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>> (choir singing) >> "the angel gabriel was sent named..."to a city of galilee >> narrator: every sunday, in every corner of the world... >> "...the virgin, betrothed to a man whose name..." >> narrator: ...peop gather to hear a story. >> "...and the virgin's name was mary." >> narrator: for more than 2,00r that story has been told and retold. >> ".and to bear a son." >> narrator: along the way, each generation has found in its telling its own meaning and interpretation. >> "'...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 f llowers... >> "'...and be called the son of

the most high.'" >> narrator: ...and then retold in accounts by later believers in the gospels >> "the goel according to st. luke." >> narrator: so began the building of a religion. now it iour turn, with the rihelp of scholars and hiss, theologians and archaeologists, return to that time and use our best efforts to understand that story... of a man born in obscurity in whose name a faith was made. ♪ ♪

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(crowdhanting and cheering in background) >> narrator: in the roman coliseum, death became mass entertainment. amphitheaters demonstrated the power of the emperor. convicted criminals were sent here to be devoured by wild beasts. in time, those "criminals" would include christians. ever since the time of caesar weaugustus, all religions tolerated by rome, provided that

their worshippers performedci their c duty and sacrificed to the cult of the emperor. it was this that eventually brought christians into conflicn with ruthority. at buhe end of the first century, christianitwas still the religi of a few. the roman empire was overwhelmingly pagan, and it seemed impossible to i that the teachings of obscure sect could challenge its influence. >> religion in the ancient world is very much a part of public they had no idea oparation of religion and state. >> paganism is the rich, native, religioustew of traditional society in the mediterranean. it's a spiritual universe that's thickly populated with gods and

spirits. when you look up into the stars at night, you see the souls of heroes. narrator: paganism was very tolerant of other religions.s the olympian gre revered, but this did not prevent their devotees worshipping other gods. >> you have low-tech religions like magic.ti people rly go to magicians. if you have a sinus infection, if you need somebody to falln love with you, if you are betting on a horse and you've lost the past three races,o you go tprofessional. >> narrator: at the same time, more and more people were riseeking solace in more sal and personal forms of religion. a fresco in pompeii shows worshippers celebrating the solemn rites of the t dionysian mystery cult.

and newer cults, often from foreign parts, were taking hold around the empire. >> (dramatized):reatest of the gods, first of names, thou rulest over the mid-air and the immeasurable space. thou art the lady of light and flame. >> one would have found, in the majocities of the mediterranean basin, a cult of the egyptian gods. yptian cults would have included, probably, isis as the ascendant deity. isis was perceived by her devotees as being remarkably attentive. isis would respond to you when yowere in trouble. she would answer your prayers. she had at reputation. representations of isis is what we call the "isis laans"; that's isis suckling this is a kind of iconography

that appears to have been terribly determinative in the early iconography of mary and jesus. >> narrator: worshippers of the age-old persian god miras gathered in secret chapels throughout the empire. they would eat sacred meals togeer and celebrate their god's bihday on december 25. >> the egyptian cult and mithraism were twof the great religious movements of the time and certainly would have posed some of the most difficult competition for christianity. >> most people who stu the origins of christianity are curious about how this unlikely movement wou have succeeded in such a powerful and dramatic way. sy and it's not an uestion to answer, why this movement succeeded when others did t. s if you think about the g the ancient world and you think about what they looked like,

they looked like the emperor anr his but this religion is saying than every pe man, woman, child, slave, barbarian, no matter who-- is made in the image of god, and is therefore of enormous value in the eyes of god. now, in a societthat's three- quarters slave, that's an extraordinary message. christianity was by no means uniform. in egyptan astonishing discovery made in 1945 shedli t on the enormous diversity of early christian thought. >> other than the scovery of the dead sea scrolls, the most important chaeological find for much of the early christian period is the manuscript discovery at nag hammadi on th nile river in egypt.

there, in 1945, was discovered a cache of manuscripts in clay jars buried in the hillside beside the river. >> the discove at nag hammadi began with an ab villager, whose name was mohammed ali, going with his brothers on an ordinary errand. they took their camels and rode up to a cliff which is honeycombed with thousands of caves. they were digging under the cliffs for fertilizer, that is for bird droppings, which fertilized the crops. a and mohamm said his... he struck something when he was digging underground. and curious, he kept digging, and he was startled to find a six-foot jar, sealed, and next to it was buried a corpse. mohammed ali said he hesitated to break the jar because hee thought thght be a jinn in

it. but hope overcame fear. he sd he picked up his matto and smashed the jar and saw paicles of gold fly out of it, much to his delight. but a moment later, he realized it was only pieces of... fragnts of papyrus. inside the jar were 13 volumes bound in tooled gazelle leathe >> narrator: what mohammed alier had discoveredbooks written in the ancnt egyptian language known as coptic. unable to read them, ali took them home. >> later, his mother said that she took some of them and threw dlthem into the fire for kg when she was baking bread.wh he didn't know until... what we didn't know until much later is that these contained some of the most precious texts of the 20th century, that they have uncovered for us a whole christian world.g the early >>arrato what the books showed was that early

christianity was even more diverse than scholarhad suspected, with many different ways of interpreting jesus. >> there were 52 texts altogether, appantly; unless some of them were burned that we don't know about. and they contain secret gospels such as the gospel of thomas, the gospel of philip. they also contain conversations between jesus anhis disciples that claim to go back to jesus and his disciples-- all kind of literature from the early christn era, a whole discovery of text rather like the new testament, but also very >> christianity, owould rather say christianities, of were, again, a higriegatedries phenomenon. we really can't imagine christianity as a unified,us coherent religement. >> we probably oht to think of it as a kind of regional diversity. tat is, the christianity of rome was differen

christianity in north africa in different from what we find in egypt, and that different from what we find in syria or back it pae.ar >>tor: some of the oldest christian communities were in western turkey, where paul and his followers had established many of the earliest congregations. at the end of the first century, christians here found themselves in a conontation with roman power and authority. >> about the year 112, an important event takes place that oings us on the stage in a new way in the histoearliest christianity. the scene is in the roman province of bithynia, in modern- day turkey. at that time, there is a

relatively new governor sent to take over. his name is pliny the younger. emperor trajan, and was anhe extremely respected roman official. >> narrator: one of pliny's duties was to maintain order. in this capacity, he was presentewith a legal and ethical problem which described in a letter to the emperor trajan. >> (dramatized): having never been present at any trials of the christians, i am unacquainted with the methods or limits to be observed either in examining or punhing them. >> so we have to imagine pliny seated in the form of a roman administrator, a roman magistrate, all decked out in his finery, enthroned in the tribunal with his guards and hil fs and his courtiers around him. and before him stand these

christians, and pliny n' figure out who they are or why they're there.'v apparently, thdone something that get their neighbors mad at them. the neighbors have complained at the temples are empty, and no one is ying certain things for the gods, and they're christians. and so, sohow or another, pliny is forced to deal with is as a criminal matter. >> pliny genuine was perplexed because he sees what appear to be good, lawbiding citizens being hauled up on trumped-up ancharges of being a chris and simply on that basis, by convention, being subject to capital punishment. so i think pliny allows us ao rare glimpse ie moral and legal conundrum that christianity posed for scrupulous, morally scrupulous roman officials. >> (dramatized): t method i

have observed is this: i inteogated whether they were christians. if they confessed it, i repeated the question twice again, addi the threat of capital punishment. if they still persevered, i ordered th to be executed. >> pliny allows, in his correspondence, how this really is onef the most stubbornle groups of pee's ever encountered. and that in itself seemso warrant a rather... a rather christians.tack on the >> (dramatized): i judged it so much the more necessa to extract the real truth, with the assistance of torture, from two female slaves who wereled deaconesses. but i could discover nothing more than depraved and excessive supetition >> he says, hey don't really do all that much. they meet before dayeak. th sing hymns antiphonly.

and they worship christ as if he god."en and e says, "they take an oath, but not an oath to do anything bad, rather an th only to be good-- not to defraud people, not anything evil," and so on. >> (dramatized): those who denied they were or had ever been christians, who repeated after me an invocation to the gods and offered adoration to your image, these i thought it proper to discharge. >> and he says to the emperor,ha "do you think led it correctly?" the emperor then writes back and says, "sounds okay to ut but don't goooking for these christians. and if you get some anonymous charges against peopledon't take that too seriously. we don't want to set any bad precedents here."

precedent still hetny, legal christians were a sect of judaism. >> because it was considered apa of judaism, christianity was considered to be protected tradition within the romanish empire. so, when we see plinng note of christians as a separate group, it really marks a departure, a change in the status of christianity, both i its relationship to judaism and in itselationship to the roman empire. ( >>amatiz): christians are warred upon by the jews and are persecuted by e greeks, and those that hate them cannot state the cause of their enmity. >> pliny's program evolved into a very explicit policy of execution that probably was the

model throughout a good deal o asia minor-- what's now modern turkey.wa and that policto ask the question; if the answer is no, "fine, go sacrific" if they couldn't sacrifice, thes thatroof that they were christian and they could be executed. so pliny thoughtulmately, at once the matter was settled, that he was doing the right thing, that he was saving the empire from the spread of a dangerous ditious movement. >> narrator: it was precisely their unwillingness to make public sacrifice to the emperor and the godshat made seditious. seem antisocial and important features of thee most maintenance of the state. one offered sacrifices on certain days as a part of the celebration of the founding of the state. one offered sacrifices on the birthday of the emperor. cities very often mounted these

ormous celebrations to the populace would have beenl expected to come and join in. >> narrator: at these eat public cemonials, christians were becoming all too often conspicuous by their absence. >> when the christians really do beco much more prominent in the social arena of grk and roman cities, the pagans start to take note of their absence from importantestival days and their unwillingness to rticipate in certain aspects of social life. me>> judaism had long ago o a legal agreement with the emperor that they would... jews would not be forced to participate in pagan rituals. and pagan rituals are part of the normal fabric of life in a roman city.je were exempted from this

because romans knew the jews were odd about this kind of thing. >> now, along come this new group, the christians, and they're behaving the same y, but they obviously aren't ancient. theytarted under pontius pilate; they say so themselves. but if it's novel,the roman point of view, it cannot be a religion. religi is, by defini ancient, from roman perspective. so, if it's new and novel, it's a superstition, it's not a religion; and superstition is, by definition, not a good thing. >> whave a good example of t pagan perspective on christians from a little graffi found in rome from the palatine hill. an inscription scratched very crudely into the wall says, "alexamenos worships his god." in the picture, we see alexamenos bowing down before

the man on the cross, but the man on the cross has the head of a donkey.ti >> chrs have made themselves outlanders in their owtown. and, therefore, they are used as an explanatory device whenevere the the usual natural insults of human existence-- plague, earthquake, flood. it's because christians, as gentiles who are not doing their duty to heaven, are... why should the gods do anyfor the city then? >> narrator: though persecution was still mainly local and sporadic, it was becoming a crime to be a christian. christians who were charged facea terrible choice: to a recant make a sacrifice to the emperor, or sacrifice their own lives for the ith.

(crowd cheering in background) >> "in the blood of the martyrs lie the seeds of the church." >> one of e most amazing documents historians of early christianity are privileged to have is the prison diary of a young woman who was martyred, i think in the year 202 or 203, in carthage, as part of a civic celebration. her name is perpetua, and she insisted on being kill. >> (dramatized): we were lodged in the prison and i was terrified, as i had nebeen in such a dark hole. >> perpetua has brought herself to the atttion of the governor, and she is really arena.ing on being put into the

there's an incredibly powerful trial scene where perpetua's faer is pleading with her and finall actually,yi to beat her. and the governor has him subdued by his soldiers. and the governor says, "please, won't you cooperate?"et and perp says, "no, i'm a christian." n now, theredragnet out for christians. perpetua is visited by other christians in prison. if the governor were trying to get all the christians in carthage, he just could have arrested whoever is going to vit perpetua, but he doesn't. >> she's pregnant during part oa this story only gives birth just before she herself goes to ath. she has to give heown child away at the moment that she is about to ge her life away. am >> (ized in my dream,

i saw a ladder of tremendous height, made of bronze, reaching althe way to the heavens. at the foot of the ladder lay a dragon of enormous size, and it would attack those who would try to climb up. "he will not harm me," i sai st"in the name of jesus ch >> the authentic diary ends before perpetua is led into the arena. what we have concluding the diary is a description done by somebody who is presenting a ro tale. >> (dramatized): the day of their victory dawned, d they marched from the prison to the amphitheater joyfully, as if they were going to heaven. >> she's led out into the owamphitheater before the and about to be set upon by beasts. she reallyoes with a great

deal of... of authority, and stature, and serenit (crowd cheering in background) (lions growling in background) >> she faces down the anals. and finally, after being tormented by several animals, a young gladiator is sent into the arena to dispatch her. and his... it's just an credibly moving scene. his hand is trembling so much he can't cut her,hi and she grabhand and throat.his sword to her own (crowd cheering in background) >> the stories of the martyrs that have come down to us are all hero stories, and they're all intended, obviously, as ways of strengthening the faith of those whremain. if we read only those martyr

stories, we would suppose thatl ristians were heroes, and that the church flourishes because of tt roism. obviously, this is an idealization.tu if we ly tote up the number of martyrs that we can identify, it's a really quitel smmber over the three centuries during which christianity was in the positioi of being the ors. >> we don't have tens of thousands of peoplbeing martyred. what we do have is tens of thousands of people admiring the few who are martyred. (crowd cheering in background) >> the story of the martyrdom perpetua is a very important milestone in the development of early christianity because of what the story tls us about the perception of christians at that time. we can see the contrast rather sharply. at the time of pli, at thegi ing of the second century,

christians are an unknown commodity. and so even when he executes th, he really doesn't know quite what to make of them. y within 1rs, by the year death as a martyr, christianity has beme a recognizable commodity. (crowd cheering in background) the deatof perpetua is a story of a very significant change in the status of christ. it had begun to be a part of the roman worl >> now that christianity has g emerged asup, as a church, as something not judaism, the question that christians now

confronted is, "what is christianity?" the second century is an age of christian self-definition in which the christiachurch itself was trying to figure out exactly what is the new message. what exactly is the new church? >> cerinly, there were some religious organizations, such as the ecclesiae, the church, the leadership, the bishop, the deacons, the presbyters. there were institutions developing in some cistian churches, but only in some, and this was not universal, by any means. >> we have, in effect, different brands of christianity living, often, side by side, even in the me city. at one point, in rome, justinma yr has his christian school in one part of the city, and the gnostic teacher valentinus in another school in rome, and another so-called heretic by the name of marcion is also in rome just down the street somewhere-- all of these alongside of the

official papal tradition that developed as part of st. peter's official papal tradition that developed as part of st. peter's see in rome. alice: this is an incredible lesson in the history of christianity, and it's one only pbs could bring to you. in that last segment, we started with gods, cults and religion, and we just ended learning about ory of perpetua. bill: and we learned what role pliny the younger played, di when faced with ipling the christians, and why it presented such a conundrum for the romans. hi, i'm bill young, here with alice ferris and we hope you can show your appreciation for these stellar productions with a pledge of support for this station, right now. alice: now if you missed any part of e program, or you're thinking you'd like to review the entire story again, i can't imagine that you wouldn't want to, or perhaps you would like to send this film to a friend or a family member, then we suggest you give us a call and make a sustaining ongoing gift of $8, or make a $96 annual contribution,

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thank you. ♪ >> narrator: there were still debates about how christians should relate to judaism.gr onp following the jewish calendar felt that easter should fall on the same day aspa over. others thought they should r follow tan calendar and celebrate during the solar festival of the spring equinox, on a sunday. and marcion wanted to strip away everything that smacked of jewishraditions. >> marcion was a wealthy ship owner. he came to rome, and he gave thr roman ch aot of money, and they welcomed him with ope arms. but he felt that the originalia chrigospel was no longer

preserved, and he thought thaton the apostle paul had the true gospel. and he set out to find this true gospel, and he took e gospel of luke and purified it from whatever he thought was jewishs and said, "tould be the scripture for the church, and this should be t only scripture for the church." and the roman church became very suspicious of his manipulatis with the gospel of luke. it ireported that they gave sathe money back to him an, "thank you very much, but we don't want you and your gospel." >> this is where we start to see a kind of proliferation of gospels tradition all over the empire. and by the third and early fourth century, there are more gospels than you can actuall count, and certainly more than bible.n easily read within a >> the gospel of mary magdalene, for example, shows us a christian community in which mary magdalene is regarded as a the major teachers in the group,

and one who claims that women should be able to teach. >> another text called the "gospel of truth" is not a narrative ofhe death and resurrection of jesus at all. it's a symbolic reflection on certain themes that come fromur scrior are associated with the life and teachings of jesus. ds we also hear of other k of gospels tt develop, stories of the birth that tell you the... in lurid detail, really, how true it really was or how marvelous and miraculous it was; stories of traveling apostles to all kinds of strange lands--th as, who goes to india, andrew, who goes out to some a strange worl so on. these kis of stories proliferate through the secondur and third ce n rator: one of the important discoveries at nag hammadi was a complete copy of the gospel of thomas. written in syria in the second

centy, this collection of sayingproved very influential... and startling. >> the gospel of thomas is nothing t sayings of jesus. jesus said this, jaidand says, that. well, some of these things that jesus said, according to the gospel of thomas, are quite familiar. they're very similar to things in the canonical gospels, but not identical. >> "give to caesar what belongs to caesar; give to god what belongs to god; and give to me what is mine." >> narrator: the sayings of jesus are filled with familiar, rustic images, like the parable of the mustard seed. but others are strange and unsettling. >> "look to the living one as long as yolive, for you might die. and then try to see the living one and you will be unable to see." >> my favorite of these is

saying numr 70, which says, "if you bring forth what is within you, what you bng forth will save you. if you do not bring forth whatyo is withi what you do not bring forth will destroy you." >> now, what is typiout these sayings is that, in each instance, these sayings want to say that, if you want to understand what jesus you have to recognize yourself, you have to know yourself. >> narrato with its emphasis on self-knowledge and jes as the revealer of secret wdom, some scholars think that the gospel of thomas became a source for a competing stream of christian tradition known as gnosticism.d >> paul ulian christianity would have placed all of the emphis on jesus' death a resurrection and the saving resurrection. death and gnostic christianity, on the other hand, would have placedph its principal is, in fact,

its prime emphasis, on the message, the wisdom, the knowledge that jesus transmits. >> narrator: most gnostics believed that jesus was so divine that he had never entered not have been crucified.ould this brought gnostics into confct with other christians >> it was very important to o insijesus as really suffering and dying on the cross, because christians were being called upon that time to suffer and die as witnesses, as martyrs to their faith. and if, with some gnostics, you could denigrate the physical suffering of jesus, you might obligation to stand and to bear witness for the faith. >> bishop irenaeus, who wrote in abe second century in what is now france, was t 18 to 20 years old when his little community was absolutely

decimated by a devastating persecution. they say that 50 to 70 people in two small towns were tortured and executed. 50 to people executed in public is a devastating destruction of thabeleaguered community. and irenaeus was trying to ufy those who were left. what frustrated him is that thee didn't all belhe same thing. they didn't all gather under one kind of leadship. and he, like others, was deeply aware of theangers of fragmentation. >> narrator: irenaeus thundered against those he saw as herecs, including the so- called gnostics. >> (ized): let those persons who blaspheme the creator, as do all the falsely so-called gnostics, be recognized as agents of satan by all who worship god. >> bishop irenaeus coined the term we call "orthodox."

now, literally in greek, "orthodox" means "straight thinking." it's like "orthodontia" means "straight teeth." i mean, "orthodox" meanss. "straight id and those who didn't agree with his ideas, he called "heterodox"-- that means simply thinking otherwise-- or "heretics," which means pele who make choices about what to think. eirenaeus didn't want peo making choices, he wanted them thinking what the bishop told them to think. >> narrator: irenaeus had to contend not only with those who believed in vastly differe gospels, but also with the followers of marcion, who believed that jesus should be represented by just one gospel. he looked for a compromise.sa >> irenaeu that the number of the gospels is properly fours are the earliest, these are the best, but four is the right number. after all, there's four cornersd to the wthere's four winds; there are four areas of heaven; and there are four

bets who reveal god's will in the apocalypse. four is the right number; these are the four. >> the story implied is that there is some smoke-filled room somewhere in the second century, and a bunch of these cigar- smoking christian big shots got together and they decidewho was going in and who was going out. was a wrap. they closed up, and then everything else was on the cutting room floor, and e janitors took away what didn't get in the canon.in i precisely the contrary historical reconstruction, ande that is that there is some kind of consensus among people in the jesus movement as to what constitutes reliable tradition, reliable literature-- literature that they want to read, that thr want to hear over and o again, and other kinds of literature that they don't want to hear. >> narrator: one criterion for inclusion was whether the gospel

told the story of the suffering and death of jesus. this wasrucial to the emerging sense of orthodoxy because the centerpiece of christian ritual, e celebration of the eucharist, cannot live without that story. >> and it is out of that movement that the fourl canon arrives.it anomes, interestingly enough, as a canon thatve preserves ity-- within limits, but it preserves diversity. there is no claim that this canon represents four gospels that are all saying the same thing. it is, rather, an attempt to bring together as many christian communities into one major church.

>> narrator: by the middle of the third century, christians were buried alongside jews and pagans in catacombs, underground tombs beneath the outskis of rome. there is evidence re of the growing homogenization of the ristian story. the artwork on the tombs shows cettle sign of gnostic imagery. they are largelys from the canonical gospels which are now merging into one sine story. >> what's interesting t they choose, because what they choose of jesus is especially the healer. appears beardless, so he's a young... he's a new, young god, as it were. he's not an old fuddy-duddy like asclepius, the god of healing. and what's extraordinary is he would either have his hand or

heeven a wand on the perso healing. now, nothing tt i know of in the entire greco-roman world ever shows asclepius with his hand on somebody he's healing. jesus is an asclepius who makes house calls. i think this is one of the great jesus is not shown as aspread. transcendental being, he's down there in theud of human history with his hand on people's heads. >> narrator: the art of the catacombs also illustrates the christians' attempts to inteate into greco-roman society. >> as chstianity moved out of the jewish sphere into the more pagan sphere, then all sorts of pagaideas and all sorts of pagan themes and images and pictures start pouring into christianity.

>> we have this figure of the shepherd with the sheep draped over his shoulders. we, now, may tend to think of th as reflecting the gospe stories of jesus of the lost sheep or jesus as th shepherd from the gospel of in point of fact, from roman perspective, this is the virtuei ofnthropy, of love of humanity, and it's one of the most important virtues of roman civic and public life. >> narrator: all around the mediterranean world, the ancient pagan gods lingered in the age-old temples and immemorial shrines. but their power was under threat.

>> roman society, roman law, are both highly tolerant of religious diversity, as long ast you do tngs which every roman is expected to do-- sort of those rigious acts which are your civic duty. nobody cares what you believe in your heart of hearts. then appears chrtianity, which is exclusive, which is intolerant, which will not allow you to do whatever eve else does. and it's a profound shocto those who get to know it well. a it appeaa dangerous rival to the present society as it begins to grow strong. >> christian writers throughout the middle and later second century developed the techniques trying to argue tha christianity was really a superior religion, because it was monotheistic, over against polytheistic, and that it...ns christxemplified higher virtue in their lives than did pagans.

they pointed to examples of christians living in chastity, cegreat virtue, self-sacrind on, throughout their lives. these christian apologists also made fun of pagan religion in a way that might not have been too prudent. they laughed at the various basis for some of greco-roman religion. they laughed at thstories of the gods-- their adulteries, their jealousies, their goings- on with each other, et cetera-- out of these tradiake mincemeat to >> nar the ideas that had started with the carpenter's son were being reinterpreted. in the uncompromising language of apocalypse, jesus hadsa preached the m of the coming kingdom of god. now, jesus himself became the message... and the sourcof eternal life. >> the message that was preached here promised spiritual gifts to

people that went beyond the everyday life experience and promised also immortality, promised a future life which would be liberation from sickness and from disease, and from poverty, and individual isolation, and whatever. there is a future for the individu, but one should not see the success of christianity simply on the level of a great religious message. >> narrator: to the subjects ofh roman empire, christianity offered the invidual dignity in this life and hope in the afterlife. but was also winning conver by offering a helping hand to the needy. >> for example, like other elements of the jewish t communit followers of jesus tended to feed the destitute, take care of people who were widowed so that they wouldn't become prostitutes, and orphans, and so forth. that was a primary obligation of followers certainly understood

that. >> of course, there was no welfare system, so tk, in the ancient world. wealthy romans had given money for programs such as the feeding of children, and so on. but even such programs that we know of didn't compare in size and scope to what the churches were doing. >> so chstianity really established a realm of mutual social support for the members that joined the church. and i think thathis has... was probably, in the long run, an enormously important factor fo the success of the christian mission. >> narrator: by the year 250,ri ianity had grown so much that a stronger church organization was needeto administer the welfare system. it was becoming state within a state.

meanwhile, rome's rulers feltei thcontrol of the empire slipping away, a christian undermining of traditional belief was no longer to be tolerated. >> the middle of the third century is often identified as a crisis in the roman empire. this is a time when the emperor is feeling under great pressure. being besieged on the borders, that the barbarians may be coming in at any moment- persians are dangerous, the germans are dangerous, and so on. and so there's a great sense that anything that upsets this ancient contract between thehe romans andods has got to be dangerous to us.

after a long period which the persecutio of christianity were really spasmodic, local, idvolved very few people, suddenly, in thee of the third ceury, the year 250, the emperor decius decidt christians are a real enemy of the roman order, that they must be dealt with. theyust be dealt with empire wide, with all the police power that the emperor can bring to bear upon them. >> christians could be arrested simply because thebore the name christianu "christian." that was enough, under roman convention, to convict one of a capital crime, and the crime was being a christian. so put yourself in the... in the position of society, you know, if you were, say, a merchant and wanted to limit your competition, all you had to do was point fingers at your

competitors ansay, "well, you know, i think they're christians." people then could be hauled inse on capital charges. >> what you have to do is get a ticket. alibellus it's a chit saying that you have sacriced for the well-being the empire. and you go and you do your sacrifice, and there's a wle various response on the part of different christian communities. you can ha your servant go and do it for you. he might also be a christian, but, you know, that's his problem. pay him, he'll get two chi, and then you're covered for purposes. or you can pay for t ticket but not actually do the sacrifice if you can bribe a friend of yours who is a magistrate. or you can just go ahead and gt... you know, sacrifice, knowing that thes are nothing. after all, that's right in paul's letters, that these godsh are g. >> (dramatized): as to the eating of food offered to idolsd we know that n in the world really exists and that there is no god but one.

>> narrator: dius was determined to be completely ruthless in persecuting those who refused to make public sacrifice. for the first time, ordinary ristns were methodically rounded up. >> and the odd thing is it ils. the net effect of this is that a new cult of the martyrs appears in christianity, which strengthens the church. (crowd cheering in background) >> nartor: but ironically, very few christians were willing to be martyred. >> many christians wt made of the kind of moral fiber of the people who went to their dehs as martyrs-- that they had been willing trecant the faith, to offer a pinch of incense to the emperor. >> christians were sort of taking to the hills. we know this from the so-calledy lapsus controv what do you do with those christians who took to the hills and saved their souls as opposed to standing thr ground and

dying as martyrs? >> all this made a grave problem for e church when the persecutions were over, because many of these people then wanted to come back into the church. there were many controversies about this. >> nartor: 50 ars later, the emperor diocletian made one last attempt to wipe out the christians. he targeted those who held public office, but the persecution failed par because christian institutions were now so entrenched in roman society. >> christians wanted to have their members knowledgeable ane capa reading the bible. so, we find that a large number of people in imperialti administ are christians, because they could read and write, which constituted a big problem with the persecution of the christians because they wero thro of their office first when the persecution began, and suddenly, the... the gernment didn't work anymore. >> by that tim the christians

are so numerous that they can't possibly be eradicated; they've already grown that much. so, in a sense, the persecution really doesn't catch up until it's already too late. >> narrator: by now, the jesus movement had spread its message to every corner of the roman empire. >> the last decades of the thire ury, you get a great insurge of people into christianity. there are so scholars who thinthat, in egypt, for example, by the 320's, there would actually be a majority of christians-- maybe a rather a sizable number of christians. >> narrator: the turning point in the history of the christian movement occurred in the first decades the fourth century. it was a transformation filled with ironies. it was brought about by a romana

genewho worshipped, not jesus, but apollo, the god of the sun. ne >> of the most surprising christian heroes in the entire tradition, i think, is constante. he is, first of all, aen successfulal. he is, also, the son of a successful general and at the head of the army of the west, and he's fighting another successful general, struggling for who is going to be at th top of the heap of this... the very higher echelons of roman government. what happens is at constantine has a vision. >> in the dream, a cross appears on the sun. the sun was very important to constantine, anyway. he had a thing about helios and very often represented himself with the sun god. but the intrusion of the cross

was something new, and below this vision was an inscription, were the words, "by this, conqueren touto nike. and he interpreted this dream to mean that, by this symbol of the cross, hcould defeat his archenemy at the btle of the milvian bridge and become sole emperor. and so he had his-- so the story goes-- he had his soldiers pnt the cross on their shields. constantine won the batt of the milvian bridge, became the sole emperor of the roman empire, and then, in a dramatic shift of geopolitics, relocates the center of roman rule from

the eternal city, me, to a new city, constantinople. >> narrator: to reunite a divided empire, constantine moved the capitafrom rome to a more strategic location, the anent city of byzantium, a renamed it constantinople. >> an important part of what was going on here was jockeying at the imperial administration. en clearly, by thof the third century, christianity was a major force to be reckoned with throughout the empire, and something that had to either be suppressed or had to be integrated. galerius, constantine's rival, instigators of the persecution, favored the option of suppression. constantine and his associates favored the option of integration. >> constantine was a consummatet pragmand a consummate politician. and i think he gauged well the upsurge of interest and support christianity was... was receiving, and so played up to

that very nicely and exploited it in his own rule. >> when constantine came into power and started to favor christianity, he didny things that plainly showed a support for christianity. he gave money for the building re churches, money for the copying of scrip he exempted clergy members from having to perfm civic duties on town councils, that kind of thing. >> he bishops are able take advantage of constantine's moodn and his curioullectual interest in things like christology and the inity and church organization. they're able to have bibles pied at public expen. they're finally able to have public chrisan architecture and big basilicas. so there's a comfortable symbiotic relationship between the empire and the church. >> all that certainly stands in favor of his true christian commitment. on the other hand, he did retain

the coinage with the sunod on it. he did say the day of the sun woulbe made a day of rest, b it's very unclear whether the day of the sun meant the day t dedicated sun god or the day dedicated to jesus and his resurrection. >> whatever one finally decidese about the naf his conversion-- whether it's a real, sincere conversion or not-- it has profound impa upon the future of christianity, uponhe future of western civilization. constantine's patronage doesn't just mean that a lot of new churches get built, though it means that. it doesn't just mean that the salaries of bishops go up astronomically, though it means that. it doesn't just mean that christians have freedom now to worship as they choose. it means that it has become part of the imperial establishment,ha and obviously,is going to mean profound changes for the sociy and for christianity.

>> narrator: constantine showed his support by massive building programs, especially in jerusalem. ironically, the city that wasd destro one roman emperor was being rebuilt by another. but the new holy places in this traditional center of judaism were now all cistian. to strengthen his new church, constantine called for more unity in organization an teaching. but such unityame at a cost. >> one of the first things constantine does as emperor is art persecuting other christians. the gnostic christians are targeted, rcionite christians and other dualist christians-- christians who don't have the old testament as part of their canon-- are targeted. on. list of enemies goes on and there's a kind of, in a sense, internal purge of the church asm onror ruling one empire tries to have thisingle church.

>> to appreciate the remarkable, dramatic evolution that had occurred in so short a period, one might counterpose the image of pliny in his courtroom under the emperor trajan, sending christians off to their execion simply for being called christians, to the majesty of constantine presiding haer the great gathering of bishops that he called to resolve particul questions. the impeum, on the one hand, being used clearly to extinguish a religious movement; theon imperiumhe other hand, ing used clearly to undergird and suort a religious movement, the same religious movement, in so short a period of time. >> narrator: the cross, the hated symbol of death and defeat, now erged as the symbol of triumph. and in the eyes of some, the apocalyptic prophecy of revelation had at last been

fulfilled. >> (dramatized): theom of the world has become the christ. of our lord and of his >> narrator: the kingdom of god and the roman empire had now come one and the same.h jesus of nazard become become a power on earth.urch h a new chapter in history was about to begin. alice: wow, there is just so much going on in that last segment of the program. suthe connection that suffering on the cross

and the symbolism it provided to peoplwho were also suffering in life. bill: cell and the cross, onymbol of death, now kes on new symbolism, w a symbol of hope, for a religion now recognized and integrated within the roman empire. e alice: hello, i'm alrris, and i'm here with my friend bill young. and we are taking this short break to ask you to take a moment and do something very important. and that's to support your local pbs station, in this our last break in the pgram. bill: and when you do, we would love to send you the dvd of this informative, provocative documentary for you to enjoy nd over again. or maybe you want to send it to a friend or a family member, y can experience this inspirational documentary. alice: if you've thank you so much! because really, you are public television. sometimes i think we all forget that. these prograst because of you, because you take the time and make your contribution. bill: now we invite you to join the family. urlook at the bottom of screen, there's a number,

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>> if there will be a vaccine that is effective,er it'simportant that that vaccine becomes a global, public -- a people's vaccine, something that is affordablele and accessib to everybody in the world.♪ ♪ >> hello and welcome to "gzero world." i'm ian bremmer.ak and today, i'mg a look at the largest intergovernmental organization on the planet. this year, the united nations turns 75, a diamond anniversary. buwhen it comes to solving so of the biggest issues today, has the u.n. lost its luster? i'm talking to secreta general antónio guterres. and then i'll take a look back at the mysterious death of the u.n.'s second secretary general, a man who john f. kennedyre rred to as the greatest statesman of our century. but, first, a word