The eighth episode and season one finale of The Chosen is an hour-long slog that builds up to John Chapter four, the woman at the well. After beginning with a clip of Dallas Jenkins patting himself on the back for the previous episode, episode eight of The Chosen wraps up many of the plots from season one.
We see Jesus heal Mancandy Simon’s mother-in-law, an event that was long foreshadowed but oft ignored. But most of the first forty or so minutes focuses on the most banal of plots such as who will take care of Matthew’s dog and how will the Romans cope without him. And that’s before getting into the major deviations from Scripture in their creative liberty.
In the first season of The Chosen, the Romans already have Jesus on their radar and have made him a suspect to bring in for questioning, a major deviation from Scripture. Additionally, the show’s misinterpretation of Nicodemus as rejecting Christ’s invitation to be one of his disciples while also being supportive when a one-dimensional rabbi confronts him about his inaction when Jesus claimed that the Son of Man has the authority to forgive sins. Jesus would then say that Nicodemus came so close to following Jesus before departing town with his eight disciples the chief of whom is Mary Magdalene.
Upon arriving in Samaria, Jesus sends the eight disciples, led by Mary Magdalene, into town to buy food while he awaits at the well for the woman to arrive. John 4 is stretched to cover about fifteen minutes of time of which major deviations unfold. For starters, a lot more dialog is added. Instead of saying “Sir, I perceive you are a prophet” the woman at the well is dejected and borderline sarcastic in acknowledging Jesus as a prophet. She then proceeds to have an argument with Jesus about Jews and Samaritans, in which Jesus does reply with John 4:21-26. However, it isn’t until Jesus starts naming the ex-husbands that the woman at the well finally believes. This, again, is a major deviation from Scripture because The Chosen ultimately decided the dialog in John 4 was unconvincing enough to depict in television, so they instead added a lot more to it. This is a tacit rejection of the sufficiency of Scripture.
The woman departs from the well skipping and telling all what she saw as the eight disciples led by Mary reunite with Jesus. The Chosen then has verses 31-34 as dialog but stops Jesus mid-paragraph so that Jesus and the eight disciples can walk off into the sunset like Clint Eastwood.
It’s worth noting that in the Bible Jesus and the twelve disciples are waiting for the men of the village to come to the well and hear the good news, as there was plenty of daylight left.
Overall, the first season of The Chosen was a dreadful viewing experience that focused way too much on banalities and made rather stupid deviations from Scripture that dig them into very unbiblical holes.
One Response
I refuse to watch shows like that. The creators may have had good intentions, but they are adding to the word of God. Bad idea. They can rationalize that it exposes people to Jesus, but it is a Jesus of their making, not the one from the Bible.