David Suchet: In The Footsteps Of Saint Peter: Part 2 (2012) | Full Movie | David Suchet

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[music] (Narrator) I am David Suchet, and I'm in search of one of the most puzzling characters in history: A simple first century fishermen who somehow became the founding father of the most powerful Christian church on earth. Wow, look at these. (Narrator) We know him as Saint Peter, mentioned more times in the New Testament than anyone except Jesus. He was his right-hand man and a leader of the early Christian movement. In later traditions, he's mounted in Rome and revered as the first pope of the Roman Catholic Church. [speaking Latin] Peter's a real person. He's human. He's fallible. You sense with Peter something we all can identify with, and that's doubt. (Narrator) But our portrait of Peter is a mosaic constructed by different authors, each with their own stories to tell. He's always depicted as this meek and timid individual, but Peter's a courageous one. [music] Wow. (Narrator) Peter's character and what motivates him has always intrigued me. Exciting huh? Yeah, for me. (Narrator) Flawed, headstrong, never fully understanding. A faithful friend, yet a denier in the hour of need. Is that man a friend of yours? He says, "No. No, no. (Narrator) Yet somehow, Peter pulled the Jesus movement back together when all seemed lost. In this series, I'll be uncovering fragments of tradition and half-whispered traces of Peter's life revealing surprising new discoveries and theories about the man who shaped a faith that came to dominate Western civilization. [music] I followed Peter's story from his early life as a fisherman on the Sea of Galilee through three turbulent years with Jesus. But the man Peter thought to be the Jewish Messiah, whom he hoped would deliver the Jews from Roman rule, has been put to death. Now all is confusion. The Jesus movement is in complete disarray. Its future seems dark. But suddenly there's an empty tomb and actual sightings of the resurrected Jesus. What should Peter do next? [music] According to the Gospel of John, he seeks sanctuary in the life he once knew back fishing on the Sea of Galilee. But then the story takes a dramatic turn. Very early one morning when Peter and some of the Apostles were returning in their boat from an all-night fishing trip, Jesus was seen on the seashore literally cooking breakfast over a fire. Peter, the compulsive, impetuous Peter, leapt out of the boat and rushed towards Him. But what happened next, I think, changed Peter's life forever. Jesus suddenly asked him, "Do you love me more than these"-- the other disciples?" What an extraordinary thing to ask Peter. He didn't know how to answer. He almost avoided the question; "Yes, of course, I love you. Yes, of course I do." But then what happened was even more surprising. Jesus, the Shepherd of His sheep, handed over that baton to Peter. "You will be the shepherd." (Narrator) Rebuilding a movement that has recently lost a leader as charismatic as Jesus will be no easy task. How does one take charge, meld, and inspire a diverse group to a common cause, especially in difficult conditions? Another one can start bringing small stones from this-- (Narrator) It's a problem that modern-day shepherd Yakov is facing as he tries to marshal a group of international volunteers who have come to live and work on his family's Galilean goat farm. You are a team. You are a team. You will start to -- (Narrator) It seems an idyllic life, but the volunteers have never built a dry stone wall before, and doing so in the pouring rain before breakfast is probably not what they signed up for. Start from here and go further. [music] (Narrator) Of course, Peter and the Apostles were laying the foundations of the Jesus movement. Yakov only needs to inspire his helpers to build a simple wall. But the central problem for both remains: How does a leader keep a team focused on the task at hand when the going gets tough? Work gets off to a good start, but then Yakov is needed elsewhere. [music] Yakov has gone off in his tractor with a couple of team members to find some nice big rocks for the wall leaving the foundation workers here to carry on. Apparently they've found something better to do. (Narrator) Without leadership the team quickly disintegrates... until, of course, the leader returns. [music] I think she heard the tractor coming. [music] You didn't finish yet? [music] [laughing] (Narrator) With Yakov taking control, the team pulled together and even seemed to be enjoying the work. There's also, of course, the promise of breakfast. The reward for the followers of the Jesus movement was in a revolutionary new message that promise justice and equality for all, something that would've helped Peter inspire his growing community. [music] I want to just -- There's a gong. There is a gong. Saved by the bell. Does that mean breakfast? Yes, it does mean breakfast. Saved by the bell. The gong's gone. Have they now finished? Yeah, they're finished. You see? They are running away. They are running away, yeah. They've done a good job. Yeah, they did a very good job. 10, 20, 50 more wheels, you won't recognize it. [laughing] [music] (Narrator) In the New Testament's Book of Acts, Peter's first task as leader is to return to Jerusalem to reunite the remaining Apostles and choose a replacement for Judas who has committed suicide after betraying Jesus. [music] Shortly after comes the Jewish harvest festival of Pentecost. It's only 50 days since the execution of Jesus at Passover, and as Jerusalem fills with pilgrims once more, Peter and the Apostles are gathered together somewhere in the city. [music] Modern-day pilgrims are often shown to this room on Mount Zion as a possible location for both the Last Supper and the meeting at Pentecost. Coming here can be an emotional experience. [crowd] Around me, all around me, is a group from Brazil. They are very fired up and photographing themselves for the family back home. (Narrator) The excitement and enthusiasm of these modern Christians perhaps captures something of the mood of 2000 years ago. I really don't think I've witnessed anything like this. They're really very fired up indeed. (Narrator) According to Acts, Peter and the Apostles also felt themselves imbued by the power of God in the form of the Holy Spirit. In their excitement, the meeting spilled out into the streets. When a crowd gathered to see what was going on Peter began to preach, converting many new followers. Under his leadership, the movement was now growing in number and confidence. [music] Stephen, we know that at Pentecost Peter came out and started making this very long speech, and we're told that hundreds of people were converted. Where would that have taken place? Some people talk about it being a small room someplace off in the distance here, but he needed a bigger setting for that. The setting was of a place where their group could meet, and then it spilt out into a courtyard where there were people of all languages that were able to listen to one another. The only place that we really have that depicts that type of setting is right over here at the Temple Mount. We have the platform here. We don't have the Temple to see, but it was over here in that area in the porticos that surrounded the Temple Mount where they had synagogues. This is probably where that event took place. You would say it was actually in the Temple Mount itself? Yes, in the Temple Mount there were porticos all around, stowas all around the edges. It was a very large area. The Temple building itself was rather small compared to the larger area that we're speaking about. I'm always interested as an actor what happens to the development of people's character. You start off as one person, you grow into somebody else. You hear of sudden conversion experiences when people are suddenly different after that experience. It seems that because of Pentecost it was a sudden change of character. And within a very short period of time. You remember, it was not long before that they were sitting in a room together worrying because their Messiah had died on the cross. Everything that they had put aside, from their jobs and families and everything else, to follow Him, suddenly they looked foolish, and maybe these Romans were going to come after them too. They were no longer timid. They were bold. That's what the day of Pentecost meant to them. I can imagine in my head Peter standing up and hundreds of people being converted. We know that this whole area was full of people. How disruptive would this moment have been, do you think? Do you think the authorities would've been concerned about what was going on? Local authorities would've looked upon this with a great deal of consternation because anytime they don't have control, of course, then they are very concerned, both the Roman authorities and also religious authorities. There were people all over for the feast. But all of a sudden, in one little corner of the place, all this action starts taking place, and everyone starts running to the place to see what's going on. Yes, it did disrupt things a bit, and does this happen all the time? No. What a day. What a moment this was. Would you say that this was the birth of the Church, Christ's Church? This is the point at which the Church became a real spokesman and a reflection of the life and ministry of Jesus. So yes, this would be, like you say, the birth of the Church. The birth of the Church. [bells ringing] (Narrator) The Temple Peter would've known was destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 70 during the Jewish revolt. In the seventh century the site was occupied by Muslims. Today it is the third holiest place in Islam. Few places are as holy to Jews, Christians, and Muslims as this place. Today it is known as the Haram al-Sharif, the Noble Sanctuary. By coming here, I'm following in the footsteps of literally millions of pilgrims. Dominating the site is one of the most iconic buildings of the Middle East, the magnificent Dome of the Rock. It's not actually a mosque at all, but a Muslim shrine built over a sacred stone. [music] (Narrator) over is still hotly contested by Jews and Muslims, but Dome all is peace and calm. [music] I'm now standing at the base of the Sacred Rock, a rock that is sacred to both the Jews and the Muslims. For the Jews, this is the rock where they believed that Abraham went to sacrifice his son Isaac. For the Muslims, this is the rock from where Mohammed ascended into heaven. It really is one of the most holy places in the whole of Jerusalem. [music] (Narrator) Today the Haram al-Sharif is fairly empty, but every Friday thousands of Muslims gather here to say prayers on their holy day. Two thousand years ago, during the big Jewish festivals, the space would've been filled with Jewish pilgrims. [music] I really am taken back by the vastness of this whole area, and I'm trying to imagine what it would be like with thousands upon thousands of worshipers here. [music] (Narrator) For the faithful, then as now, this is far more than just a place of worship; it's also somewhere to study and discuss belief. [music] What are you doing here? We are learning the Quran. You're learning it? We are learning Quran. To understand it? Yes, we are understanding. Yes. This is our Quran for the whole Muslims. Is it like a Quran study? Yes, study. Teachers. We are students here. When you read this then your teacher explains what it means and how it relates to your faith? It's very interesting. (Narrator) As an observant Jew, Peter would've spent time carefully studying his sacred book, the Hebrew Bible, perhaps searching for any text that pointed to Jesus as the Messiah; something he could use to win new Jewish converts. [crowd] For modern Jews, the tradition of studying and debating the finer points of Jewish scripture continues in religious schools known as yeshivas. We are in a room of young men, and there are two people at the tables. What are they doing? Basically they're learning together to understand. What do you do? We're checking each other. Okay, let's see. You say that, so I'm saying different. Let's see who's right. Can it get very animated? Yeah. Sometimes it's screaming here, but love screaming. Love screaming. It's love, and it's always giving you energy, like I want more. I want to understand what is going on. It's so beautiful. It becomes quite passionate? Yeah, passionate. That's what's beautiful about him. He can be right. There's nothing wrong. You go to the Rabbi, you ask him, he's going to tell you something different, completely different, and he's right as well. Now, tell me why you see lots of boys here -- they're moving like this... [rocks back and forth]. Okay, I'll tell you something, what I think. Basically, Jewish, all over the world, wherever you see them, they can't stand. They can't sit down. They need to move always. They need to move, yeah? When you open the commandment and you have the passion, you can't just sit like that. You're getting excited from something, and you're sitting and learning it like that. If you're excited, you need to show it. You need to move. I'm excited. I'm moving. You get excited. You get happy. [crowd] Being here has really taught me one thing, and that is that this is nothing like a Bible study group would be in England. I've not seen anything like this. I've never seen anything so passionate, but we are talking about the Middle East, and we're talking about this particular religion, the Jewish religion, which is full of passion. It makes me think of Peter and the disciples and even Jesus Himself. They were Jewish. They were Middle Eastern debating the Law and trying to work out what was in it. You can see them arguing passionately. Not as we tend to sanitize it in the West. From what I'm learning about Peter, who is impulsive and impetuous, I'm also learning that he was probably a very passionate man as well. [music] (Narrator) But would that passion be enough to win over new converts? In a world where many believed in miracles, performing wondrous acts help to convince onlookers that Peter was filled with the power and authority of God. [music] How important were miracles to the Jesus movement? I don't think you could've had the beginnings of Christianity without very miraculous acts of power, acts of healing. We know that the Messiah was expected to do extraordinary things because of one particular Dead Sea scroll. It was 4Q521, and it says that among the works of the Messiah, the Messiah would heal the blind, raise up those who were bowed down, raise the dead, and preach the good news. Jesus was doing this, proving that He had the power that was expected of a Messiah. It's shown from what the Dead Sea scrolls has brought to life. But then with Peter, I think Peter was very important in continuing the momentum that was first established by Jesus. He had the power of the Holy Spirit in him from Jesus, and he was healing in the name of Jesus. Even to the extent that if his shadow possibly -- is that right? Absolutely. Peter's shadow would pass by and people thought, "We could get healed by him because he is so powerful." But he'd already proven by that time that he had incredible power working with him, healing in the name of Jesus, making people well again around the Temple. He was a fantastically important figure. (Narrator) Peter's reputation as a miracle worker helped win Jewish converts to the Jesus movement. But what of the non-Jewish world? [music] In the Book of Acts, Peter comes to realize that the death and resurrection of Jesus was not just for the Jews. It was meant to usher in a new age of social inclusion for Jews and non-Jews alike. Peter was about to convert the first Gentile, and as historian Gil Gambash explained, in a world in which the Emperor of Rome was worshipped as a god, this was no ordinary convert, but a Roman centurion called Cornelius stationed at the Mediterranean garrison town of Caesarea. What would it have meant for a Roman centurion to be converted to this new faith? For the time that we are talking about this is revolutionary. Really? Yes. Once a person like Cornelius is accepting the Christian belief, he cannot remain tolerant or syncretistic or all-embracing in the way that he used to. Actually he wouldn't have then worshipped the Emperor. Exactly. The Jews managed to solve this in various ways and came to terms with the Roman authorities, but the Christians had a harder time. Do you think it would've been a big moment for the Jesus movement at that time to have a Roman centurion wanting to convert? We're talking about a movement that starts from within Judaism, and that during that moment this movement is debating whether to stay within Judaism or to emerge out into the Gentile world. Now this involves two very significant moves: One, to accept people who are not circumcised, and two, to be able to eat non kosher food. Very basic. Very simple. Once Peter comes here and accepts into this new movement a Gentile, a non-circumcised person who is probably also eating non kosher food, then this movement takes a very significant turn, and from this point onward the entire Gentile communities of the Mediterranean are fair game. We talk about Cornelius, but it's a huge moment for Peter. I think that's exactly the way we have to imagine it; by the audience to which this story is turned, and this is a double audience: One, Christians, right? One message to them, and then the other message to the rest of the Roman world. Look, a distinguished citizen of this town, a pagan, a centurion, this kind of person is converting, so all of you out there who are considering this can imagine that this is doable, definitely. So a big moment? All around. [waves crashing] (Narrator) Peter's actions spark a major debate within what was still a branch of Judaism: should non-Jews entering the Jesus movement follow Jewish Law? More worryingly, back in Jerusalem Peter and his followers are becoming a threat to the established Jewish leadership and their Roman overseers. What was the problem with the Jesus movement for these religious rulers? The Jesus movement, which is a movement of people claiming to have special authority which circumvents the normal paths and channels of authority in the Jewish world; they're not taking their orders from anybody except from God. They're claiming authority in ways which pose a threat to the established Jewish authorities in Jerusalem. A Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Israel means not a Kingdom of Rome. To preach the coming end of the kingdom is something which gets people in trouble in the Roman Empire. It's what got Jesus into the trouble, and it's what's getting His followers into trouble as well. His followers are even perhaps a little bit more threatening because they claim to be pointing to a really massive miracle which shows that they've got to be right. They know who this coming King is going to be, and He's been resurrected; that's what they're claiming. The Jesus movement was really going against Rome? Yeah, I think that's what was probably most threatening in the eyes of the priesthood. They had to make sure from day to day that the Roman governor, who had his garrison in Jerusalem, and his agents and his informers, that they were all happy, because if they're not happy things are going to go very badly. [music] (Narrator) The Book of Acts tell how Herod Agrippa, the Roman-appointed king of Judea, struck against the Jesus movement and had Peter imprisoned. Execution was a near certainty. But that night Peter makes a miraculous escape. He travels across the city and goes to a house where his friends are in hiding. But the disciples wouldn't believe it was Peter at the door. No, Peter. Peter's in prison. By now he could've even been executed. Then Acts tells us, "But Peter kept on knocking, "and when they opened the door and saw him they were astonished. "Peter motioned with his hand for them to be quiet "and described how the Lord had brought him out of prison. "Tell James and the other brothers and sisters about this, he said, and then he left for another place." I've always found that a very unsatisfactory exit for the character of Peter. "He then left for another place." Where did he go? We're just not told. He just disappears. [music] (Narrator) A letter in the New Testament, known as 1 Peter, offers a clue. [music] Opinion differs on whether or not Peter was the actual writer of the letter, but it's addressed to Christian communities in Asia Minor including Cappadocia in modern-day Turkey. Could he have come here? [music] There some places on this earth that don't quite seem to belong here. They're like fragments of an alien planet. The whole region around Goreme in Turkish Cappadocia is just one of those places. It's the most extraordinary landscape shaped by volcanic activity for the past 10 million years, and over time wind and water have carved these soft volcanic rocks into the most bizarre shapes. People have lived here since the earliest times, and it's also provided refuge for some of the very first Christian communities. [music] (Narrator) As Christianity spread through Cappadocia, places of worship were carved out of the soft rock. [music] Art historian Ferda Barut took me into the fresco-filled Dark Church. [music] My goodness me. Wow, look at that. These are extraordinary. Yes, that's true. I have never seen anything like this ever before. [music] These frescoes are dated from the 11th century. Do we have any pictures of Peter here? Yes, we have. Here we see the transfiguration scene. Here you see Peter with curly, white hair at the left of the seat. (Narrator) These wonderful frescoes are from the 11th century, but we know that many centuries earlier Christian hermits were living in these caves. Intriguingly, when the Cappadocian Christian leader, Saint Basil, sought to establish a proper community here in the fourth century, he seemed to have been influenced by Peter. Saint Basil especially stresses upon the point that you have to live together, not in isolated ways. You have to be in contact with society. That's very interesting, Ferda, because Peter, when he formed his first community, told people that they have to share everything: Money, goods, possessions. Do you think that influenced Basil? Yes, of course. I think that because Saint Basil mentions Peter in his letters, and Saint Basil copies some of the rules for his community here. He tries to build almost the same thing for the community. [music] What was going on with Saint Basil and the other Cappadocian fathers may well have been inspired by Peter. [music] "Live in harmony with one another; "be sympathetic, love as brothers, "be compassionate and humble. "Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, "but with blessing, because to this you are called so that you may inherit a blessing." [music] Now this is from a letter that mentions the Cappadocians and that also sung credit to Peter, but is this proof that the man himself was actually here? [music] (Narrator) Rock-cut churches, big and small, are scattered across this landscape. Many are filled with the most beautiful frescoes. I took a moment to go in search of more images of Peter. [music] I'm now standing in the oldest rock-cut cave church in the region. All around me on the walls and ceilings are little panels depicting the life of Jesus Christ in sequence rather like a film strip. If I move into another much larger part of the church which was added later when Christianity was more established, there was no need to tell the story of Jesus. Instead, they were showing on the walls stories of the Gospels. Over there you can see the Apostles and Peter in his fishing boat. [music] (Narrator) Could Peter really have come here? What would he have made of this extraordinary landscape? I met up with biblical scholar Helen Bond. [music] Do we have any evidence at all that Peter was here in Cappadocia? We have a couple of little hints. In the Book of Acts at Pentecost we hear that there are Jewish people there in Jerusalem for the Jewish feast, and so they get caught up in this whole Pentecost thing. It's possible that when they go back to Cappadocia they take some of the message. Is it possible that Peter, in a sense, would have visited them here? Yes, I think that's quite likely if he thought there might be a receptive audience here, if people had already heard him. Perhaps people have said to him, "We're really interested in this. We'd like to hear more about it." You would call him a missionary? Yeah, he was definitely a missionary. He was going out finding synagogues, finding Jews that he can convert to the new way of life. What would it have been like being a missionary in this sort of country? Yes, I think pretty incredible, but he would have known. There was a fairly well planned out series of the Jewish dispersion of the diaspora around the Mediterranean. Those were the places that welcomed him too as a Jewish brother from Jerusalem because, of course, Christianity is still an evolution of Judaism. It's a branch of the Jewish belief. [music] (Narrator) Another clue that Peter may have been active in this region can be found in one of the letters of the Apostle Paul, a newcomer to the movement charged with converting Gentiles. He writes of a conflict with Peter in Antioch in Asia Minor over the continuing argument of whether Gentiles must accept Jewish law. [music] Oh, look at this. Oh goodness. Hear the echo -- ah, ah. Oh, it's quite ornate. It's quite pretty up there. It is, isn't it? This is an old church. Helen, you and I are talking about a time when a church didn't even exist. Peter had left Jerusalem, and all of a sudden we see him turn up at a big meeting where there was huge arguments and debates. It was quite fraught. What was it all about? You have to remember that this is the very, very earliest stages of Christianity. Nobody knew what they were doing at the moment. They're working it out, working out what God's plan for them is as they go along. They've been taking the message out, they've been evangelizing, and they seem to have been also offering the message to Gentiles, and Gentiles have been coming into the movement, sometimes in quite large numbers. Everybody seems to be agreed that offering the message to Gentiles is a good thing. The question is though on what basis? Do they first have to become Jews and then become Christians, Christian Jews in effect? Or are you allowed simply as a Gentile to believe in what Jesus has done, to be baptized, and then to be a Christian? What was Peter's stance? According to Acts, Peter has a dream in which he is told that he could eat any food, and all foods, all peoples, are clean. This dream is really telling him that the future is going to be very different; that now he can sit down and have meals with Gentiles. Could you see it as a heated debate? I think it was extremely heated, yes. [music] (Narrator) The argument forced Peter to return at least briefly to Jerusalem where he was able to convince the Jesus movement that Gentile converts did not need to observe all Jewish law, including circumcision. It was one of the most important moments in the history of Christianity. The whole of the pagan world was now open to the new faith. [music] If Peter did travel beyond this realm, it's quite possible that he visited and spent some time in Asia Minor here in Cappadocia. Certainly there were Jewish and then Christian communities here since the earliest days, and traditions about Peter and Paul visiting this region still lives on. But there's nothing to say that Peter ended his days here. So where did he possibly go next? [birds flying] (Narrator) One tradition is that he traveled to Rome. [music] On the Via Appia, the ancient road from Rome's seaport to the city, I met biblical scholar Ed Adams. Ed, we're told that Peter might've come to Rome. Do we have any evidence that he was here? There's no explicit evidence in the New Testament, but there's a very strong hint in Peter's first letter. He gives a greeting from "She who is in Babylon." Now, "she" probably refers to a church, so the question is what's Babylon? Now it probably wasn't historical Babylon because it was a wasteland at this time. It's very likely that it's a code word for Rome because it was used in this way in ancient Jewish texts and also in the book of Revelation. Babylon is a way of talking about Rome, so it looks to be that that letter was written from Rome. When Peter came to Rome he would've come this way? He would've walked the Appian Way from the south into the city. I do find that extraordinary that we're actually standing on it. [laughing] Unfortunately, I think we still have some way to go. We do indeed. [music] Gosh, what a view. There's Saint Peter's. Saint Peter's, yeah. The tradition is that Peter may have founded Christianity in Rome? That's right. There is an early tradition which states that, and I am skeptical of that because in Paul's letter to the Romans he presumes a church which is already in existence, and he never mentions Peter in that letter. You would expect him to do that if Peter had been the evangelizer of the church at Rome. If Peter didn't found Christianity in Rome how did he come to be here? The most likely explanation is through traveling Jewish believers. There had been, for quite some time, a very strong Jewish community in Rome with very strong links back to Jerusalem, so there was a recognized route from Jerusalem to Rome. [music] We know that in Jerusalem, before this time, Peter performed many amazing miracles. Were there any miracles performed here? In a document called the Acts of Peter, which purports to tell us about Peter's activities in Rome, it's really all about Peter's miracles. For example, in one scene Peter sees a smoked tuna fish hanging in the window. He takes it, he throws it in a nearby pool, and the fish start swimming, comes to life. The fish becomes a tourist attraction and passersby stop and look at it and feed it with breadcrumbs. [music] The Jewish community in Rome is said to be the oldest Jewish community in Europe, and it was well-established in Peter's time. If he did come to the city, it would've been the obvious place for him to stay. [music] Where we are here is a Jewish community, the Jewish -- you would say quarter? Yeah, we call it the ghetto neighborhood. Riccardo Di Segni has been the chief rabbi of Rome since 2001. What do you think the community in Rome would've felt about the new Jesus movement -- Jews coming, believing in that here in Rome? How would they have been treated? The Jewish was split into different parties, and they quarreled with each other. They were very disordered. Did they fight each other? Yes. This is a community where we fight about any issue. [laughing] We have very deeply rooted customs. Can you tell me anything about Peter here? We don't as Jews have specific news about Peter coming to Rome, but we have some interesting legends. Go on, tell me. He was a religious poet who composed poems and prayers. There is a legend that says that one specific prayer that we recite on the morning of Shabbat, which is called Nishmat Kol Hai, a very beautiful religious poem, had been written by him. It is not true, but it's very interesting that this tradition is kept. It means that the specific character is considered with sympathy. [music] (Narrator) It was certainly a curious legend, but it also perhaps points to a simple truth: That Peter always stayed close to his Jewish religion. Of course, in the centuries that followed, he would be claimed by the newly emerging Christian church. [music] In this backstreet of Rome is a little piece of England that has been here for 650 years. [music] (Narrator) The Venerable English College is a Catholic seminary that prepares young Englishmen for the priesthood. It seemed a good place to talk to a future generation of priests about Peter and his significance to them. This is the English College? That's right, and the oldest English institution outside of England. Say that again? The oldest English institution outside of England. You've got to understand, in the year 1300 the Pope at the time, Boniface the 8th declared a holy year inviting pilgrims to come from all over northern Europe. They came in the thousands, including Englishmen, and that code of arms was above the door here saying, "This is the English hospice; you can stay here." What was their pilgrimage at that point? Coming to Saint Peter's tomb. To Saint Peter's tomb? Exactly. The Pope at the time was trying to refocus European Christianity back on to Rome, and that was the very purpose of it. That's the start of this now seminary as an institution. Pilgrims to see the bones of Peter? To come to the tomb of Peter. We're going to do two things. We're going to take the excess wax off here with your hand, first of all. Just going to take this top edge off. Oh, I see. Just so it looks a bit smarter. Here's your knife, and there's your candle. While I'm doing this, tell me what you feel about Saint Peter. What is he to you? He's accessible. I think that's the key word. Some of the saints in the history of the Church are perfect, and that's wonderful. They've lived perfect human lives. They've had every human virtue you would ever want to have. Peter didn't. Peter messes it up all the time, and I think most of us in the Church can completely relate to that. These are the scrapbooks. Another job in the college is to cut out bits of newspaper and put them in these books. Is that your job? No, it's another one. The first one here from 1850. Let me read this out loud. It's the most amazing language. "Do not be humbugged by the exploded cry of no popery. "It is a phrase coined in the mint of persecution and only fit for ancient apple-women." That's wonderful, isn't it? These are wonderful. That's like one of my scrapbooks. I'm not in here. Last year was a very big year with the election of Pope Francis. We all ran in the rain to the square to get our positions, and I'm somewhere there with my friends. It was very dramatic. What do you think of Peter then? The amazing thing about Saint Peter is he makes mistakes. Certainly at the start he's not always so perfect or living up to Christ, if you will, and I can see so much of myself in that story as well. [music] (Narrator) Today Peter's legacy is an inspiration, and part of that is the tradition that he was martyred. I wondered how Peter could have met his end. [music] [firetruck alarm] Exciting huh? Yeah, for me. [firetruck alarm] (Narrator) If he were in Rome, then he would've been part of one of the most catastrophic events in the history of the city. The Great Fire of Rome broke out on a hot summer's night in A.D. 64. Would the fire have spread very quickly? There were poor houses also with combustible materials mixed together. Just dry wood? Dry wood and there was also no water in the houses. Oh, now that's interesting. It was very difficult for them. What were their ways of fighting a fire like we have the fire brigade now like you? At the time there was not a real fire station, a real fire unit. [firetruck alarm] The Great Fire started actually here in the Circus Maximus. You have to imagine that there was seating up on either side, and outside under the arches there were shops. In one of these shops that it said sold inflammable goods or inflammable materials, the fire started, and it was a summer evening. It was very hot, and there was a strong wind. It said that the fire swept down Circus Maximus here, and the flames were generated by this wind that could sweep down. It really was a catastrophe. (Narrator) The story goes that after the fire the Emperor Nero turned on the Christians. What evidence do we have of Nero's reactions after that fire? Nero behaved very well in the immediate aftermath of the fire. He set up camps for people, he organized food supplies, etc. But after a short while, because of his grandiose building plans for rebuilding Rome, people became very suspicious of him, and there began to be these rumors that he had started it just for this purpose. What about the rumor, or is it fact, that he then blamed the Christians for starting the fire, using them as scapegoats? We do know that Nero was a person who was -- he was a very nervous Emperor in many ways. He did like to find scapegoats. It seems not out of character that he would do such a thing, and tradition has always had it that it was the Christians that he chose as his scapegoats. (Narrator) That tradition goes back to the writings of the Roman historian Tacitus. He falsely charged with guilt and punished with the most fearful tortures the persons commonly called Christians. But what of Peter? But it's possible that in the aftermath of the Great Fire of Rome that Peter got swept up in Nero's attempt to scapegoat the Christians and was executed. If that took place, then he would've been burned alive because the Romans killed arsonists by burning them. It was sort of an eye for an eye, the Lex Talionis; we'll burn you because you burned the city. Where does the tradition that Peter was martyred upside down come from? The tradition that Peter was crucified upside down comes from much later; from 100 years after he died. The idea that he was crucified upside down because he didn't think he was worthy to die like Jesus, the story you hear in Sunday school, that's actually from another 400 years later. Four hundred years? Four hundred. Now it is possible that the Roman soldiers might have acceded to a request to be crucified upside down, or they might actually have been punishing him if Peter had been on his way to martyrdom and had said, "This is great, I'm going to die like my Savior," they might have said, "No, you're not. We're going to execute you upside down," just as a way to punish him. They did have a lot of freedom, the soldiers did, when it came to executing common criminals, and they were very brutal. We can imagine that he might've been crucified. He might also have been quietly beheaded or perhaps garroted in a prison somewhere. Do you think they would have singled him out or was he just one of many? If Peter had come to Rome we can imagine he would have been a celebrity to other Christians. This is someone who knew Jesus, who touched Him, who lived with Him, which would have made him a leader here. The Romans, when they did try to target Christians, did target the leaders because those would leave the biggest impact on the community. That would be devastating for a small Christian community to lose someone like Peter. (Narrator) Whatever the truth, the image of Peter crucified upside down is now one of the founding traditions of the Roman Catholic Church. This is Filipino Lippi's crucifixion of St. Peter, and what I think is really extraordinary about it is that it introduces this idea of movement. You can see the figure on the right with a pulley pulling him up, these two figures on either side holding him in place, so this is the moment, literally, of crucifixion. Jerry, as an actor, whenever I look at a picture I always look at people's costumes and people's faces and where they're looking at the relationships between people, and I notice here that all the other faces are dark except that person there looking right at Peter's face with such a feeling of sorrow and sadness. Actually the focus is not on Peter's face. It's on the everyday figure who is showing the sorrow of Peter's crucifixion. Mirroring our sorrow. It's our sorrow. But let's look at the next painting which is just through here. What happens here is a complete change. This is Michelangelo. This is in the Vatican, and this is an extraordinary painting. Look at the figure of Saint Peter. He glares at you, so he gives you the emotion much more powerfully than any other -- He's looking out. He's glaring at you, David. He's saying, "Look at what is happening to me." This is actually an angry Peter. Let's move on and look at the next picture and how this idea develops. This is Caravaggio's rendition of Saint Peter. Oh, well that is amazing. Isn't it? Oh, this is extraordinary. People were absolutely scandalized when it was first-- Why? Because they just thought that you can't portray a figure like Saint Peter in this way, clearly in pain, clearly in distress, clearly not wanting to be here. This is not the calm notion of Peter saying, "I am a martyr. I welcome this." Caravaggio's saying this is difficult, hard, horrible, painful stuff. To me, Peter's almost looking at his hand and saying, "So, this is what Jesus felt." Exactly. I think this is what Caravaggio captures. He's not just a symbol of the Church. He's a real man. This happened to him. Not a saintly picture. No, I think we've definitely moved from -- Peter really is an icon. He represents a certain aspect to the story to by the early 17th century he can be identified as a man in the street who is suffering extreme pain, but at the same time he's a very important figure in the story of Christianity. (Narrator) If Peter was executed in Rome, what happened to his body? The Roman Catholic tradition is that he was buried on the Vatican Hill, the very reason the basilica that bears his name stands there today. [music] How could he have come to be here? [music] In the 1940s, Vatican archaeologists made an extraordinary discovery. A few meters below the floor of Saint Peter's was a Roman Necropolis or City of the Dead. During Roman times it was forbidden to bury the dead within the walls of the city, so mausoleums sprung up along the roads leading out of Rome. One of them ran up the Vatican Hill alongside the Circus of Nero, an ancient race track where the Roman historian Tacitus says the Emperor executed Christians. By the mid-second century Roman Christians were marking what they believe to be the grave of St. Peter with a red wall and a shrine called a tropaion. When archaeologists got below the tropaion, they uncovered an empty grave. Bone fragments were later found nearby purportedly belonging to St. Peter, though no pope has ever definitively declared that they are his remains. It's from Peter's life and death that all subsequent Roman Catholic popes draw their authority, and that's how many people in this crowd probably best remember Peter as the first Bishop of Rome, the first pope. But whether he led a church here or even came to the city and met his death here, we can never be quite sure. But I can't help wondering what Peter, the humble fisherman, would have made of all this. As he looked back on his life maybe he saw those three years he spent with Jesus like a sudden storm sweeping across the Sea of Galilee; dangerous and unpredictable, and yet somehow he managed to battle his way through those dark waters and set a new course. One that would ultimately launch a new religion far away from the shores of Galilee. What a remarkable journey. What a remarkable man. [music]
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Channel: Vision Video
Views: 35,748
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Keywords: Christian Videos, Christian Films, Christian Movies, Religious Movies, Films, Movies, Entertainment, Feature Films, David Suchet, St. Peter, search of Simon bar Jonah, Apostle Peter, David Suchet - In The Footsteps Of Saint Peter, David Suchet In The Footsteps Of Saint Peter 2012 Full Movie, Christianity, Christian, Religion, Religions
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Length: 113min 54sec (6834 seconds)
Published: Mon Nov 09 2020
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