Literature / Jesus Video

Jesus Video (Das Jesus Video in reissues) is a 1998 Science Fiction novel by German author Andreas Eschbach.

During an archaeological excavation in Israel, American college student Stephen Foxx finds the skeleton of a man from the times of Jesus that carried a shocking item with him: the user manual of a modern digital video camera that will not be released until two years in the future. They conclude that the dead man was a time traveller from the future, who went back in time to film Jesus Christ himself, a discovery that could send shockwaves around the planet. The financier of the dig, media magnate John Kaun, initiates a search for the camera, which is also sought by the Catholic Church. Helped by Israeli student Judith Menez and her brother Yehoshuah, Stephen will be forced to participate in a dangerous race for the Jesus Video.

A best-seller in its second edition, the novel won the 1999 Kurd-Laßwitz Award and was loosely adapted in 2002 as a two-part TV movie, Das Jesus Video. A novel that acts as both a Prequel and a Sequel, Der Jesus-Deal, was released in 2014.

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The book contains examples of:

• Corrupt Church: Scarfaro wants to destroy the camera and outright states that Jesus was a troublemaker in his time and that if he was alive today he would be hunted by the Church itself.
• Demythification: Some compare the Jesus in the video to a plain, uninteresting rabbi.
• Jesus Was Way Cool: The novel obviously attacks modern organized religion and the Catholic Church in particular, but Jesus himself is said to be humble and deeply touching.
• Sinister Minister: Unlike in the movie adaptation, Scarfaro is clearly a priest in the novel.
• Your Costume Needs Work: The videos go viral but their reaction is mixed. While it does spur the birth of a new church that aims to be closer to Jesus's teachings as they appear in the video, many others believe that the video is a hoax.

The TV movie contains examples of:

• Actionized Adaptation: The novel is 600 pages long and contains long disertations on the nature of time travel and the development of religions. The movie, despite being three hours long, largely replaces these with new action scenes.
• Adaptational Nationality: The main character is German in the movie (original audio). The English dubbed version makes him American again.
• Adaptation Name Change: Stephen Foxx is changed to "Steffen Vogt" ("Stephen Boyd" in the English dub) and Judith Menez to "Sharon Daran". Scarfaro from the book is credited as "Scafaro", but never named on screen.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: The Menez siblings are changed to girlfriend and boyfriend in the movie.
• Adventurer Archaeologist: Steffen becomes this over the course of the movie.
• Agent Mulder: Steffen decides with little prompt that the skeleton belongs to a Time Traveler (and is not a hoax for example), that the Time Traveler filmed a video of Jesus, and that there must be a conspiracy to cover it up. And he's right about everything.
• America Saves the Day: Subverted. Near the end of part 1, an American agent named Christopher barges in and effortlessly kills the Lucanians that have been troubling Steffen for most of the movie. He then offers to drive Steffen to the American embassy where he'll be safe but instead takes him to an abandoned warehouse where he reveals that it was all a ruse to take him out of the hotel, and Christopher is a Lucanian.
• And I Must Scream: In the early days of Time Travel a lab rat sent some seconds into the future appears as a charred, yet moving corpse.
• Artistic License – Traditional Christianity:
  • Contrary to what the movie says, there is a Luke 15:4 actually, and it is not even an obscure line ("What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine for the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it?").
  • The Lucanian Order is supposed to have replaced the Roman Inquisition in the mid-19th century, but it actually existed under that name until 1908 (and its modern successor is still informally known as the Holy Office). The Inquisition was also not a religious order, though the Lucanians being called "warriors of God" could be inspired by the Dominican Order, who had a similar reputation, and many inquisitors were Dominicans.
• Badass Israeli: Averted. Sharon and Yehoshuah are trained army reservists and have access to weapons, but never come near the usual One-Man Army antics of the trope; they save Steffen's life almost as many times as he saves theirs. And the Israeli police and army are portrayed as apathetic when not subservient to Kaun and the Lucanians.
• Because Destiny Says So: This ends being the case for Steffen and Sharon as the video shows them living together in Biblical Jerusalem.
• Blood from the Mouth: Yehoshuah, just before he dies.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: The first time the Lucanians come across Steffen they try to shoot him, but they don't afterwards, despite having plenty of opportunity (most notably when they have him unconscious at the end of both part 1 and 2).
• The Brute: Ryan for Kaun, the man with the broken nose for Scafaro.
• Bullying a Dragon: Scafaro hits and abducts Kaun just to give him a Hannibal Lecture before letting him go, because even him knows Kaun is too powerful to be killed. But Scafaro didn't need to do any of this. Kaun was stranded in the desert, so Scafaro could just have picked him up and given him his Motive Rant without alienating him on the ride back to Jerusalem. This gratuite bullying makes Kaun use his Mossad connections to track Scafaro, kill him and rescue Steffen.
• The Cavalry: Kaun and the Israeli army arrive at the end to kill Scafaro and save Steffen and Sharon.
• Chase Scene: Near the end, the Lucanians shoot at Steffen and Sharon's car while pursuing them with a helicopter.
• Christianity is Catholic: "Christianity" and "the Church" are mentioned only by these names, and shown to be headquartered in Rome. However, an Armenian monastery appears near the end.
• Church Militant: Scafaro's Lucanian Order, who works for the Vatican off the record and is none other than the successor of the Roman Inquisition.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Steffen is abducted and tortured by the Lucanians near the end of part 1, to make him confess the whereabouts of the camera (which he doesn't know).
• Composite Character: Steffen himself becomes the Time Traveler, while they are different characters in the novel.
• The Conspiracy: There are two - one led by Kaun, the man financing the excavation, and another involving the Vatican. Both are after the camera and Steffen.
• The Constant: The Time Traveler hides the video in the only place he knows will survive for 2000 years - the Wailing Wall. And even then, this particular section is gone by the time Steffen makes it there.
• Corrupt Church: Just as Steffen ends pondering that the video (which he has not seen, and is only hypothetical) might prove that the Church lied about Jesus Christ and they would want to cover it up, the scene changes to the Vatican - where the Church already knows about the finding, has images of it and all involved, and is discussing if they should cover it up.
• CPR: Clean, Pretty, Reliable: Sharon is shot and left for dead, but moves after being given some oxygen (and in spite of the doctor claiming that a blood transfusion is needed). She's back on her feet and like nothing happened even before Steffen's face wounds heal.
• Death by Adaptation: Unlike in the novel, Steffen's teacher and Yehoshuah are murdered by the Lucanians.
• Demoted to Extra: Happens to none other than Jesus himself. In the novel, two tapes of Jesus talking are found and released, which leads to the birth of a new Christian church. In the movie, the (one) video is destroyed after showing just a couple of stills of Jesus dead in the sepulchre.
• Drowning Pit: Steffen loses his oxygen while looking for the camera in a submerged gallery.
• Dub Induced Plothole: The English dub makes Steffen American again, has him contact the American embassy, then tell Christopher to take him to the American embassy (instead of the German one). However, Steffen (or Stephen) still wants his passport to fly to Germany, not America, and Christopher's reasoning for taking him to the German embassy instead of the American because it is not safe (instead of the other way around) doesn't make sense.
  Steffen (original): Where are we going?
  Christopher: To the American embassy.
  Steffen: Why not German? I'm German.
  Christopher: We could go there but it is full of mics. Israeli, Russian, ours too.
  Steffen: Who are you?
  Christopher: Don't ask. I'd need hours to explain the mess that is the CIA, NSA, and Army. I'm on your side, that's enough for now. Call me Christopher.

  Steffen (dub): Where are you taking me?
  Christopher: To the German embassy.
  Steffen: Why not American? I'm American.
  Christopher: We could if you'd like, but they are boom'ed everywhere. By the Israelis, by the Russians, and by us as well.
  Steffen: And who is us?
  Christopher: You'd better not ask. It would take hours and hours to tell what's the CIA, NSA, Army, all that shit. I'm a friend. That should be enough for now. Just call me... Christopher.
• Every Car Is a Pinto: Scafaro's helicopter explodes in a fireball of CGI fire after Kaun shoots it. The weirder part is that the helicopter had been previously shot by Sharon with a similar weapon, but to no effect.
• Everyone Can See It: Yehoshuah realizes that Steffen and Sharon love each other right away.
• Faking the Dead: The man with the broken nose and his partner pretend to be shot by Christopher in order to make Steffen trust the latter.
• Foreign Correspondent: Steffen is a German student and an atheist, chasing a Christian relic in Israel (though he believes Jesus was a historical figure).
• The Foreign Subtitle: Released in Italy as Jesus Video - L'enigma del Santo Sepolcro ("The Holy Sepulchre Enigma").
• Holier Than Thou: Scafaro is the most vocally religious character, a serial murderer and a jerkass.
• Hiding Behind Religion: Scafaro's absolute certainty that the video is a threat to Christianity without even seeing it, is a transparent admision that he does not believe in the faith whatsoever. As far as anyone knows, the video could just as well contain proof of Jesus's divinity and miracles. His motive rants to Kaun and Steffen all but state that he sees Christianity as a Masquerade that must be upheld to prevent the collapse of civilization.
• Hippie Jesus: Referenced by Steffen when discussing what the video might show.
• Hollywood Atheist: Steffen was raised Christian (presumably Catholic) but lost his faith when his parents and sister were killed in a car accident. Averted with Sharon who is a believer despite her brother's death.
• I Choose to Stay: The video reveals that Steffen and Sharon ended living together in Biblical Jerusalem.
• Karmic Death: Scafaro is killed with a machine gun by Kaun, the man he previously hit, abducted, and threatened, when he was trying to kill Steffen with another machine gun.
• Last Request: Yehoshuah tells Steffen to look after Sharon with his dying breath.
• Love at First Sight: Steffen for Sharon. Of course he was disappointed when he learned she had a boyfriend. Sharon may or may not have it for Steffen as well.
• MacGuffin: The camera that the manual belongs to, which was in Biblical times and contains a video of Jesus.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: Yehoshuah is shot by Jung, allowing Steffen and Sharon to end together.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Despite all the grief he has given him, Steffen is still shaken when he's forced to shoot the man with the broken nose.
• Mythology Gag: Sharon does mention having a brother... who was killed in the Lebanese Civil War.
• No Name Given: The man with the broken nose.
• Plot Armor: Steffen survives multiple times when it would be much easier for the bad guys to just kill him, all while they have little trouble killing everyone else.
• Plug 'n' Play Technology: The 2003 camera is compatible with Scafaro's 2000 or before laptop.
• Police Are Useless:
  • The Israeli police is apathetic when Steffen goes to them and surrenders him to the Lucanians as soon as they show up at the station. From which Steffen then escapes with little difficulty. Afterward, the police is largely absent from the story, even though the main characters move unconcealed through Jerusalem and we are told they are after them.
  • Steffen also tries to get help from the German embassy, but they just advice him to surrender to the Israeli police. Later we are told that the embassy if full of microphones from other nations' intelligence services.
• Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: Steffen compares believing in God to believing in Maya the Bee, which Yehoshuah has never heard about.
• Properly Paranoid: Sharon does not hide her suspicion when Steffen rings her door at 4 in the morning. She forces him to stand in the middle of the street before opening, then 'welcomes' him with a submachine gun. Ironically, she later accusses Steffen of being paranoid when he tells her that someone is chasing him (and is entirely right about).
• Ragnarök Proofing:
  • Zig-zagged with the letter and instruction manual. The ink is almost gone after 2000 years but the paper is more or less perfect. They are contained in a plastic bag (which looks intact), but plastic is estimated to last around 500 years. However, they are also in a sealed cave in the desert, which might have delayed the process. In the novel, the manual was contained in a linen bag.
  • The camera is in working order after 2000 years, only needing a new battery. It was even played once (at least) 500 years ago, 1500 years after it was buried.
• Reality Has No Subtitles: While the non-German characters are often subtitled, the Hebrew newscasts are not. The Israelis understand, Steffen does not.
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Downplayed. Scafaro has no problem letting Jung live after he betrays and kills Willfort. But when Jung's injured during a Chase Scene, Scafaro ignores his pleas to take him to a hospital and throws him to stop the other vehicle.
• Science Is Bad: Unsurprisingly believed by Scafaro, who says scientists do things for the thrill of it and never stop to think if they should.
• Serious Business: Scafaro is so incensed when Steffen blasphemes during torture that he comes out of hiding and reveals his organization just to make him apologize (under threat of plucking his eye out with a scalpel).
• Snakes Are Sinister: Steffen comes face to face with a threatening black cobra in the excavation before finding the tomb.
• Stable Time Loop: Steffen becomes the Time Traveler and maker of the video, and as a result, the very skeleton in the archaeological dig he was working at.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: Steffen and Sharon. One is a German atheist, raised Christian archaeology student, the other is a Jewish Israeli army reservist who has talked marrying her long-time boyfriend.
• The Starscream: Roland Jung joins the Lucanians and kills Professor Wilfort and Yehoshuah for money.
• The Stoner: One picks Steffen in the desert and returns him to Jerusalem after his escape from the man with the broken nose's van.
• Teleporter Accident: During the development of Time Travel, a lab rat planned to be sent a few seconds into the future starts to materialize as a charred, yet moving corpse. The investigator aborts the process, causing the future charred rat to disappear.
• Temporal Paradox:
  • A lab rat's future self starts to materialize next to it while investigating time travel, but when the horrified investigator aborts the process, the future rat disappears and the present rat ends never travelling in time at all.
  • The movie ends with Steffen asking what would happen if Sharon and him decide not to travel back in time - which would mean he never leaves his skeleton and the camera to be found. Kaun simply states that he's certain they will travel back in time because otherwise the skeleton wouldn't be there.
• Time and Relative Dimensions in Space: The present Time Machine can send objects into the past and future, but they materialize in the same spot where they were; as Earth rotates and moves through space, an object sent 4 seconds into the future will materialize in the air just outside the machine. It is never revealed how the future machine will be able to send a person into Earth's past.
• Time-Passage Beard: The video shows Steffen having grown a beard after traveling to Biblical times.
• Time Travel: The half of the movie that is not religious conspiracy.
• Translation Convention: Either this or a surprising number of people in Jerusalem speak German.
• Trapped in the Past: Implied. The prototype time machine we see doesn't travel in time with the traveler, and the time traveler we know died after decades living in the past, with no apparent way of coming back.
• Truth Serums: Christopher injects Steffen with one at the beginning of his torture session.
• The Unreveal: All we see of Jesus is a few seconds of him in his sepulchre. No evidence either way of miracles.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Steffen spends a lot of movie time in his underwear (or less).
• Write Back to the Future: The skeleton is found with the instruction manual for a camera that won't be released until 2003, and a letter detailing where to find it.
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: Almost everytime Steffen thinks he has found the camera, it turns out to be somewhere else.