Movie Review: Paul, Apostle of Christ

I was so excited to be given the opportunity to review the new 2018 movie, “Paul, Apostle of Christ”, having been wanting to see it ever since it first released!

My husband and I watched this film together and both really enjoyed it. It recounts the story of New Testament life in Rome during Paul’s last imprisonment before his death. The disciple of Christ, Luke, interacts with notable Bible characters Aquila and his wife Priscilla, daily looking out for the wellbeing of the Christians in the town, who were always in danger of being put to death by Emperor Nero.

Luke divides his time between serving the community at large and spending time with the Apostle Paul while he is in prison for preaching the Gospel in Rome. During these visits together Paul recites to Luke his testimony, how he was raised, his story of coming to Christ, and his journey as a new Christian. From this account Luke then pens the book of Acts. Witnessing the production of this fascinating book of the Bible was incredibly interesting, even if done in a semi-fictional way on the screen. It truly made the Bible come alive for us as we watched.

There were several things we enjoyed about this movie besides just the representation of how the book of Acts was written. We also particularly enjoyed the portrayal of husband and wife team, Aquila and Priscilla, whom we read about in Acts 18. This couple was a real powerhouse of partnership and equality, which must have been an amazing breath of fresh air in a very patriarchal culture. Their mutual honor, love, and respect for each other was an inspiration to behold.

Another beautiful part of watching the film was having the opportunity to see the grace and love of God radically change a lost soul and sinful heart. One of Paul’s jailers is first portrayed in the film as a hater and persecutor of Christians. As he witnesses the love, grace, and care of those very same Christians, however, and has his daughter healed by God through the hand of Luke from a nearly-fatal disease, his heart is softened and he is forever changed.

There is one word of caution I believe it important to issue here, and that is that certain portions of the film may be too intense for young children. Christians in that time were persecuted in incredibly vicious and heart-wrenching ways, which this film does accurately portray. Though not extremely graphic, we did choose to watch this movie while our little ones were in bed and are glad we did.

All in all, this is a wonderful, true-to-Scripture film about the man we now know as the Apostle Paul, and I highly recommend it!

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