I have to admit that I have not watched much of the chosen. In fact as I write this I have seen a total of 4 episodes. Three episodes from Season 4 and one episode from season 1. Those who know me know that I have concerns about putting the scripture into a video format. But often those concerns aren’t for the reasons that people expect.

I don’t have much concern about what is imagined in the settings of the places and events that happened. This is actually what narrative invites us to do. To imagine the sights and sounds of what was going on is part of reading narrative. The parts of Scripture that recount historical events, aka narrative, are calling us to picture what happened as the stories of God’s faithfulness are recounted.

What concerns me is that when we put something into a media like film, and when those things that we imagine, or our interpretations of Scripture, are untrue, then we can be prone to accept those as fact.

Please understand that I am not automatically writing off the media of film. I am saying that there is no substitute for Scripture. God could have sent his Son at any time in history. He could have had the life of Jesus recorded in film. He chose to send his Son at the exact right time, as seen in Gal. 4:4, and that God chose to have his Son’s life recorded in writing, not in film. For this reason we do well to pay closer attention to the written Word of God than we do to films about it.

So this guide is not an attempt to bash the Chosen, nor do I have an axe to grind. But since the chosen has become so widely watched, and even appreciated, I thought I would watch my way through it and give us a guide to be able to compare what we see in The Chosen to Scripture. I will use 6 different categories as I go, and I will cite Scripture where I can.

Those categories are as follows:

Biblical- What We Find in Scripture
Unbiblical- What Contradicts Scripture
Historical- What Helps us Understand the History of the Time
Extra-biblical: What Is Made Up but Doesn’t Contradict Scripture
Helpful: What We Might Be Helpful To the Watcher
Dangerous: Things That Have Been Added That Might Be Dangerous to Accept as Fact

What I write in each of the categories will be bulleted with short answers. My goal isn’t to write at length. Rather, my goal is to help you understand. I don’t know if there will be something in every category from every episode. In fact, I would hope that the “unbiblical” and “dangerous” categories would be rarely used, ideally even never used. But I will leave them in just in case.

My plan is to try and release one episode guide per week. I hope that it may help you to better understand the true Word of God, the Written Word (Bible) and the Living Word (Jesus).

So, with no further ado, here is the first episode guide.

S1, E1 episode guide

Biblical- What We Find in Scripture

Mary Magdalene was Magdala, that is what her name means.
Mary Magdalene was demon possessed. (Lk. 8:2)
Nicodemus was a pharisee, and likely the primary teacher in Israel. (Jn. 3:10)
Matthew was a tax collector. (Mt. 9:9)
Simon-Peter and Andrew were brothers. (Mt. 4:18-19)
Simon-Peter was married and lived in Capernaum. (Mt. 8:14-15)

Unbiblical- What Contradicts Scripture

Nothing

Historical- What Helps us Understand the History of the Time

While extra biblical, it is true that tax collection districts, purchased by people from Rome, were called a publicany. This term is used early on. A tax collector was then called a “publican.”
Jews who took up tax collection were despised by the Jews. The porter who transports Matthew is extrabiblical, his fear that he would be ostracized from society is historically accurate.

Extra-biblical: What Is Made Up but Doesn’t Contradict Scripture

Mary Magdalene’s interaction with her father as a young girl outside their tent.
Mary Magdalene’s attempt to “kill someone”
The stopping of Jewish fishing on the Sabbath, including the scenes in the local synagogue.
The Romans Gaius and Quintas are not mentioned anywhere in the Bible. Almost no Roman leader is.
Matthew’s porter.
Simon’s fight and that the man he was fighting with was his wife’s brother.
Mary Magdalene’s behavior while being possessed and any attempt by Nicodemus to exorcise those demons from her, as well as his later conversation with his wife about those events. (Michael and Gabriel are the only two angels named in Scripture besides Satan. Nicodemus naming of two other angels is probably drawn from tradition, but it is not drawn from Scripture.)
Mary’s interaction in the local “pub,” for lack of a better word.
Mary’s cliffside contemplation of suicide and the bird that she then follows. It is possible that this is an allusion to the Holy Spirit.
Matthews interaction with Simon and Andrew, including Simon and Andrews tax debt and their arrangement to have their debt forgiven.
Mary Magdalene calling herself “Lilith.” Lilith is the name of a figure that is theorized by some to the be the first wife of Adam.

Helpful: What We Might Be Helpful To the Watcher

How despised tax collectors were, even to the point that any association with one would ostracize someone in Jewish culture.
The strict legalism and perfectionism of the pharisees.
Nicodemus statement regarding the demons that “Only God himself could have drawn them out.” This point to the reality that Jesus is God when he Mary later. While all of this is made up, it is an attempt to show that Jesus is “God himself.”
The contrast between the compassion and power of Jesus, and the fear and inability of the pharisees.
The Compassion of Jesus toward Mary.

Dangerous: Things That Have Been Added That Might Be Dangerous to Accept as Fact

Nothing