♪ you're watching pbs. ♪ >> (choir nging) >> "the angel gabriel was sent from god to a city of galilee named..." >> narrator: every sunday, in every corner of the world...n, >> "...the viretrothed to a man whose me..." >> narrator: ...people gather to hear a story. >> "...and the virgin's na was mary." >> narrator: for more than 2,000 years, that story has been td and retold. >> "...and to bear a son." >> narrator: along the way, each generation has found in its

telling its own meanin interpretaon. >> "'...you shall call his name jesus...'" >> narrator: that story, of a man called jesus of nazareth, a man who became jesus christ, was originally told by his first llowers... >> "'...and be called the son of the most high.'" >> narrator: ...and then retold in accounts by later believers in the gospels. >> "the gospel according to st. luke." >> narrato so began the buding of a religion. now it is our turn, withhe help of scholars and historians, theologians and archaeologists, to return to that timendse our best efforts to understand that sto... of a man born in obscurity inos name a faith was made.

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supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. and by the frontline journalism fund, with major support from jon andn joagler. additional funding for this program was provided by the arthur vining davis tions. (singing) >> narrator: in the year 51 of the common era, by the shores of the aegean sea, a visitor arrived at the greek city of corinth. his name was paul of tarsus.

>> let's imagineaul going up the main street of corin, through the monumentaloman archway, into the forum, the cent of city life, the place where all the business and most of the politicaactivities are done in the public life of this greco-roman city. here are the shops, here are the offices of the city magistrates, and we are standing literally in the shadow of the great temple of apollo. >> narrator: apoll the sun god, watched over the fortunes of corinth. like zeus, hera, artemis, and athena, apollo was one of the olympian gods, that family of divinities who presided over the ancient and diverse pagan

universe. >> paganism is our designation for what 90-something percent of the people in the mediterranean re doing. jews are a visible minority. and then, everybody is doing lots of other things. >> one would have found a rich array of deities meeting the various needs of individuals. it's like going to a supermarket and being able to sort of shop for god. and you have them at various times in your life and for vafous functions of your... your living. >> narrator: by the time paul arrived in corinth, pilgrims had been wshipping for centuries at local shrines, like the sacred spring of the pierenn to devout pagans like these,

messiah come to save allsh mankind, jew and gentile alike, must have seemed outlandish. >> and so when we hearaul sa "i've determined to know nothing among you bus christ, jesus the messiah and him crucified," that must have struck an interesting chord among these cosmopolitan greeksa who woul inhabited corinth at that time. >> (dramatized): am a jew born in taus in cilicia, educated strictly according to our ancestral law, being zlous about god. >> the apostle paul is, next toy jesus, clehe most intriguing figure of the first century of christianity and far better known than jesus because

he wrote all of those letter >> (dramatized): for as long as you eat this bread d drink the cup, you proclaim the lord'm death until he. wait for his son from heaven, whom he ised from e dead. whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whate pure... if there is anying worthy of praise, think about these things. >> we're beginning to t, for the first time in the new testament, the language that will become the hallmark of all the later christian tradition. you see, it's paul who starts the writing of the new testamenw ting letters to these fledgling congregations in theci es of the greek east. >> paul alludes in aumber of his letters to the message that he would have communicated

he emphasizes two things: on the one hand, very clearly the importance of the death and resurrection of jesus; on the other nd, he also emphizes the... the importance of understanding the end time and the immediacy the end time, and that one must be prepared for it. and the way one prepares for it is to be good.d we flot of ethics in... in paul. and it's around this iue of how one... one lives in anticipation of the end time nethat's just around the c for paul. >> narrator: the death and resurrection of jesus lie at the very heart of paul's preaching, but it is a story that pre-datea paul and goe to the first followers ofesus in jerusalem.

>> (dramatized): joseph took the body and wrapp it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock. >> the movement that originated around jesus must have suffered traumatic setbacwith his death. not so much that a messiahco dn't die, but that nothing happened. thkingdom didn't arrive immediately as they might have expected. >> the effect that the crucifixion had on jesus' followers was e desired effect, from the roman perspective. that is, that people who were associated with jesus were terrified. i mean, before the easter

proclamation, there must have be, some kind of easter pan you see, that folks were hiding out, as they should have, because now they were accomplices of... of an executed criminal. >> the followers of jesus, who don't go away as they're supposed to when pilate does this, have to deal with that fundamental question of what does this mean that the one that we had all of these expectations about has been crucified? how do we deal with this, not merely thend of this life, but the shameful end of this life? >> the only place they can go, eventually, is into the hebrew scriptures, into their tradition, and find out, "is it possible that the elect one, the messiah, the righteous one, the holy one"-- any title they use of jesus-- "is it possible thath one could be oppressed,

persecuted, and executed?" they go into the hebrew they find is that lmostrse, what like a job description of being god's righteous one, to be persecuted and even executed. >> and the amazing thing is, they said, "hey, pilate's right. he was the king of the jews. and, moreover, g has vindicated this claim that he i ng of the jews by raising him from the dead." >> (dramatized): an angel of the lord, deending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone. he said to the women, "jesus who was crucified, he has raised. come, see the place where he lay."

>> the stories about the resuection in the gospels make two very clear points: first of all, that jesus really, real was dead; and secondly, that his diiples really andith absolute conviction saw him again terwards. the gospels are equay clear that it's not a ghost. i mean, even though the raised jesus walks through a shut door one of the gospels, or suddenly materializes in the middle of a conference his disciples are having, he's at pains to assure th, "touch me, feel me, it's bones d flesh." in luke, he eats a piece of. fi a ghost can't eat fish. as an historian,his doesn't tell me anything about whether jesus himself was actually raised. but what it does give me an amazing insight into is his followers, and, therefore, indirectly, into the leader who haforged these people into such a committed community. >> narrator: according to the

book of acts, christianity began at a single place, at a single moment in time. 50 days after the death of jesus,ow known as pentecost, a miraculous event took place. >> (dramatized): and suddenly from heaven, there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. divided tongs, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. >> that's thpicture that we get in acts. the historicaleality i and the christian ntomplex. probably began not from a single center, but from many different centers where different groups erof disciples of jesus ga and tried to make sense of what they had experienced with m and what had happened to him at

the end of his public ministry. >> the acts' account of early christianity presents very cogent, coherent image of earliest christianity, when, in fact, the more we find out about early ristianity, the more wildly variegated a phenomenon it appears to be. >> as far as we can tell, e beginnings of christiaty occurred in many different places, in many different groups. there were wandering charismatics who went around from door to door preaching without ordinary occupation, depending on people with whom they stayed for hospitaly, for food. there were settled groups in little towns. thnge were radical groups tr to give up ordinary occupations and family life following the

teachings of jesus. it must have been an amazinge, mixtmazingly diverse range. >> it's clear from the very beginninof christianity that there are different ways of interpreting the fundamental message. there are different kinds practice. jewish are we to bs over how how greek are weo be? how do we adapt to the suounding culture? what is the real meaning of the death of jesus? how portanis the death of jesus? maybe it's the sayings of jesus that are really the important thing and... and not his death and not his resurrection. (singing) >> i think we're right to call it the jesus movement he, because if we think of it as

christianity-- that is, from the perspective of the kind of movement and institutional few hundred years later-- wee a ll miss the flavor of those earliest years of the kind of crude and rough bennings, the... the small enclaves trying to keep the mory alive. >> we're hampered by our vocabulary. we know that this group will eventually form a gentile a communit they'll be known as christians. but this group didn't think that this group expected jesus to return and establish the kingdom of god. >> he is a jewish messia they are followersf a jewish apocalyptic tradition. they are expecting the coming og the m of god on earth. it's a jewish movement.

>> the jewish sect, then, is a group which sees itself as jews, recognizes that there are other ws out there, but claims that those other jews out there have it all wrong. they don't fully understand what judaism is all about, and only the membs of the sect do. in tension with ths are always environment. that tension is manifested in a tendency to want to spread the message out, to hit the road and convince others that the truth is real. >> (dramatized): go nowhere among e gentiles and enter no town of the samaritans, t go rather to the lost sheep of the house of israel.

>> one of the characteristics of ie roman empire is, there suddenly great freedom of movement, more so than in any period before that. and in some ways, more free than any period that will happen again, until the invention of the steamship. proclaim the kingdom of heaven has come near. on... on the via egnatia or... or any other major roman road, a eywonderful variety of jous. in commerce, taking theiraged commercial products from... from place to place. some would be involved in goods and services, taking their partular services to differe places. one would have found philosophers. one would have found persons such as paul-- preachers, missionaries of particular movements.gious

what, in a sense, is sort of t ironic is th... the network that was established for the mobility of the roman army finally became the network that waprobably most instrument in the spread of christianity. >> narrator: jews had traveled along this network for centuries, and jewish irmmunities re spread throughout the e >> by the time of the first century, there were probably then, as now, more jews living outside the land of israel than with the land of israel. there's a very energetic jewishy population in n. there is a very wealthy, vigorous jewish population living in the major cities arou the mediterranean. it's because of diaspora judaism, whi is extremely well established, that... that

christianity itself, as a... a new and constantly improvising form of judaism, is able to spread as it does throughout the roman world. >> narrator: paul himself was a diaspora jew. convinced that god had chosen him to spread the word about jesus, he traveled to antioch, the capital of roman syria. >> antioch has one of the largest jewish communities outside of the jewish homeland-- it's been suggested that maybe something like 40,000 people in this jewish community. so we can... we must imagine a number of differt jewish congregations and subsections of the city in and through which paul could have moved and still hifelt very much at home w the jewish community. >> wherever you have aic sunt number of jew you would have a jewish community. wherever you have a jewish mmunity, you would have a

jewish synagogue. >> narrator: by the fourth century, the synagogue had become aormal place of worship. but in paul's day, especially the diaspora, it was more of a community center. >> another remarkable feature of the synagogues in the diaspora is not only th they attracted large crowds of people, but among these crowds will have been gentiles. there is no barrier between jews and gentiles, d gentiles found the jewish synagogues-- and the jews themselves, apparently-- as open, friendly, and why not go to the jewish nagogue? especially because there are no non-jewish analogs. there's nothing equivalent to this communal experience an in pagan or greek and roman religions. >> narrator: gentiles attending nagogues would have been exposed to judaism's variety of beliefs. in antioch, this new jewish

sect, the jesus movement, found a following inome synagogues. paul felt that the time was right for these jews to bringe ntiles into their movement. au >>s message of the conversion of gentiles seems to be predicated on the isaiah language of what will happen when the kingdom comes, when the messiah has arrived, and there will be a ght to the nations, a light to the gentiles. p and in that sensl views the messianic age having arrived with jesus as being a window of oprtunity for bringing in the geiles into the elect stat alongside the people of israel. >> why do gentilesthe

movement? there's th tremeous religious prestige, thanks to the antiquity of the jewish bible. by entering into the church, these christians enter into that history, as well. that's tremendously prestigious and impoant. >> i think perhaps originay they were attracted tohe regeneration, eternal life. you're baptized, you're illuminated. probably they were attracted to the rituals and to the communities. >> narrator: like most jewish e communities, tly followers of jesus assembled for worship in each other's homes.

>> among the things that make the christiansifferent are a couple of rituals which they developed early on, before the very earliest sources that webo have them. and one of these is an initiation cerony which they call baptism, which is simply a greek word that means "dunking the second major ritual which ey developed is a meal, a common meal which they have together, which is designed as a memorial of the last supper which jesus had with his disciples. >> now, the situation seems to be that initially when people were attracted to the jesus movement, they first became jews. >> narrator: becoming a jew wast no easy . it meant conforming to strict jewish laws. >> (dramatized): this is the law, to make a distinction between the unclean and the

clean, and between the living creature that may be eaten, and the living creature that may not be eaten. >> there are several issues involved here. one is the notion of the dietary laws, the eating restrictions that would have obtained forin eating certain of food if one was an observant jew; also with whom one could eat. was now possible twl's view, it gentiles who didn't observe all the jewish food laws to participate in the communal meals of the movement. >> but because it's at a meal, it also runseadlong into some jewish sensitivities about what kind of foods you can eat and with whom you can eat. >> narrar: dietary laws were not the only regulations that mark jewish identity. >> (dramatized): every male among you shall be circumcised,

and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. >> of course, the major issues in converting to judsm for a gentile, for a non-jew, is that one must, if a male, become circumcised. and, of course, this was a... an obvious distinction if one is working out in a gre gymnasium, where everyone was nude to begin with. so, the ritual of circumcision o is othose major hurdles that people would have thought about fromhe greek world. >> nartor: paul argued that the rite of baptism could replace circumcision. this bakthrough allowed gentiles to more freely join god's chosen people. a>> we now have, paul say new map of the world. the old distinctions between jews and gentiles are no obliterated.

they have now been supplanted by new and truer and more wonderful and more beautiful map, in which we have a w israel that will embrace both jews a gentiles, all those who now accept the new covenant andh new faith. >> (dramized): there is no longer jew or greek. there is no longer slave o free. dthere is no longer male female, for all of you are one in cist jesus. >> and that would ark one of the most important controversies of the first generation: do you have to become a jew in order to a follower of jesus as the messiah? >> (dramatized): i went up to jerusalem with barnabas, a i laid before the acknledged leaders the gospel that i proclaim among the gentiles.

h paul says explicitly th went down to jerusalem to meet with the leaders of the church there. he calls them the pillars. >> we have some names of people who must he been the big shots in the movement: peter, james. now, this james is not the james apostles.the list of the this james is the brother of the lord. >> it's somewhat surprising that we should hear of jesus' own family members among this earliest group in jerusalembe preciseluse, in the gospels, the family is... is ually portrayed as being antagonistic toward his public ministry. at one point, in mark's gospel,h they this gone crazy, and they try to take him away before he can do himself some harm. and they go down to ask the question of how do we dealith these gentile converts? and they manage to get some sort

of rough agreement with the jerusalem leadership.t they agree t's okay for paul to convert these gentiles and yet not to force them to be circumcised. >> narrator: as part of the compromise, paul agreed to collect money from his gentile s congregations port the >> so when paul go back to antioch, he seems to think that he's won a major vicn the understanding of what the christian messagwill be. shortly after his return to antioch, however, peter arves from jerusalem. >> one of the most vivid episodes he sketches is in the epistle to the galatians, when he's talking about a face-off he and peter have in anoch. >> classic showdown inhe history of earliest christianity. and paul tells the story thist

way: he says t antioch, he encountered peter, who was having a meal with non-israelite jesus people. peter thought this was all right until the contingent from jerusalem came. >> and they tap peter on the ould, and peter stops attending these... these banquets. and then we get a great passag of esprit de l'escalier. it's probably what paul wishes he had thought to say to peter at the time, but in the letter, it's presented as what he says to peter. and he's yellingt peter for not being true to the gospel and not being true to christ and not being true to this vision of things, and what he's really l lling at peter about is food. >> and the way plls it is, he says, "well, you know, i... i... i confronted peter publicly. i told him he was a hypocrite. i told him off to his face. i told him off in front of everybody." end of story. well, the story doesn't really have an end. ftu know, we... we like paul to tell us that, he told

peter off, he... he sort of skulked back tjerusalem with his tail between his legs, and then paul gave james and his party the what-for, and then he threw them out, or something likehat.no ing like that. paul's completely silent. now, this suggests to us that paul had... indeed had showdown in antioch. he did face off with peter. heidn't win. he didn't carry the day, at least not that day. so this ggests tus that james' party was influential, and influential outside the... its jerusalem jurisdiction, and that perhaps james' posse were there because they felt that their authority should be exercised outside of the jurisdiction of jerusalem. >> the blow-up in antioch over eating with gentiles probably is the turning point in paul's eating with gentiles probably is the turning point in paul's career.

alice: this is just a fascinating lesson in the history ochristianity it's one only pbs could bring to you. in that last segment, we're beginning to learn about sus movement as it was called then, as it begins to branch out to the fledgling communities all led mainly by the apostle paul. bill: you're right, alice, it was paul who has a profound impact on the spread of this movement, and as we are learning, also starts the writing of what is evethually going to bnew testament. hi, i'm bill young and i'm here with alice ferris and we hop you can show your apprection with a ple suprt for this station, right now. alice: now if you missed the first hourf the program, or you're thinking you'd like to review and i can't imagine that you wouldn't want to, or pero ps you would likend this film to a friend or family member, then we suggest you give us a call and make a sustaining ongoing gift of eight dollars, or make a $96 annual contribution, and we'llyou the entire full length dvd

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or a one-time annual gift of $180 and we'll tha with both the book and dvd plus an additional dvd, peter & paul and the christian revolution. whatever levha you select, knowevery contribution makes a difference at this pbstation. you help to keep the tradition of phenomenal storytelling alive now and fofuture generions. make that call or go online ght now. thank you. alice: we are about ready to head back to the next segment of frontline: from jesus christ. now coming up in the next segment, we learn about the apostles pl and james and their influence on the movement and we start to see the f beginning signs ofctur between judaism and christianity when the first revolt occurs, so please, stay tuned! bill: but you still have time to go online or to call the number on your screen and make your gift to this station in support of frontline d this presentation of jesus to christ: the first christians, rid all of your fa programs.

alice: you make all that we do here at this pbs station possib with your gift of support right now. remember, thesho gifts we've you are just suggested giving levels. whatever you can give, both large and small, is welcomed and appreciated. bill: the portant thing that you get involved and do your part to make more great programming possible. and for that, we thank you. paul left and went to western greece. or asia minor, and for the next ten years, from 50 to roughly 60, paul will concentrate all of his efforts in this region of the aegean basin.

it's probably ephesus and the areas immediately around ephesus that will be his most important base of operations. ephesus was a cosmopolitan environmt. the inscriptions and the statues and the artwork and the buildings all tell us that this is really a crossroads of culture and religious fe throughout the mederranean world. >> when you read jesus' parables, you immediately thk of agriculture, you think of peasants, you think ofla owners, you think of farming. when you read paul's l,

you think of the school, you think of the philosopher, youra think of ther, you think of the cy. city was the naturalt least, the environment, if you will, for christianity. k he has a way of coming b the same city, he has a way of visiting new cities and talkingb t visiting new cities, and it was cities that he was going to, not just general geograical areas. it's important to understand, i think, that it was from theseti that christianity ultimately was spread. >> paul mostly travels around in a kind of circuit of t congregations around the aegean rim, or he sends out his helpers and his coworkers, people like timothy and titus, to take informatioor check out what's happening over in philippi or some place like that, sometimes perhaps even to go and help start a new congregatione

somepler in, say, colossae or maybe up toward the interior in galat. so we have to imagine the pauline mission as a kind of beehive of activity. >> (dramatized): greet relatives who were in prison with me. greet my beloved epaenetus, who was the first convert in asia for christ. greet apelles, greet ampliatus,i my belovedthe lord. o greet urbanus, coworker in christ and my beloved stachys... >> the traditional view of the composition of thearlyri

ian communities is that they are from the proletariat.ma earlist interpreters of christianity make a great to-do with this. it's a movement the proletariat. it's essentially from the lowest classes. but if you actually look at the book of acts, and you look at nul, and you begin to collect the people who aed or identified in some way, here you of corinth.s, the city treasurer >> narrator: an anci inscription with the name of paul's follower, erastus, can still be seen in the ruins of corinth. >> you have gaius of corinth, whose home is big engh to let him be not only paul's host but the host to all of the churches of corinth. all of the little household communities can et in his house at one time. you have stephanos and his household who have been host to the community.

you have lydia in philippi, who is the seller of purple goods, a luxury fabric. you ha prisca and aquilla, and we wonder why the woman is usually mentioned before her husband. she must be a woman of someco equence. you begin to get the impression that you have quite a variety of different social levels represented in thesearly christian communities. not people at e absotely top level. you have, with the exception possibly of erastus,o one from the aristocratic orders; no one who would be a member of the city council. you have no agricultural slaves who are at the bottom of the hierarchy. but in the rest of the social pyramid, everything in betwe, you seem to have representatives in these early christian groups. so we begin to get a picture of

upwardly mile people, to use a modern anachronistic way of describing them-- people who have mixed status, who probably will be viewed by the whistocracy outside as nouveau riche; not peopldon't quite belong, but in their own eyes perhaps deserve more status than they are getting from the larger society, and have found within this communitle of leadership and a role which is recognized. >> the worship of an early christian house church probably centered around thdinner table. the term "communion" actually the dining fellowsperience of we also know that all other aspects of worship that we think of as going with early christia practice probappened around the dinner table as well.

paul refers to o person having a song and another person bringing a prayer. eryone is contributing to the banquet-- whether it's in the formf food or in the form of their piety and worship. >> throughout the new testament, particularly in paul's letters and the book of acts, we find out that women owned the houses in which the early christians met. this, i think, is significant cause i don't think the women who owned the houses were simply providing coffee and cookies, in effect, for the christian community. i think that this probably gave them some avenue to power in actual roles in the church. >> paul speaks of women his fellow evangelists and teachers and patrons and iends, as he does of men. but i don't see a picture of a smgolden age of egalitaria back there. i see a new, unformed, diverse, and threatened movement which allowed a lot more fluidity for

women in certain roles-- for a while-- in some places and not in others. (singing) >> narrator: paul's way of building a community was just one of the many interpretations of the jesus movement. he had to fight a running battle to keep his fledgling congregations from fallingnder the influence of rival preachers. >> (dramatized): you foolish galatians! who has bewitched you? >> his relationship with these folkis not entirely unproblematic. for one thing, he's got to manage a long distance owlationship-- and we all how difficult that is-- and he has to do this by letter.

>> in his letters, he's often recapitulating f the recipients fights he's had prior to the fights he's having currently with his congregation. >> t early christians dihave turf wars over who had it right, and you see is from the very beginning. the apostle paul, his opponents in galatia, who say, "wait a minu. if you're really going to be a real christian, first you have to be a real jew, and at means you have to be circumcised, and you have to keep certain regulations out of the torah." so paul has not got itight. paul has to say, "no, you don't understand how radically new this thing is which god is doing here." >> narrator: paul preached the anminent arrival of god's kingdom on earthsalvation for those converted to jesus.

>> (dramatized): you know what ttime it is-- how it is n moment for you to wake from slee salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers. >> it's clear that one of the concerns that eps showing up throughout this period of paul's ministry is, "when is this ngdom going to arrive? what's going to happen? how soon?" >> they are ill, 25 years after the fact, anticipating the imminent return ofhrist, and the imminent arrival of the kingdom. d it's this kind of, you know, "don't slow me down with the facts" impatience and energy that we get in paul's letters. au >>s very first letter-- the earliest single writing thav we the new testament-- is i thessalonians, and already

in i thessalonians, paul is having to console them when within the congregation and the kingdom hasn't arrived yet. >> narrator: pl believed the earthly world order was about to change, that time was running t, and the end was at hand. >> clearly the... the message about the... the coming end time was the part that would have been threatening to a roman official, and would have been threatening to any native spopulation that had veste authority in roman officialdom. >> narrar: paul attacked those who preferred peace and secuty to the coming kingdom of god. >> (dramatized): when they say, "there is peace and security," then sudden destruction will come upon them.

>> scholars have wondered who this people is who are saying "peace and security." some interpreters think that it's the first lapsed christians, and they're no longer serious about the end time coming immediately. i tend to think, though, that it refers to those who are supptive of the imperial rul e peace and security of augustan and imperial governments. paul is saying those who are on the side of augustus will reach their end first. divine wrath will come upon them first. so paul is very clearly drawing here a remarkable antithesis between the rule of the emperor on the one hand, and the rule of god-- the kingdom of god-- one her hand. >> narrator: apocalyptic expectations were fueling political turmoil throughout

judea. jewish resistance to roman rule was growing daily. >> the situation in jerusalem was becoming ireasingly tense through the mid-60s also. josephus tel us that tre was growing tension over t last few governors of the countryside. he tells us that they were pretty abusive and... andup coadministrators, robbing the people, as it were, foror the... ir to line their own pockets. josephus alstells us that there's another source of owing tension in the country at this time, because there's an cobel types coming out of thend woodwork in the try. and so between growing banditry, the rise of the zealot movement,

a... a politically active insurgency movemen and then the corruption of the administration, the sin in jerusalem is becoming very, very tense indeed. >> narrator: in the year 60 of the common era, after a decade building communities in the hagreek east, paul decided >> (dramatized): now, with no further place for me in these regions, i am going to jerusalem in a ministry to the saints. >> paul wants to fulfill the promise that he had made to peter and james back in the jerulem conference.n for these ars that he's been in the aegean, he's had his congregations collecting monies together to take back to jerusalem. now we find him gathering all that up, each congregationin sendan emissary with their

part of the contribution, and they're all going as a entourage to lay it at the feet of james in rusam. >> (dramatized): i know that when i come to you, i will come in the fullness of the blessing of christ. >> hat seems to have happened is, when he we back to jerusalem with theontribution, he was arrested as some sort of rabble-rouser. >> narrator: according to the book of acts, paul was taken to rome to stand trial before the emperor. within a short span of time, the leading figures of the earlymo jesus ment were wiped out. >> the tradition hol that peter and paul bh died in about the year 64. about e same time, josephus

tells us that james, the brother of jesus, at jusalem, has also been killed, all in about the same two- or three-year period. with the passing of thirst generation, the expectation that all of those coming events muste lose at hand probably was a concern for a lot of people. >> narrator: in the year 66 of resistance broke oo open conflict against rome. the rebels seid jerusalem. the first jewish revolt had begu >> (dramatized): truly the their bodies are crushed by the might of thy hand, and there is noan to bury them.

>> narrator: it seemed that the fierpredictions of the essen were about to come true. >> most people in the first revolt really thought it was the apocalyptic event; it was the coming of a new kingdom on earth. several of the leaders within the revolt rlly claimed to have messianic identity or prophetic identity. >> (dramatized): they shall beto a flaminh in the straws to consume ungodliness. ar >>tor: true to their beliefs, the essenes marched out to fight the romans, and were annihilated. >> even many christians thought that the war was the actual apocalyptic event. >> (dramatized): valiant

warriors of the angelic host are among our numbered men, and thea hero ois with our congregation. >> narrator: a prisoner of war who defected to the roman side, the jewish historian josephus personally witnessed the sack of jerusalem. >> josephus describes walking around the walls of jerusalem and pleading with people on the inside to give up rather than g through ffering and agony that would come from a long, protracted siege. for two years then, jerusalem was under siege. darvation, disease, murder were the order of the.

the lossf life must have been catastrophic to the jewish population as a whole. by the month of aun the year 70, the fate of jerusalema waregone conclusion. the roman armies were massed.re they wery to break through. everyone knew it. it was just a matter of wh, but they were going to fight to the death, and many of them did die. so on that fateful morning when ey broke through, josephus describes the even of them breaking through the walls, the roman soldiers running through the street going into every house. iz >> (dram): pouring into the alleys, sword in hand, they ssacred indiscriminately all whom they met, and burned the houses of all who had taken refuge within,unningveryone through who fell in their way.th clogged the alleys with corpses, and drowned the whole

city in blood. the dead bodies of natives and aliens, of priests and laity, were mingled in a mass, and the blood of all manner of corpses formed pools in the courts of god. >> it's a pretty awful aughter, and we have lots of evidence of it now, between the arefacts that one finds of first revolt that are scattered throughout this layer of the archaeological record-- arrowheads, spears, other kinds of indications of pretty serious hand-to-hand combat in all parts of t city. ardsdramatized): t evening, they ceased the slghter. but as night fell, the fireed the mastery, and the dawn albroke in flames upon jerem. >> one of the most recent and from the archaeology-- something called the burnt house-- which actually shows us one of the houses that apparently was burned during this.

implements are here in place, of the burning still quitesidue clr. me (fs crackling) >> (dramatized): the romans set the temple on fire.t all that waswas the platform wall that once supported the symbol of e center of the nation of israel. >> narrator: roman troops sacked the temple and carried off the sacred symbols of judaism.

>> jerusalem, the sacred city; the temple, the center of piety and identity is gone. it very important that we remember that up to and through the first revolt, christians are still part of judaism, and the revolt and its aftermath is just the beginning of a split, as each group tries to rethink its earlier traditions in gh of the failure of the first revolt. we have to imagine the refugees fleeg from the burning ruins of jerusalem. and as they looked back at the smoke rising against the

horizon,hey might have remembered the words of the psalm from the first destruction back in the me of the babylonian exile-- "by the waters of babylon, there we sat down and wept when we remembered zion." bill: i fi it fascinating that the story of the life of jesus n be written and told in so many different ways depending upon the viewpoinof the author. we're learning that not every apostle tells the same story of jesus because each one is responding to a different audience and circumstance.

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>> (choir singing) >> "the angel gabriel was sent from god to a city of galilee named..." >> narrator: every sunday, in every corner of the world... >> "...the virgin, betrothed to a man whose name..." >> narrator: ...people gather to hear a story. >> "...and the virgin's name was mary." >> narrator: for more than 2,000 years, that story has been told and retold. >> "..nd to bear a son."ra >> nr: along the way, each generation has found in its telling its own aning and interpretation. >> "'...you shall call his name