Last week I went to see the new movie, Paul, the Apostle of Christ. The movie wasn’t quite what I expected, but it was very good. It centered on St. Luke and his relationship with St. Paul at the end of Paul’s life. The movie speculates that Luke may have made a visit to the prison where Paul was kept before his martyrdom, with that visit as the occasion for writing the Acts of the Apostles. As the Acts of the Apostles is a book we read frequently during the Easter season, this book is a good theme for this time of year.
The Acts of the Apostles is a sequel, so to speak, of the gospel of Luke. Each one is addressed to someone whom Luke calls Theophilus. We do not know who he was, but there is speculation that perhaps he was a Roman official who was secretly a Christian, or else that he was a Roman official and that Luke was trying to reassure him that the Christians were not a threat to the empire. I think that latter explanation is at least plausible, and the movie puts the writing of the book in that kind of atmosphere. The movie sets the action within the persecution of the Church under the emperor Nero. In the movie, Luke comes to Rome to meet with Paul, and in order to strengthen the faith of those who faced persecution, writes at least the beginning of Acts. In reality, Acts was probably written some years after Paul’s death. Scholars date Luke’s gospel at around AD 80 to 85, with Acts coming around that same time. Perhaps there could have been such a visit, but that encounter between Paul and Luke is most likely a dramatic invention intended to set the writing of the book in the context of that relationship.
Acts focuses on the growth of the Church, beginning with the small community in Jerusalem and centering upon St. Peter. Through persecution, the Church expands through Palestine and the focus shifts to St. Stephen, the first martyr. Stephen’s martyrdom serves as an introduction to Saul of Tarsus, whom we know better as Paul. St. Paul dominates the rest of the book as the Church spreads throughout the known world. If it is true that Luke was trying to reassure Theophilus that Christians were not trying to overthrow Rome, the movie shows a strong reaction against any suggestions of violence. St. Paul urges the community to live in the love of Christ.
Thus as a movie about faith, I definitely recommend Paul, the Apostle of Christ. I would not consider it to be historically accurate, but it does give a good sense of the early Church and the struggles faced by St. Paul and others. I found some of the scriptural quotations to be somewhat forced, as if the scriptwriters felt they had to squeeze Paul’s words in verbatim. Overall, though, I certainly thought that Paul, the Apostle of Christ is well worth seeing.
Father H
