The Chosen vs the Gospels: What the Bible Actually Says
Watching The Chosen and wondering which scenes are in the Bible? Learn what the show adds, how to find the real accounts, and where to read each one.
If you are asking about The Chosen vs the Bible, the short answer is this: the show is built on the Gospels, but it adds scenes, characters and conversations that the Bible does not contain. The show says so itself. This page helps you tell the two apart, and shows you where to read the real accounts for the scenes you love.
What The Chosen is and how to watch it
The Chosen is a historical drama about the life of Jesus, seen through the people who knew him. It is set in the first century, in a land ruled by Rome. It was created by Dallas Jenkins, who also directs, co-writes and stars. Its episodes are free to watch in its own app, and also on Amazon Prime. The app includes extras such as making-of films and Bible roundtables.
On its own site, the show says it is "based on the true stories of the Gospels". It also says that some places and timelines are combined or shortened, and that some backstories, some characters and some dialogue are added. That is an honest way to describe it. A drama has to show how people looked, spoke and felt, and the Gospels are very short on those details. So a drama has to invent some of them.
What a drama adds that the text does not have
The Gospels are short. Their writers chose a few events and told them in a few lines. They rarely say what a person felt, what they ate or what they said in the hours before.
A drama must fill that space. Here are the kinds of things it adds.
- Backstory. The Gospels say that Matthew was a tax collector. They do not give his childhood, his habits or his family. A show must give him a past so that you care about him.
- Dialogue. The Gospels record some words of Jesus word for word. Between those words, a show must write many more lines of talk.
- Time. The Gospels often say "after this" or "the next day" without a date. A show must decide how many weeks pass.
- Combined events. To fit a season, a show may join two events into one, or move an event to an earlier or later point.
None of this is a lie. It is the normal craft of a drama. The point is only that you cannot tell from the screen which parts are text and which are craft. That is why it helps to read the passage afterwards.
Reading the scenes in the Gospels that tell them
Here is a method that takes ten minutes. After an episode, write down the scene that moved you. Then find the passage.
- Say which person the scene is about, for example a fisherman, a woman at a well or a man let down through a roof.
- Look for that person in the Gospels. Mark is the fastest place to start, because it is short and moves quickly.
- Read the passage once, slowly, and underline what the text actually says.
- Compare it with the scene. What did the show add? What did it leave out?
Here are four examples that show how this works.
The calling of the fishermen. In Mark 1:16-20, Jesus walks by the lake, sees Simon and Andrew casting a net, and calls them. They leave their nets at once. Then he sees James and John, and they leave their father in the boat with the hired men. The text is only a few lines. Any longer version of this scene is written by the makers of the show.
The woman at the well. In John 4, Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at a well at midday. He asks her for water. The text records a long talk, and Jesus tells her that she has had five husbands. Why she came at noon, and how she felt, the text does not say. Our article on the woman at the well story goes through the whole passage.
The man through the roof. In Mark 2:1-12, four men carry a friend who cannot walk to a crowded house. They cannot get in, so they open the roof and lower him. Jesus tells him that his sins are forgiven, and then tells him to rise. The names of the four men are not given.
The family of Jesus. Viewers often ask about his mother and brothers. The Gospels mention brothers and sisters in several places, and Christian traditions read these verses in different ways. Read did Jesus have brothers and sisters to see the verses and the main readings, treated fairly.
If you want the wider picture of how the ministry unfolds, start with the ministry of Jesus explained for beginners. It puts the scenes in order.
Side by side
| The Chosen | The Gospels, in BibleCrown lessons | |
|---|---|---|
| Format | Filmed drama, episodes you watch | Short lessons you listen to and read |
| What you get | Faces, voices, a sense of the world | The actual words of the text, with explanation |
| Invented material | Yes: backstories, some characters and some dialogue, as the show states | None added; quotations are word for word |
| Words of Jesus | Spoken by an actor; the show says some dialogue is added | Only exact quotations from the passage |
| Time needed | Full episodes | About five minutes per lesson |
| Best at | Making you feel the people were real | Showing what the text says and what it meant |
| Price model | Episodes free to watch, as the site states | See the BibleCrown app for how it is offered |
Who should pick which
Watch The Chosen if you want to feel what it might have been like to stand in those villages. It is very good at that. It can also send you to the text itself.
Use the lessons if you want to know what is in the text. They help you separate the Gospel account from the filmed version, and they explain the customs and places in plain sentences.
Use both together. Watch an episode, then learn the passage behind it. You will enjoy the next episode more, because you will notice what is from the page and what is from the writers' room. Our guide to the best Bible study apps for beginners can help you choose other tools to go with it.
Questions people ask
Is The Chosen accurate to the Bible?
The show says it is based on the Gospels and that it adds backstory, characters and dialogue. So it follows the main events, but not every detail you see is in the text. The only way to be sure is to read the passage.
Which Gospel should I read first after watching?
Mark. It is the shortest and it moves fast, so you can see the scenes you know in one sitting. The first Mark track of BibleCrown follows its opening chapters.
Are the words of Jesus in the show his real words?
Some are close to the Gospel text and some are written for the show. The lessons here quote Jesus only from the passage itself, never in a paraphrase.
Do I need to be a believer to read the Gospels?
No. People read them as history, as literature and as faith. The lessons give a short and fair note where traditions read a passage differently.
Learn this passage in five minutes
The track "Good News in Galilee" follows the first chapters of Mark, from the baptism in the Jordan to the rejection in Nazareth. Each lesson takes five minutes and shows what the text says, so you can set it beside what you saw on screen.