is Italian, not Latin :P

[@mirnacudiczgela1963]

@@Philoglossos I know but Pilate said a similar word in Latin so I used it as an example. Anyway, clusters such as ce ci in Latin in Croatia we were taught to pronounce not as in Italian but as t in word "seditio".

[@mirnacudiczgela1963]

@@Philoglossos Actually, you are right, it is UNDECIM, but the way actor pronounces it made me think otherwise. But the word DICIS mentioned by Jesus' character might be proper example of "ch" sound, which we in Croatia pronounce as "t" in "seditio".

[@davidlopes8519]

Um so glad you talk about this movie I just watch it on TV yesterday

[@polyMATHY_Luke]

Good timing

[@jorge6594]

Very interesting video. Great work, Luke. As a native Spanish speaker (which is a Latin language) I find it very amusing to listen to Latin.

[@paulusclovis4363]

Ecclesiastical or Church latin is what keeps Latin language alive to this day.😇

[@abelpalmer552]

Not really. Have you seen this guy's other channel? All the people who speak Latin today? The vast majority of them use the Classical pronunciation.

[@GracieLions]

Or Classical Studies students.

[@enriquebarbanera]

Of course is the Church that has kept the interest towards Latin to these days. Nobody serious enough can say that the interest of nowadays languague freaks was put of the blue without the influence of academic Catholics teaching Latin courses throughout the world, I mean universities are a creation of Catholic church, and that though knowledge in Latin, the US universities brought that same tradition to US universities for a long time. So, of course the big influencer here is the Catholic Church

[@luizfelipe5399]

​@@abelpalmer552 just imagine if the Catholic Church ceased to exist. By the fall of the Roman Empire the education system crashed, most people were illiterate and the areas that spoke Latin dialects were dominated by German and Arabic speaking kingdoms by centuries. It was the Church that kept Latin in use as a liturgical language, as a language for Church law, for defining doctrine. Then it was a Catholic monk, Alcuin of York, that brought Medieval Latin for the usage in the administration of the Holy Roman Empire. Also, most of what we have left of Cicero's works and many other classical Latin literature are actually medieval copies made by monks. Then the Church created universities that taught in Latin, and that gave the impulse for Latin being used primarily all throughout the Renaissance up until the 19th century in science. Now, in the secular world, Latin became a niche thing for Classicists. Meanwhile, in the Catholic world, the last Pope created a Pontifical Academy for Latin, Latin Masses are still a thing in many dioceses (and even when they are not, Latin phrases and words still appear in vernacular Masses and Catholic literature), many people pray daily in Latin alone and together, many are listening and singing to gregorian chant, documents of the Church are being written in Latin, priests and lay religious are studying and reading it daily. You may not know this side of Latin because you are out of the religion, but that does not mean it does not exist.

[@abelpalmer552]

@@luizfelipe5399 Hi Luiz, Thanks for your comment. I'd like to respond to a few things: 1. I'm extremely religious, and it's quite impolite to assume people's religious backgrounds. 2. No one doubts the historical contributions of the Catholic Church to Latin's survival. The original commenter conflated the survival of Latin TODAY with Ecclesiastical Latin, however, which isn't entirely true. The pope today has limited the usage of the Latin mass. The Vatican barely can speak Latin at all, for more info see Polymathy's video on this (3 out of 13 priests were willing to engage in his experiment). Yes, documents are written in Latin, but can you honestly say that's what's keeping the language alive? They are a small part in a larger continuum of Latinists, many of whom have no affiliation to the Catholic Church. I might name GrecoLatinoVivo, Vivarium Novum, the Weebly chats, and many, many other Latin immersion communities around the world. Channels like Latinitium and Polymathy, along with the natural-methodists are encouraging the speaking of Latin. The Catholic Church nowadays is no longer the major factor in the survival of Latin - let it cease to exist now, and Latin would certainly continue to thrive.

[@ricardogarciademarinacordo1151]

I'm amazed that I guessed the origin of the actor playing Pilate as soon as you asked yourself, long before the very revealing Claudia scene. My frequent conversations (in English) with Serbians, Russians and Ukrainians certainly helped. (Great video, by the way, as usual)

[@siarhian10]

Do you think you'll be completing the latin pronunciation chronology chart? I think it would be very interesting to see something on regional variations of spoken latin, especially during the time there was native speakers

[@jamesbaker8831]

I owe a 17th century builder an apology. There's a cottage with the inscription "Anno Domni 1679" which I always thought was a mistake

[@polyMATHY_Luke]

Why would it be a mistake?

[@welersonm.8212]

@@polyMATHY_Luke No I on the Domini?

[@MTd2]

One theory is that Pilate hails from the Balkans, from wikipedia: "His praenomen (first name) is unknown;[21] his cognomen Pilatus might mean "skilled with the javelin (pilum)," but it could also refer to the pileus or Phrygian cap, possibly indicating that one of Pilate's ancestors was a freedman"

[@giuvannicammora2821]

Is from Pontus Euxinus . So, Black Sea... Asia .

[@ivdragoslav]

@@giuvannicammora2821 do you think that the Blaxy ( ;) ) is (entirely) in Asia?.. :-?

[@giuvannicammora2821]

@@ivdragoslav Asia no Romania because if you see old maps, Pontus Euxinus is province, and is not about Romanian Black Sea here, is about Asian Province and Pilat is not from Romanian area . Is from old Asian Province (Pontus Euxinus) - today in turkish part

[@giuvannicammora2821]

@@ivdragoslav im italian and i know the Truth about Pilat . Is not from Romanian part, is from Asian part

[@Latnman101]

Bellisimo buon canale!

[@robj7188]

Hi Luke. Many thanks for this analisys of Latin on passion of Christ. I appreciated your job. Much hugs by here, ad urbem Romanam

[@skylinestudiosrc]

Really interesting !! And.. what a film !

[@gjrigas]

The soldier that comes in at the end of the conversation between Pilate and Claudia is Abenader. One of the cavalry guys mentioned his name in an earlier scene in the movie.

[@perthdude21]

2:15 How Pontius Pilate says "Vos ite" here is almost exactly how Latin American speakers who use voseo would say "you, go". Voseo is the usage of the second person pronoun "vos"- however in Spanish this has become an informal pronoun and is used instead of "tú" in the regions that use voseo. These regions include Argentina, Uruguay, parts of Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela and most of Central America. As someone who uses voseo, I find it fascinating that something you might say in everyday life is very similar to something a Roman governor would have said a long time ago! There are huge distances in time & space, and huge differences in culture separating us but links to the past like this are fascinating.

[@Elochai_]

Siempre me ha fascinado que aunque «vos» era un pronombre plural en latín, se convirtiera en singular en español. Ya en la edad media los castellanos usaban el «vos» cuando hablaban con alguien de igual o superior condición social y usaban el «tú» cuando dirigían la palabra a alguien de menor rango. Esto a lo mejor ya lo sabías tú, pero nomás comparto lo susodicho porque la persistencia de ciertos elementos lingüísticos siempre me ha intrigado mucho.

[@guillermorivas7819]

In Castilian Spanish it would have been "idos" or "id vosotros"

[@luizfelipe5399]

@@guillermorivas7819 you can see how vos ite = ite vos > ide vós (as in Old Portuguese) > id vos > idos/id vosotros

[@kpp28]

Once again, great video! May I perhaps suggest you make a review on the song Lilium by Konishi Kayo? It's a Japanese song written in Latin and it would be cool to see how accurate was Kayo's latin.

[@DJNightchild]

I love that song. The pronunciation is horrible though.

[@metalpsyche82]

awesome video

[@DanielLagunaIHS]

Since Mel Gibson is a Traditionalist Catholic, he used the Ecclesiastical pronunciation, as if the movie was "liturgical".

[@grilooo7401]

Hey Luke, you could easily play Pontius Pilatus :P It would be more realistic with your amazing pronunciation :D Thanks for the video! Always very informative!

[@davidcohenboffa1666]

Great video!!! In the first clip I also noticed a wrong Aramaic... Now, I've never watched the whole movie and this might be a choice surrounding which Aramaic variant to use. But to my knowledge of the Jewish Aramaic from this time, he should have said אנת מלכא יהודיא /ant malka jehudaia/ or /ant malko* jəhudaio*/ but I heard something like /ant meleke xudaie/ * the symbol "o" was supposed to be the open-mid back rounded vowel...

[@NickUva]

Great video! Jesus was a businessman, after all, and would likely have had many opportunities to interact with Latin-speakers. Probably had very good Greek as well.

[@Boldorion1958]

One of my pet peeves with movie makers is that so many historical inaccuracies and anachronisms find their way into films these days. While watching the movie, I immediately realized that they were using Liturgical Latin, which didn't exist at the time. Incidentally, the only Aramaic word that they used which I recognized was the word for king, "meleke," which is similar in Arabic and Hebrew.

[@jasmadams]

Great job! This was one of my favourite choices made in the film; the other being Christ's exchange with Our Blessed Mother using the language of Revelations 21:5. I think if the Synoptics had been used as the basis for the encounter with Pilate, then Greek would have been used. In those scenes, which aren't precluded in St. John's narrative, the high priests are present and effectively part of the conversation. But the segment in John that is understandably favoured in many film representations is more of a one-on-one. It seems obvious to me that Christ would speak Latin to Pilate, for the reason of courtesy as you mention, among others. As for whether He could have spoken Latin, it seems a silly question to me. He could have spoken Modern English, or Sumerian, or Japanese.

[@SniaVillagePunk]

I just think, as an Italian, that Ecclesiastical is too damn easy for us to replicate (maybe because I studied Latin in this way 6 years at school). The power, and the sound of Classical then, reflects more the link between Latin and other Indoeuropean languages. It reminds me more, I don't know why, of Germanic like or Greek either listening to the tones, the rhythm... Thank you for your job Luke ! Salve !

[@XxParasite]

Well, in certain ways it is (as we expect of an ancient language) closer to other branches of Indo-European. For instance, the W sound in "ventus" and "vidua" makes them sound closer to the English "wind" and "widow," and the hard K sound in "decem" of course shows the connection to the Greek "déka."

[@uplbdevcom]

As an Italian, I strongly prefer the ecclesiatical pronounciation, which is traditional here - the “classical” one is too full of consonants, sounds like German ..

[@Brandon55638]

I am American and I also favor the Classical pronunciation (but not how other American Latinists pronounce Latin words with their accent, which sounds very wrong). Learning Romance languages like Spanish or Italian and mastering pronunciation really helped me get used to how Latin was meant to sound. I totally agree with you that the original Classical Latin accent sounds more powerful than the Romance languages because of the retracted S and the thicker vowels that result.

[@GlidingGull]

So nice! Was it you last sunday at lunchtime coming back from the Coliseum with a black mask and a dark grey backpack? I was running with my gf and thought of noiticing you :)

[@Kallistos1]

I'm not surprised he put a stop in -ii. I was told to pronounce both not lengthen the vowel

[@emeidocathail7808]

Whatever you might think about Gibson, I really appreciate that he has chosen to make films such as this and Apocolypto, allowing modern audiences an opportunity to get a taste of how those languages may have sounded. At a time when we are supposed to be allergic to subtitles, Squid Game excepted.

[@yvonnesanders4308]

I can't wait for his life and times of Mohammed follow up 😎😅

[@emeidocathail7808]

@@yvonnesanders4308 Reckon the Iranians would fatwa his ass for that one.

[@Kekoapono]

I’m only partial to Ecclesiastical Latin pronunciation because I’m a classical singer, and as nearly all of the Latin we sing is liturgical, using the church pronunciation makes sense. The only disagreement I have with my directors is how to pronounce intervocalic S; they prefer the /z/ sound like in Italian, but It’s my understanding that an /s/ would be more appropriate. Anyway, thank you for going over both ecclesiastical and classical pronunciations!

[@vderhagen]

maravilhoso!

[@palestrinachoirschool2314]

“Artificial is not bad” Thank you so much lute turning me on to Alcuin of York. From my upcoming book on Medieval Choir School: “The ecclesiastical Latin is a perfection in pronunciation according to the nature phonetics and the correct use of the vocal organ. It is a cultivation as apposed something “phony,” “novel” or “negative!” Its intent was to beautify, clarify and make intelligible various accents, distortions and dialectal impurities over the vast Carolingian Empire. You could say it homogenized the pronunciation according to beauty in speech and an economy of motion. This Liturgical Latin is the basis for correct singing and along with the punctuation marks of Carolingian Miniscule Script we have the origin of the music notation.

[@jesusacuna309]

In Italian ecclesiastical pronunciation, mihi is traditionally pronounced (and occasionally spelled) michi, that is /miki/ The German pronunciation uses the local corresponding phoneme for "ch," (either /x/ or /ç/). Spanish manuscripts on the other hand, in particular mozarabic texts, spell the word as "mici."

[@baruch2511]

I am amazed, that an American guy hears AND can PRONOUNCE the nuances =) Please don't feel offended. It's a simple fact that English speakers have a special difficulty, to learn a language without the habitual heavy accent. When I was in German Highschool and lerned Latin... I wished I would have stumbled over this chanel.... As for now... i forgot much of latin... but i still love it and am amazed, that people like you are around =)))))

[@gabriellawrence6598]

Great analyIsis. Now we need someone to analyze the Aramaic in this movie.

[@user-sb8oi4fc5c]

Que invídia! Falas latim com tanta fluência.

[@HandofOmega]

Thanks for the vids! I was recently researching the Roman playwright Terence, and discovered that he came from Romanized Africa, a section of the empire set in Africa, that apparently consisted of a sizable population of, well, Romanized Africans...apparently with their own unique dialect of Latin! Do we know anything tangible about this? I would love to see a video on what we know about this version of Latin!

[@Le_gueux_latiniste]

This may be helpful: m.kzbin.info/www/bejne/j2GUdGR4gNpris0

[@stevenv6463]

We know st. Augustine had an African accent.

[@ghostdog7575]

I've read an interview with William Fulco where he said that the reason he used ecclesiastic pronunciation is that he thinks classical pronunciation never existed and is only a German theory!!!

[@polyMATHY_Luke]

Haha that’s funny

[@sammcpeak6854]

Finally!!!!