I didn’t mean to imply that The Passion was historically accurate. Far from it. I don’t think any version really can be as there is no historical accuracy. There’s very little in the historical record that was even contemporary to the events themselves. All of the gospels were written well after his death and only the book of John by someone who actually knew and spent time with Jesus. But it’s debated whether or not he was the real author. There’s reason to think he wasn’t.
The Passion had a choice between two schools of thought about the flogging/scourging that have been around since the Middle ages. They chose the most graphic one.
It’s almost like they said to themselves, "we want to spread the good news, right? What’s the first rule of news broadcast? If it bleeds, it leads!" So that’s what they did. There’s no more historical evidence that version is more likely or correct that the lesser flogging with a strap version.
The only clue is the short time to death, but its completely speculative. It’s not like there aren’t other equally viable explanations for that, including being slipped some poison to lessen his suffering from days to hours. That wasn’t unheard of either.
Mary has been Venerated pretty much since the beginning. One of Jesus' last commands was to Mary, for her to become the Mother of all believers. As such, all Christians are responsible for the care of Mary. Veneration theology developed and became more defined over time. The sinless Mary aspect grew out of the theological refinement of Veneration. Yes, it was roughly around this same time as the flogging was being reconsidered and becoming a fascination.
I think it was early 1500s, through the writing of some Franciscans that determined that Mary was preserved from sin through the redemptive virtue of Jesus. Basically, being a mother, His mother, made her sinless.
Obviously, she wasn’t always his mother and she outlived him too, so by that logic, either everyone who knew him was also sinless, his presence and love for her as his mother spiritually prevented her from sin, or it only applied while he was a living part of her life.
It seems pretty clear this was a theological band aid because people were aligning with Mary, the Church couldn’t stop it without undermining Jesus worship, and they needed either some kind of exemption or to abandon monotheism.
They started pushing a "difference" between worship and Veneration, doctrinally, and gave her elevated status (sinless) to be worthy of near worship.
The Trinity doctrine is much the same thing. A pass and a band aid to preserve church legitimacy.
My mobile app (Android) is the same. Sooooo annoying. I also can’t scroll upwards to fix all the autocorrect bungles and fat fingered mishaps. Also, extremely extremely annoying.
Anyways, hope that answers your questions.
