The Chosen

The Chosen excels in making a classic antiquated story come to life in a way that makes it relatable to modern audiences. We know the story of Jesus, the Messiah promised by centuries’ worth of prophecies who came to ultimately sacrifice his life to redeem humanity from the sins of the world. Most of us are well acquainted with the story of his birth, the first Christmas, as well as his death and resurrection, the first Easter. But not a lot of us have intimate familiarity with the years in between these two events. And even fewer know about the people surrounding him during those years.

Created, directed, and co-written by Dallas Jenkins, The Chosen depicts the life and ministry of Jesus with unprecedented detail and respect for its source material. Unlike most portrayals of Jesus’ life, the show gives the spotlight not just to Jesus, but also his closest followers. And even more impressive, it recontextualizes the entire narrative by also depicting the political elements that influenced and eventually led to the Messiah’s demise.

Now, if you have been following me for a while, you would know that I have a ton of religious trauma. In fact, I identified as atheist at one point, although I now started to lean more towards being agnostic, if not apathetic. So you would realize how much of a compliment it is for someone like me to say that The Chosen is one of the best Christian material I have seen in a while.

On the Biblical contexts.

It is a very common mistake to view the life and ministry of Jesus in a vacuum, isolated from the rest of the Biblical narrative. Even more common to disregard the entirety of the Old Testament and focus solely on the New Testament. And these two sins feel like something The Chosen has deliberately worked against. The show recognizes that Jesus was a part of a grand divine narrative that all began from the Garden of Eden, something that a lot of similar projects fail to acknowledge. Before Jesus came, there were tens to hundreds of prophecies, proverbs, and metaphors that promised the coming of a savior. And only by acknowledging these centuries’ worth of material can a Jesus biopic give justice to its narrative.

In its earlier seasons, episodes start with depictions of stories from the Old Testament that would be relevant later on in the episode. We’ve seen depictions of Moses and Joshua forging a bronze serpent to remove God’s punishment on Israel while in the wilderness—a story that is quite obscure to most audiences but is a direct and deliberate parallel to Jesus’ crucifixion (Season 1, episode 7). We are also shown about Jacob digging a well in Shechem in 1952 BC that was still in use in Jesus’ times by the Samaritans (Season 1, episode 8). They showed us how the eventual second king of Israel, David, seeks out food from then-high priest Ahimelech, who gave him the showbread, a ceremonial bread offered at the temple only to be eaten by priests, all to show that God may have rules, but they are not so strict that they are inhumane (Season 2, episode 6). There are more of these throughout the series, and they do a fantastic job of giving context to the events in the current narrative as well as reminding well-versed audiences how stories from the Old Testament are relevant to the events in the Gospels.

The Gospels were written for the people of its time, mainly as a record to reference when preaching to people as the first-century Church was being established. As such, a lot of references were included in the written text with the assumption that its readers would know about it. In modern times, not a lot of Christians know about these references, or even read them. The Chosen rehydrates these empty mentions of various factions and groups by including them in the narrative as political forces that work for or against Jesus and his disciples.

Simon the Zealot comes from the Zealots, a Jewish political movement who wanted Judeans to rebel against Rome. The Sanhedrin, an assembly merely mentioned or brushed over in other media but is put front and center in The Chosen. Instead of appearing once in a key scene and never again, Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor who sentenced Jesus to death, is given a complex backstory that not only shows how Jesus affected him politically but also personally. The high priest Caiaphas, merely a name in the scriptures and other Christian media, is portrayed not as an evil egomaniacal political force but as a loyal upholder of the laws of his God, that even if the law is interpreted in corrupt and inhumane ways, he stays loyal to it.

There are more of these throughout the five1 seasons of The Chosen. Whereas other media depict Jesus’ story as a mere means to an end of salvation, the series portrays in detail how Jesus got from a point where the world celebrates him as their king to a point where his very followers wanted him dead.

On Judas and his betrayal.

Since I started this show, I have been most interested in how they’ll depict Judas and his eventual betrayal. The Gospels are plain in stating that he was a traitor; whether it is because the Gospel writers are still salty that one of them chose this route or because no one really knew how he went from being a loyal apostle to being a traitor, that is knowledge we are not privy to.

Perhaps in fear of creating a heretical account of events, other media portrayed Judas as plain as he was written: an evil traitor. Jesus Christ Superstar is the first media I’ve encountered who tried to redeem Judas’ betrayal by offering an explanation for how he came to betray his master. They did it by depicting Judas as someone who fears for his group’s safety from Jesus’ increasing fame, even going so far as showing Judas think that Jesus is a delusional fake. I am under the impression that The Chosen’s creator is a devout Christian, but I think it is reasonable to say that they at least skimmed through the plot of this musical.

The Chosen takes it up a notch by making Judas a more complicated and well-rounded character. In the series, he is a devout man coming from a business background, which may or may not have contributed to his later choices. Peter accurately describes Judas as a walking contradiction2 because he claims to have unwavering faith in Jesus but doubts the intelligence of his actions in the same breath. Judas is depicted as a man of so much faith it borders delusion. He has created a mental image of who Jesus should be, and is continuously disappointed when Jesus clearly shows who he is.

This adds another layer to Judas: he is exactly who Jews at the time was. At this time, there was no denying that Jesus was indeed the Messiah; all prophecies that point to the Christ from the prophets of Old Testament were being fulfilled by and in him; the time frames of the Messiah’s emergence given to the prophets all point to Jesus’ lifetime. But the people of Israel expected the Messiah to come to earth and free them from the Roman occupation, something Jesus had repeatedly told them he would not do. In essence, Judas was just another misguided Jew. He was slowly realizing how wrong his expectations of Jesus were, at the same exact moments the people begin to have different views of Jesus.

However, whereas the people collectively began to turn away from Jesus, The Chosen’s Judas have a more complex and, in my opinion, infinitely more interesting motivation. During the week of Jesus’ last Passover celebration, the Apostles have started to sense that something was going wrong with Jesus being distraught at his coming death. They started to realize that what they thought were metaphors are actually plain truths, with them collectively being anxious about how Jesus’ death would mean they wasted three years following him. Judas, however, takes matters into his own hands. He puts Jesus himself to the test; he started to see the crucifixion as a way for Jesus to prove himself the Messiah. Even as Judas faced the High Priest Caiaphas (mind you, this is the highest power in the Judaic society at the time) to sell Jesus over for thirty pieces of silver, he insisted that his motives for having Jesus be killed is ways away different from the High Priest’s. This is a complexity I have never seen before in any Christian media with regards to Judas.

This complexity given to Judas is such a gift to people who are acquainted with the details of the Biblical narrative. Season 5 ends with the Judas Kiss, where Judas kisses Jesus to identify him to the Roman soldiers arresting him without causing a riot. Even casual viewers are familiar with this story, but because of how rich, meaningful, and complex Judas was portrayed, this scene carries a lot of weight. Watching it in isolation—say as a clip on YouTube—gives a feeling of oh yeah that’s cute that they did that; the Bible did mention that. But watching it as the final scene of the season finale after eight episodes of build up gives a feeling of oh sh*t. Things have become real!

Keeping things exciting for nerds.

Since the story has been made and remade countless of times since it was written, it’s a little difficult to make such a classic and well-known story be more exciting for people who already know how it goes. Not to brag, but I’ve read the Bible from cover to cover at least three times,4 so I definitely knew more than the average viewer.

Even so, I am delighted with every new episode. The Chosen has become my Marvel Cinematic Universe, my The Hunger Games, my Harry Potter, my Wicked movie. The translation from book to TV series has been impeccable. Every new episode, I am given sweet treats of short references to either Old Testament accounts or historical events that coincide with the story. Some characters’ names have been deliberately obscured by using its Hebrew version instead of the English ones I am familiar with, so I went multiple seasons not connecting one reference to the other.

What’s impressive is how the show still manages to build suspense, even though viewers already know the characters’ fates. For example, during the last episode of Season 2, they introduced an unnamed character and gave him all his backstory, and they refused to say his name up until the last moment when he introduces himself to Jesus as Judas. There are a few more of these that I would love to mention in the main text, but I would instead put in spoiler tags for the benefit of those who haven’t seen it yet; I beg of you to watch the entire series, especially if you are a Bible nerd; you will not regret it.

As a Bible geek, I would say the most fun part of watching this series is going through the story and waiting for certain characters to pop up. It’s like spending decades reading Marvel comics and being rewarded by seeing the characters get introduced in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And this one’s much much better, because unlike the MCU where the visuals can give away a character’s secret identity, the Bible is purely text so most of the clues as to who mystery characters are will come from the circumstances, events, and timelines they appear in.

Where to watch?

Full episodes of The Chosen seasons 1 to 4 are available to watch from their official app. Season 5 is available on Amazon Prime or Netflix depending on your location.