Top 10 Ways that Mel's Passion Isn't As It Was, Number 8...

8. Koine Greek, the most common language of the day, isn't used in the film.

From the Encylopaedia Britannica:

Alexander's short reign marks a decisive moment in the history of Europe and Asia. His expedition and his own personal interest in scientific investigation brought many advances in the knowledge of geography and natural history. His career led to the moving of the great centres of civilization eastward and initiated the new age of the Greek territorial monarchies; it spread Hellenism in a vast colonizing wave throughout the Middle East and created, if not politically at least economically and culturally, a single world stretching from Gibraltar to the Punjab, open to trade and social intercourse and with a considerable overlay of common civilization and the Greek koine as a lingua franca. It is not untrue to say that the Roman Empire, the spread of Christianity as a world religion, and the long centuries of Byzantium were all in some degree the fruits of Alexander's achievement.

One of the reasons Rome was able to establish its empire was the existence of this universal language. Koine flourished during the Roman rule, and was an everyday language used to communicate between different nationalities.

The Hebrew scriptures had been translated into Koine Greek three centuries before Jesus lived. This translation was called the Septuagint. All of the Christian scriptures were written in Koine Greek. Jesus certainly spoke Aramaic, but there are some of his sayings that are puns in Koine Greek - a sign they were spoken first in Greek! Like it or not, Greek was a large part of the Galilean and Judaic worlds.

Yet Mr. Gibson has famously filmed his version of the story in Aramaic and Latin only. Certainly there were portions of the story that would have been exclusively spoken in either language. The Last Supper would have been an Aramaic affair, and Pilate would have spoken to his wife or made official pronoucements in Latin. But in other cross-cultural moments, the most likely language used is Koine Greek: scenes like Pilate's interrogation of Jesus, or even Herod's interrogation. In the journey to Golgotha or the scenes of questioning at the Temple, Koine would have been used to maximize the communication.

This ignorance of the most common language of the day is another reason to recommend the upcoming movie as a work of fiction alone.