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Introduction to Classic Work Details More Than 40 Scenes in Movie Based on the Book

ATLANTA, Ga. -- Editor-in-chief Lee Xavier of Anvil Publishers of Atlanta said on Nov. 9 that it will publish a new edition of the book that was the basis for most of Mel Gibson's blockbuster movie 'The Passion of the Christ.' Anvil will publish The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ on Feb. 9, 2005 (Ash Wednesday).

The book will include a 100-page introduction by Atlanta author Noel Griese that links more than 40 scenes in the Gibson movie to the 19th-century German classic.

"People who saw the movie will recall a Roman centurion named Abenadar, the 'right-hand man' for procurator Pontius Pilate," said Griese. "Abenadar is an extrabiblical figure drawn straight from The Dolorous Passion."

The book was first published in Germany in 1833. Based on the visions of an Augustinian nun named Anne Catherine Emmerich, a stigmatic, ecstatic and inediac, the work was written by romantic poet and Goethe friend Clemens Brentano. He sat by the nun's bedside for six years recording her visions. After she died in 1824, he worked on the manuscript until it was published. The book soon outsold even Goethe in Germany and quickly became an international best-seller.

Griese, the author and editor of 11 prior books, says of Abenadar, "According to Emmerich, he was converted to Christianity as a result of his presence at the crucifixion. She says he took the Christian name Ctesiphon, and became an evangelist." There is a historical record of a first-century St. Ctesiphon, according to Griese. "This Ctesiphon accompanied the apostle James the Greater into Spain, where he helped to evangelize the Spanish at Verga. Later, when James was martyred in Jerusalem, Ctesiphon took his body back to Spain."

Another example: one of the thieves crucified with Jesus is named Gesmas in the Gibson movie. The thieves, while not named in the Bible, have variously over time been identified in apocryphal material as Dismas and Cestas, Dumachus and Titus, Joca and Matha and Nismus and Zustin. Only Emmerich identifies the "bad thief" as Gesmas.

BOOK SUMMARY
Title: The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ after the Meditations of Anne Catherine Emmerich as told to Clemens Brentano / with an Introduction by Noel L. Griese.
Publisher: Anvil Publishers, Inc.
ISBN: 0-9749721-2-6 (case); 0-9749721-1-8 (paper)
6x9 hardcover and paperback, 360 pp., US$26.95 (case), US$16.95 (paper)

The book is available to retail outlets from Ingram, Baker and Taylor, Amazon.com or custserv@anvilpub.com

Contact information:
Kathie Splinter, marketing and fulfillment manager,
email: info@anvilpub.com;
phone: 770-938-0289, 1-800-500-FLAG (3524);
fax: 770-493-7232;
web: www.anvilpub.com