Testament (2025): The Fishermen [s1e02]

Spoilers throughout. Image source: KOVA Releasing

Episode 2 of Testament is called “The fishermen” and it opens in the immediate aftermath of Caleb getting healed, and with Peter and John’s preaching getting them arrested. The term “The fishermen” is used here quite casually, as if it’s still in formation. It’s used once almost as a term for the twelve, and once as a slightly tighter way of grouping together Peter, James, John and Andrew (who wears an appropriately nautical Aran sweater from the first scene to the last).

As with the opening episode there’s as much focus on the goings on within the temple establishment as with the disciples. The news of the miracle, and the return of their Jesus problem, is causing a good deal of consternation. My friend Peter Chattaway has a great interview with Testament’s director Paul Syrstad where they go into the fact that Caiaphas getting surprised that stories about "that dead imposter" are cropping up again just as he was beginning to think they’d gone away.

Caiaphas' main concern seems to be that Pilate will find out and come down hard. Pilate doesn’t know about this new set of stories about Jesus. “He can’t find out that we have a rumoured resurrected messiah on the loose gathering a following" Caiaphas hisses at one point "He’ll think they’re building an army”. Is this why we see one of his staff among the new followers of Jesus? Or is it a sign that even within the temple some are starting to reject the party line.

Not that the party line as we might suspect given the way the temple hierarchy is often portrayed. For example, it’s good to see Gamaliel among the temple authorities, not only offering a Pharisaic perspective but also bringing a more relaxed approach to the problem. One of the things this show has done well (so far) is portraying varying responses and motives within the temple hierarchy.

It’s also interesting seeing them acknowledging their differing perspectives with the kind of jokey teasing you find in these kind of contexts. “Ah Gamaliel, thinking of joining us?” one of the Sadducees asks. “Maybe in the next life” he retorts. It’s a nice piece of writing, which breathes life into these relationships and makes them feel more real. It gives that sense that they speak together often to get business done, rather than conveying the information in a way that feels more expositional. It shows a confidence among the writers that they don't feel they have to explain every single thing for the viewer.¹

Another example of this might be there comments about the continuing unexplained absence of Joseph of Arimathea. I'm assuming this is a plot point that’s going to re-emerge later in the series, but it's happy to let the audience to wait before it unpacks everything that such a teaser provides.

Meanwhile, slightly on the outside of the temple clique, Saul is stirred by Caleb's healing, his agitation driving him to further bout of furious studying. Eventually he hears about Peter and John's release and charges off in a burst of zealoty fury. 

Having brought Saul in from the start (as a way in to the characters in the temple), there's something of a gap between these early chapters of Acts and when Saul pops up in the text. So it's nice to see the writers filling this gap by developing the world around Saul/Paul that's only hinted about in the New Testament. The most obvious example of this so far is the appearance of Saul’s sister and her son, whom we know about from Acts 23:16.

Perhaps with greater significance to the rest of the show, there's also a visual suggestion that Saul is suffering with some kind of pain or other affliction in his head. It seems like something more than his typically uptight personality. Is this a reference to Paul's "thorn ...in the flesh" that he mentions in 2 Cor 12:7? I can't imagine it's a reference to the idea that Paul's vision of Jesus was down to something like temporal lobe epilepsy, though it would certainly be intriguing if it were.²

Down in the cells, Peter's also seems to be suffering. If the clues for Paul's physical affliction were visual, the indicators regarding Peter's issues are both auditory and visual. We get to hear inside his head (a point of sound shot) the muffled sounds of other people in the room talking, which Peter is unable to decipher. Is he undergoing a panic-attack here? Certainly it seems stress-induced. Moreover, a visual indication of his stress is given by a flashback to the courtyard of the High Priest and his denying he knew Jesus on the eve of his crucifixion. 

This nicely tees up his later speech in front of the council. There can be an assumption that having been restored, on the beach, after the resurrection, in John 21, everything was plain sailing for Peter, particularly after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Acts 1. What this scene does is humanise Peter, because even if he no longer carries the guilt of his denial, he still has to overcome the fear that lead him to deny Jesus in the first place, and this time it's in front of the High Priest himself, not just his servants. And perhaps his subsequent burst of confidence and speech in front of the bench is the biggest story of what happens in this episode.

There are a few other points I wanted to make. Firstly, I think Mary Magdalene already establishing herself as my favourite character, with her calm rational head and her ability to persuade her more hot-headed male colleagues to see sense. There are hints of her former life here as well, though I'm a little unclear whether the implication is of some form of drug addiction or something else.

The show also does something interesting with the man who Peter healed, Caleb. We know from other shows how these characters are meant to react with unbridled joy and devotion. Yet we also know from the Bible that despite many people being healed by him on numerous occasions, only 120 were left in the upper room in Jerusalem. Caleb's reticence to get into trouble by joining the fledgling movement (“I’m not prepared to throw my new life away on somebody I don’t know!”) is a realistic reminder that Acts depicts following Jesus as a costly enterprise.

Yet the disciples – even without Peter and John's prompting – decide to take on an additional cost: funding the ongoing work by selling everything. I like that there's a reference to Joanna's previous funding of Jesus' ministry, but I didn't catch a reference to Mary Magdalen doing this. Still this decision to go all in (a principle I've always found challenging and which seems sadly forgotten among most within the church's present incarnation) as well as the news of John and Peter's release lead to jubilation. The episode closes with a bouncing huddle of fishermen, barbers and new followers in the dark singing at the top of their voices.³

You can watch my interview with director Paul Syrstad, and the actors playing Saul (Eben) and Stephen (Charlie Beavan) on YouTube.
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1 - For those who are unsure what this means, the Sadducees of Jesus’ day are thought not to have a belief in the afterlife, whereas Pharisees did.
2 - See for example D. Landsborough's "St Paul and temporal lobe epilepsy" Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry. 1987 Jun, 50(6):659-64, available online at https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1032067/pdf/jnnpsyc00553-0001.pdf.
3 - Despite several attempts I couldn't decipher all the lyrics here. All I got was  “The kings and the rulers are/we’re(?) together once again, against the LORD,,,". Can anyone fill in some of the blanks?