josephus tel us that tre was growing tension over t last few governors of the countryside.s us that they were pretty abusive and... andup coadministrators, robbing the people, as it were, foror the... ir to line their own pockets. josephus alstells us that there's another source of owing tension in the country at this time, because there's an cobel types coming out of thend woodwork in the try. and so between growing banditry, the rise of the zealot movement, a... a politically active insurgency movemen and then the corruption of the administration, the sin in jerusalem is becoming very, very tense indeed. >> narrator: in the year 60 of the common era, after a decade building communities in the hagreek east, paul decided >> (dramatized): now, with no further place for me in these regions, i am going to jerusalem in a ministry to the saints. >> paul wants to fulfill the promise that he had made to peter and james back in the jerulem conference.n for these ars that he's been in the aegean, he's had his congregations collecting monies together to take back to jerusalem. now we

of jesu the temple in jerusalem was the center of their religious life. has a very memorableian josephuse. he says, "one temple for the one god."th jews saw themselves as a unique peoe with one god, one god alone, and this one god of this one special people had one temple.an that's a very powerful idea, reflecting-- accurately, i think-- e historical truth that the temple was a very powerful unifying soce within the jewish community. this was the onemost sacred place on earth, the one place on and the heavens somehow descend just enough that they just touch. this was the only one placon the entire earth where this was so. >> the tple in jerusalem was the symbolic heart of the jews everywhere, if thse to, if they were pious, wod put aside part of their income-- it's sort of like, oh, the way christmas clubs operate now-- you'd put aside money explicitly to be spent having a party in jerusalem. >> narrator: although the temple was the centerpiece of jewish life and worship, judaism was not a state religion. >> there's no such thing as a state church. ou not a monolithic reli or cultural en

the jewish historian josephus, who had ken part in the war, recounted the story: >> there was a fortressf 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 s