7 Movies You Didn’t Know Were Based on Bible Stories

Nowadays, we’re living in a “Bible boom” of entertainment where television networks and streamers alike are going back to the Old and New Testaments to mine them for new material. Whether you love The Chosen, House of David, or any of the other Bible-based projects making their way into the public eye, sometimes the scriptural texts are best used as inspiration rather than direct adaptation. In this case, we’ve put together a collection of seven movies that share themes or ideas with Bible stories but are not actually strict adaptations.

Before we begin, a bit of a disclaimer is in order. What we’re not saying is that these movies accurately or perfectly adapt the biblical material. Rather, these stories were inspired by or utilize in part specific tales from scripture, only to rework them into the film’s specific context. So, with that in mind, here are seven different non-biblical adaptations that pull from Bible stories.

7

‘Days of Heaven’ (1978)

Director Terrence Malick is well-known for often incorporating religious themes and Christian ideas into his films, and that is certainly true of Days of Heaven. While the title itself derives from Deuteronomy 11:21, the plot of the film is a loose (and we do mean loose) adaptation of the Old Testament story of Ruth and Boaz. Set in the Texas panhandle during World War I, the picture follows two lovers posing as siblings who seek work across the American West, only for Bill (Richard Gere) to convince his girlfriend Abby (Brooke Adams) to marry their employer (Sam Shepard).

Over time, Abby comes to genuinely care for the Farmer, and a romance actually blossoms between them. Of course, unlike the Book of Ruth, Days of Heaven doesn’t exactly end happy for the couple — nor does Abby fully embrace the life that the Farmer offers her. In the end, Malick departs considerably from the biblical story, but the controversial Western period drama stands on its own as being at least partially inspired by the Old Testament tale.

6

‘East of Eden’ (1955)

It’s no secret that the title of one of John Steinbeck‘s most popular novels, East of Eden, is derived directly from Genesis 4:16, but the entire story — which was eventually adapted to the screen by director Elia Kazan — was inspired loosely by the tale of Cain and Abel. Also set in the same timeframe as Days of Heaven (albeit in California rather than Texas), East of Eden follows two brothers, Caleb (James Dean) and Aron Trask (Richard Davalos) as they wrestle for their father’s affections and the love of the same woman.

While the tale plays out a bit differently than the usual story, East of Eden features plenty of direct parallels to the Cain and Able tale (and even more in Steinbeck’s novel). For one thing, “Cal” and Aron share the same initials as the biblical figures, and their fates ultimately echo that of them as well. Dean’s character even utters the famous “brother’s keeper” line from Genesis 4.

5

‘A Serious Man’ (2009)

Now, in some ways, it may be a bit of a stretch to compare A Serious Man to the biblical Book of Job. The leading man, Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg), is not a godly man in the traditional sense, nor does he appear at all like the title character in the Old Testament story (even if his wife is also the worst). However, as various critics (including Roger Ebert) pointed out upon the release of this Coen Brothers production, Job factors into the overall theme of their 2009 fable.

A Coen-style dark comedy with intense language and difficult themes, A Serious Man follows Larry as he wrestles with his continually unraveling life and livelihood, wondering if God has abandoned him. Like many of the Coen’s pictures, biblical concepts are explored, but it’s at the end of the film that some of Job’s most vicious imagery (a tornado that comes for Job’s children, as directed by an evil spirit), comes into play. Admittedly, it’s nowhere near a 1:1 adaptation, but we can see how many have compared this ’60s Jewish American tale to the biblical classic.

4

‘Children of Men’ (2006)

One doesn’t automatically think of the Bible when watching a dystopian picture like Alfonso Cuarón‘s Children of Men, but upon closer examination, we can see how the New Testament may have partially inspired the tale. The film was famously hailed by critics as something of a contemporary, non-religious (yet still quite miraculous) take on the Nativity story. Given the subject matter, and that the film itself opened on Christmas Day in the U.S., it all becomes clear — just excuse the constant language.

Based on the theologically rich novel by P. D. James, Children of Men follows Theo Faron (Clive Owen) as he seeks to ensure that Kee (Clare-Hope Ashitey), the first pregnant woman in nearly two decades, safe passage to the Tomorrow. Between the clear parallels to the Nativity — Theo being a stand-in for Joseph and Kee for the Virgin Mary — and the film’s (albeit flawed) Christian symbolism, we can see how the iconic Christmas story was an inspiration for this apocalyptic fable.

3

‘Redeeming Love’ (2022)

When romance author Francine Rivers found Christianity, she pivoted her career from writing standard historical fiction to historical fiction with distinctly Christian themes. The first result of this transition was the 1991 novel Redeeming Love, which was adapted into a feature film in 2022 by director D.J. Caruso — and has since become a streaming hit. Like the original novel, the film takes some inspiration from the Old Testament story of Hosea and Gomer, which results in quite a scandalous tale.

Set during the California Gold Rush, the Western feature follows farmer Michael Hosea (Tom Lewis) as he romances a young prostitute named Sarah (Abigail Cowen), who continually leaves him. While admittedly quite different from the biblical story, Redeeming Love is obviously inspired by Gomer’s continued unfaithfulness to the prophet Hosea before the pair eventually reconcile. In both the Bible story and in Redeeming Love, it is meant to be a picture of God’s love for a people who continually reject Him.

2

‘War for the Planet of the Apes’ (2017)

You may be surprised to see an installment of the Planet of the Apes franchise on this list, but if you’ve seen War for the Planet of the Apes, then you likely already know why. As Caesar (Andy Serkis) leads his people away from slavery under the Colonel (Woody Harrelson), we can see echoes of Moses’ conflict with Pharoah as described in the Old Testament Book of Exodus. By the time the film ends, those comparisons become especially clear. Interestingly, this was the route the filmmakers planned to take from the get-go.

“This is going to be the story that is going to cement his status as a seminal figure in ape history, and sort of leads to an almost biblical status,” director Matt Reeves once told JoBlo, teasing War after the release of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. “He is going to become like a mythic ape figure, like Moses.” Once the series gets to War, we finally begin to see that prophetic description in action, complete with a finale where Caesar can finally see the “promised land” with his own eyes, though is unable to enter into it himself.

1

‘The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ (2005)

Easily one of the most obvious additions to this list, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is based on the fantasy novel by Christian theologian and author C.S. Lewis, who no doubt knew exactly what he was doing when crafting the story of Aslan’s death and resurrection. In short, what we see of Liam Neeson‘s Aslan here — the Great Lion who gives his life for the traitor Edmund (Skandar Keynes), only to be murdered by the White Witch (Tilda Swinton) — is the Easter story to its core. (It even includes Christmas in there too.)

Across all four Gospel accounts from the New Testament, Jesus Christ offers up His life in the place of sinners. After being wrongly accused, He is executed on the cross and buried. On the third day, He rises again. In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, that timeline is cut quite short, but it’s easy to see the gospel parallels between Christ and the fictional Aslan. Even better, Letters of C.S. Lewis records that Lewis himself considered Aslan to be an “imaginative answer to the question, ‘What might Christ become like, if there really were a world like Narnia, and He chose to be incarnate and die and rise again in that world as He did in ours?'”