. >> matthew and luke depend on mark, which is why those three gospels-- matthew, mark, and luke-- arelled the "synoptic gospels," because they can be understood together. >> once scholars had decided that mark's gospel was used by 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 in "mark." >> scholars observed that there's a part of the sayings in "matthew" that are exactly identical with sayings in luke. in fact, they're identical in greek, sayings of jesus. now, think: jesus spoke aramaic. so if you were translating aramaic and if i were translating aramaic, they'd come out different, these translations. so you would only have identical... you would only have jesus speaking identical sayings in greek if you had a written translation in greek of his sayings. and so 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 germa

is that intended as the literal truth in matthew and luke? the gospels give us one description of the birth of jesus. do archaeology and history give us another? joining us to answer these questions areu.s. open, the aute brand new "jesus of nazareth cunning of the and jeffrey sheler author of the brand new "is the bible truth?" >>> tell us what you think happened at bethlehem, jeffrey she'ller. >> well when we read two gospels, only two of the four gospels even talk about the birth of jesus and when we read matthew and luke, those two gospels, we are certainly presented with different details surrounding the story of the birth but despite the differences there are several things that clearly come through and those are the important aspects of the story. one, that jesus was born in bethlehem. to a virgin named mary. whose husband, joseph, was of the lineage of david. and this according to the writers of those two gospels was in fulfillment of the hebrew prophesies. so despite very clear and seemingly troubling contradictions in some of the de

fund dollars in the amounts of 770,000,. >> same house same call this resident luke is adopted. item 15 is a tax resident luxe by the finances authority for none procrastinate and not authority not no exceed 33 million and to finances owned by san francisco friends school school. same call. without objection this item is adopted. >> retroactively to accept the grands of in the apt 2,050,000 and to source 100% of san francisco's electrical demand of electrical source through june 2013. >> same house same call this resident luke is adopted. >> item 1317. item 17 is acceptance and an extension grant in the amount of 650,000 -- for a grant period of april 212012 to march 312014. >> same house same call. this resident luke is adopted next item. >> item 18 is to improve the wave revenue bonds and aggregate principles amount not to exceed 250 million pursuant to the charter. >> same house same call. >> this resident luxe is adopted. >>> item 19. >> item 19 is approval for the grant application for continued develop of grant care program and approval produce and for the annual and recur

how are you, luke? what is going on? tell us what this -- where are we? give us a road map here, because those of us on the outside looking up to capitol hill for some explanation are flummexed at best. the amendment to plan b, the cantor addendum, are we any closer to an actual deal? >> no one necessarily knows for sure, alex, but what i can tell you is i spoke to a number of members last night who are sort of establishment republicans, and they said, look, we don't necessarily know what exactly the speaker is doing unless this is some sort of a large plan that he and obama have together so that he gets to be able to show the more conservative members of his congress that he is doing all he can to prevent some sort of large scale deal in a would have a massive tax increase from happening. something happened on monday that we don't know about. if you read the newspaper articles, if you talk to people, it seemed like the two sides were close. obama put 400,000.

. >> thank you, luke. >> obviously, you've been very outspoken about how the sequester could have the severe impact on budgets for cities around the country. talk about that a little bit. we're only six days away. are you surprised by the lack of action here in washington on the fiscal cliff considering the dire implications for a lot of budgets in cities around america? >> actually, look, i am surprised. been around the block just a couple times. i've seen different things in the past, but this is very serious business, and apparently some members of congress just don't get it. the -- you can call it whatever you want to call it, but certainly fiscal is in front of it and it's not good. taxes going up for all americans, not a good thing. significant, possibly devastating budget cuts coming down to certainly state and local governments, not a good thing. and so this seemingly bad game of chicken, you know, this is not some schoolyard game here. this is about people's lives, it's about their livelihoods, it's about the future of cities, it's about programs that need the dollars to prov

luke, three reporters to get through. the best for last. luke, it is your turn. >> well, toure, what mike said there is correct. if there's agreement out of the united states senate it is voted on tonight and the house tomorrow. a lot of folks in the house really view the deadline as 11:59 a.m. on thursday. that's when this congress by law has to adjourn. so between now and then we're going to get a back and forth, sequester delay and mike just spoke about. i want to say one thing which i think we're missing over here, guys. the fact to agree here in washington, d.c. about these numbers at $400,000 for individuals and $450,000 for couples, think about how much this is argued over over 10 years in washington. these tax levels. not just sunsetted later on, it's for couples and individuals permanently and a huge deal and what mitch mcconnell was trying to say, we have come to this agreement. voting to raise taxes. that's huge for republicans. don't scuttle it because of some hiccup over the sequester. now a lot of democrats who don't like this

the gospel according to luke tells us it was here that the miracle of jesus' birth began.he ark angel gabriel told mary she was to be the virgin mother of the son of god. there is nothing else written in the gospels about the lives jesus and his family led in nazareth. with so little information about jesus boy hoods early christians were curious and to respond ancient authors invented stories to fill the gap. they were known as the apocryphal gospel. >> they were asked to come to the temple and then they left them there overnight and the staff of the gods that was flower then that man would be the husband of mary. of course they were chosen>> father joseph of the st. joseph university in california is a leading historian in the catholic church. christians wondered about the lives of jesus mary and joseph. >> it is a story about a young jesus that was popular and was treated like dime store novels. >> very interesting book actually is the story . it starts to image what must it be like for god to be a child as it were. in one sense it starts off as den nas the menace so yo

luke's teacher tried to protect her kids. so you're in the classroom. and miss mckenzie is -- is she calm? is she excited? how was she? >> she was crying. >> reporter: miss mckenzie was crying. >> yeah. >> reporter: he says it must have been pretty scary. >> yeah but then like -- our next door teacher said to come to her classroom. >> reporter: so you all went in there? >> yeah because probably the gunman was going to come in our classroom. >> reporter: fortunately for luke and his classmates, the gunman never made it to their classroom. but even as they were ushered to safety at a nearby fire house the kids were very scared. and luke bravely wanted to help calm them. >> they're crying and like it's okay. my dad is a cop. and he'll like help us. >> reporter: his dad luke ramirez is a police officer in the neighboring town of oxford. and he did come. he was one of the first responders on the scene. >> i thought my husband was calling me and i picked up the phone right away and iered just heard the -- just heard the terror in his voice telling me somethin

luke will say that he is not. i'll bring you in a second, luke.emocrats end up playing ball even when there are pills in there that are icky for them to swallow. >> look, if boehner doesn't get it done tonight, is he in real trouble. if he does, okay. it's funny to me. you take away that chart we looked at earlier, and we're just a panel talking about the plot of general hospital. we don't know exactly why the nurse did that and turned on the weather machine or whatever it is. >> who is the nurse? >> that's a good question. >> oh, blacky. >> there is a sense that the republican party would not be doing all of this if they could avoid it, right? to meagan's point, if you look at the polling on this, 69% of the public disapproves of the way republicans are handling this. 17% approve. this is not good in terms of party management going forward. maybe it helps you in 2014. >> you pointed it out. we've spoken in many metaphors already, but the one that's most apt is luke's dance metaphor. the president has come to walts. boehner has represented himself

luke santana had ms. soto for first grade a few years back and scott, he reports to me she was "so nice and kind." >> pelley: you have to love that boy. jim, thanks very much. figuring out why this happened is the hardest part of the investigation. justice correspondent bob orr has learned that the killer knew how to cover his tracks. >> reporter: the search for a motive is proving to be difficult. a computer and hard drive recovered from gunman adam lanza's home were smashed into so many small pieces the f.b.i. lab has been unable to retrieve any useful data. cyber experts are not optimistic. police are searching credit card e-mail, and phone records for lanza and his mother. investigators are also trying to reconstruct lanza's internet searches. but officials say lanza was a socially awkward recluse who had little touch with the outside world and he killed his mother nancy lanza, the one person who knew him best. law enforcement officials say over the past three years his mother bought and registered th

luke's teacher tried to protect her kids. so you're in the classroom and mrs. mckenzie, is she calm? is she excited? how was she? >> she was crying. >> reporter: mrs. mckenzie was crying? >> yeah. >> reporter: because it must have been pretty scary. >> yeah. but then like our next door teacher said to come to her classroom. >> reporter: so you all went in this? >> yeah, because probably the gunman was going to come in our classroom. i don't know. >> reporter: fortunately for luke and his classmates the gunman never made it to their classroom. but even as they were ushered to safety at a nearby firehouse, the kids were very scared. and luke bravely wanted to help calm them. >> they're crying and i'm like, it's okay. my dad is a cop. he'll like help us. >> reporter: his dad, luke ramirez, is a police officer in the neighboring town of oxford. and he did come. he was one of the first responders on the scene. >> he grabbed me, actually. and i said, oh, i said, you're finally here. what took you so long? >> reporter: it was a happy ending for the santana family. but

look, this is -- as luke can tell you, this is not surprising. luke is not sitting there in washington going, gee, i wonder when they're going to get a deal done. he knows how this is going to play out. >> yes. >> i have to ask you, because there's so much sort of feigned shock that the president is playing quote/unquote hard ball here. i'll read a quote from "the washington post" -- he says why was anyone surprised obama's initial offer to the republicans was a compendium of what he preferred. we became accustomed to obama's -- are republicans on the hill factually surprised or is this sort of feigned outrage to make the president look unreasonable? >> no. i think there is an actual surprise last week when tim geithner came to capitol hill and gave a plan that included, amongst other things, billions in more stimulus as well as the ability for the president to set the debt limit himself without review by legislative body. those are two big things that send shivers up the spine of house republicans that they would never in a million years agree t

that does remain the last sticking point. >> luke, jump in here. what do you have to add that mike has already told us. >> well, mike viqueira is 12, 13 years of experience on capitol hill, so there's not much more to add after that. what i will say is i don't think that we can dismiss a lot of the anger on the republican side at the president's remarks today. i have gotten a ton of e-mails from republican aides saying the president is holding the middle class tax cuts that were agreed to hostage. i think if you take a step back, it's quite extraordinary that mitch mcconnell has agreed to $400,000 as a threshold. you think of all the partisan fights over what that number would be. but going forward, there seems to be a little anger amongst republicans saying that the president is not realizing how much they have already handed over. they're obviously in a much stronger negotiating position at 1600 pennsylvania avenue, but we have to caution you guys, the ink is not dry on any type of deal. the house is not going to vote on it tonight. they honestly

luke russert, appreciate it. after the break, the question being asked ad nauseam, is what happens if we go over the cliff? we're already learning what it's like to go over another cliff. >> we've already gone over the political cliff here, if you will, with what -- because the deal that happens, if it happens, is temporary. we're going to have this debt ceiling thing in six weeks, which is just a bomble. >> we'll get into that debt ceiling thing, and look at the broader economic implications of the cliff next on "now." [ whistle blows ] hi victor! mom? i know you got to go in a minute but this is a real quick meal, that's perfect for two! campbell's chunky beef with country vegetables, poured over rice! [ male announcer ] campbell's chunky soup. it fills you up right. >>> a long time ago i was a stockbroker. the thing wall street and investors can't take is uncertainty. if they know taxes are going up, they'll refigure things. if they know taxes are going down, they'll refigure things. if they know taxes are sta

luke tells us that she was possessed by seven demons and had been exorcised by jesus.ause he had performed a healing for her. other than that, mary is an independent woman. prostitute? no reason to think so. >> but what was she to jesus? could jesus have been married to mary magdalene, as some legends have it, or to anyone else? >> we have no indication in the gospel tradition that jesus is married. would it have been unusual for a jewish man to have been unmarried? no, not at all. >> whatever the details of jesus' personal life, to his fellow jews, what he said was as important as what he did. he gave them a radical agenda, scholars say, one in which society's outcasts could play a central role. its manifesto promised that the powerful will be brought low and the meek would inherit the earth. the sermon on the mount was an edgy message at a volatile time. >> the thought of jesus going up into the hills with his followers and giving them special teaching has a kind of a revolutionary flavor to it. my goodness, we're being prepared to do something. this is not just some

. >> the story of that birth is found only in two gospels, luke and matthew.y don't agree on all the details, they do agree that this event was miraculous -- a child born to a virgin. >> this is a tradition in antiquity, in general. if you're important, you had a special birth. alexander the great had a virgin birth. his mother was impregnated by a god. it's what you do, okay? and so, certainly, that emphasis on jesus' special birth, the wise men, the angels, all of it, you know, have to do with showing that this is somebody you can expect great things of. and, of course, precisely, that's what happens. >> believers in jesus took that from the prophecy they found in isaiah, where they read the saying, "behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and call his name jesus." and some of them must have read that and said, aha! that's what it was. his birth was a miracle. >> whatever the truth of the bethlehem story, the star of the tale was jesus, not mary, whom the gospels mention just 13 times and not always by name. >> she's in there by virtue of her relatio

>> i think it most unlikely that it happened exactly as luke describes it, but luke is absolutely clearhat significance he sees in what happened. and what he needs to do is relay through his story, not just what happened, but what it meant that it happened, what it signified, and so he draws on the old testament. and we have this wonderful image of all the nations of the earth being reunited under this renewed blessing and law of god. >> less than two months after the violent death of jesus, his once terrified followers were now boldly proclaiming his divine rule. it would seem that christianity had already taken root, though its followers didn't see it that way. >> these earliest followers of jesus understood themselves to be jews. they thought that jesus was the jewish messiah, who had been sent from the jewish god to the jewish people in fulfillment of the jewish scriptures. >> so they're not, at least, originally interested in starting a new religion. they're interested in preparing the world for its final consummation. >> but that kingdom doesn't come. and the claims the followers

i'm luke russert. live in washington, d.c. in for andrea this afternoon is the calm before the economic storm white house officials and congressional leaders have kept quiet. ahead of the pivotal round table discussions we all hope can produce some kind of plan to prevent a fiscal cliff dive in the new year. you guessed it. another day without a deal means more losses on wall street. look at those numbers will. 68 down for the dow. joining for the daily fix, nbc white house correspondent peter alexander. nbc's kelly o'donnell live on capitol hill. and jonathan capeheart. peter, let me start with you. there's this meeting at 3:00 p.m. at the white house between the president and congress allege leaders. any optimism there? there's some -- little bit of a trickle of maybe some sort of compromise deal with rates starting at 400,000 instead of 2 r50. how is the white house feeling about this meting coming up at 3:00? is this more important show? >> at the white house at least from the conversations we have had with aides and other

. >> joining me now from the capitol dome, nbc's luke russert. i don't know, i think that was what we call officially laying the smack down over there at the business roundtable. i was really surprised that the president went out there on the debt ceiling debate which is something that he put in the initial package that tim it geithner took to the hill and seemed to be an anath matteau those in the gop. he seems to be saying look, we're not going to get this deal done without the debt ceiling in the package. >> it was fascinating, alex. so much has changed from 2011 when we heard from republicans that the boehner rule, i. efrmgts any extension of the debt limit must be matched by matching spending cuts the norm from now on. seems president obama does not want to play that game as he said. walking away from the press conference today withes the gop leadership on capitol hill, a x alex, they're still engaging in the trench warfare. i asked speaker boehner about the $250,000 bush tax cuts, all the polling shows the country will think republicans are

we have luke, luke, i will start with you this hour. the senate officially reconvenes tomorrow afternoon. i assume that there's a lot of closed door talks going on right now. is that true? what can you tell us? >> reporter: that is true, staff from harry reed and mitch mcconnell have been negotiating through the daout the day and in picked up. we have heard that both sides are not budgeting. but we don't know, things can change at any moment. if we have to gauge how to talks have gone so far from the conversations we have had here around capitol hill, they have not been too good at the moment. all that being said though, craig, there's a lot that can happen over the next 48 hours. the deal obviously is to try to have something on the floor that can pass the house of representatives by new year's eve. that is why it's so difficult, craig. you have mitch mcconnell and harry reed trying to get something passed. so there's a lot of moving parts. this is not a really easy road ever. so far, things are not overly optimistic, there was a touch

luke, what are you hearing, if anything, about progress today? >> reporter: this morning, craig, there were a hints of optimism and that's subsided to a degree. as kristen mentioned. there are sources close to the talks that say no deal has been reached and again, these negotiations are fluid. they go up and down. it's not an easy road to get to these things at the end and especially at the 11th hour. it's windy. mitch mcconnell is at the capitol and assuming he's in contact with harry reid and their staffs are going back and forth. the question has been every single day we've been into these negotiations. what is the threshold that republicans are willing to take to avert the fiscal cliff. there's their 400,000. so everyone who makes $400,000 their taxes would stay the same. would that be acceptable. if there is no deal to be reached we do know that harry reid will try to move forward on monday with the bill for those making $250,000 or below. so that's what we need to see how it will work there. there are types of sweeteners they can do. mitch

but i think to echo one thing that luke was reporting. this is a moment of sorts for the tax crusaders. they came out with the weird statement that this tax wasn't a tax. so even they, the supposed red line guardians of these endless debates about taxes have said you can do it and they said no for the reasons you explained. they are in a real pickle. >> they said no following the reasoning of rush limbaugh. >> if he agrees to raise taxes on the rich. then they are conceding that, that is the problem. and that reduction can be addressed by raising taxes on the rich. he has the eraser if he cab get the republicans to agree with his premise. then they are giving up a lot of what they are known for. >> that seems to be what it came down to for the republicans who stopped john boehner tonight. >> being known for the guys who cut taxes on the rich is working out so well for him right now. >> he does not have the votes to pass a deal with president obama. we know he doesn't have the votes to just do his own bill if it wouldn't get a signature fr

luke's teacher tried to protect her kids. so you're in the classroom, and mrs. is she excited? how was she? >> she was crying. >> reporter: mrs. mckenzie was crying? >> yeah. >> reporter: because it must have pretty scary. >> yeah. but then like our next door teacher said to come to her classroom. >> reporter: so you all went in there? >> yeah because probably the gunman was going to come in our classroom. >> reporter: fortunately for luke and his classmates, the gunman never made it to their classroom. but even as they were ushered to safety at a nearby fire house, the kids were very scared. and luke bravely wanted to help calm them. >> they were crying. i was like, it's okay. my dad is a cop, and he'll like help us. >> reporter: his dad, luke ramirez, is a police officer in the neighboring town of oxford. and he did come. he was one of the first responders on the scene. >> i saw my husband was calling. i picked up the phone right away. and i hear the terror in his voice telling me something terrible happened. you have to get here to the school. >> reporter: lu

my name is luke. i'm one of the owner of a historic [speaker not understood] in western soma on the 9th street corridor. the building has been built over the years with numerous tenants, mostly smaller tenants because of the building's layout. but the tenants range from small start ups to high profile nonprofits as well. * and really, these tenants in the area are bringing a new energy and a new life to the area to help revitalize the area. * fill and us as owners have also taken a position of doing the same thing where we've decided to go ahead and hire extra security to patrol the neighborhood about six times a night from 6:00 a.m. till 4:00 in the morning. we also hire people to clean up the streets and graffiti. we want to help revitalize this neighborhood. now we're in a tough position because the article 11 is now being removed from the west soma plan which would essentially not allow for these type of uses. this would not only give -- not only limit the tenants that we can have in the building,

what we are likely to see, as luke is reporting, the house come in. they can hardly stay out of town when the nation does go over the cliff. as seems increasingly likely at this point. and what we will undoubtedly see is a last minute flurry of activity, i'm going to go out on a limb, that will amount to a lot of approximates touring and covering of backsides to ensure the other side gets the maximum amount of blame. yes, there will likely be meetings and a flurry of phone calls, but the bottom line and luke has reported quite accurately, the house speaker is not going to put a bill on the floor that does not -- that runs afoul of the invial lat tenets. he will not put something on the floor that requires a majority democratic support. and then hope renews again the inertia scenario. the vote becomes one to cut taxes and not allow taxes to rise. >> luke and mike, thank you very much. joining us now democratic congressman keith ellison of minnesota. welcome, congressman. >> thanks for having me. >> i know you would rather be in washington getting some

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nbc's luke russert. thanks so much. let's get right to our panel now.snbc contributor ari melber is with me in the studio, and democratic strategist julian epstein joins us from washington. speaker boehner today hold reporters the president is in la la land. then he presents a counteroffer based on the mythical dynamic scoring system that saves money through projected growth. who is actually living in la la land? >> yeah, this is really extraordinary. and the republicans are not living in the real world. consider what we're thinking about, what we're talking about right now. obama, who won the election with an overwhelming electoral college mandate has put forward exactly what he campaigned on, which is sensible tax reform allowing the top 2% of the tax -- of rates to increase on the top 2% of tax earners and spending cuts. we've had a trillion in spending cuts already, $800 billion additional in the drawdown from the war efforts in afghanistan and iraq, and then a number of spending proposals that obama put on the table in august of '11. consider that

we have our sage of capitol hill luke russert on set here.ou're holding it down in the nation's capital. in firms of the discussions of the fiscal cliff, the white house is focused solely on cuts for top earners. almost no discussion of unemployment insurance and payroll taxes, the farm bill which would include the price of milk and food stamps on a broader level. at what point do these become sticking points in the negotiation? >> reporter: they're going to become sticking points and probably before the end of the year, because remember there are a couple of things going on. if the president gets a deal on rates, republicans are going to be less inclined to go along with some of the other things, like extended unemployment insurance and some sort of extension perhaps in different form of the payroll tax cut. but also to avoid the sequestration, the congress has got to find some way to have cuts in the interim. if they kick the can down the road they have to have month by month cuts. the farm bill, talking $10 billion a month to in effect buy