>> (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 jesus...'"

>> narrato that story, of a man called jesus of nazareth, ac man who became jesist, was llowers... told by his first >> "'...and be called the son of the most high.'"an >> narrator: .then retold in accounts by later believers in the gospels.el >> "the goccording to st. luke." >> narrator: so began the building of a religion now it is our turn, with the help of scholars and historians, theologians and archaeologists, to return to that time and use our best efforts to understand that story... of a man born in obscuty in whose name a faith was made.

♪ >> frontline is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank yo and by the corporation for public broadcasting.de major support is proby the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org the ford foundation: working with visionaries on the efrontlines of social cha worldwide. at fordfoundation.org. additional support is provided by the abrams foundati, committed to excellence in journalism. the park fouation, dedicated to heightening public awareness of critical issues.le the john and helenner family trust. supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. and by the with major support froand,

jo ann hagler. additional funding for this program was proved by the arthur vining davis foundations. w >> narrator:h resistance was not completely snuffed out after the sack of jerusalem. rebel fighters held out for four more yea. the jewish historian josephus, who had ken part in the war, recounted the story: >> there was a fortress of verye great th not far from jerusalem, which had been o built ancient kings. is called masada. as >> the rock ofa, one of the most glorious places in all israel, became theajor refuge

point for some of the most extremist elements opposing rome. ghardent supporters, fled in the midd of the war to masada. >> (dramatized): here had been stored a mass of corn amply sufficient to last for years, an abundance wine and oil. there was also found a mass of arms of every description hoarded up by the king and sufficient for 10,000 men. >> narrator: from the heights of masada, the defenders could see the roman ar surrounding them. the outlines of their camps andg works are still visible from the air. >> if you were a roman soldier approachinmasada, i think your

heart would sink because you know that you would have to... fit, to spend a lot of time building a lot of ramps, massive ramps, to move the army the sides in order to breach the walls. but you would ow in the process that you were on a suicide mission, because all the while, the fortifiers and guardians of masada would have of lethal objects at, bt, number great losses to the army. the siege and its aftermath. (d amatized): the romans expected to make an assault upon the fortress, which they did. but theyaw nobody but a terrible solitude on every side, as well as a perfect silence. >> the irony, of course, is that when the soldiers breached thes wall, finally, it t they who had been subject to the suice attack, it was those w had been guarding masada who had

committed suicide. >> narrator: according to josephus, the defenders had killed themselves rather than submit to the romans. but modern archaeologists have found little evince of mass suicide among the ruins. what really happened there remains a mystery. but josephus' version of the story turned masada into the powerful sbol of a noble failure. >> the failure of the first revolt really was a traumatic event for everyone living in the jewish homeland, jews and christians alike. as a result, they had to start t rethinking some ir own assumptions. when jerusalem was destroyed, a

whole new series of questionse had toked. "what do we do without the temple?" "where is the source of our faith and our authority?" "what does god want us to do?" >> this era was an age of definition, not ju for christianity, but also for judaism. it marks the emergence, for the first time, into the light of history of a new group and a new culture,nd a new literature and a new way of thinki and writing. >> narrator: without the temple, the prsthood that had presided over its rituals lost its por. there emerged new leaders, the pharisees, rabbis who would lead the jewish people in a new direction. >> and the rabbis represent for us a new age of definition. it is the rabbis who now emerge as a new kind of judaism, and it

is this judaism which will endure from the second century of our era down to our own age. (music playing) >> narrator: the failure of thes firevolt also created a crisis for early cistians, who were still a part judaism.m the kingdod not come; the messiah had not arrived. thyfollowers of jesus coped telling stories about the man they had expected would deliver the new kingdom on earth. >> we have to remember that a jesus diund 30. for 40 years there's no written gospel of his life, until after the revolt. during that timewe have very little in the way of written

records within christianity. our first writer in the new ftestament is paul, and hst letter is dated around 50 to 520 so still a gooears after jesus himself.in but it appears thaetween the death of jesus and the writing of the first gospel, mark, that they clearly are telling stories. they're passing on the tradition of what haened to jesus, what he stood for and what he did--or ly, by telling it and retelling it. >> narrator: meeting in each others' homes, early christians told stories of jesus's parables and miraclesand of his suffering and death. these were not historical accounts, but shared memories shapedy a common past. >> legend and myth and hymn and

prayer are the vehicles in whict orditions develop. one could, for examp, imagine that the oldest way in which the early christians told about jesus' suffering and death was the hymn that paul quotes in philippians 2. >> (dramatized): and being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, eveneath on a cross. >> paul quotes this hymn in the early '50s of the first century. he quotes this as a hymn that probably was sg in the christian communities, ten or 20 years earlier. that is the way in which youan first tell the storythat i you tell the stothe form of a hymn also shows that the telling of the storys anchored in the worship life of the so here is really the beginning of the oral tradition.

>> it seems that, over time,th some oe stories came to be written down, and... or what came to be thought of as the gospel, the good news, the storf esus. >> (dramatized): the beginning of the goonews of jesus christ, the son of g, as it is written in the prophet isaiah. prepare the way of the lord. make his path straight. >> narrator: the gospel of mark is the oldest in the new testament. it was written soon after the failure of the first revolt for a community that was strugglingc tocile its expectations of jesus with the loss of the temple.it

>> we know atle bit about mark's community from some things in the gospel itsf. mark's audience reads greek and not aramaic. mark always has to explain theth aramaic phrase jesus uses. e hand, he said to her, her by "talitha cumi," which means, ou"little girl," "i say to arise." >> mark is written for jewish- christian audience livinge somewhere outse homeland, events of the first revolt, from that vantage point. >> narrator: mark's audience may have watched roman soldiershe parading throughtreets, bearing plunder stolen from the temple. they would certainly have seen even been forced to use, the coins that depicted the terrible defeat. >> mark is clearly reflecting on

the destruction of the temple as part of his understanding of the signicance othe life and death of jesus. >> narrator: in mark's story, jesus predicts that the temple will be destroyed because it has been desecrated. >> jesus is standing against th templerk's gospel. and mark wants us to understand that that's significant to why he must die and why jerusam will be destroyed.yo >> (dramized): dsee these great buildings? not one stone will be left here upon another. all will be thrown down! (music playing)

>> the gospel of mark is extraordinary and strange, the story, if you read it apart from the others. it's a story of this country teacher coming from nowhere, with incredible power descendi upon him, healing people, exorcising people, speakingra e, bold, astonishing things, and startling everyone. >> (dramatized): he sa to them, "why are you afraid? have you no faith?" and they were filled with awe, and they said to one another, "who is this, then, that the wind and sea obey him?" >> narrator: mark was the firs to write the story of the life of jesus. he tk disparate elements of oral tradition and a few early written sources and wove them together to create a new narrative.

>> mark seems to have a knowledge of at least one and maybe two or three differentir collections ofle stories. thfact that mark takes these early sources of jesus miracle stories suggests that, in fact, one of the earliest ways of miracle worker.esus is as a but miracle workers are a dime a dozen in the ancnt world. we hear about all sorts of people who can perform miracles, so that doesn't really seem to set him apart.ar >>tor: in mark, what does set jesus apart is that he is a peculiar kind of miracle worker. in one case, he has to attempt the miracle twice to get it right, and at another time, he can't perform miracles at all. >> it seems to be one of the points of mark's gospel to s, "he's notjust a miracle worker; he's mor"

>> narrator: jesus emerges from mark's gospel as a strange and somewhat enigmatic figure. >> jesus is mysterious. jesus intentionally keeps people from understanding who he really is at times. >> (dramatized): he said to them, "for those outside everything comes in parables int order hey may, indeed, look but not perceive, and may,t indeed, but not understand." >> narrator: the jesus in mark's gospel both reveals and concealr hi identity-- a paradox scholars call the "messianic secret." >> it seems to me that the messianic secret is indeed that the true messiahship of jesus cannot be recognized in hi miracl, and that the messianic secret of jesus is tt he is

the son of man who has come to suffer, and not the ssiah who is going to do great miracles. and that that will become clear only at the very end of theus story of j the suffering and death of jesus reveals the secr. >> narrator: since the destruction of the temple, mark's community h come to see the death of jesus in a new light. mark is challenging the preware im jesus as an apocalyptic figure. >> mark, coming out of the experience of the first great war with rome, after thehe destruction of temple, mark sees jesus, like many of the christians that mark knew all

about in his own community, as almost feeling abandoned.ing, it's a very unromaic jesus. it's a terrifying image, because that's what their experience was. >> (dramated): when it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until 3:00 in the afrnoon. at 3:00, jesus cried out with a, loud voice, "my y god, why hast thoforsaken me?" >> mark tells us that jesus dien mocked and in agony. and i think mark is writing for the experience of people in the

'70s who are dying like that, and who need the consolation that jesus had died that way before-- feeling abaoned by god. >> narrator: in mark's original gospel, jesus dies and his bodys laced in a tomb. when the tomb is dcovered, jesus is gone. >> mark ends with an empty tomb and a waiting for the return of jesus. he ends, almost, with an absent jesus, because that's what his counity has experienced in persecution, an absent jesus. n noody after mark is going to accept that. matthew will change it.il lukechge it. john will change it. the scribes will even change tht gospel of mark to pur endings there.

mark creates the empty tomb, ass far as i c, as his way of ending the story. >> and the last words of the original gospel are, "and they were terrified." it would be very bad news if it weren't that underneath this rather dk story is an enormous hope that this very unpromising story and its terrible, anguished ending is, nevertheless, not the ending; that there's a mystery in it, a divine mystery of god's revelation that will happen yet. and i think it's that sense ofho that is deeply appealing. bill: well, ontline has done it again right here on your pbs station. nowhere else are you gonna see a compellingtory, investigated more thoroughly and research deer than on frontline. and this film from jesus to christ: the firs ochristians is ju more in a long line of stellar productions. alice: yes, it is bill. and we're so glad that you're here with us.

hello, i'm alice ferris, m here with bill young. and in that last segment, we learned how the story of jesus is being written ar by the apostle m a mere 40 years after jesus' death. bill: we know you are loving this program and there is so much more to come, but right now we need to hear from you. when you call or click online, you can get this entire in depth examination of the story of jesus on dvd. that's when you make a contribution at the $8 suaining level, because we'd be so pleased to be able to send you the full length dvd of the program that you're watching right now. alice: so please give some thought to doing that because what happens when you make that contribution miis that you'll be ed that on this pbs station, we provide the experiences that shape your life. every single dollar makes a difference. the numbers and the website are on your screen. anhere's more on our wonderful thank you gifts. announcer: serving as your guide through history, while challenging familiar assumptions,

frontline explores the life and dea of jesus and the men and women whose belief, conviction and martyrdom created the religion we n know as christiany. show your support of this program now with a gift of $6 y an ongoing montstainer or with your annual donation of $72 and we'll thank you with a companion book from jesus to christ: the origins of the new testament ages of jesus, exploring the ways the rly christian communities interpreted jesus' mission and message. make a recurring contribution of $8 a month or $96 all at once and we'llhank you with all four hours of this frontline presentation on dvd. through interviews with experts, historians and logists, explore the life of jesus and the movement he started. make an ongoing gift to $15 month or a single annual donation of $180 and we'll thank you with both the paperback book and dvd plus an additional dvd,

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whatever level you select, know that every contribution makes a difference at this pbs station. you help to keep the tradition of phenomenal storytelling alive now and for future generations. make thacall or go online right now. thank you. bill: we're about ready to head back to the program, but coming up, we're gonna be iroduced to the apostle matthew. and we're now beginning to recognize just hown the relationship is between the jews and the christians. stay tuned. alice: but first, if you haven't had the time to join this station, or nobodhas asked you to join, you no longer have an excuse. i am asking you right now to get involved. for your fellow neighbors and friends. take that first step, call that number e that you see at bottom of your screen. bill: it's still not too late to make a difference. we are about to go back to the program, est your contribution ake a difference. remember, the programs that you count on really do count on you for support.

now, the next segment of frontline: from jesus to christ: e first christians here on your local pbs station. enjoy. >> narrator: mark began thera gospeltion with his dramatic story of the life and death of jesus. the later gospel writers would continue the tradition by dring on the story told by mark. >> matthewnd luke both used mark as the core, sort of the basic sty line that they tell, because mark is completely incorporated, 16 chapters, into both matthew and luke. >> matthew and luke depend on mark, which is why those three gospels-- matthew, mark, andlu -- are called the "synoptic gospels," because they can be understood together. >> once scholars had decided d that mark's gospel was u matthew and luke, it was possible to compare them and to realize that there was also material with a common sequence

and a common content that wasn't >> scholars observed t there's a part of the sayings in matthew that are exactly identical with sayings in luke. in fact, they're identical i eek, sayings of jesus. now, think: jesus spoke aramaic. so if you were translatingif aramaic an were translating aramaic, they'd come out different, these translations. so you would only have identical... you would oy have jesus speaking idental sayings in greek if you had a writtenio translin greek of his sayings. and scholars suggested that there must have been, besides mark, something else written down that would have been a list of the sayings of jesus translated into greek. and they called that quelle, which means "source" in german, and they call it, for short, "q." nobody ever has found this source written. we can reconstruct it because we guess that there was such a

written source. >> narrator: "q" was composed before the war. it would have presented jesus as an apocalyptic figure, t very image of the messiah that mark felt compelledo ange. >> (dramatized):here will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see abraham, isaac, and jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of god, and you yourself thrown out. >> narrator: but this is also a complex jesus who sometimes o speaks wordswisdom. >> (dramatized): consider the .lilies and how they grow they neither toil nor spin, yet i tell you even solomon...>> nal the stories of the life and death of jesus.it ontains only his sayings, so it reveals a different way of understanding jesu >> whoev collected the sayings of "q" wasn't interested in the

death of jesus, wasn't interested in e resurrection of jesus, thought the importance of jesus was what he said, what he preached. now, other people thought,t's not enough to have the sayings you o tell about his... about his death, and his crucifixion, and his resurrection. that's the iortant thing. now, somebody put that all together, and we call itll matthew, and we t luke. >> (dramatized): blessed are you poor, for yours is theod kingdom of g blessed are you that hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. >> narrator: "q" was probably composed in the jewish homelandf alestine. scholars do not agree on the, location of matthew, luke or john. they were separated not only by geography, but also by time. writing decades apart, they composed their gospels for tiny communities that were developing

their own ideas about jesus, independently of each other. >> (dramatized): blessed arefo the poor in spirittheirs is the kingdom of heaven. blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. >> narrator: about 15 years after mark, matthew wrote hisom gospel for anity caught up in the transformation of judaism after the fall of the temple. >> matthew's gospel is clearly written for a jewish-christian audience living within the immediate proximity of the homeland itself. matthew's is the most jewish of all the gospels. >> narrator: matth's community lived in villages in the upper galilee, or lower syria. after the war, many who had been

forced out of jerusalem moved villages. settled in these new leadership was evolving here with the pharisees, the rabbis the ancient jewish traditions.to matthew's community fe threatened by these changes. >> the followers of jesus were certnly very much on the fringe of the jewish community. obviously, the early preachersy had hoped that tuld convert the whole majority of their people. but they were bitterly disappointed to find that only a very few accepted their rather improbable stories. h and they remained very m the fringe of the jewish communities. >> (dramatized): the gospel ofhe position of these early christian churches withi israel. and it's very portanthat jesus, for matthew, is fully a

man from israel. therefore, matthew begs his gospel by taking, probably, all the genealogy of jesus and now traces this back to abraham. for matthew, jesus is a son of abraham. that is, he is truly a man from israel.he >>ay matthewhen tells the story of jesus draws on a s lot bols from jewish tradition. u jesus goonto a mountain to teach and there talks about the law. he looks like moses. >> dramatized): when jesus saw the crowds, he wenup to the mountain and began to speak and taught them, saying, "you are the light of th world." d >> jesus delivers fiferent sermons of this sort, just like the five books of torah.

>> (dramatized): think not that i have come to abolish the law and the prophets. i have come not to abolish, but to fulfill. tt >> in w, jesus is a proponent of torah piety, justke he pharisees. breaks one of these coents will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.ll for i ou, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scris and the pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. >> narrator: the jesus of matthew singles out the pharisees for a bitter attack. >> (dramatized): woe to you scribes and pharisees, hypocrites. for you are like whitewashedhe tombs which onutside look beautiful, but inside, they are full of the bones the dead and all kinds of filth. >> now, in jesus' own times, the pharisees weren't that prominent

a group.ew why does matell the story this way, so thaa group that was less consequential during jesus' own lifetime now becomes the main opponent? it's precisely because that's what's going on in the lifof matthew's community after the war. the pharisees arbecoming their opponents, ande're watching two jewish groups-- matthew's christian-jewish group and the local pharisaic groups-- in tension over what would be the future of judaism. >> narrator: in matthew, we see a debate beten two jewish groups. tensions created by this debate will eventually fracture judaism and lead to the split with christianity. most of the gospels reflect a

period of disagreement, of thlogical disagreement. and the new narrative history that evolves in the form of... t new testament tells a story of a broken relationship, and that's part of the sad story that evolves betwn jews and christians, because is a story that had such awful repercuions in later times. >> narrator: by the time matthew was writing, the trauma of the war was receding. now his followers and th pharisees were competing for the hearts and minds of the jewishag vis over the future direction of judaism. this may be one of the reasons tthew's account the death of jesus is so dferent from mark's. >> matthew was saying to himself, "i have to conclude this gospel." i'm talking about something that

happened, say, in the year 30, but i have to bring my gospel up to the year 85. now, what's the last climacticem stt of jesus? where do i locate it and what does he say, and to whom? matthew is reading mark. there's a massive consensus of scholarship on that. he finds that mark ends with the women fleeing and telling nobody. is that the way matthew tells it? no. he has jesus meet the women. and now the women, then, go and te, because jesus sort of corrects mark's gospel. anthe last scene in matthe of course, is jesus, who meets the disciples on a mountain inhe galilee, wheretory began, at the sermon on the mount, and they're told to go out and preach tthe world. >> the gospels are very peculiar types of literature. they're not biographies. i mean, there are all sorts of details about jesus that they simply are not interested in

giving us. they are a kind of religious advertisement. whathey do is proclaim their individual author's interpretation of the christiane age through the device of using jesus of nazareth as a spokespers for the evangelist's position. >> for somebody o thinks that the four gospels are like four witnesses in a court trying to tell exactly how the accident happened, as it were, this is extremely troubling. it is not at all troubling to me, because they told me, quite honestly, that they were gospels. and a gospel is good news-- "good" and "news"-- updated interpretation, so i did not expect journalism. >> there are several different portraits of jesus ensined insh the of the traditions about him, and that these seemve to go back t early times. >> the major issue, for me, iset r the people who told us the stories in the ancient world took them all literally, andow we're so smart that we know to take them symbolically; or they all intended them symbolically

and we're so dumb that we've been ting them literally. and i really am with the second option. i think we have been misinterpreting these stories,us bethe people who write them don't seem the least bit worried about their diversity.ee wehe problem, and then we want to insist that they're literal.i ink we have misread the scriptures, not they have miswritten them. >> (dramatized): since many ents that have been fulfilledhe among us, i, too, decided, after investigating everything carefully, to write an orderly account. >> narrator: luke's gospel takes the separation from judaism one step fther, because luke was almost certainly a gentile, writing for a mainly gentile audience.or and the he has to tell is how word of jesus reached the rest of the world.

>> the jesus of luke is anow enormouslyful figure. i mean, he comes on the scene as a ophet straight out of the hebrew bible. pp i mean, at h firstrance quotes the prophet isague, he >> (dramatized): the spiriofup the lord i me. he has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and revery of sight to the blind, g to let the oppressfree. jesus goes into the synagogue.ol he takes the sof isaiah. he is literate-- of course he can read-- and he is a scholar. he can find his way around an unpointed hebrew scroll and find exactly thplace he wants, and reads it and comments on it. jesus is a scholar.r jesus is ratke luke, actually. >> narrator: tradition claims that the author of luke was a

traveling companion of thepa apostl, d probably lived in one of the cities where paul founchristian community. luke wrote a story about jesus, but he also wrote the book of acts, the story of the growth of the early church and its spread throughout the empe. >> it's very important to remember that the gospel o of luke y one-half of a major work.d make a stake by reading the gospel of lukeust as the story of jesus. what luke wrote was a story that began with john the baptist and ends with the arrival of paul in rome. >> so the author of luke/acts-- and that's what we call them now, that's a two-volume work-- is telling us a bigger sto, ast grandey. >> in fact, it's such a good story that many scholars have

compared it to the novelistic literature of the time, and have interpreted lu/acts as, really, a christian... early- christian romance, with all the ingredients of romance, down to shipecks and exotic animals and exotic vegetatio cannibalistic natives-- all kinds of embellishments that one finds in the romance literature of the time. >> (dramatized): we were bng pounded by the storm so violently that, on the next day, they began to throw the cargo overboard. and on the third day, with their own hands, they threw the ship's tackle overboard. when neither sun nor stars small tempest raged, all hope of our being saved was at last abandoned.

>> the style of luke's gospel is probably the highest literary quality of anything inhe new testament. so it's very different than mark on that score, which hasqu a much crudeity to the grammar. so anyonfrom the literary culture of the greco-roman world who might have picked up luke's gospel would have felt much more comfortable with it. it's much more like reading a greek nol. >> narrator: tradition holds that luke was a physician. he clearly possessed a fine command of greek. and his composition addresses a dilemma faced by christian communities across the empe. >> one of the major concernsat he cposite work of christians can be goodensether of the roman empire. after all, their founder was executed as a litical criminal, and some people would have thought of them as, incendiari

revolutionaries. luke, in his portrait, wants to show that jesus himself taught an ethic that was entirely compatible with good citizenship of the empire, and that, despite the fact that paul was himself executed, all of that was a serious mistake and had nothing to do with a political program that was in any way dangerous.ct >> narrator: in in luke's version of history, the book of acts, paul is treated kindly by his roman guards. >> the death of paul is not told. it ends on a triumphant note, in a way, that paul is speaking, unhindered.reely the gospel, >> the counterpart to theuk realization thatis telling the story for a greco-roman audience with a kind of political agenda is what happent to luke's treatment jewish tradition.

luke is much more antagonistic towards judaism. >> narrator: when luke describes paul's visit to synagogue, he shows the jews in a hostile light. >> (dramatized): paul and barnabas went into the jewish synagogue, but the unbelievi jews stirred up the gentiles and poison their minds against the brothers. >> narrator: luke/acts is also the first time we see the followers of jesus explicitly called "christians." >> this ethnic self- consciousness that's being reflected by luke/acts is beginning to say that we, the christians, the ones who are telling this story, are no longer in quite the same way just jews. luke is reflecting the t development christian movement me away from the jewish roots and, in fact,

developing more toward the roman political and social arena. >> as you read the story in the actse apostles, you get the impression that everything moves westward-- from jerusalem to rome. that's where the story ends, when paul gets to rome. you wouldn't know, for example, really, that there was an egyptian church. you wouldn't know there was a syriac church. everything would be a romanur . and that's the story that luke wantto tell. when the gospel gets to rome, the capital the empire, that's the end of the story. >> (dramatized): in the beginning was the word, and the

word was with god.rd and the as god, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. >> narrato the fourth and last gospel now contained in the new testament is the gospel of john, written about 70 years after the death of jesus. it is the story of a community where the relationship between christians and jews has become more virulent, almost to the point of breakdown. >> (dramatized): i am th light of the world. he who follows me will not walke light of life. is a very serene figure who can speak at length about matters divine. a very different kind of speech from the speech which we hear in the synoptic gospels, which is usually much more pithy, muchre irected, much more witty. in john, it's reflective andla rery.

>> john's gospel is different from the oth three in the new testament. that fact has been recognized already, by the year 2hn'sf. gospel was called the "spiritual gospel" precisely because it told the story of jesus in arply, at times, from the other three. >> let me coare mark with john to explain how two gospels do it differently. in... we call it "the agony in the garden." now, there is no agony in john, and there is no garden in mark; call it the "agony in the garden" because we put them together. mark tells the storyn which jesus, the night before he dies, is prostrate on the ground, " begging go this all could pass... but i will do what you want," and the disciples all flee. that makes sense to meseture. mark is writing to a persecuted community who knows... who know what it's like to die.

that's how you die, feeling abandoned by god. over to john. jesus is not on the ground in john. the whole cohort of the jerusalem forces come out, 600 troops come out to capture jesu and they end up with their faces on the ground in john. and jesus says, "of course ill o what the father wants." and jesus tells them to, "let my disciples go." he's in command of the wholeer ion. you have a jesus out of control, almost, in mark, a jesusy tota control in john-- both gospels. neither of them are historical. i don't think either of them know exactly what happened. >> jesus dies on a different day in john's gospel than in matthew, mark and luke. t in tee synoptic gospels, jesus actually eats a passover meal before he dies. in john's gohe doesn't.

the last supper is actually eaten before the benning of passover. so here's the scene in john's gospel: the day leading up to passover is the day when all the lambs are slaughtered, and everyone goes to the temple to get their lamb for the passover meal. meant thousands of lameingave slaughtered all at oneime. day on which jesus is crucified. so that, quite literally, the dramic scene in john's gospel has jesus hanging on the cross while the lambs are being slaughtered for passover.

>> (dramatized): here is the lamb of god, who takes away the sins of the world. >> jesus doesn't eat a passover meal; jesis the passover meal. >> (dramatized my flesh isbl true food, and md is true drink.ta those who eat my mflesh and drink my blood abide in me, and i in them. >> but the idea of drinking blood absolutely abhorrent to jewish dietary regations. so the very language and the symbolism that is so rich within gospel also has a decidedly political tone to it in terms of the evolving relationship between jews and christians.

>> narrator: throughout the roman empire, judaism itse was evolving. the role of the synagogue was changing from a meeting place to a place of worship. yn worship in theogue increasingly centered on torah as the word of god. but john's community saw jesushe asord of god, and for this conviction they would be forced out the synagogue. >> (dramatized): the jews had agreed that anyone who confessed jesus to be the messiah would expelled from the synagogue. >> as i read john, i come to two conclusions. one is that this is a jesh group. if you want to call them christians, they're jewish christians.wi they're one grouin judaism. thsecond conclusion is that rginalized.ing more and more that is, their appeal to lead all of judaism is becoming less and less likely. they're becoming smaller and smaller and smaller.

and they can refer to their other... their fellow jews as "the jews." they are feeling profoundly alienated from their own judaism. in plain language, they're losing, and that means the language of invective getsr nastd nastier. >> (dramatized): the jews answered him, "abraham is our father." jesus said to them, "if god were your father, you would love me. you are from your father, the devil." >> so mark talksbout the crowd being against jesus. but by matthew-- 15 years later, s, in the year 85-- it's all the people. and byhe time you get to john, in the'90s, it is the jews who are against jesus. >> narrator: the conflict between jews and christians th john described in his story of jesus was still a local experience but it soon would be swept up in the rising political conflic between jews and romans over roman rule ijerusalem.

>> the relationship between judaism and christianityfter the turn of the second centuryme would beore and more hostile as time went on, partly because of other political forces that contued to develop. >> narrator: in the year 132 of the comm era, jerusalem bristledith rumors that the emperor hadrian planned to rebuild the city and the temple, dedicating it to jiter, the patron god of the city of rome. for many jews, this was an omination worthy of divi vengeance. >> the polital expectations of apocalyptic did not simply die out after the first revolt. me people, both within christian tradition and within jewish tradition, still expecte a cataclysent to bring a new kingdom on earth soon. >>

dramatized): behold, the days are coming, and it will happen when the time of the world has ripened and the harvest of the seed of the evil ones and the good ones has come." >> within 60 years after the fiet volt, there would ar a new rebellion. we typically call this the "second jewish rolt against rome," or the r kokhba revolt. and it's named after a famous rebel leader who really becomes the central figure of this new political period. he's called bar kokhba. >> bar kokhba was a pseudo messiah, supported by large segments of the population. he claimed to be a descendant of king david. he claimed to be the messiah s himself, and wported by none other than one of the major

figures of the day, rabbi akiba. so this war was very different. it was a millennial revolt. it was a msianic revolt. and it touched chords that werec not d in the first revolt. >> (dramatized): the earth'snt inhabis and its rulers will hatenene another and provoke o another to war. >>pparently, he did take jerusalem for some time. and coins are found now that say, "the year one of the redemption of israel." they really think they have established the new kingdom. >> you might think that there would never be another war le the first war.

but the second war with rome,s e bar kokhba war, obably even though jerusalem wasn'tr. destroyed, the devastation might have even been greater >> some people in the seconds revolt tried to prher ws, including christians, into the revolt, saying, "come join us to fight against the romans. you believe god is going to restore the kingdom to israel, don't you? join us." but the christians, by this time, are starting tsay, "no, he can't be the messiah. we already have one." >> narrator: not long ago, in thesinaccessible cliffs only few miles from the fortress of masada, archaeologists hit on a discovery that has finally revealed the ultimate fate of bar kokhba and his followers. >>atpparently, the rebels th

followed bar kokhba hid in these caves during the last stages of the war. but we know that the romans knew where they were and simplymp up on top of the hill, waiting for them to starve to death or come out and ve up. >> narrator: rubble from the roman lookout post is still there, blocking the only escape route. >> one of the caves is called the "cave of horrors," and itns contver 40 skeletons of men, women and children whod prefer die rather than give in to the romans. another cave is called the "cave of letters," and in it were found caches of pottery ands cod other things of daily life.

now, among the letters found in the cave of tters is at least one from bar kokhba himself. and it's a very interesting letter because it asks his frnds and followers to bring rtain things to the caves.ec so they're expng to hold out for quite some time. sada became a symbol of failed expectations, the cave of horrors now std for the final failure of jewish resistance to rome with the death of bar kokhba, jewish expectations of a coming timessiah receded, and chrs now looked to thdistant future for the return of their messiahf the kingdood was becoming less an apocalyptic vision than. a spiritual abstract >> the self-consciously apocalyptic and messianic identity of bar kokhba forces

the issue for the christian tradition. and at that point, we really see the fulled separation of jewish tradition and chrisan tradition becoming clear. >> narrator: it is a defining moment in history. the two heirs of an ancient faith, rabbinic judaism and upstart chstianity, would now follow separate paths. alice: this program is just so fascinating. so the split has nally become official with the end of the second devastating jewish war. judaism and christianity arera now going their se ways.

hi, i'm aliclirris and i'm ted to be here with bill young. bill: well, alice, i thought it was interesting to hear thscholar comment during the last segment... "i did not eect journalism. "we've misread the scriptures, "not that they've been miswtten." quite an important statement when talking about the interpretation of one of the most read pieces of literature of all time. alice: and you know what else is important? you taking asuion right now anorting this station withancial gift. when you call or go online, you can request the dvd of the entire full length documentary when you make an ongoing monthly donation of $8 or an annual onetime gift of $96. bill: well, there's so much going on in this program that even watcng it one time certainly is not enough. and the things that you thought you knew, hearing those experts give us more context and more research, bringing more questions and discussions into play. it'a wonderful program and it's a hallmark of what pbs does best.

alice: i agree. and when you call us or click online, we have the us some other wonderful ways we would love to say thanks. here's mo information those. announcer: serving as your guide through history, frontline explorers the life and death of jesus and the me women whose belief, conviction and martyrdom created the region we now know as christianity. show your support of this program now with a gift of $6 as an ongoing monthly sustner or with your annual donation of $72 and we'll thank you th a companion book from jesus to christ: the origins of the new testament images of jesus, exploring the wa early christian communities interpreted jesus' mission anmessage. make a recurring contribution of $8 a month $96 all at once and we'll thank you with all four hours of this frontline presentation on dvd. through interviews with expert historians and archeologists, explore the life of jesus

and the movement he started. make an ongoing gift of $15 a month or a single annual nation of $180 and we'll thank you with both the paperback book and us an additional dvd, peter & paul and the chriian revolution. a film that explores how peter and paul, wed crippling disagreements and political persecution to lead a resilient ligious movement. call or go online now and help continue the legacy of in-depth insightful storytelling that you've ce to expect from frontline and this pbs station. you make it all happen. make that call ♪ alice: one of the enduring qualities of this pbs station is thelsrucial role it fn our lives. this station is your escape, ry your chance to put eing going on in your life on hold, if only for just a few hours. it allows yoeato get lost in a story or to learn about a new theory

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plus you'll help to make all of the programs you love on this ation possible. soon't delay go online or now and begin your pbs passport experience today. bill: now we're about to go back to this epic documentary filled not only with historical references, but with insig, pe as told by some of the best historians, scholars d experts on the subject of religion and christianity. if you care about history, if you care about how we've evolved as a society, then this is the prografor you. these stories nove only enrich our they create an opportunity for us to connect, opportunity to talk about things that might be a little challenging. but once again, is is the impact that your single donation makes. we only have athew moments left i break. so if you've not made that call or visitre our safe and seebsite now is the time to do it. d rememberhen you ll or go online, you make a donation, those dollars stay right here at this station and in our commuty.

but it does not happen unless you take action right now. the programs and services that you count on really do count on you for support. you can go online and use our safe and secure website, ormbou can call the on your screen. it doesn't matter what method you choose, toly that you choose now ake this the moment that you take action. you becometive part of your pbs station. and for that, we thank you. ♪ announcer: drawing upon historical evidence and challenging conventionalotions about christian origins, relive the epic story of the rise of christianity from jesus to christ. celebrate this emotional and impactful series with your ongoing sustaining gift of $6 a month or $72 allt once contribution and we'll send you the companion book with our thanks. make an ongoing contribution of $8 a month or an nual donation of $96 d the entire four hour film on dvd can be yours.

make a generous sustaining conttion of $15 a month or a oneti annual gift of $180 and we'll thank you with both the book and dvd plus an additial dvd, peter & paul and the christian revolution. whatever level you select, know that every contribution makes a difference at this pbs station. you help to keep the tradition of phenomenal storytelling alive now and for futu generations. k you. bill: now, alice, i've gotta say this production has it all. top experts and scholars helping to peel back the complex layers upon layers of the subject at hand, to hes understand the context of the historical findings. all coming together to present a compelling story and public television is part of that story. t it's one person home making that call an tthen another person an another and then suddenly we have a congregation

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