at best, it represents a face that jesus himself might have seen or had. >> i've had one or two comments from people suggesting that it doesn't look anything like jesus which, of course, doesn't surprise me. they actually, some of them, do go on to say that they know exactly what jesus does look like, because they took a photograph of him only three weeks ago. >> even though science has given us a better idea of what jesus might have really looked like, jesus' face wouldn't matter were it not for what he said and what he did. and the gospels tell us, in a surprisingly short time, just three years. what was the message of this carpenter's son from galilee? and why did it get him killed? welcome to chevy's year-end event. so, the 5.3-liter v8 silverado can tow up to 9,600 pounds? 315 horsepower. what's that in reindeer-power? [ laughs ] [ pencil scratches ] [ male announcer ] chevy's giving more. get the best offer of the year -- 0% apr financing for 60 months plus $1,000 holiday bonus cash. plus trade up for an additional $1,000 trade-in allowance. hurry. bo

testament is paul, and his first letter is dated around 50 to 52; so still a good 20 years after jesus himself. but it appears that in between 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 happened to jesus-- what he stood for and what he did-- orally, by telling it and retelling it. >> narrator: meeting in each others' homes, early christians told stories of jesus' parables and miracles, and of his suffering and death. these were not historical accounts, but shared memories shaped by a common past. >> legend and myth and hymn and prayer are the vehicles in which oral traditions develop. one could, for example, 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, even death on a cross. >> paul quotes this hymn in the early '50s of the first century. he quotes this as a hymn that probably was sung in

jesus christ. just by the end of the world and at all has become irrational. to devote himself to his mission he has given up his career and his social life. and all over the world there are thousands like him getting ready for the worst. two thousand and twelve with more than five hundred million internet pages it's one of the most written about themes on the web about the day of reckoning there are internet users spreading the wildest rumors. from haiti to fukushima the news constantly provides new support. where the room is coming from who are these new prophets of the apocalypse. and who is making a profit out of the business of the end of the world. look at those beautiful trees over there. and it's not easy to meet people who believe in the apocalypse the she's faced with skepticism from their familiars they usually prefer to remain quiet but force was made an exception for us. for. once one if this former german teacher who is currently out of work comes here every day to connect. only by touching the trees she enters into contact with those she calls her masters and bef

either way, jesus was bound to find himself in conflict with the roman authorities. >> the core of jesus' preaching is the kingdomf god. and the difficulty for us is to hear that term as 100% political and 100% religious. not one, not the other. in the first century, those were inextricably intertwined. the kingdom, if you used that expression in the first century, would... meant the roman kingdom. it meant the roman empire. when you talked about the kingdom of god and were somehow setting it up in some tension with the roman empire, you were making a very caustic criticism of the roman empire, and you were saying that its system was not the system of god. >> the jewish historian josephus tells us a number of stories about characters whose career could be crudely summarized as following: some guy wakes up in the morning and he thinks he's the messiah or something, or he's a prophet. and he says... he gets a group of people to follow him. he says, "we're going to go out in the desert and we're going to wait for god to do something for us." so a whole bunch of people may go with him-- mayb

probably each written by anonymous christians somewhere, i don't know, between 90-100 and that jesus himself would have been born sometime around 0, that's a lot of room to begin looking to the bible for ideas to express what you think is religioussy important about jesus and that's why i would look at these -- but i think mary was home in nazareth when she had jesus, i don't think she was in bethlehem. >> well, let's go to the basics, first of all, the year. was it not four years before a.d. started? >> well, a.d. starts as a medieval convention. jesus, if he's born -- this is one of the chronological differences between the gospels. if harrod is alive as he has to be from matthew's birth narrative to work we know that harrod died in minus 4. if there is a tax which happens when corinius is the liggot of syria as luke says, we know that a tax that happened in plus 6. so you have to pick where you want, matthew and luke named different points. >> is there an abundance of evidence forthcoming from archeology and other sources that will settle all of these matters, do you think, upcoming? >> w

jesus christ. by the end of the world anatole has become irrational. to devote himself to his mission he has given up his career and his social life. and all over the world there are thousands like him getting ready for the worst. two thousand and twelve with more than five hundred million internet pages it's one of the most written about themes on the web.

jesus christ. just by the end of the world anatole has become irrational. to devote himself to his mission he has given up his career and his social life. and all over the world there are thousands like him getting ready for the worst. two thousand and twelve with more than five hundred million internet pages it's one of the most written about themes on the web about the day of reckoning. where you're going to break into that now and go back to brussels where they were put in is holding talks with eva leaders the first time since his return to the kremlin in that russian president is taking part in a news conference along with the european commission president jose. and european council president herman van rompuy let's listen in. the wide range of e.u. russia relations and we also discussed how we can deepen our cooperation and implement already agreed commitments. our partnership for modernisation works. we have taken note of the latest progress report and welcomed the good results achieved in many areas further progress has to be made in the negotiations towards a new agr

jesus christ. by the end of the world and i told has become irrational. to devote himself to his mission he has given up his career and his social life.

or not and it's a rite of passage and not all is convinced that he will be among the survivors jesus himself told him by telepathy in the new era he's even going to change his name he will be called and told ma i think integrating christ takes more than just five minutes i mean if over and have to know how to build your individual. to be able to say frankly to someone so i'm untold mark but in fact that's the hidden we have seen.

reconstruct the life of jesus is simply that we don't have sources that come from the actual time of jesus himself. >> the historian's task in understanding jesus and the jesus movement and early christianity is a lot like the archaeologist's task in excavating a tell. you peel back layer after layer after layer of interpretation, and what you always find is a plurality of jesuses. >> history isn't made to record the deeds of a person like jesus. jesus is very much like most people, statistically speaking, who have ever existed in the world: poor, obscure, no pretensions to royalty or distinction of any kind. they live under less than desirable conditions, and they die that way. there is nothing historically remarkable about that. billions of people pass through this veil of tears in exactly that way. >> we can tell the story by looking at the way the earliest christians themselves thought about jesus, by the way they kept his memory alive, by the way that they told the story. >> narrator: central to the story is the fact that jesus was born a subject of the roman empire. >> ( dramatized ): and in

or not and it's a rite of passage and that all is convinced that he will be among the survivors jesus himself told him by telepathy in the new era he's even going to change his name he will be called and told ma i think integrating christ takes more than just five minutes i mean.

or not and it's a rite of passage and not all is convinced that he will be among the survivors jesus himself told him.

a good impact on people and are these visions helping people to pray more, to become closer to jesus himselfthem. that's the only test. time is also important. you can't tell straight off. >> mary makes more appearances to people than does her famous son. so why is mary bigger than jesus when it comes to capturing the imagination of everyone from popes to peasants? >> she is exceptionally sympathetic. and, therefore, for many, she is the person who will come to warn us if there is danger, if we need to repent from our sin, if god is angry. >> mary's maternal reach even extends beyond christianity into islam, where many non-muslims might be surprised to learn that she is also venerated. >> there's actually more about mary in the koran than there is in the new testament, word for word. but the story of her in the koran is wonderful. the chapter on mary in the koran shows her pregnant, having to leave her village, going out into the desert, giving birth to jesus under a palm tree, under the protection of the angel gabriel. >> while islam might revere mary, she remains a lightning rod for disput

as an historian, this 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 had forged 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, now 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 tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. >> that's the picture that we get in acts. the historical reality is probably much more complex. and the christian movement probably began not from a single center, but from many different centers where different groups of disciples of jesus gathered and tried to make sense of what they had experienced with him and what had happened to him at the end of his public ministry. >> the acts

. >> jesus himself, "oh, god, why hast thou forsaken me?" so impervious to the world that i don't know that religion does a lot of good sometimes, that some religious people really are good and they want to do good. but unfortunately, so many religious people let the religions lead them into hatred. >> let's have a little fun with one from "perfidious proverbs." it's actually called "parable of the perfidious proverbs." and proverb, as people i hope know, is an epigram of wisdom contained in the "book of proverbs" in what christians call the old testament, the hebrew bible. >> okay, yeah. >> how better it is to get wisdom than gold. >> money buys prophets and teachers, poems and art. so, listen, if you're so rich, why aren't you smart? >> he that spareth his rod hateth his son. >> that line gives you a perfect way of testing your inner feelings about child molesting. >> he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent. >> but here at the parish, we don't find it overly hard to accept his dirty cash or credit card. >> hope deferred maket

so under that standard, jesus himself would not qualify.he little sisters of the poor a saintly order of nuns who give beautiful care and housing to our nation's indigent seniors have already warnd that due to the obama care mandate they may have is to shutter their homes all across the united states which would be he a tragedy. this is uncon objectionable and unconstitutional. the president can and must step in to stop this madness and that is the memo. we'll have more on this story later not the program. now, the top story tonight, we are just days away going over the fiscal cliff. and the chance of a deal before the new year is slim. so now each side is pointing fingers instead of hammering out a deal. >> republicans aren't about to write a blank check for are anything senate democrats put forward just because we find ourselves at the edge of the cliff. >> any time the speaker and the republican leader come to the president and say we have got a deal for you, the president's door is always open and mine is, too. >> laura: and according t

store for instance how many of those books and how many of those movies do you think that jesus christ himself could watch. and that will tell you how many things are going to get burned those things need to be cleansed out of the world for him to be a part of it again so he's going to come back there's going to be a cleansing process the millennium burned so that tells you how bad the world could possibly be. living quarters for a large family in a bunker being sold up to two million euros. to meet the demand real estate projects like these are sprouting up all over the united states. just a few months ago larry hall was building skyscrapers but today in the middle of the kansas plains in a spot he means to keep secret this businessman has decided to devote his time to a project worthy of the fairies. but it's sixty meters deep this was formerly a launching ramp for nuclear missiles. larry bought it for next to nothing. about it level seven you were never in a residential area living was at the surface in the ring beam that goes around the so. twenty feet to post. a concrete sarcophagus desig

jesus coming into the world. we lievin ts imrtan kind of theological concept called the incarnation, that god came and got with us. god brought himselfperson of jesus and placed himself before us and came in the form of a child. >> as a christian to me one of the greatest miracles, you know, we talk about the miracle of the resurrection, but the greatest miracle to me is the whole idea of the incarnation, is that god would reveal god's self in a humble human being. >> and rev. slaughter believes at's indeed a birthday worth celebrating. i'm kim lawton reporting. ♪ that's our program for now. i'm bob abernethy. you can follow us on twitter and facebook and watch us anytime on the pbs app for iphones and ipads. there's always much more on our web site as well, including a list of some organizaons at offer alternative gift ideas. you can comment on all of our stories and share them. audio and video podcasts are also available. join us at pbs.org. as we leave you, scenes from paris where celebrations were held to mark the 850th anniversary of the cathedral of notre dame .

store friend's sense how many of those books and how many of those movies do you think that jesus christ himself what's. and that'll tell you how many things are going to get burned those things need to be cleansed out of the world for him to be a part of it again so he's going to come back there's going to be a cleansing process the millennium for so that tells you how bad the world could possibly be. living quarters for a large family in a bunker being sold up to two million euros. to meet the demand real estate. all over the united states. just a few months ago larry hall was building skyscrapers but today in middle the.