NARRATOR: This program explores
the mysteries of the Bible from a variety of historical
and theological perspectives which have been
debated for centuries. For billions of people
around the world, he is known as the Son of
God, the Messiah, the Prince of Peace. But who was the man simply
known in his lifetime as Jesus, the carpenter's son from
Nazareth who was executed by the Romans and whose
teachings have inspired one of the most powerful and
influential religions in the world? Just how accurate are
the accounts as written in the Bible's New Testament? Jesus doesn't do lots of
the things one would expect a messiah to do. His friends were
prostitutes and sinners. Jesus's ministry was actually
funded by a lot of women. You might be surprised to
learn that Jesus had siblings. NARRATOR: It is one of the most
important books ever written. Its contents have been studied,
debated, and fought over for thousands of years. But does the Bible
also contain secrets? Secret prophesies, secret
characters, secret texts? Now for the first time,
an extraordinary series will challenge everything we
think, everything we know, and everything we
believe about the Bible. The ancient kingdom of Judea,
more than 2,000 years ago. It was here, according to
the New Testament gospels of Matthew and Luke, that
the infant Jesus was born to a young woman named Mary
and her husband Joseph. But believe it or not, the
actual year of Jesus birth is uncertain. For centuries, the year
1 AD or anno domini, the year of our Lord, was
assumed to be correct. But recent historical
research has proved otherwise. ROBERT R. CARGILL: Jesus is born
somewhere between 4 and 7 BCE because Herod the Great died
in 4 BC and Jesus was born during Herod the Great. So this is one of the
secrets that scholars know, but most people
don't think about. Those who made the calendar,
they dated the birth of Jesus incorrectly, and we
still live on a calendar where Jesus is actually
born 4 to 7 years BC. NARRATOR: But the exact
year of Jesus' birth is not the only
historic fact that seems to differ from tradition. The New Testament
states that Jesus was born in the
town of Bethlehem, but even that has been recently
questioned by both historians and theologians. BART EHRMAN: Jesus is said
to be born in Bethlehem in both Matthew and Luke. In fact, historians
today widely think that Jesus was not born in
Bethlehem, that Jesus was born in Nazareth, the hometown of
his parents Joseph and Mary. NARRATOR: According to the
Gospel of Luke, prior to giving birth to Jesus, Mary
and her husband Joseph would have been required to
travel to Joseph's birthplace of Bethlehem in order to take
part in the Roman census. But recent scholarship has
indicated that the only likely census during that period
was the census of Quirinius around the year 6 AD. REZA ASLAN: We know a
lot about Roman census. After all, the purpose of
a census was for taxation, and the Romans were quite
adept at keeping documentations when it came to taxation. There is not a single
scrap of evidence that these people
were to be counted not in the place of residence but
in the place of their father's birth. So then why do
Matthew and Luke say that Jesus was born in
Bethlehem and not in Nazareth? Because according to the
prophecies about the Messiah in the Hebrew Bible,
the Messiah is supposed to be born in the city
of David, which is Bethlehem. NARRATOR: Why is
there a disparity between the biblical
account of Jesus' birth and the results of research
by mainstream historians? The fact is pretty
much everything we know about the life of
Jesus comes from the four gospels of the New Testament. And even though the gospels
are credited to the evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke,
and John, the gospels may actually have been
written 40 to 100 years after the crucifixion. They also contained little
or no accounts of Jesus' life before he became a prophet. We would love to know
answers to like what was Jesus like as a teenager and did
Jesus ever have any girlfriends. Did you ever have
any relationships, anything like that. The gospels don't really want
to tell us any of that stuff because they're really
interested in just focusing on why Jesus is who
he is and what he did. NARRATOR: What really happened
during Jesus' so-called lost years? Were the accounts
omitted deliberately? If so, why? Perhaps closer
examination of the gospels will reveal some
surprising facts. MARK GOODACRE: It's one of
the biggest kept secrets about Jesus that he's one
of quite a large family. We know of at least
four brothers-- James, Joses, Judas, and Simon. We know of at least
a couple of sisters. JAMES D. TABOR: One
was named Salome. We think one Maria. So there you've got seven
kids right there, maybe more. MARK GOODACRE: And the curious
thing about Jesus's family is that lots of them
later on become key people in the church, most importantly
Jesus's brother James. It's curious how they
disappear though, and it may just be
because as time goes on, the idea of the perpetual
virginity of the Virgin Mary catches on. NARRATOR: Perhaps one of
the most controversial and profound aspects
of the story of Jesus is the belief that his
mother Mary gave birth to him while a virgin. It is among the very foundations
of the Christian faith. But curiously the references
to Jesus being born of a virgin can only be found in two of
the gospels, Matthew and Luke. Wouldn't such a miraculous event
have been more widely reported? Or was it, as some
scholars suggest, an attempt by Jesus' followers
to justify their belief in him as the Hebrew Messiah,
the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies? ROBERT R. CARGILL:
The New Testament loves to rely on the
prophecies of a prophet Isaiah for proof of Jesus'
Messiah-ship. One of the prophecies
that came very popular was a prophecy during
the time of Hezekiah. Jerusalem's under siege. They don't know if
they're going to survive. And Isaiah comes
up with a prophecy. It says, look, behold,
there's a virgin. And she will bear
a son, and his name will be Emmanuel,
which is God with us. CHRIS KEITH: Matthew uses a
Greek word that in this context means virgin, but the Hebrew
word that appears in Isaiah, it can mean virgin, but it
usually just means a young girl with no comment at all on
whether she had had sex yet. Matthew kind of wiggled
into that interpretation in order to claim that
Jesus was born of a virgin. So it's definitely the
case that they went back to the Old Testament
with eyes of faith. The idea that
Jesus has brothers becomes inconvenient,
becomes a problem. People don't like to think that
Mary might have given birth to anyone other than just Jesus. And so as time
goes on, the church writes them out of the
story, explains them away, says perhaps they were children
of Joseph by another marriage, and so on. NARRATOR: In
addition to evidence that Jesus had
brothers and sisters, there are, in fact, a wide
range of other ancient texts about the life and
teachings of Jesus that are referenced within
the Christian tradition but remain outside of the
official New Testament. In 1945, Egyptian
farmers digging in the small town of Nag
Hammadi uncovered an earthen jar containing more than
50 ancient texts. Later referred to as
the Gnostic Gospels, they are believed to be older
than the oldest known copies of the New Testament. They also include several
additional and at times conflicting versions of
Jesus' life and teachings. Probably 85% of what was
available in the ancient world got destroyed. What we have in
the New Testament, even though there
are four gospels, is a very small slice of the
traditions that were available. NARRATOR: Another ancient gospel
excluded from the New Testament is called the Infancy
Gospel of Thomas. Believed to have been
written around 125 AD, the manuscript is thought to
be an early attempt to provide more details of Jesus'
childhood than could be found in the standard gospels. BART EHRMAN: Well, the
Infancy Gospel of Thomas claims to be written by Thomas,
who was Jesus' own brother. MARK GOODACRE: Jesus is almost
like the young Superman. He just goes around doing
extraordinary things. BART EHRMAN: Jesus is walking
through the street as a five year old, and another kid is
playing and runs up and bangs him on the arm. Jesus turns to him
and he says you'll going no further on your way,
and the child falls down dead. CHRIS KEITH: The people who were
responsible for this text were very clearly interested
in this idea of, you know, if a child was God and had power
over life and death, what would happen if that child
lost his temper? NARRATOR: But why if such a
firsthand account of the boy Jesus' life existed might it
have been excluded from the New Testament? BART EHRMAN: The church fathers
thought some of the stories in it were somewhat
scandalous, and so they decided there is no way this one's
getting into the New Testament. NARRATOR: Although all
that is known about the man called Jesus is a
composite written by several people over a
period of hundreds of years, one fact is certain. He was a charismatic
teacher and prophet. He was a rabbi who,
although some scholars claim he could neither read
nor write, espoused a profound religious philosophy,
that of the divine nature of mankind and the integrity
of all living things. But where did Jesus'
ideas about God come from? Who were his mentors? There are those who believe
he was strongly influenced by a man many thought to
be wild and dangerous. The river Jordan, Palestine,
approximately 26 AD. A half-starved, nearly naked man
storms along the river's edge predicting the end of days and
practicing baptismal rituals. JAMES D. TABOR: John the Baptist
or literally John the Dipper, because to baptize means
to immerse or dip in water, he's seen as the
one who prepares the way for the Messiah. NARRATOR: According
to the New Testament, people came from all
over the Middle East to be immersed in the river
by this charismatic preacher. He was also believed to be
Jesus' first cousin, a prophet who sought to cleanse
the sins of man before the coming
of the Messiah. Jesus' mother Mary is called
a kinswoman of Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist. They probably knew each
other all their lives growing up as kids,
teenagers, into their 20s. One of the little known
secrets of the Bible is that John and Jesus
were at one time rivals. John was actually the big
prophet and that Jesus was kind of the upstart. REZA ASLAN: Many Jews thought
that John the Baptist was himself the Messiah. In fact, many of
John's disciples thought of their master
as superior to Jesus. After all, as they
argued, who baptized whom? NARRATOR: As far as the
occupying Romans and the Hebrew elite were concerned, John the
Baptist was not only popular, he was dangerous. Judea in the time of
Jesus was largely a nation of sheepherders and farmers. Life under Roman
occupation was hard, and the conditions
were often brutal. The Jews didn't like
being a conquered people. No one does. REZA ASLAN: The Roman
occupation of Jerusalem created a profound sense of
trauma among the Jews. This created a sense
of apocalyptic yearning among the Jews. There was a feeling that God
was going to free the Jews from the yoke of occupation. NARRATOR: Fearing riots from
his growing crowds of followers, the Romans had John the Baptist
arrested, sent to prison, and eventually beheaded. REZA ASLAN: With the death
of John, his ministry, and, in fact, his disciples
were passed on to Jesus. CHRIS KEITH: The
beheading of John the Baptist had to have been a
very important moment in Jesus' life. It provided the inauguration of
Jesus's kind of solo ministry. Probably more importantly,
it marked Jesus as something of a political
dissident as well. NARRATOR: Following
John's death, Jesus returned to Galilee and
started building his ministry. Sometimes he attracted followers
by performing miracles. In the Capernaum, he
made a lame man walk. In that Bethseda, he gave
a blind man his sight. At a wedding in Cana, he
turned water into wine. KATHLEEN MCGOWAN: At
the wedding of Cana, Jesus turns the water into wine. And he doesn't just
turn it into any wine. He turns it into the best wine. So this is Jesus's
first public miracle. And once he comes forward
with his first miracle, the floodgates really open. The ministry has begun. NARRATOR: But were
the miracles of Jesus as reported in all four
of the gospels real? Or were they concocted
by his followers to help prove what they believe
to be his divine origins? ROBERT R. CARGILL: If we
read the biblical text, Jesus created a great
following the way that just about
everyone else did. He perform miracles. He did magic deeds. He caused the blind to see. He was a healer. NARRATOR: Jesus also
included among his followers many who were considered
outcasts, the poor, and the disenfranchised. JODI MAGNESS: Jesus's
message was aimed primarily at the relatively lower
class, the poorer population of this sort of rural
agricultural Galilee and not so much against the
background of Jerusalem. NARRATOR: In Matthew chapter
20 verses 1 through 16, Jesus preaches that
all are treated equally in the kingdom of
heaven, similar to a job where all laborers receive
the same daily wage regardless of how many hours
each worked that day. JAMES D. TABOR: I get
the idea that he's maybe done he knows what it
feels like to come too late and not get chosen or to
get cheated on your wages. NARRATOR: The concept of equal
pay per day regardless of hours worked was a radical
notion for its time and one that made Jesus seem
threatening to the status quo. ROBERT R. CARGILL: Jesus
liked to push buttons. He liked to provoke controversy. He asked really hard questions,
and he pressed his students. He pressed those who would
listen, challenged them, right. Why do we think what we think? Why do we believe
what we believe? He was incredible teacher. NARRATOR: But although
Jesus eloquently preached about the value of
a person's labor, he did not appear to have
an occupation of his own. DALE MARTIN: If you really
look at the New Testament, he doesn't hold down a job. He tells other people
to leave their jobs. He tells people to
leave their families. NARRATOR: So without a job
or any other apparent source of income, just how
did Jesus support himself and his disciples? ROBERT R. CARGILL: One of
the secrets of the Bible is that Jesus's
ministry was actually funded by a lot of women. If you read Luke,
it's very clearly says that the women were the
ones that were contributing the funds to fund this ministry. JAMES D. TABOR: Some of
the women are named-- Joanna, Susanna, and
then Mary Magdalene. She's from up the
road from Magdala. NARRATOR: Could Mary Magdalene,
the woman who many believed to have been a
common prostitute, really have been a major
benefactor of Jesus' ministry? CANDIDA MOSS: Some
have said perhaps she owns a fishing business. She's Mary of Magdala,
and so it could be that Mary's taking
funds from her own business and giving them to Jesus. NARRATOR: There are even those
who are convinced that Mary was not only one of Jesus'
most devoted followers. She was also perhaps his
lover or even his wife. Certainly we discover
in the Gnostic text that there are many, many
references to Jesus's relationship to Mary Magdalene. She is referred
to as his beloved. She is referred to in a sexual
manner in the Gnostic Gospels. So not only was Jesus
married, but Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene. In the New Testament,
Mary Magdalene shows up in Jesus' public
ministry only one time in one verse. The Gospel of Luke
chapter 8, we're told that Mary Magdalene and
a large group of other women used to support Jesus and
their disciples financially. That's all it says. And so it's very difficult to
get from that to Mary Magdalene being Jesus' closest disciple
with whom he had a relationship and ended up getting married to. NARRATOR: But whatever the
nature of their relationship, many scholars now believe that
the one thing Mary Magdalene was not was a prostitute. They also believe that she
may have been the victim of a sexist agenda on the
part of the church, one that has robbed her of
a place of honor in the history of Christianity. JENNIFER WRIGHT-KNUST:
What happens is that Mary Magdalene gets
conflated with the woman who anoints Jesus in
the Gospel of Luke who is said to be a woman
of the city, a sinner. She's interpreted
as a prostitute by Pope Gregory in
the fifth century, and the rest is history in the
western Christian tradition. NARRATOR: Is Mary Magdalene's
historic reputation as a prostitute the
result of Pope Gregory's misinterpretation? Or was there another
more deliberate agenda at work, an agenda
that not only altered the historical understanding
of Mary Magdalene but also that of Jesus himself? Jesus is very much
concerned with the poor, with the suffering. He likes to consort with sinners
because he considers them the underdog. BART EHRMAN: Today people think
of Jesus as the most righteous upright person who
ever lived and had no taint on his personality. But, in fact, his reputation
in the New Testament was that he was a
drunkard and a glutton and that his friends were
prostitutes and sinners. NARRATOR: Was Jesus of
Nazareth a social radical, a political revolutionary,
a religious philosopher, or was he, in fact, the
Messiah, the Son of God. Perhaps the answer can be
found by an even more careful examination of the New Testament
and secrets that have only recently been discovered. Galilee, northern Israel. It was here more
than 2,000 years ago that Jesus of Nazareth
began his ministry and built his following. One day while traveling near
the town of Caesaria Philippi, Jesus asked his disciples who
do people say the son of man is. When they offered
various answers, he then asked who
do you say I am. Simon Peter then declared
you are the Messiah, the Son of the living God. DALE MARTIN: I'm fairly sure
that the historical Jesus never openly taught that
he was the Messiah. I think if he did, we'd have
more indications that he did in the first three
gospels whereas we don't. We have more of that in John. ROBERT R. CARGILL: In
the Gospel of John, Jesus even uses a term to
describe himself that's I think intentionally ambiguous. He refers to himself in the
third person as the son of man. Well, the secret about
the words son of man is that in Aramaic [aramaic],,
it's just the way that you say a person. So when Jesus uses
the phrase son of man as a self-description, you
don't know whether he's just saying himself or
whether he's actually making a messianic claim. NARRATOR: During
Jesus' lifetime, dozens of other aspiring
self-proclaimed messiahs were criss crossing
the holy land. Some were spiritual figures,
claiming to cast out demons and heal the sick. Others were more political,
vowing to drive the hated Roman Empire into the sea. But Jesus, a Jew who was well
versed in the scriptures, believed that the
Hebrew prophets foretold of a Messiah who would
liberate the Jewish people. They also predicted that the
Messiah would be a descendant of King David and would
restore the kingdom of Judea to peace and prosperity. ROBERT MULLINS: Jesus's
knowledge of scripture was so tremendous that he was
acknowledged by the people and also by the religious
authorities as one who knew the Bible quite well. REZA ASLAN: In the Hebrew Bible,
there are multiple prophecies about what the Messiah is and
what he is supposed to do. But there was at least some
consensus in the time of Jesus that his primary task
would be to liberate the Jews from the
Roman occupation, redemption for the Jews,
redemption for the House of Israel to recreate the
kingdom of David on Earth. NARRATOR: Did Jesus really claim
to be the Messiah, the Savior whose actions would
liberate the Jews? Or was he preaching an
even more radical notion, one that went far
beyond the teachings in the Hebrew testaments
that all men are equal in the eyes of
God regardless of wealth or even the origin of birth? DALE MARTIN: Jesus
of Nazareth was an apocalyptic
Jewish prophet, which is to say he was going around
preaching about the coming kingdom of God and it would be
a physical on Earth kingdom. JEFFREY GEOGEGAN:
On one occasion he is approached by a
very wealthy man who asks what he do to be saved. Jesus said take
all of your wealth, sell it, give it to the
poor, and follow me. Wealth for Jesus was
one of those things that stood in the way of
people following him and following God. There's also a great story
about an adulteress and Jesus apparently letting this
woman off scott free. BART EHRMAN: They say she's been
caught in the act of adultery. According to the law of Moses,
we're to stone her to death. What do you say we should do? Jesus got a dilemma here
because he says, yes, go ahead and stone her, he's violating
his teachings of love and forgiveness and mercy. But if he says, no, let her go,
he's breaking the law of Moses. Well, he looks up and he
says let the one without sin among you be the first
to cast a stone at her. One by one, they leave
until there's nobody left. And he says is there no
one left to condemn you. She says no, Lord, no one. He says neither
do I condemn you. Go and sin no more. MARK GOODACRE: It's a
message all of that renewal, revolution, change, fulfillment. So he does see
himself as something important, powerful, different
that fulfills lots of what's gone before. NARRATOR: Jesus' message,
one that promoted the idea that common people
were in some ways equal to the wealthy
and powerful, resonated with many
of the occupied Jews. They began to follow
him everywhere and formed large crowds
wherever he spoke. But as his followers
grew in number, Jesus' populist teachings
were being increasingly seen by the Romans as a threat. Did Jesus have a
political agenda? It is an issue many religious
and Bible scholars have strongly debated for centuries. WILLIAM FULCO: Jesus makes it
very plain himself that he's not after power and he's
not involved in politics. Render unto Caesar
what is Caesar's, under God, that is God. Jesus is not
involved in politics. He's not involved in trying
to overthrow [inaudible] government. He's bringing a new
spiritual reality. He's a revolutionary
that is already set up a provisional government. He tells the Twelve
Apostles I've chosen you 12 because you will sit on
12 thrones ruling the 12 tribes of Israel. MARK GOODACRE: Jesus is a little
different because there's not an obviously military
angle to Jesus's kind of messianic identity. In other words as
far as we can tell, Jesus doesn't carry a
sword around with him. He doesn't talk about
building up an army. He doesn't like taking
over Jerusalem or anything like that. So Jesus does seem to have
been a much more passive kind of figure, much more of
the holy man kind of figure than a lot of the other messiah
figures that we can track from that time. Anyone who tries to
stand up against the status quo like a Moses figure or a
Jesus figure or a Martin Luther King, Junior, figure, they
know that they are heading for trouble. You cannot usher in the
kingdom of God without ushering out the kingdom of Caesar. For a Jew living in first
century Palestine to be called the Messiah is to declare
war on the Roman Empire. NARRATOR: Did
allowing his followers to refer to him as the Messiah
help to seal Jesus' fate? And did he deliberately
encourage this notion because he knew that his
death was inevitable, perhaps even necessary? One thing is certain. Through his teachings, Jesus had
made himself the target of both the Romans and the religious
hierarchy of the Jews. It wasn't long before they would
begin to plot his crucifixion. For 1,500 years,
the Roman Empire dominated the world,
a far longer period than any of the empires
that followed it. But around 30 AD,
Palestine and its capital Jerusalem was
considered by the Romans to be particularly
difficult to rule. ROBERT R. CARGILL: Jerusalem
is the holiest city in Judaism. This is where the temple sits. This is where God resides. Jerusalem would have been a
place where Jesus would have encountered the Roman rule
and occupation of the country. Temple was always
sort of a tinder box where the Romans anticipated the
possibility of Jewish uprising. NARRATOR: According
to the Gospel of John, it was here in Jerusalem
during the week before Passover that Jesus of Nazareth
entered the city on a donkey. There's certain prophecies
that are given in Zecharia or Isaiah, Jeremiah. For example, the Messiah will
come humble riding on a donkey. So here's Jesus last
week of his life. On a Sunday, he comes riding
down the Mount of Olives on a donkey, almost
panomiming this prophecy. CHRIS KEITH: There are very few
Jews who knew the Old Testament scriptures that would
have missed the analogy. If Jesus ever did ride
into Jerusalem on a donkey, he would have been
self-consciously encouraging them to think of
him in terms of the promised Davidic king. NARRATOR: With
shouts of Hosanna, teeming crowds gathered around
the man who was now being openly called Messiah,
the one who would liberate the Jewish people
from Roman rule. CANDIDA MOSS: To the Romans,
that's constantly a red flag because that's
political language. That's military language. You're talking
about a rebellion. WILLIAM FULCO: The Romans
were probably a little alarmed that he was gathering a
rather large following, which would make them suspicious
of what's going on. NARRATOR: But if there is one
event in the life of Jesus that is the most
out of character, it is perhaps the so-called
cleansing of the temple. It is one of the few incidents
that is reported in all four of the gospels and the one
that likely cost him his life. GARY BURGE: When Jesus
comes to Jerusalem, he immediately goes
into the temple. He discovers the
financial corruptions at work inside of the temple. He knocks over some furniture. He chases out animals. He makes quite a scene, and his
critique is this house of God, which is intended to be a house
of prayer for all nations, not just Jews, all nations, it has
become a house of commerce. He is bringing that voice
of judgment into the temple. And after he does this,
it sets the course that leads to his death. NARRATOR: In all of the accounts
of his life and teachings, Jesus appears to be loving,
docile, and deliberately nonviolent. Yet here in the largest
and most important of all Jewish temples,
Jesus reportedly shouts at and even whips people who
he feels are committing acts of desecration. But why? Was Jesus trying to
ignite a political revolt, or did he stage the event in
a way that was deliberately intended to trigger his
arrest and eventual martyrdom? JAMES D. TABOR: Not so much
staging it but sincerely believing that he's
supposed to do this. Did he also read about how
the Messiah's going to suffer for the sins of the
people and he thought he had to go to the cross? NARRATOR: Did Jesus really
think he was the Messiah, the actual son of God? Or did he believe himself
to be a spiritual leader and liberator? The question of how Jesus
perceived himself will likely remain a secret for all time. He told his disciples,
according to several verses in the New Testament,
that they would be rulers in the future kingdom. Who would Jesus be
in this kingdom? I believe that Jesus taught
the disciples privately that he himself was going
to be the king. One of the 12, Judas Iscariot,
told the authorities what Jesus was saying in private. NARRATOR: On the evening
of Passover, following what Christians refer to
as the Last Supper, Jesus was arrested on
a charge of sedition and brought before the Roman
governor Pontius Pilate. REZA ASLAN: Pontius Pilate was a
ruthless blood-thirsty governor who routinely sent
his troops out into the streets of Jerusalem
to slaughter the Jews whenever they disagreed with even the
slightest of his decisions. NARRATOR: Jesus' torture and
trial before Pontius Pilate is possibly the most famous
courtroom drama in the history of the world. But believe it or not, there
are several Bible scholars who doubt the details as
reported in the gospels. CHRIS KEITH: Was there a
trial that condemned Jesus? The Romans would not
have killed Jesus without some type of hearing. I'm not sure how formal
of a trial it was. The gospels give different
details of how that actually played out. I think that what
historically is very clear is that there was some
type of gathering. CANDIDA MOSS: When it
comes to the trial, there are some
historical problems with the trial as it is
recorded in the New Testament. The historical
details of that trial, they seem a little shifty. It's held at night on
a holy day of Passover. This is all illegal. NARRATOR: But whether or not
there was an official trial, there is no scholarly debate
over Jesus' ultimate fate. CANDIDA MOSS: I think
we can be certain that Jesus was crucified. People just don't make that up
about their Lord and Savior. REZA ASLAN: The
titulus, the plaque that they put above Jesus's head
as he writhed in pain, Jesus King of the Jews, was an actual
proclamation of the crime for which Jesus was crucified. His crime was written
above his head. He was executed by the state
for the crime of sedition. NARRATOR: After the crucifixion,
Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy Jewish follower of
Jesus, provided funeral linens and even offered his personal
tomb so that Jesus could be buried before the Sabbath. But what reportedly happened
just 40 hours later became the cornerstone of one of
the world's great faiths and an event still
debated by scholars around the world, Jesus'
resurrection from the dead. A garden near a
Golgotha, Jerusalem. Three days after the
crucifixion of Jesus, a small group of
women enter the garden and approach the tomb where
according to the gospel of Mark Jesus was laid to rest. BART EHRMAN: Mary Magdalene
saw Jesus get crucified and saw where he was buried,
and on the third day, she goes to the tomb in
the company of other women in order to prepare
his body for burial. But they find that
the tomb's empty. NARRATOR: The
traditional explanation for Jesus' empty tomb is
that he rose from the dead. But is it possible that hidden
within the pages of the New Testament is another even
more controversial account of the story? The Gospel of
John says that they put the corpse in a tomb that
happened to be nearby the place of crucifixion. Joseph of Arimathea
put him there, and there's no
indication that that's where he's going to stay. Because what's
going to happen when the Passover and the
Sabbath are over, you're going to have to
go retrieve the body, carry out the proper
final rites of burial, and then put the body in
a final resting place. So my conclusion is we
should expect the empty tomb. If you put it in
its Jewish context, the body was taken
for a final reburial. NARRATOR: Could it be that the
reports of Jesus' resurrection are based on a simple
misunderstanding, that the real reason that Jesus'
body was missing from the tomb was that because he died
hours before the Sabbath, his body was later moved so that
it could be properly anointed prior to its final burial? Or might there be
yet another reason? BART EHRMAN: The disciples'
hopes were completely destroyed by the crucifixion of Jesus. But then some of them claimed
they saw Jesus alive again, and stories started floating
around that he, in fact, had been raised from the dead. This reconfirmed
for the disciples what they previously
had thought. Jesus must be the
one favored by God. He's coming back
from heaven, and he's going to set up the
kingdom here on Earth. NARRATOR: Was Jesus' crucified
body deliberately removed from the tomb in an attempt
to create speculation and controversy? And were the gospel accounts
written in an effort to promote the notion
of Jesus' divine origin? I do think it's a historical
fact that at least a few of Jesus' disciples
believed that they saw Jesus alive after his death. Maybe they saw a
shadow on a wall, and they would decide this
is Jesus in some other form. Whatever they saw, that was
such a shock to their system that they basically completely
changed their view of Jesus. Now he was no longer
just a crucified prophet. And that's the beginning
of Christianity. JAMES D. TABOR: Jesus' followers
finally made him everything. They made him the
Messiah, of course. He's greater than any priest,
any prophet, any king that's ever come. ROBERT R. CARGILL: Can be said
that it was his followers who elevated him to divine status. BART EHRMAN: His followers said
that, in fact, true religion is about Jesus who has died
and been raised from the dead. And so Christianity
became a belief in the death and resurrection
of Jesus, the Messiah. NARRATOR: Is the ultimate
secret about Jesus the fact that he was a holy man, a
prophet, but still a mortal, no more, no less? Jesus is the success story. His movement is the
one that prevailed. NARRATOR: Could Jesus' divine
status as the Son of God really be based on a
plan by his followers to legitimize his teachings? Or is the nature of many of
the questions and controversies surrounding Jesus'
life and death really intended by God to
serve as a test of faith? It is a question that
will undoubtedly be asked and debated for centuries. Because like the Bible
itself, the word of God can be written in many
languages, and it is up to us to interpret them.
