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"From Jesus to Christ: The First Christians" tells the epic story of
the rise of Christianity. The four hours explore the life and death of Jesus,
and the men and women whose belief, conviction, and martyrdom created the
religion we now know as Christianity.
PART ONE
PART TWO
Drawing upon historical evidence, the series challenges familiar assumptions
and conventional notions about Christian origins. Archaeological finds have
yielded new understandings of Jesus' class and social status; fresh
interpretations have transformed earlier ideas about the identity of the early
Christians and their communities.
Through engaging on-camera interviews with twelve scholars--New Testament
theologians, archaeologists, and historians--the series presents their
contributions to this intellectual revolution. For example they talk about
the quest for the historical Jesus -
what can we really know? And how do we know it?
The scholars together represent a range of viewpoints and diversity of faiths
and a shared commitment to bring new ways of thinking about Christianity to a
public audience. They discuss the value
in a historical approach to Jesus and the Bible and whether Christian faith
can be reconciled with such an approach.
HOUR ONE examines how Judaism and the Roman empire shaped
Jesus' life. Jesus was an ordinary Jewish resident of his time, but new
archaeological findings show that Jesus was probably not the humble
village peasant often portrayed (audio excerpt).
Nazareth, where he grew up, was about four miles
from the cosmopolitan urban center of Sepphoris,
one of the Roman provincial cities (see map).
While Rome defined one dimension of Jesus' world, the other was symbolized by
the great Temple in Jerusalem. Jesus was
born, lived, and died a Jew,
and he was influenced by the
diversity and tensions of Judaism
at that time.
Jesus was most likely arrested and executed by
Roman authorities whose principal concern was to keep peace in the empire
Rome had little tolerance for those it judged disruptive of the Pax
Romana, (Roman peace) punishing them in many ways, including
crucifixion.
The death of Jesus was a Roman act; there
was little if any notice taken by Jewish people. Jesus was another victim of
the Pax Romana.
HOUR TWO explores the period after the crucifixion of Jesus and
traces the beginnings of the Jesus Movement,
in those early years before it was called Christianity:
The Jesus Movement began as a sect within Judaism. Along the way, the early
Christians branched out and spread their message to non-Jews or gentiles
(meaning "nations"). The Apostle Paul had a profound impact on this spread;
around 50 C.E., Paul travelled away from the traditional centers
of the Jesus Movement and began to found new churches in Greco-Roman cities.
Paul's letters to these fledgling
congregations mark the first writings of the New Testament.
Meanwhile, expectations about the coming of the Kingdom of God and
spiraling tensions between Jews and Rome would
culminate in a catastrophic Jewish revolt against Rome from 66-70 C.E., ending
in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple--the center of Jewish spiritual
life. The traumatic failure of this revolt would dramatically affect the
future for Jews and Christians.
HOUR THREE follows the story of the first attempts to write the
life of Jesus--the Gospels: The Gospels
were products of social and religious reconstruction in the period after the
war, ranging from roughly 70 to after 100 C.E. The program looks at how these
stories were passed down before they were
written. And how the writing of each Gospel reflects the experiences and
circumstances of early Christians. They do
not all tell the same story of Jesus because each one is responding to a
different audience and circumstances. For example, Matthew's gospel is clearly
written for a Jewish Christian audience; it is the
most Jewish of all
the gospels.
During this time, a growing tension appeared
between the emergent Christian groups and their Jewish neighbors. The result
was a process of debate, identity, and separation that shaped both religious
traditions forever. And there were still other external forces, including a
second, devastating Jewish war, the Bar Kochbah revolt, which erupted in
132 C.E.
HOUR FOUR chronicles how the Christian movement - as it became
separate from Judaism-would face new challenges--both internal and external.
In the period between 100 and 300 C.E., the Christian movement grew throughout
the Roman empire. At times there were heated debates
about beliefs, worship, and even about Jesus
himself. The Christian movement also faced external threats; it became
suspicious in the eyes of the Roman authorities and Christians were
persecuted.
But the Christian movement pulled together and in the end, what started as a
small sect of Judaism became a significant part of the population, enough so
that the new Roman emperor Constantine decided
that they should be part of the official religion of Rome. This was a
momentous change for Christianity.
As the fourth century dawned, the cross was transformed into a symbol of
triumph and Jesus of Nazareth became Jesus Christ. In only three hundred
years, the empire that had sent Jesus to his death embraced Christianity
(audio excerpt) as an official religion and
worshipped him as divine.