Highly popular Christian television series, “The Chosen,” is not a stranger to controversy during its run thus far, however, the latest bit kerfuffle they’ve caused might have a much deeper negative impact than any that has come before in the show’s history. Apparently, a sneak peak of the upcoming season revealed a conversation taking place between Jesus Christ and Judas Iscariot, his betrayer, that many have referred to as “unbiblical.”
According to The Christian Post, showrunner Dallas Jenkins previewed the scene last week, ahead of the new season premiere on April 2025, which contained a chat between Jesus and Judas.
“You have a choice to make, Judas,” Jesus says in the scene in which Judas challenges Jesus to “reclaim” his “birthright.” “Who you belong to? Who has your heart? I want it, and I’ve had it before. You followed me willingly.”
“I want to continue,” Judas replies. “There’s nothing more that I want than that.”
Jesus takes an emotional Judas’ hand, telling him, “Then I will pray for you. But for now, please leave me in peace.”
New clip from the TV show 'The Chosen' has Jesus telling Judas Iscariot this super unbiblical thing. pic.twitter.com/u65JPwbBHh
— Protestia (@Protestia) December 12, 2024
Arizona Pastor Gabriel Hughes from Providence Reformed Baptist Church located in Casa Grande took to social media where he weighed in on the clip saying, “Contrary to ‘The Chosen,’ the Bible does not say Jesus told Judas, ‘I will pray for you.’ “He called Judas’ son of perdition’ (John 17:12), destined to betray the Son of God according to Scripture. Jesus did not pray for Judas to make a different choice, or we wouldn’t be saved.”
Yeah, there’s definitely some “artistic license” being taken in this scene, however, it’s important to point out that “The Chosen” is not the Bible. It’s a work of fiction that loosely uses the biblical narrative about Christ and His disciples for the basis of a television series. It’s not at all where a person should be getting spiritual formation. I get the backlash. Lots of people are indeed taking this program as the “gospel truth,” despite it being fiction. It’s part of the problem with doing dramatizations of the Scriptures.
“There’s the Bible and then there’s the Chosen,” stated Florida Southern Baptist Pastor Adam Page. “The two rarely if ever meet.”
Shane Idleman, the founder and lead pastor of Westside Christian Fellowship in Lancaster, California, stated in a tweet that while he doesn’t have a problem with “The Chosen” taking “some artistic and creative freedom,” he believes some of what is said in the clip is “controversial.” “I’m not sure that Jesus ever ‘had Judas’s heart’ initially or prayed for him,” Idleman wrote. “We have to be careful with creative freedom.”
In a viral post on X, the discernment news blog Protestia panned the scene as “super unbiblical.” Others came to the series’ defense, questioning how it is unbiblical. One X user wrote that Jesus wanted “all to follow him” and that even if the dialogue from the scene itself can’t be found in Scripture, “people are going a bit over the top about this.”
“I would say, probably 95 percent of the content of the show isn’t directly from Scripture,” Dallas Jenkins stated last year when he addressed issues with the program’s biblical accuracy. “People call it a Bible show; they’ll call it a Jesus show. And I’m OK with that, but I’ll say, ‘This is actually — I mean the Bible is for sure the primary source of truth and inspiration for the show, but there’s a ton of content that isn’t actually directly from Scripture.'”
"*" indicates required fields
“It’s a dangerous proposition,” he further explained. “You’re walking a fine line, especially as someone like myself who loves the Bible, and I know that people who watch it, the majority of people who watch it, are going to be wanting us to remain faithful to the scriptures as much as possible.”
“We operate from this question: Is this plausible? Whatever we write, if it didn’t come from Scripture — is this plausible, culturally, historically? And does it fit within the character and intentions of Jesus and in the Gospels, even if it’s not directly from them, or even if we don’t know if it’s fact or not?” he added.
Jenkins himself has said that the series it not “pretending to be the Bible,” saying, “We’re not a replacement for Scripture; we never claimed to be. … This is a show about first-century Galilee using the Bible as our primary source.”