"From Jesus to Christ: The First Christians" tells the epic story ofthe rise of Christianity. The four hours explore the life and death of Jesus,and the men and women whose belief, conviction, and martyrdom created thereligion we now know as Christianity.
Drawing upon historical evidence, the series challenges familiar assumptionsand conventional notions about Christian origins. Archaeological finds haveyielded new understandings of Jesus' class and social status; freshinterpretations have transformed earlier ideas about the identity of the earlyChristians and their communities.
Through engaging on-camera interviews with twelve scholars--New Testamenttheologians, archaeologists, and historians--the series presents theircontributions to this intellectual revolution. For example they talk aboutthe 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 faithsand a shared commitment to bring new ways of thinking about Christianity to apublic audience. They discuss the valuein a historical approach to Jesus and the Bible and whether Christian faithcan be reconciled with such an approach.
HOUR ONE examines how Judaism and the Roman empire shapedJesus' life. Jesus was an ordinary Jewish resident of his time, but newarchaeological findings show that Jesus was probably not the humble class="black">(audio excerpt). Nazareth, where he grew up, was about four milesfrom 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 bythe great Temple in Jerusalem. Jesus was born, lived, and died a Jew, and he was influenced by the diversity and tensions of Judaismat that time.
Jesus was most likely arrested and executedbyRoman authorities whose principal concern was to keep peace in the empire Rome had little tolerance for those it judged disruptive of the PaxRomana, (Roman peace) punishing them in many ways, includingcrucifixion.
The death of Jesus was a Roman act; therewas little if any notice taken by Jewish people. Jesus was another victim ofthe Pax Romana.
HOUR TWO explores the period after the crucifixion of Jesus andtraces 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 earlyChristians 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 centersof the Jesus Movement and began to found new churches in Greco-Roman cities. Paul's letters to these fledglingcongregations mark the first writings of the New Testament.
Meanwhile, expectations about the coming of the Kingdom of God andspiraling tensions between Jews and Rome wouldculminate in a catastrophic Jewish revolt against Rome from 66-70 C.E., endingin the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple--the center of Jewish spirituallife. The traumatic failure of this revolt would dramatically affect thefuture for Jews and Christians.
HOUR THREE follows the story of the first attempts to write thelife of Jesus--the Gospels: The Gospels were products of social and religious reconstruction in the period after thewar, ranging from roughly 70 to after 100 C.E. The program looks at how thesestories were passed down before they werewritten. And how the writing of each Gospel reflects the experiences andcircumstances of early Christians. They donot all tell the same story of Jesus because each one is responding to adifferent audience and circumstances. For example, Matthew's gospel is clearlywritten for a Jewish Christian audience; it is the most Jewish of allthe gospels.
During this time, a growing tension appearedbetween the emergent Christian groups and their Jewish neighbors. The resultwas a process of debate, identity, and separation that shaped both religioustraditions forever. And there were still other external forces, including asecond, devastating Jewish war, the Bar Kochbah revolt, which erupted in132 C.E.
HOUR FOUR chronicles how the Christian movement - as it becameseparate from Judaism-would face new challenges--both internal and external.
In the period between 100 and 300 C.E., the Christian movement grew throughoutthe Roman empire. At times there were heated debates about beliefs, worship, and even about Jesushimself. The Christian movement also faced external threats; it becamesuspicious in the eyes of the Roman authorities and Christians were persecuted.
But the Christian movement pulled together and in the end, what started as asmall sect of Judaism became a significant part of the population, enough sothat the new Roman emperor Constantine decided that they should be part of the official religion of Rome. This was amomentous change for Christianity.
As the fourth century dawned, the cross was transformed into a symbol oftriumph and Jesus of Nazareth became Jesus Christ. In only three hundredyears, the empire that had sent Jesus to his death embraced Christianity(audio excerpt) as an official religion andworshipped him as divine.
