Thoughts on "The Chosen"

A couple of years ago, a Christian man desired to make a compelling TV series based on the Gospels.  His desire, as I understand it, was to write and produce a show that Christians would want to watch: clean, wholesome, and with good story telling.  Fast forward to 2020 and that show is a reality.  The Chosen has been the feature of many ads on Facebook and elsewhere for some time now, and has been the focus of a lot of hype.  Out of curiosity (It's always nice to find a worthwhile show to watch, right?  And what could be more worthwhile than the Gospels?) and concern (After all, recent portrayals of the Gospels have not had a great reputation for biblical fidelity), I decided to watch the first episode.  Here are my initial thoughts.

This may not be a big-budget Hollywood production, but the show looks good.  Very good.  The creators have sought to portray accurate visuals throughout the show, sticking to the 1st century middle-eastern setting and customs.  Based on watching one episode, I think they have succeeded.  But going beyond that, the production and character development draws you in.  The characters are not contrived and unrealistic like we often see in such productions, but rather both interesting and flawed.  Although you know the overall story, you want to keep watching and see what happens next.

But that is where the positive aspects of this show end.  There is a very serious problem at the very heart of it: biblical fidelity.  Any time someone wants to perform a play or produce a movie of a biblical narrative she inevitably has to fill in some gaps.  Books and Movie/TV shows are inherently different.  Although they both seek to tell a story or impart information, the former focuses on the written word and the latter on visuals.  Both mediums have their place, but there can be dangers in converting from one to the other.  In trying to create a show out of a book, a producer has to fill in some gaps.  In the case of The Chosen, the creators have chosen to fill in a lot of gaps; too many gaps.  Essentially, they have taken the people found in the Gospel accounts and given them significant backstories that are not even alluded to in Scripture.

As a prime example, consider Peter.  Before Jesus calls him to be a fisher-of-men, we know little of Peter, really only that he lived in Bethsaida (he later moved to Capernaum) with his family and was part of the family fishing business. There are a few other little details, but not enough to build a backstory from.  In the first episode of The Chosen, Peter is one of the main characters whose backstory is developed.  Thus far it is revealed that Peter is a prize-fighting gambler who manipulates his brother, fishes on the Sabbath to pay off debts (without caring that he is breaking the Sabbath), and betrays fellow Jews to the Roman authorities for money.  Now I don’t know about you, but to me that does not sound at all like the Peter portrayed in the Gospels.  

Here is the problem: the Bible is the inerrant, infallible, authoritative, and inspired Word of God. This isn’t your typical book.  It isn’t even The Hobbit (we won’t debate, today, the quality of those movie adaptations).   It is something much greater, of infinite worth.  It is the Creator and King of the universe’s self-revelation to us, informing us of who He is, who we are, how we are to live, our brokenness, and our only way to salvation.  If we get it wrong there are eternal implications.  As I see it, this adaptation is a clear case of adding to the Word of God, something that we are called never to do.  The end result is that we get certain pictures in our minds of what is going on in the Gospels that are different from what the Gospels themselves portray.  This concerns me.  

So after all of that I have to conclude by saying that I do not recommend The Chosen.  Instead, take a little extra time to read the real Gospel accounts and be reminded of the amazing redemption provided for us in Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God.