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by Charlie Wolcott

This past weekend, I went to go see Paul: Apostle of Christ on its opening night with a group of guys from my church. Christian movies overall have a bad rap. They are either too cheesy in design, the message is too preachy, or the characters are too bland. Yet, recently, I have seen a significant improvement in the artistic talent, the script writing, and the acting in Christian movies. Paul: Apostle of Christ has leapt towards the top of the Christian movies I have seen and yes, that includes, the Sherwood Films of Facing the Giants, Courageous, Fireproof, etc.

Paul: Apostle of Christ centers around Paul’s final days in a Roman prison, having been charged by Nero as being the lead instigator of the burning of Rome. Luke, the author of his Gospel and Acts, risks all to reach Paul and get some wisdom on what to do as Rome hunts Christians left and right. A local congregation, led by Aquila and Priscilla, struggles with whether to stay and help the people struggling with a madman of an Emperor or to flee to Ephesus and join Timothy there. While with Paul, Luke gets the inspiration to write Paul’s story, which became a big part of the Book of Acts. The movie is not about Acts as I initially thought, but what may have been the story behind the writing of it.

One subplot involves the head Roman guard who has a sick daughter and his struggles with Rome, who Paul really is, and his problems at home. This guard is nowhere found in Scripture, however, hints throughout Paul’s letters, Luke’s conclusion of Acts, and early church tradition indicate Paul seems to have a strong enough relationship with the guards that he could go about quite freely throughout Rome. In Acts 16 when Paul and Silas stayed in prison when they had a chance to escape, the head guard took them to his house, and then the whole family got saved. So while this subplot is not explicit in Scripture, it is very plausible something along these lines may have happened. The resolution of the daughter’s sickness is done very well without going through clichés or your typical “conversion” account as seen in many Christian movies. I was very pleased with it.

The struggles of the church are very realistic and believable. There is some gore in the movie giving it the PG-13 rating, including seeing Christians bound to stakes to be burned as “night torches” to light up Rome’s streets. The church battles on what to do as other Christians are lead by the masses to the “circus” (that is, the Roman Coliseum “games”). Some want to stay, some want to flee, and some want military vengeance. The movie depicts children caught up in the mess, some innocent victims and others who understand the plight and want to do everything they can to help.

The only four characters from the Bible are Paul, Luke, Aquila, and Priscilla. I found Paul and Luke’s characters to be spot on. Paul frequently quoted from his letters, and they show Luke also struggling with how to love an enemy seeking to destroy them, emphasizing how Luke never met Christ in person. We know little of Luke’s actual character other than being extremely precise in his details and his loyalty to Paul and the ministry. We also know very little about Aquila and Priscilla other than being very supportive of Paul and his ministry. Initially I was not entirely sold on these two being in Rome during this time, however, since returning to Scripture to verify, these two were listed in the names Paul asked to be greeted in Romans 16, so that part was right.

The one thing that actually stood out to me the most as being unrealistic was the Roman head guard describing Paul as being Nero’s scapegoat for burning Rome. That term “scapegoat” was of Jewish origin in reference to Leviticus 16 and didn’t become a well-known term until later as many Christian phrases and words became more common. Everything else was either spot on or at the very least plausible. Going into the movie, I heard several people complain about casting white people for the movie, but the hilarious part about that complaint is that only Paul would have been of Jewish origin. Everyone else was European. So the whiners about “historical accuracy” on this movie didn’t know it themselves.

I am definitely going to see this movie again and will be getting it on DVD when it comes out. Among my writing projects that I eventually will get to (when I finish several of the four active books I have right now) is at least three books which intend to flesh out the details of several Biblical stories. I want to do one on the Exodus and the wanderings in the wilderness, one on David and his Mighty Men, and one on the ministry of Christ and the early church. This movie does precisely what I want to carry out: to show in greater detail what the events surrounding the accounts may have looked like without doing any damage to the account itself. Paul: Apostle of Christ does this very well. It fleshes out the events surrounding the end of Paul’s life and I could not find anything significant which violates what is clearly given in Scripture. It is an incredible movie and worth seeing.

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