The Mystical Geek

During these days I've had several opportunities to watch Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ." I kept wondering where he got the idea that the temple soldiers hit Jesus so hard that this latter fell down from a bridge. It is actually a modified version of one of the visions of Catherine Emmerich, an Augustinian nun of the 18th century. Here is what she writes in her "Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ"

The procession (of the arrested Jesus and the temple guards) proceeded at a good pace; when they left the road which runs between the Garden of Olives and that of Gethsemani, they turned to the right, and soon reached a bridge which was thrown over the Torrent of Cedron. When Jesus went to the Garden of Olives with the Apostles, he did not cross this bridge, but went by a private path which ran through the Valley of Josaphat, and led to another bridge more to the south. The bridge over which the soldiers led Jesus was long, being thrown over not only the torrent, which was very large in this part, but likewise over the valley, which extends a considerable distance to the right and to the left, and is much lower than the bed of the river. I saw our Lord fall twice before he reached the bridge, and these falls were caused entirely by the barbarous manner in which the soldiers dragged him; but when they were half over the bridge they gave full vent to their brutal inclinations, and struck Jesus with such violence that they threw him off the bridge into the water, and scornfully recommended him to quench his thirst there. If God had not preserved him, he must have been killed by this fall; he fell first on his knee, and then on his face, but saved himself a little by stretching. out his hands, which, although so tightly bound before, were loosened, I know not whether by miracle, or whether the soldiers had cut the cords before they threw him into the water. The marks of his feet, his elbows, and his fingers were miraculously impressed on the rock on which he fell, and these impressions were afterwards shown for the veneration of Christians. These stones were less hard than the unbelieving hearts of the wicked men who surrounded Jesus, and bore witness at this terrible moment to the Divine Power which had touched them. [Link: Jesus-Passion.COM]

The visionary saw Jesus fall from the bridge into the water down below. In Gibson's version just the falling Jesus hung from the chains that bound him and did not touch ground. This, I think, is to make possible his seeing Judas sitting under the bridge.