Watch: Herod's son wrestles with his daddy issues in a new clip from Journey to Bethlehem
Watch: Herod's son wrestles with his daddy issues in a new clip from Journey to Bethlehem
The song, 'In My Blood', is sung by Joel Smallbone of For King & Country.
When you hear that a film is a “Christmas musical” or a “musical about the Nativity”, what kind of songs do you expect it to have?
Christmas carols? Of course.
Comedy bits? Certainly, if the target audience is families.
Songs that flesh out biblical characters like Mary, Joseph, and Herod? Sure!
How about a song in which a non-biblical character wrestles with his daddy issues, all to the sort of heavy beat, booming sounds, and occasionally rapid lyrics that beg comparison to, I dunno, Imagine Dragons or something of that ilk?
As it happens, Journey to Bethlehem—the Christmas musical that is coming to theatres this Thursday—has just such a song, and the scene in which it is performed is now the second clip from the movie that the studio has released. It’s not the most seasonal of tunes, but this is how the studio is choosing to market the film, apparently.
The song is called ‘In My Blood’, and it’s sung by King Herod’s son Antipater, who is played by Joel Smallbone of the Christian pop duo For King & Country.
You can watch the clip here:
And why is Antipater in this Bible movie, when the Bible itself never mentions him? And why does he get a song like this, in the middle of that movie?
I spoke to the film’s co-writer/co-composer/director Adam Anders about this a few weeks ago, and here’s what he had to say:
Anders says he needed a “boots-on-the-ground villain” who could serve as a sort of “proxy” for Herod, and he wanted that character to be one of Herod’s sons.
In most films, that son would be the similarly-named Antipas, who appears throughout the gospels as the ruler of Galilee during Jesus’ ministry. But Antipas is best known for stealing his brother’s wife, lusting after his stepdaughter, killing John the Baptist, and taking part in the death of Jesus—all of which made him unsuitable for a story about “hope and redemption”, says Anders.
So instead, Anders turned to the lesser-known Antipater, who is never mentioned in the gospels, and fashioned a character arc for him that would lend itself to the film’s more positive themes.
As it happens, the historical Antipater conspired against Herod right around the time that Jesus was born—so the film, without mentioning Antipater’s plot against Herod per se, hints that Antipater might have been motivated by a change of heart that came over him as he was trying to follow Herod’s orders within this story.
“I think Joel, who plays the role, really embraced it and loved the concept of this character and the journey he goes through in the movie,” says Anders. “He has the biggest transformation in the film, for better or worse.”
Smallbone also talked about his character’s journey and transformation in an arguably spoiler-ish featurette that came out about a month ago.
The full Journey to Bethlehem soundtrack album came out yesterday.
And, as noted above, the film itself will be in theatres this coming Thursday night.
November 13 update: The studio has now released a lyric video for the song:
Previous videos for Journey to Bethlehem:
The teaser trailer (April 28, 2023)
The official trailer (September 14, 2023)
The ‘Heart of Journey to Bethlehem’ featurette (September 20, 2023)
The Mary and Joseph featurette (September 29, 2023)
The Mary’s sisters featurette (October 3, 2023)
The Antipater featurette (October 6, 2023)
The Fig (donkey) featurette (October 10, 2023)
The ‘Can We Make This Work’ clip (October 13, 2023)
The King Herod featurette (October 20, 2023)
The Gabriel featurette (October 25, 2023)
The ‘Brand New Life’ music video and featurette, the ‘Gift of Giving’ promo, and the Catholic and Protestant screening reactions (October 27, 2023)
The Wise Men featurette (October 31, 2023)
The ‘Married Collaborators’ featurette (November 3, 2023)
Other previous posts on Journey to Bethlehem:
‘Has The Road to Bethlehem not been filmed yet?’ (August 19, 2022)
‘Adam Anders’ Nativity musical now filming in Spain’ (February 23, 2023)
‘Adam Anders’ Nativity musical gets a title’ (April 3, 2023)
‘Exclusive: Journey to Bethlehem director Adam Anders on his years-long quest to make a musical about the Nativity’ (October 23, 2023)