FOCUS GROUP GOSPEL

Reacting to pre-screening pressure, reports are that Mel Gibson will delete a scene from his movie about the death of Jesus:

A scene in the film, in which the Jewish high priest Caiaphas calls down a kind of curse on the Jewish people by declaring of the Crucifixion, "His blood be on us and on our children," will not be in the movie's final version, said the Gibson associate, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The passage had been included in some versions of the film that were shown before select groups, mostly of priests and ministers.

"It didn't work in the focus screenings," the associate said. "Maybe it was thought to be too hurtful, or taken not in the way it was intended. It has been used terribly over the years."

Jewish leaders had warned that the passage from Matthew 27:25 was the historic source for many of the charges of deicide and Jews' collective guilt in the death of Jesus.

Well, according to Matthew 27:25 it wasn't Caiaphas who said it, but all the people, i.e., the crowd:

And all the people said, "His blood shall be on us and on our children!"

No one seems to be concerned that the Gospels tell us the words were actually said, of course.

No word on whether God will choose to delete Matthew 27:25 from future editions of Scripture so as not to offend the delicate views of Abe Foxman and the ADL.