In the sixth episode of The Chosen, the directorial liberty taken with filling the gaps in the four gospels reaches new heights. However, the sixth episode titled, “Indescribable Compassion” fails to deliver anything close to what could be considered a compelling narrative. The episode is bookended by two miracles: Jesus healing a leper and Jesus healing a blind man. What happens in-between is fiction and bad fiction at that.
Witnessing the miracle, an Ethiopian woman (because Ethiopians were everywhere in the Galilee and this is in no way a diversity play…) starts conversing with Jesus in Egyptian. Jesus then explains that he “grew up in Egypt.” The disciples ask why and it is explained that Herod had ordered the death of children under 2. The disciples were evidently familiar with this event which is odd to say the least. Bethlehem was an insignificant town and Herod’s atrocities were so numerous that this event gets very little attention outside of Scripture.
King Herod the Great is widely believed to have died in 1BC which have Jesus at age 2 or under assuming Jesus was born at around 3BC. Herod died when Jesus was very young in age and would therefore not have been in Egypt long enough to learn a foreign tongue in addition to his native.
This historical inaccuracy would not be so bad if there weren’t a prevailing narrative among the theological liberals to reduce Jesus to a brown Palestinian refugee.
Additionally, we see the Romans and Pharisees take a premature interest in persecuting Jesus. The show depicts a large crowd which the Romans consider in an of itself to be a threat. They then disperse the crowd forcefully, taking a small number of troops to a much larger crowd in a move that is tactically unwise. One of the Jews insists, this is a “peaceful gathering” to which the Roman replied, “That’s what the Maccabees said.” This is yet another example of midwit dialog that sounds smart but is historically asinine. The dialog in part insinuates that the Maccabees rebelled against Rome but also ignores the historical fact that Rome was allied with the Maccabees. The dialog sounds smarter than it actually is in order to relate to a contemporary audience familiar with the notion of “peaceful protests” being not so peaceful or being an important distinction.
Lastly, we must not neglect Matthew who is left hanging by Jesus as The Chosen plays hard to get to draw out the drama. While Mary Magdalene is depicted as the leader of the disciples which is both asinine and chronologically deviant from Scripture, Matthew is pursuing Jesus, not the other way around.
Moreover, Matthew in this episode is suddenly portrayed as a germaphobe in a time 1800 years before germ theory.
The directorial liberty of The Chosen proved not only to be historically asinine but boring as well. I give this episode 1/5.Â
2 Responses
I’ve seen a few, and sometimes it’s not bad really. But other times it’s horrible. Before Jesus did those miracles did He look up or pray before them? When He changed the water to wine He prayed before it, and they made the scene like a hocus pocus thing. I gotta run, but it seems to me they’re implying Jesus wasn’t fully God becaue He had to ask the Father to do the miracle. Anyone else notice that?
After he filled the nets with fish He looked up, like He was thanking the Father for doing it.