Rabbi Jason Sobel Takes a Deeper Look at 'The Chosen' in New TBN Series
Rabbi Jason Sobel has become well known in recent years for his work with Kathie Lee Gifford on their book, The Rock, the Road, and the Rabbi as well as their followup release, The God of the Way. Painstakingly humble and theologically grounded in the original Hebrew and Greek of the Bible, Sobel’s thoughtful, reflective style has led scores of Christians to a far deeper understanding of God’s Word.
Now comes Sobel’s latest project, The Chosen Unveiled a television teaching series from TBN which serves as a companion to the various episodes of the watershed program The Chosen, which has become a global phenomenon. Making its debut on June 23rd, the show will air each Friday evening through August 10th. Along the way, Sobel will take viewers on-set to reveal the authentically Jewish Jesus – Yeshua – rather than the cultural Jesus that has so permeated American culture over the last century.
I recently sat down with Rabbi Sobel to discuss why The Chosen has become a worldwide sensation, a few things he has learned about Jesus while making this series that he never knew before, and how slight nuances in Scripture can make a world of difference when you see them portrayed on screen.
We have seen many movies and television programs depicting the life of Jesus over the years, some good and others not so good. Why do you think this particular program has caught on and become sort of a worldwide phenomenon?
I think that's a great question. There's a couple things to it. One is that it really does focus on helping to portray a Jesus who is really relatable. He's not some sort of ethereal Jesus. It's like He's physically here on earth, but you think He's really in heaven. So, he feels kind of distant and disconnected. This is a Jesus that you want to hang out with. He's someone that you will like, it'd be fun to be around, right? This makes sense because the Bible tells us the kids love being around Jesus. They're not going to run to Him if He's someone who's distant, cold, or unapproachable. So, it’s really important to portray His humanity, His care, and connection for people and how the story is told in a way that doesn't just focus on Jesus, but people's interaction with Him and the way they're transformed by that experience. Another key part of it, which is part of my role in The Chosen series, is helping to really put it in its First Century context and really bring about the historical Jesus and His Jewish Hebraic context, which is something that's never been done to this scale as well.
If you were trying to encourage a friend, a family member, anyone, to watch an episode of The Chosen Unveiled what would you say to them? What would your sales pitch be?
If you want to see the Bible in high definition and see The Chosen in a deeper, more meaningful and significant way, then this show is for you because it goes into kind of the Jewish context of it all. And that's what we delve into with this show. For example, in one of the episodes of The Chosen, you have the man at the pool of Bethesda. There's little detail in the text that says, this man had been unable to walk for 38 years. So, if there's a detail in the Bible, you better believe that God doesn't waste words, that it is there for a reason. So, the question is why 38 years? Why so specific? Why not just say for a long time? It's interesting when you think about how many years the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness. (We take on and address questions from the The Chosen and find answers through God’s Word.)
In this series, you take us on-set to reveal the authentically Jewish Jesus—Yeshua—rather than the cultural artifact that at times bears little resemblance to Mary’s Son from Nazareth and the Galilee. Why is this of such critical importance to the viewer?
Absolutely. I'll never forget, I went out one year before the Super Bowl and everyone said, get an HDTV, it will transform the way you see the game. I watched the whole game. I'm like, I don't know why people think this is so great. And then I had a revelation at the end of the game, which was that the higher channel stations were the high definition stations. I watched the whole game in standard definition until the very end. And when I saw it in high definition, I'm like, man, it makes it come alive. It makes it so much richer and so much more meaningful. There were things that I was missing. And I think that when we see it in its original context, there's a sense of awe, a sense of wonder. Because we can have that road to Emmaus experience.
It's like Jesus opened up the Scriptures and it had everything in the law of the prophets pointed to Him. And they said that our heart's not burned within us. I think this creates that sense of burning, that sense of man, there's so much more in God's Word and it gives us a hunger and a desire to go deeper. And also to see Jesus in maybe a way that we've never seen Him in some of these stories the way we've never seen them before. I think so many people are bored with the Bible. The Bible is not boring, we just have to go deeper.
You have been affiliated with the show as a spiritual advisor since Season 1. I’m sure it is exciting to see and watch everything grow so much. Your thoughts?
I was involved with The Chosen from its inception, even before it had a name and they were trying to decide what to name it. It was a joy to take Dallas (Jenkins) and some of the team to Israel before they began to write the series, to see where these events took place. We loved taking people to Israel and to kind of give them Jewish historical context for it. And I could say that I really believed that it was going to make an impact and be a success, but the degree of impact in success is probably beyond anything I could have imagined for the show.
What has been your most meaningful experience while working on this show?
I think in general what I love and what's been impactful for me is just getting to watch the episodes. I get to watch the episodes before they're ever released. And just to see the stories of the Bible come alive in such deep, rich, powerful, relatable ways is just amazing. There's times I've been watching and cried. I have tears in my eyes because it's so moving. But also I think just getting to know the heart of so many of the people involved in The Chosen, whether it's Dallas or Jonathan Roumie, who plays Jesus. Just getting to know him (Roumie) and his heart and to see how much he's grown spiritually into his role is just incredible. I’ve got to tell you a funny story. Jonathan would come over to our house for a lot of the biblical holidays. So, he came over for Passover one year in our home. I've got two sons and they were sitting at the table. My younger son says, “Dad, it's a little weird that Jesus is sitting at the table and you're leading the Passover.”
What is one thing about Jesus that you never knew before but learned while working on this show?
Oh man, that's a really good question. One thing that I didn't know and one of the things that the show has really done for me in being involved in The Chosen Unveiled, it has really made me dig deeper and look for connections that I probably would not have found otherwise. I'll give you an example of that. As we were getting ready for this series, there was a lot of talk about keeping the commandments and the Torah, and did Jesus break with the Torah? And one of the things that as I was exploring that theme is that for Jewish people, numerical value of words are very, very important.
As they study the Bible there's 613 commandments. And what's interesting is that the word Torah in Hebrew, which is the five books of Moses, the law actually adds up to 611 and not 613. And there's a whole question of why wouldn't, if it's so close, why wouldn't it just add up? And there's a number of reasons the rabbis give for that. But what struck me is that I believe that part of the reason why it falls short is that the ultimate expression of the Torah is love. And there's two great love commandments: to love the Lord your God, and to love your neighbor as yourself. And this is the heart of Yeshua's message. The whole of the Torah is summed up. All of God's commandments are summed up in the word love, right? And what's so interesting is when He dies on the Cross, there's two great love commandments.
Love the Lord your God, which is vertical and love your neighbor as yourself, which is horizontal. And what I realized is that the ultimate demonstration of that love was Jesus dying on the Cross. He dies at the intersection of the horizontal to love the Lord your God, which is the stake that goes from the ground to the sky and the cross beam, which his arms were nailed to represent, love your neighbor as yourself. And He literally dies at the intersection of love the Lord your God, and love your neighbor as yourself to demonstrate what true love looks like. No greater love than this, a man who would lay down his life for his friend.
After people have watched an episode or hopefully the entire series of The Chosen Unveiled, what would you like to see audiences get out of the viewing experience? What is your greatest hope for the series?
My greatest hope is that people would, number one, fall more in love with Jesus and that they would fall more in love with the word of God. And they would say, you know what? I want to go deeper. I feel like so many times people stay on the surface. The Bible is like the ocean. It's shallow enough for a baby to swim in. And it's deep enough that you could never explore the entire depths of it. I hope that people would want to go on a journey and say, ‘Man, there's so much more I want to learn and understand. And I hope that in that process they will journey deeper into the Word, and not only would they fall more in love with the Lord, but that they would be transformed.
And I speak from personal experience. Believe me, as a Jewish kid from New Jersey, I radically had my life changed by believing in Yeshua, by believing in Jesus. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. My faith, my relationships have been transformed by going deeper.
Watch a Sneak Peek of The Chosen Unveiled with Rabbi Jason Sobel:
