- Content: “False, Dark, Disturbing, and Abhorrent”
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What You Need To Know:
THE CARPENTER’S SON is a dark, scary, violent movie with gruesome imagery and a mixed pagan worldview. It combines parts of the story of Jesus from the New Testament with false elements from the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, written late in the Second Century. Instead of knowing His divine origin from the beginning, Jesus is ignorant of it and must discover it. THE CARPENTER’S SON depicts a juvenile Jesus as a mere demon slayer and wielder of supernatural healing powers who barely understands compassion and forgiveness. THE CARPENTER’S SON not only is disturbing but also undercuts the divine nature of Jesus Christ.
Content:
Very strong mixed pagan worldview has some Christian elements but falsely depicts a young Jesus discovering his divinity and learning the truth of his birth while being tempted by Satan while Joseph, his earthly father, is angry and resentful and feels pressured to protect Jesus form a dark cruel world determined to destroy him, so the movie is not only deeply disturbing but also undercuts the divine nature of Jesus Christ;
No foul language, but many scenes involve gross imagery such as black vomit black, scary insects and leper sores;
Extreme levels of violence including babies being thrown into fire, the cutting of an umbilical cord, crucifixion, blood and gore, and physical fights, including pushing thumbs into eyes, ;
No sex;
Partial brief nudity of a baby and a woman bathing;
No alcohol use;
No smoking or drug use; and,
Very strong miscellaneous immorality where lying is central to the plot, Jesus is lied to about his birth, Jesus disobeys his parents and runs away while tempted by Satan, and Joseph makes angry, desperate parenting choices by Joseph, leading to a general dysfunctional family that’s held together by fear.
More Detail:
THE CARPENTER’S SON is a dark, scary, violent movie with a mixed pagan worldview where Christian elements of Jesus Christ’s life as a boy are combined with false, unbiblical elements of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, a heretical Gnostic work of fiction. Despite its gruesome imagery and disturbingly dark portrayal of the ancient world, THE CARPENTER’S SON does capture the essence of the short apocryphal tale. However, the movie doesn’t use proper names but calls Jesus “The Boy” while Jospeh and Mary are identified as The Carpenter and The Mother.
The story begins with the birth of The Boy at night. However, this is not a happy Christmas tale. There is no time to rest, as the King is searching to destroy the baby Messiah. As The Mother and The Carpenter leave Bethlehem, they must hide the baby deep in their bags. They pass a bonfire where babies are being thrown into the fire. The next morning, The Carpenter stands on a mountain, waiting in despair for the sun to rise, and appears to pray, as God’s light shines on him. Meanwhile, a demon growls at him unnaturally from another ledge.
Jump ahead to 15 AD, where the family has been moving to keep The Boy hidden. With The Carpenter’s prayers as narration, he says The Boy has powers he can’t understand, nor that he can contain. He asks God for guidance, to keep them under His protection, and for faith. The Carpenter also says that calamity and the Devil seem to follow him.
The family arrives at an Egyptian village, where The Carpenter finds work building a wooden idol for a temple. The work is against his beliefs, but it provides them a place to live for a time. Their house is made of branches.
As they settle, two women introduce themselves. The younger woman is a mute named Lilith. Later, The Boy sees her bathing naked. The Carpenter spreads sand in front of the door as a warning to keep evil away. He tells The Boy to stay away from the women. He reminds The Boy that he should pray to God if he is ever in error. He also says he needs to start fasting to find the strength to ward off Satan. He shares that he arranged for The Boy to help the local rabbi.
At night, The Boy is plagued with nightmares of his hand nailed to a cross. The Mother comforts him as he wakes screaming.
Outside at the school, the Rabbi is a severe man who demands memorization of Hebrew Scriptures. As the Rabbi helps him read, The Boy sees a creepy, androgynous child with scars hanging from a tree looking at him. Going over, The Boy asks The Stranger why he’s not in school. The Stranger says they play games all day. The Stranger leads The Boy to a leper passed out near a tree. They are not to touch the unclean, but The Stranger dares The Boy to put a hand close. The Stranger pushes The Boy on top of the leper. Because The Boy is now unclean, The Carpenter scrubs him in the river and asks God if The Boy is one of His angels or a demon?
In the night Jesus is plagued with nightmares again. The Carpenter angrily instructs Jesus to pray and leaves. Hearing a noise outside, The Boy steps out and looks. The leper man jumps out and shows he is now healed. He leaves shouting of The Boy’s divinity. The Boy stares wonderingly as his own hand.
The next morning, The Carpenter and The Mother argue about The Carpenter’s strict approach as a father. The Carpenter insists The Boy must find duty and sacrifice in prayer. The Boy tests his powers on a locust, bringing it back to life.
Meanwhile, The Stranger lurks around the leper camp, offering poisoned fruit. Word has gotten around the village about The Boy’s “sorcery,” and public suspicion is growing. Demons lurk in the dark, possessing a neighbor. The Stranger has The Boy questioning his parents and revealing their lies of his origin, tempting him to the dark and preventing him from fulfilling his destiny. The Stranger says, “I am the accuser of light. . . I am the Adversary.”
The Boy grapples with understanding the truth. The villagers are growing violent toward his rumored sorcery. Joseph begs God, asking Him how much longer he must wait to see His light again, while struggling to keep The Boy on the right path.
Ultimately, The Boy, Jesus, comes to understand His divinity. He must make a choice and confront The Stranger with His earthly father’s help.
THE CARPENTER’S SON is a dark, frightening movie with gruesome imagery and a mixed pagan worldview. It takes parts of the story of Joseph, Mary and Jesus from the New Testament gospels and mixes them with false, heretical elements from the Infancy of Gospel of Thomas, written late in the Second Century by heretical Gnostic sources. For example, instead of knowing His divine origin from the beginning, Jesus is ignorant of it and must discover it. THE CARPENTER’S SON portrays the apocryphal part of its story well, but fails at portraying the real Jesus, Mary and Joseph. For example, in addition to Jesus the boy’s confusion about His true identity, Joseph’s perspective is one of anger and control, because he’s challenged by the pressure of his holy task to protect Jesus in a cruel world.
According to this movie, the young Jesus has been lied to about the nature of his birth. He’s plagued with nightmares of his future crucifixion. He’s also confused and amazed by his divine healing power. He watches a partially nude woman bathe, unknown to her. He skips school to play unsavory games with The Stranger at a prison watching people being tortured and crucified on crosses, facing demonic possessions, and playing with a sick leper man. The Stranger, who’s clearly the Devil, tempts Jesus to abandon his calling and join him in Hell. Also, the movie reduces Jesus’s divinity to a mere supernatural power and misses the mark of the true nature of Jesus. Jesus is the King of Kings, a symbol of eternal love and compassion. However, THE CARPENTER’S SON depicts a juvenile Jesus as a mere demon slayer, a wielder of supernatural healing powers who’s only just learning and understanding the higher nature of forgiveness and compassion. Also, Joseph is only his earthly father out of obligation, not love. Ultimately, the movie’s many gratuitous and unnecessarily gruesome, dark and disturbing images are not only designed to be deeply unsettling but also undercut the true nature of Jesus Christ and His divine mission.
