Scripture talks about Jesus sending out his disciples to preach the good news. Here is the passage in Luke:
He summoned the Twelve and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal (the sick). He said to them, “Take nothing for the journey, neither walking stick, nor sack, nor food, nor money, and let no one take a second tunic. Whatever house you enter, stay there and leave from there. And as for those who do not welcome you, when you leave that town, shake the dust from your feet in testimony against them.” Then they set out and went from village to village proclaiming the good news and curing diseases everywhere.
We are informed that season 3 of the Chosen depicts this and shows the disciples preaching on their own. Since scripture does not specify WHICH disciples paired off during this time Dallas Jenkins was able to choose his own pairings. This is how he did it.
- John and Thomas
- Peter and Judas
- Matthew and Simon the Zealot
- Big James (John’s Brother) and Little James
- Nathanael and Thaddeus
- Andrew (Simon Peter’s Brother) and Phillip
The parings are interesting. It is in John’s Gospel where Thomas’ doubting is mentioned, John is portrayed in the show as very emotional while Thomas is very calculating. That clash will be interesting as will Thomas’ and John’s reaction when they start healing people and driving out demons.
Peter and Judas is an even more interesting paring in the sense that both are huge at the time he was crucified. Both of them betray Jesus after the last supper, Judas by delivering him to his enemies and Peter by denying him before others. The Gospel specifies that Judas realized what he had done and it drove him to suicide, while it doesn’t specify what happened with Peter in terms of going back to the disciples. Imagine if Peter had simply run away in shame or if Judas had, like Peter gone back to the disciples and repented. There would be cathedrals to “St. Judas the repentant” all over the world while Peter would be considered a coward. For the two of them working together gives the chance to emphasize that any of us could go in either direction.
Simon Z and Matthew is, next to Judas and Peter the most interesting pairing. The Zealot deep into scripture who would have killed a tax collector without a second thought and the Tax Collector who at the call of Christ left it all to follow him. The interactions between the pair has great dramatic potential and like Thomas Matthew’s reactions to miracles when he himself performs them has drama written all over it.
The contrast between Big and Little James physically has a lot of potential. The idea that both will be healing people while Little James has a malady (one not mentioned in scripture btw) is another potential for drama the whole “physician heal thyself” but the real story is going to be John’s brother who we will be seeing for the first time without John. Those interactions should be interesting.
Nathanael and Thaddeus will be interesting simply because we haven’t seen a lot of either. This gives plenty of leeway for the creative team. An architect and a stone mason should get along like a house afire and complement each other quite a bit. Add to that Thaddeus being one of the first disciples (at least per the show) and Nathanael being 10th coming in only before Simon the Zealot & Judas and you have a lot to work with.
Finally we have Andrew and Phillip which would seem to me the least interesting pairing of the group. Both were followers of John the Baptist, both were well known to each other and in terms of this kind of preaching they would be the two most experienced. Of course Andrew has been portrayed as very high strung while Phillip is portrayed as the calmest of the crew and most comfortable in this life. Given that we’ve already seen previews of Andrew and Philip being kicked out of at least one village it does have potential, specifically in terms of trusting the message.
We don’t know how many episodes these travels will entail, I would think you would need at least two or three to cover it all and that doesn’t even talk about:
- The interaction of the women who are not traveling
- What Jesus is doing during this time
Again none of this is specified in scripture so how it is played should be interesting to see. What I want to know is how they are going to handle Jesus sending out the 72.
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