Director Cameron Riley
Score 5/6

How did a fringe Jewish personality cult, from the backwaters of the Roman Empire, become the powerful Catholic Church? Join Cameron Reilly and a team of New Testament scholars and ancient historians as they tell the story of how the Christian Bible was written and how the idea of the idea of a messiah was marketed to the Roman empire.

Okay before we get to far into things, if you want to check this out at your friendly neighborhood cinema your going to have to get your tickets through the fan force.

I’d like to make it perfectly clear that I really wasn’t overly familiar with any of the stories that was discussed in Marketing the Messiah. Though it should be noted that this is not the type of documentary that is going to hit you over the head with a bible as Marketing the Messiah focuses more on the history then on church teachings.
I found that I enjoyed Cameron Riley’s presenting style, while watching this I got the impression that Riley had a similar documentary presenting style to somebody like Peter FitzSimons. I also liked the use of animation sporadically throughout the documentary.
Some of the points that was made by Marketing the Messiah are interesting, though I can see that some people find a little controversial such as the shifting definition of term ‘Messiah’ when it is used in relation to Jesus.
I was a little surprised to learn that the canonical gospels where published so long after the death of Jesus and that no first-hand or second-hand accounts where used. I know its odd thing to say but I was reminded of Red Dwarf’s joke about the Bible’s missing page. Then of course there is the infancy gospels, after hearing about them I understand why they where left out of the bible.
I actually thought that the comparison that was made about the rise of Christianity and the potential rise of Scientology was kind of interesting.