MOVIE REVIEW: Fragments of Truth

‘Fragments of Truth’ is the first Christian apologetic film to hit theaters nationwide dealing with the subject of the reliability of the transmission of the New Testament record. This film brings together top experts in their respective fields to weigh in on the evidence. Dr. Craig Evans travels the globe and is on location presenting the actual manuscript evidence attempting to answer common objections leveled by skeptics. Can we really trust that the New Testament we have today is the same as what was written nearly two thousand years ago? Was it scribes or a powerful Church group who intentionally changed the text to suit their political and theological purposes? Did Constantine decide which books of the Bible were to be included and others excluded?

Here are some of the things I liked about the documentary:

• There are top scholars & experts from around the world that are interviewed. Their commentary is quite insightful.
• The cinematography was quite impressive. High resolution video of the pertinent manuscripts and the locations where they are housed are prominently displayed. Those having short attention spans will not be disappointed having to watch scholars droning on about arcane subject matter.
• Animations and helpful definitions of scholarly terminology punctuate what is being articulated by each respective scholar.
• Soundtrack & Narration – Professional caliber soundtrack and narration (John Rhys-Davies!) is found throughout the film. Points of emphasis were finessed with proper music and tone.

Here are some of the things I thought the documentary could have done better:

• The editing was a bit frustrating. Topics that should have been grouped together were spread throughout the film such as the longevity of a manuscript’s life. Instead of the audience sitting back and easily following a clear line of argumentation, you are left to connect some dots throughout the film that could have been remedied with better editing. Moreover, rabbit trails that should have been regulated to the deleted scenes portion of the DVD were left in the film. A portion of the interview with J. Keith Elliott discussed a meaningful textual variant found at John 1:18 and whether it should be translated “God” giving the text a high Christology or “Son” giving a lower a Christology.
• Some of the scholarly commentary may have been too technical or over-detailed for the lay audience and actually distracts from the overall message of the film. For example, certain manuscripts & Codex Bezae were given too much background information that could have been edited out. So I’m not sure exactly who the target audience was for the film (but certainly for folks already interested in apologetics!).

Fragments of Truth is a very professional production dealing the reliability of the New Testament record. The film stresses the fact that we have early copies of the original, that there are dozens of manuscript fragments dating to the first three hundred years of the originals and total over 5,900 up to today in the original language, there are only two major textual variants in the New Testament namely the longer ending of Mark and the woman caught in adultery, and finally that no major Christian doctrine is affected by these textual variants because only 40 lines out 20,000 are in question.