"(DRAMATIC MUSIC)" "Two thousand years ago, around the birh of Jesus, a bloody revolt erupted in the Roman province of Judea." "(Shouting, SWORDScLASH)" "Jewish subjects grabbed for freedom." "Some rebels were hailed as warrior kings, or Messiahs, promising a new age of justice." "When Rome regained control, thousands were crucified." "Most were forgotten." "But their hopes would not die." "For hundreds ofyears, the Jewish people had yearned for a just world, for a world here below, not heaven but on earth, which was just and righteous, run by God, as if God sat oncaesar's throne." "It wasn't happening." "It was getting worse." "So they're building up an apocalyptic hope that God will overcome some day." "Imagine that as the chant of the apocalypse..." ""God will overcome some day. "" "That was the chant that Jesus would die to 30 years later and that was the dream that would keep his memory alive." "For unlike those before him, Jesus did not fade away, thanks to a small band of Jews who held fast to their conviction that Jesus was the true Messiah, that he would finally usher in God's kingdom on earh." "Their story is almost as remarkable as Jesus's own." "For against the odds, in the face of hostility, danger and dissent, these people struggled to carry his name out of obscurity and around the Roman Empire." "There was Barnabas and Priscilla..." "James, Titus, Stephen... and most famously of all, there were Peter and Paul." "(DRAMATIC MUSIC)" "(LIVELY MUSIC)" ""Since many have tried to recount events" ""as they were described to us by eyewitnesses," ""I also decided, having investigated everything from the beginning," ""to write the whole story carefully for you. "" "In one of the great cities of the Roman Empire, near the end of the 1st century, a writer known as Luke set out to record his view ofchristian beginnings." "He wrote two books, offering a rousing tale which unfolded a half-century earlier in the shadows of Imperial Rome." ""In the first book, Theophilus," ""I wrote everything that Jesus did and taught. "" "Luke told first of Jesus, a Jewish craftsman from the empire's eastern fringe who promised his followers a kingdom greater than Rome and who died for that imperinence." "But in Luke's telling, Jesus is only half the story, for the future of the young movement, Luke knew, depended as much on those who came after... on the handful of followers who risked everything" "to announce a vision thatcould have been lost at every turn." "Luke is the only gospel writer who recounts their struggles." "He's a precious source about the men and women who dedicated their lives to Jesus." "But scholars warn Luke's history must be readcarefully." "Luke says... he has a liner note in the beginning that says" ""I'm writing this because I've made acareful examination of the events" ""and I want to give you the straight story. "" "He said "There are a lot of people out there who've given the story" ""but I'm going to give you the straight story. "" "So already we know, even without other evidence, we know there are other accounts out there." "People told other stories, presumably put other spins on things." "He's going to put his spin on events." "This is what he says." "And that has to influence how we read his work." "Reading between the lines of Luke is just onechallenge in reconstructing these crucial years." "It was a contentious time." "Sources are few." "Most, like Luke, were written later." "And while the outlines of events are visible, sureties are hard to come by." "It's a little bit like looking at a muddy football field the day after the game and looking at the record on the ground and trying to figure out what the sequence of plays would have been in the game." "It's very, very difficult and a lot of the time we have to guess." "(dramatic MUSIC)" "Despite uncerainties, historians do cull critical evidence from biblical sources and do trace a story of staggering consequence, staring around the year 30... around the year that Jesus was killed." "And, as Luke repors, some loyal women and one man began the process of burial and mourning." ""Now, there was a good and just man named Joseph" ""who was waiting for the kingdom of God." ""He approached Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus." ""After taking the body down, he wrapped it in linen" ""and placed it in a tombcut from rock where no one had been laid before." ""The women, from Galilee, made ready the spices and ointments. "" "Luke says this handful of followers performed dutifully." "But some of Jesus's closest friends were conspicuously absent." "Levi, the tax collector, is not present." "Neither is James, the son of Zebedee, his brother John, nor any of the other familiar Apostles." "But most striking of all is the absence of Simon Peter." "Probably what we know most about Peter is that he was from Galilee and that he was a peasant, a fisherman." "And that means that he's a rough-and-ready and pretty much of a down-to-earth sort of fellow." "Speaks with a funny accent as being from the sticks and must have been acountry bumpkin coming up into Jerusalem." "Must have been awed and must have been frightened." "Then Icould imagine Peter would have just been quite terrified when Jesus was arrested." "Peter is often called the leader of the Apostles." "By some accounts, he was first to call Jesus 'Messiah' or 'king'." "He frequently served as spokesperson for the group and was often bold, if not rash." "But in the hours after thecrucifixion," "Peter and his colleagues dropped from sight, presumably shattered by their leader's defeat." "In the 1stcentury, everybody knows that acrucified Messiah is a failed Messiah." "And, face it, there were lots of Jewish revolutionaries, would-be Messiahs, prophetic figures in that period, and almost all of them die violently." "And when that happens, you're faced with achoice if you're a Peter figure... you know, sort of a right-hand person in that movement." "Youcan either find yourself another leader, a new Messiah prophet to follow- and sometimes we see people do that- or you quit and give up and you go home, very thankful to escape with your life because usually when they round up one person," "they round up the immediate followers as well." "(FOREBODING MUSIC)" ""They" were the forces of the Roman Empire and in Judea, their power was daunting." "(SHOUTING)" "Rome had conquered the region almost a century before and while it often relied on compliant local rulers to maintain order," "Roman troops were always poised to step in, paricularly during holidays, when Jewish pilgrims flooded the city." "The first signs of trouble brought violent reprisals." "Peter and the others had just received a brutal lesson." "Jesus's fate loomed over them all." "Crucifixion was a standard Roman practice." "2000 over here, another 500 over there." "And Rome was not terribly discriminatory about whom itcrucified." "If you were a rebel, if you were a thief, if you were perceived to be a danger to the state," "Rome felt no qualms about killing you." "Indeed, Rome looked atcrucifixion as a form of advertising." ""Don't do what the person on thecross did" ""or you may find yourself in similarcircumstances. "" "The amazing thing to me about the stories of thecrucifixion is that the WOMEN stayed, because we know from Roman sources that women, too,could have beencrucified." "(EERIE MUSIC)" ""On the first day of the week, at early dawn," ""the womencame back to the tomb." ""They found the stone rolled away. "" "The earliest gospel account says that three women returned to the cave a few days after Jesus's burial." "Repors of what they saw would reverberate for two millennia." "The tomb was said to be open, Jesus's body gone." "And the women were told by an angel to look for Jesus back in Galilee, back in the countryside where Peter was born, where he had first encountered Jesus just a few years before." "This is the rural area that had fostered the living prophet, and this is the world, many scholars believe, that now nurured his teachings and down-to-earh sayings." ""The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed," ""the smallest of all seeds." ""But when it falls on tilled ground, it produces a great plant" ""and becomes a shelter for birds in the sky. "" "It seems a unique Jesus movement took root and flowered in Galilee almost immediately after thecrucifixion." ""Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals." ""When you enter a house, eat what is set before you." ""Heal those who are sick, and say to them" "'The kingdom of God hascome upon you. '" "The poor and illiterate people of Galilee kept Jesus alive through word of mouth." "They repeated his message of compassion and remedy for their marginal lives, and they passed on his sayings to people who had never heard them from Jesus himself." "If Peter and his companions returned to Galilee, they probably helped cultivate this budding local tradition." "But that tradition might never have survived if not for a dramatic vision." "By one account, it happened on the shores of Galilee." "(OMINOUS MUSIC)" ""There together were Simon Peter, Thomas, Nathanael," ""the sons of Zebedee and two other disciples of Jesus." ""Simon Peter said 'I am going out to fish. '" ""And they responded 'We arecoming with you. '" ""But that night theycaught nothing." ""Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the shore." ""But the disciples did not realise it was him." ""That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter 'It is the Lord. '" "That's an explosive moment of hope." "Jesus had beencrucified - not lynched, but officially, legallycrucified- that is, executed by Roman power." "Itcould have seemed, after all, if God had allowed Jesus to becrucified, then maybe God was on the side of Rome." "Maybe God agreed with this judgement on Jesus." "But to have experienced the risen Jesus means that God is STILL with Jesus and that therefore God and Rome are on acollisioncourse." "It was a staggering vision, and led to a thrilling conclusion." "If Jesus was raised, if God and Rome were colliding, then the apocalyptic age had begun." "Ancient prophecies had decreed it and centuries of deferred hope had nurured the dream." "It was happening now, they believed." "The world was about to see that God, notcaesar, ruled humans everywhere." "God's kingdom was finally dawning." "The event that seems to draw the Apostles back together is their perception thatchrist had been raised." "Forchristians 21centuries later, this seems like a kind of spiritual event, something that has religious significance, but for these 1st-century Jews who have been following Jesus of Nazareth around, the event has immediate historical significance." "They're not thinking in terms of moral metaphors, they're thinking in terms of historical reality." "God is about to intervene in history." "In an instant, the devastated followers of Jesus were reinfused with confidence and purpose." "For if God's kingdom was coming, they must prepare and they must aler others that Jesus was not dead, but alive... that thecrucifixion was not a tragedy, but a victory." "This shor but trenchant message would be the rallying call for a new movement inside Judaism... a Jesus movement." "And, as Peter and the others would soon learn, that message would put them on a collision course, too, with the forces of empire... and even with each other." "(SOLEMN MUSIC)" ""Jerusalem was fortified with three walls." ""Towers rose from the walls 30 feet tall, and just as wide." ""The Holy Temple was situated in the middle." ""To strangers who approached from the distance," ""it looked like a mountain covered with snow," ""for what wasn't gilded was blindingly white. "" "The ancient writer Josephus describes Jerusalem as a city like no other." "It was the centre of ancient Judaism." "It housed the holiest place for Jews worldwide... the Great Temple." "Founded on a site chosen by King David himself, the temple drew pilgrims from around the empire." "And after seeing the risen Jesus, it drew his invigorated followers." "For if God's kingdom was coming to earh, it would come first to Jerusalem." "But Jerusalem was not just a religious centre." "It was a subject city of the Roman Empire and its turbulent history made it a thorn in the side of Roman administrators." "Some 20 years before, Rome had ended all traces of Judean independence." "The Jewish royal house of Herod had been shunted aside and Roman governors took direct control." "Many were mediocre administrators and poor diplomats." "Few, however, were as heavy-handed as Pontius Pilate." "One ancient writer describes Pilate as "inflexible, stubborn and cruel"." "Josephus agrees." "He says that Pilate brought blasphemous images of the emperor into the Jews' sacred city." "He confiscated temple money and brutalised Jews who dared complain." "Pilate didn't cause the tensions in Judea but he kept Jerusalem's residents simmering in discontent." "This was the city that Peter and the Galileans made their new urban base, the centre of their movement to prepare for God's thrilling apocalyptic age." "When we hear the term 'apocalypse', we think that means the end of the world." "No." "Apocalypse meant the end of evil and violence and injustice and unrighteousness and impurity here below on this earth." "It meant the end of evil." "It did not mean the end of the world." "Peter's new group didn't wait idly for God to destroy evil and deliver His perfect world." "It seems Peter directed his companions to star living that ideal world right away." ""Now, the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul" ""and no one would say that he owned anything for himself," ""but everything was held incommon." ""None among them was needy" ""and whoever owned lands or houses would sell them" ""and bring the proceeds of the sale to place at the feet of the Apostles," ""who then distribute to each according to their need. "" "As Luke tells the story," "Peter built a model society inside the strange new city enclave." "He oversaw a system of communal living, shared goods, mutual suppor." "This radical lifestyle wasn't unique in the 1st century but it was one more sign that Peter and his colleagues expected to witness the ancient prophecies fulfilled in their lifetime." "What Peter is doing in Jerusalem is trying toconvince his fellow Jews that the kingdom of God has already begun upon this earth and that therefore they have to begin to live it." "If they were to say to a fellow Jew with an open mind" ""The apocalyptic age has begun", the fellow Jew might say" ""Well, I'm ready to believe it butcould you show me what has begun?" ""Ican't see any difference." "Rome is still running the world. "" "And all Petercould say was "Yes, butcome and see how we're living." ""We've begun to live a different lifestyle. "" "Their lifestyle may have impressed the poor Jews of Jerusalem." "But convers were not high on Peter's agenda at first." "Indeed, he offered nothing to conver to, for Peter and his followers remained firmly within Judaism." "They maintained Jewish food laws and honoured Jewish holidays, such as Passover... and, some 50 days later, the Feast of Pentecost." "In fact, Peter's Jerusalem group might have gone unnoticed early on if not for a strange event repored during the first Pentecost after Jesus's death." ""On the day of Pentecost, they were all together in one place. "" "(LOUD BOOM)" ""Then suddenly from heavencame a sound like a violent rush of the wind." ""The wind filled the whole house where they were sitting." ""All were filled with the Holy Spirit" ""and they began to babble in different tongues." ""Now, there were Jews living in Jerusalem," ""pious men from all the tribes under heaven," ""and at this sound acrowd gathered and wasconfused." ""Disturbed but amazed, they marvelled" "'Behold, are not all these speaking Galileans?" "'Whatcan this mean?" "'" ""While others scoffed and said 'They are filled with new wine. '" "LEVINE:" "The story of Pentecost that Luke tells is just an extraordinary story and a very peculiar one." "Here are the disciples speaking in what we today wouldcall speaking in tongues." "It's an amazing manifestation of spirit thatcan be seen even today in Pentecostalchurches where people speak in tongues." "And unless you've seen it, you don't understand the power that itcouldconvey." "Would it draw acrowd?" "Absolutely." "Would people think the participants werecrazy?" "Probably a good many did." "But would others say..." ""They're speaking in the language of angels, this must be divine." ""This must be true prophecy." "They must have thecorrect theology. "" "Others would have thought that, as well." "The Pentecost story is often said to mark the beginning of thechristianchurch." "But it contains an ominous note, too." "For in the climate of ancient Jerusalem, where wary locals remembered all too well how Messiahs could bring widespread reprisals," "Peter and his conspicuous followers would naturally spark anxiety." "To proclaim a Messiah, to proclaim a Messianic age was to make a politicalclaim." "And the Jews in Jerusalem especially recognised that they were under Roman occupation and they knew that thecaesar did not want anycompetition to his own rule." "To proclaim a new king meant that their own lives would be in danger because Roman troops and governors do not like any king except forcaesar." "There is no cerainty about when and why trouble first began for the Jerusalem Jesus movement." "But according to Luke, trouble emerged not long after the group began attracting new followers." "Luke writes that one of them, a man named Stephen, sparked confrontation while publicly declaring his reverence for the executed Jesus." "(dramatic MUSIC)" "This outspoken newcomer, Luke says, enraged some of his Jerusalem listeners." ""They stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes," ""who found him and seized him and brought him to thecouncil." ""They presented false witnesses who said" "'This man insists on makingclaims against this holy place and the law. '" ""Then theychased him out of thecity and began to stone him. "" "Stephen was stoned to death." "Crisis soon followed." "(FOREBODING MUSIC)" "As Luke tells the story, a fervent young Jew named Saul was at the forefront of a communal purge." "Working at the behest of Jerusalem's religious authorities," "Luke claims Saul hunted down the Jesus followers and brought havoc to Peter's small flock." ""That day, a great persecution began against the assembly in Jerusalem" ""and everyone was scattered throughout thecountryside" ""except the Apostles." ""Saul was ravaging thechurch," ""going into each house and dragging both men and women off to jail. "" "(MUSIC REACHEScRESCENDO)" "(SOMBRE MUSIC)" "According to Luke, Peter remained in Jerusalem with just a few Jesus followers." "He, at least, was spared persecution." "But the situation would have looked bleak, nonetheless." "His expectations had been brutally disappointed." "He and the others would have to revise their hopes and plans yet again." "(GENTLE MUSIC)" "By the mid-30s of the 1st century, the followers of Jesus still numbered just a few hundred." "They were still led by Peter in Jerusalem." "But the man who had guided his group from countryside to capital now watched the movement enter a whole new phase." "Just a few years after Jesus was killed, his followers, sometimes called 'The Way', blew like seeds around the Roman Empire." "They were drawn by a pressing need to spread news of God's pending arrival." "And they were pushed, Luke says, by enemies at home." ""Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord," ""approached the High Priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus," ""so that if he found any member of The Way," ""he would be authorised to bring them back to Jerusalem inchains. "" "Luke claims that Saul, after spearheading effors to suppress the Jesus followers in Jerusalem, now prepared to pursue them to the nearby city of Damascus." "Saul doesn't confirm all of Luke's claims but he does acknowledge that he aggressively repressed the conspicuous new Jewish movement." ""I was fiercely persecuting the assembly of God and was ravaging it." ""I was advancing in Judaism beyond my peers" ""since I was so much more zealous for the traditions of our ancestors. "" "(SOLEMN MUSIC)" "Saul is the only figure from the first decades of the Jesus movement who left direct accounts of the events he witnessed." "He was a young, Greek-speaking Jew from outside Judea." "He was a Pharisee, stridently committed to Jewish law." "But somehow, somewhere, his life took an unexpected turn." "Luke puts these words in Saul's mouth." ""Around midday," ""a bright light from heaven suddenly flashed around me." ""I fell to the ground and heard a voice say" "'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" "'" "(EERIE MUSIC)" ""I replied 'Who are you, Lord?" "'" ""And he said to me 'I am Jesus of Nazareth. '" "(CELESTIAL MUSIC)" "WRIGHT:." "I think theconversion of Saul of Tarsus, who we know as Paul the Apostle, has to be one of the turning points of history, of Westernculture and so on." "Paul realises that Jesus IS alive, that the stories of his resurrection were true, that he therefore really was the Messiah, and that therefore... he, Paul, has been going in the wrong direction and has to turn around and follow this Messiah." "It was a life-changing moment and would be a pivotal point in the history of the Jesus movement." "Yet events following the epiphany are obscure." "Paul says that he went to the desers of modern-day Jordan." "There, it seems, Paul nurured the conviction that he had a special mission... that he had been visited by Jesus not for his own salvation, but in order to spread news of his resurrection as fast and as far as possible." "The more who heard it, the more would be saved." "Finally, perhaps years after his original vision," "Paul travelled to Jerusalem." "It was time, he decided, to meet the people who had actually known the living Jesus." "I suspect that when Peter and the others heard that Saul was in town, there must have been hugely mixed emotions." "How are you going to handle this very bright..." "I mean, scarily bright young man, with all his passion and all his zeal, who was on the other side, for goodness sake?" "It's rather like what happens when major league sports teams..." "Somebody gets transferred from one team to another and the guy who was batting against you last season, he's now going to be at the top of your line-up and, you know, the batters on your team may not like that too much." ""When he arrived in Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples." ""But all feared him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. "" "Neither Luke nor Paul recounts what transpired at that first meeting." ""I swear before God that my words do not lie." ""I was unknown by sight to the assemblies of Judea that are inchrist." ""They had only heard it said that 'The man who persecuted us 'is now announcing the faith he once worked to destroy. '" "We can only imagine the agitation Paul caused." "Not only had he harassed the early followers of Jesus, but he represented everything they were not." "Peter had no formal education." "He earned his living with his hands and he spoke with a rustic accent." "Paul, on the other hand, was relatively refined." "He had been born into a comforable family outside Judea." "He was educated in Greek thinking in addition to religious Judaism." "But, somehow, the encounter succeeded." "Perhaps Paul asked about the teachings of Jesus." "Perhaps Peter recounted events from Jesus's life." "Whatever was said, Paul convinced those he once opposed that he was sincere." "He stayed two weeks with Peter." "At some point, Paul revealed a vital mission... a mission to pronounce Jesus to the outside world, to the non-Jews, or Gentiles, of Rome's vast empire." "And furher, Paul declared that he had been assigned that mission by God Himself." "Paul, without ever knowing Jesus, now seemed to claim greater authority than Jesus's closest companions." "Paul saw himself involved in a project on which all of history turned." "All humanity was dependent upon the successful prosecution of this project." "Anybody who's possessed of a vision that big tends to have a lot of gall, a lot of brass, take risks, throw tantrums..." "Why?" "Because this is so important." "All of humanity was going to be redeemed through this work that he and these other people were doing." "Paul's vision was breathtaking, the task he set himself enormous, the obstacles daunting." "For in the 1st century," "Rome's size and diversity dazzled nearly every ancient observer." ""Roman power and authority have occupied the fullcircumference of the world" ""and the empire extends beyond the paths of the sun and the limits of the ocean." ""Throughout this worldwide realm, in provinces and towns," ""eachcommunity practises its own sacred rites" ""and worships local gods. "" "From Turkey to Spain, from Brittany to Egypt," "Rome laid claim to more territory than any empire that came before." "(PERCUSSIVE FOLK MUSIC)" "The nerve centres of the Roman Empire were its Mediterranean cities..." "Corinth, Athens, Ephesus and others." "These cities had once comprised a Greek empire and remained steeped in Greek culture." "They were now ruled by Rome and overlaid with Roman law, Roman patronage and Roman religion." "This urban layer cake created a very special environment for the Jewish Jesus movement." "HORSLEY There were Jewishcommunities, a large Jewishcommunity in Antioch, in Alexandria, in Ephesus." "These were unusual in the Roman Empire, these Jewishcommunities." "They were not just a religion, but they were ethnic groups and the Romans had allowed them a degree of self-government of theircommunities." "That made some of the Gentiles jealous." "Jealousy could make for delicate relations in these mixed communities." "Anti-Jewish violence was always possible." "But Gentiles had positive reactions to Judaism, too." "Many were attracted to the Jewish God." "Few formally convered to Judaism, few abandoned their traditional gods, but non-Jews were regular visitors in Jewish synagogues throughout the 1st century." "This is the world where Paul had been born and this is the world that would provide the backdrop for one of the most divisive issues to face the early movement." "Paul, eager to bring Gentiles to Jesus, would be the catalyst." "(LIVELY MUSIC)" "Some three years after Paul met Peter in Jerusalem, he travelled norh to the city of Antioch," "located in modern-day Turkey." "Antioch was the centre of Roman power in the region." "Pilate's superior was based there and so were the legions that kept Jerusalem in line." "But equally imporant, Antioch was a dynamic centre of trade." "Situated on the Roman crossroads linking east and west, it had mushroomed to some quarer million people." "It drew ambitious newcomers from all corners of the Roman Empire." "Forunes were made and lost." "And lost, too, were traditional boundaries." "Old religions mixed, people worshipped many gods at once and new gods were fast absorbed." "This city, not 300 miles from Jerusalem, offered unusually ferile ground for a new Jewish sect... the Jesus sect." "Paul had been invited to help lead the Antioch Jesus movement by a man named Barnabas." "Probably Greek himself, no one knows when or how Barnabas first joined the Jesus followers." "But Barnabas was one of their earliest missionaries." "Barnabas... his name means "son ofconsolation"" "and he seems to have been an encourager, aconsoler." "We don't know how much that is written up later and may not have really represented who he was, but I think we wouldn't be pushing our luck too far to say that he was a gentle, encouraging, healing sort ofchap." "And he may therefore have found it a little difficult to be with Paul who was a very feisty and dynamic man." "Barnabas and Paul preached mainly in synagogues." "There, even Gentiles in the audience might have been aware of ancient prophecies that a Jewish Messiah would come one day." "Paul and Barnabas made this their staring point." "But the Messiah wasn't coming one day, they announced." "He was coming now." "And when he arrived, Caesar's kingdom was doomed." "Only the faithful would be saved." ""Then this is the end," ""when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father," ""when he has abolished all rulers and all authority and power. "" "(Man speaks softly in Greek)" "This was the basic message." "But Paul and Barnabas took another dangerous step." "The two missionaries declared that, to be saved," "Gentile convers must abandon the gods of Greece and Rome." "They must honour the Jewish God alone." "FREDRIKSEN:" "This is really a revolutionary demand." "The worship of the gods is something that, in our terms, would havecome out of the defence budget of an ancientcity." "Heaven patronises acity." "The gods make sure that earthquakes don't happen or floods don't occur, that there isn't a plague, so that part of the traditional piety... that, um... that pagans in acity would express was necessary for the wellbeing of thatcity." "Paul and Barnabas were walking a razor's edge." "They risked offending the vast majority of people around them who worshipped many gods." "But in Antioch, at least, it seems they encountered little trouble." "They successfully recruited from Jews and Gentiles alike, and their convers coalesced into a thriving Jesus community, a group so distinctive that it would become the first to be called 'Christian'." "(EERIE MUSIC)" "Paul and Barnabas spent nearly a decade persuading the people of Antioch that God's kingdom was close on their heels." "But even in success, they faced a problem." "Year after year, God's kingdom failed to arrive." "Despite Paul's conviction and charisma, some of his convers must have wondered why." "In Paul's earliest letters there's a sense of urgency because he is convinced that thechrist iscoming back, the Day of Judgment is happening next week." "But Jesus doesn'tcome back and time goes on." "So the message needs to be readjusted and Paul, good apostle that he is, readjusts." "He notes that the entire world needs to be evangelised." "That's going to take time." "So, what explains the delay?" "In part, it's God's grace allowing Paul, and those who follow him, to bring in thecomplete number of the Gentiles before theconsummation of the age." "Paul concluded, it seems, that God's kingdom would not come until more Gentiles were convered, and that he, Paul, must conver them." ""While those in the Antioch assembly were ministering for the Lord and fasting," ""the Holy Spirit said" "'Set apart Barnabas and Saul so theycan do mycalling. '" ""Then, after praying, the assembly laid hands on them" ""and sent them on their way. "" "Luke doesn't comment on the kingdom's delay, but he does say that Paul and Barnabas eventually left Antioch on a mission to seek Gentile recruits furher afield." "As the pair branched out from their Antioch base, they apparently sharpened their message." "They trumpeted the idea that Gentiles not only should be brought into the fold, but must be recruited in large numbers in order to hasten the kingdom of God." "As Paul later wrote, it was all par of God's plan." ""I do not want you to misunderstand this mystery, brethren." ""A hardening has fallen on Israel" ""until the full number of the Gentilescomes among us. "" "Pushed by the urgency of their mission," "Paul and Barnabas travelled hundreds of miles across dangerous roads and sea lanes." "Across the lands of modern-day Greece and Turkey, they preached their message of imminent salvation." "And it seems they advanced a program of charity and communal suppor." "The mixture had broad appeal." "For life in the 1st century was often brutal." "(GRIM MUSIC)" "Crime, disease, fire and hunger were constant dangers and the vast majority of the population lived on the sharp edge of disaster." "HORSLEY:" "It's difficult for us moderns to imagine theconditions under which most of the population of the Roman Empire must have lived." "There was a huge gulf between the wealthy and powerful, who basically ran things, and then the vast majority of people." "Even the people who we would think of as artisans, well-off and so forth, they were still poor by our standards." "And then there were just a large percentage of people who were simply destitute, could barely make ends meet." "And since they were poor and marginal, then when something happens... when the taxes are raised or when the Roman troopscome through and help themselves to a draught animal or take thecrops that are stored in the storeroom... the result is famine, the result is debt, the result is often simply going under." "(dramatic MUSIC)" ""Once, when a traveller came to thecity of Aspendus," ""he found the people eating animal fodder which was being sold in the market" ""and anything else theycould find." ""For the magistrates had hoarded all the grain, to trade it overseas." ""In response, acrowd of all ages attacked thechief magistrate" ""and they were lighting a fire under him," ""although he wasclinging to statues of the emperor. "" "(CONFUSED HUBBUB)" "Brutality was born of desperation, and desperate people were often drawn to the movement of Paul and Barnabas." "But the two missionaries encountered hostilities directed at them, too." "For in these volatile times, tempers flared easily." ""Theycame to a town in Pisidia." ""They entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and sat down." ""After reading the law, the synagogue leader sent them a message, saying" "'Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, 'then say it. '" ""So Paul rose to his feet, gestured with his hand, and spoke. "" "Paul proceeded to proclaim his missionary message." "He probably welcomed Gentiles into the fold, and it seems his words inspired interest." "But as Paul and Barnabas were leaving town," "Luke says a mixed crowd of Jews and Gentiles gathered round them." "Some began to heckle the two missionaries." "Paul and Barnabas were driven from the region." "The same happened in Iconium." "Paul and Barnabas sparked interest and anger." "(ANIMATEDcONVERSATlON)" "When they continued to Lystra, however, Luke says the condemnation grew violent." "Luke says that many Jews were angered by Paul's liberal approach to non-Jewish convers, for Paul exempted them from Jewish customs." "Paul's fellow Jews might also have feared that by luring convers away from pagan gods," "Paul would inflame the larger pagan community." "Whatever the cause, Paul was dragged from the city, stoned and left for dead." "On the evidence of Paul's own letters," "Paul made other Jews angry." "Now, thinking practically, we have to wonder why." "All Paul has done is have Gentiles quit their low-down Gentile ways." "I mean, here is Paul getting Gentiles to stop worshipping idols, to make an exclusivecommitment to the God of Israel." "What's not to like?" "Well, by taking these Gentiles away from their native practices, what Paul really does is endanger the host Jewishcommunity." "Paul's Gentiles are going tocast the synagogue in some kind of negative light." "And I think that's why Jews are angry at Paul." "Paul survived his stoning." "He and Barnabas went on to recruit new believers in villages and towns around modern-day Turkey." "Some five years after setting out," "Luke says the pair returned to the Jesus community in Antioch, sore but triumphant." "The sense of victory, however, would not last." "For in Antioch, in the first of Paul's stable congregations, arguments over how to integrate Gentiles would engulf Paul in his greatest personal drama... and push the community of Jesus toward a devastating schism." "(DRAMATIC MUSIC)" "In the middle of the 1 st century, Rome ruled the world." "Dissent was rare." "But a few subiugated Jews dared to insist that the kingdom of God would soon eclipse the empire of Rome." "James, Barnabas, Priscilla..." "Peter and Paul." "Incredibly, these marginal people would take news of their Jewish Messiah out of its remote birthplace and around the Roman Empire." "If one wants to look for miracles in the New Testament," "I don't think one needs to look at the raising of Lazarus or walking on water." "The very fact that Peter and Paul could take what was quite a parochial religion and turn it into one that had national and international import." "is miracle enough." "In the decades after Jesus's death," "Peter, Paul and others would reach out to peoples and cultures far from their own." "They would face sceptics and enemies but they would also draw converts." "Step by step, year by year, they would bring their young Jewish splinter group to one of the most fateful crossroads in history." "MAN:" "Today we know that Judaism and Christianity are separate religions." "But could there have been another option completely that would have changed history completely, for both Judaism and for Christianity, when they would not have been separate religions, but something brand-new?" "This is what's being explored at this moment." "Straining to survive beneath the greatest empire the world had ever seen, striving to reach out beyond the limits of culture and place, to grow without splitting apart." "These are the struggles that shape the early Jesus movement." "These are the struggles of Peter and Paul." "(DRAMATIC MUSIC)" "(TENSE MUSIC)" "In the year 37, as people like Peter and Paul were spreading word of the risen Jesus around the Roman Empire, events unfolding in Rome would profoundly affect the young Jesus movement." "A contemporary named Josephus tells the story." ""Rumours had spread that the emperor had died." ""Letters arrived from young Caligula," ""one to the Senate informing them of his own succession to power."" "An erratic youth called Caligula had become emperor, the ruler of Rome's vast territory, and people from Spain to Turkey, from Brittany to Judea, were now subiect to the whims of this young Caesar." "One of his subjects, from the lands of Judea, was the fisherman Simon Peter." "Peter was an early follower of the living Jesus and one of the first to join his movement." "I think Peter must have been a courageous man to follow Jesus in the first place because Jesus was dangerous, he was talking about God becoming king." "There were other kings around who didn't like that notion." "for Peter to follow him and be his right-hand man, he must have had guts at the beginning." "But like a lot of people who have _uts, there's a weak side, a vuJnerabJe side." "The gospels say that Peter lost his nerve when Jesus was arrested, that he denied he knew Jesus to save his own life." "But Peter quickly rebounded after the Crucifixion." "Known as the Rock, he lived up to his name by leading a growing Jesus sect in Jerusalem." "Now, Peter was about to feel the weight of empire once again." "(FOREBODING MUSIC)" "For Rome's new emperor soon pulled a friend named Agrippa out of obscurity." ""After a few days, Caligula sent for Agrippa" ""and had him shave and change his clothes." ""Next, he put a diadem on Agrippa's head and made him king."" "Caligula named Agrippa king of Jewish territory." "Agrippa would later become king of Judea, too." "Agrippa's titles were lofty, but as he sailed towards Judea he understood his place in the Roman imperial order." "Caesar had made him king and Caesar could destroy him." "Agrippa could enioy the rich rewards of kingship only by pleasing the Roman emperor." "MAN:" "One of the most impo_ant thin_s we need to consider as we try to tell this story of the movement spearheaded by Peter and Paul is that the Roman Empire is calling the shots and setting the circumstances." "The Romans rule Palestine and the way they run this operation is by indirect rule, by placing their client rulers in place." "So that means that the face of the Roman Empire is the client rulers of the Jews themselves." "(DRAMATIC MUSIC)" ""Agrippa left Rome to rule his own country" ""where, to his subjects' surprise, he presented himself as king." ""He put on a garment of woven silver and entered the theatre at daybreak." ""There, when the wondrous web was touched by the sun's first rays," ""his flatterers immediately raised their voices, addressing him as a god."" "(CHEERING)" "Agrippa struck a Messianic pose and showed little patience for those with opposing claims, especially for Peter and the small band of Jews who rallied around the memory of Jesus." "Their Messiah was an executed criminal and their claims seemed an insolent slap at Agrippa's Roman overlord." "These people called their Jesus, whom Rome had crucified," "'Lord' and 'Saviour' and 'Son of Cod' all of which were not pious terms in the 1st century, but titles of Caesar." "So, when these Christians said "Jesus is Lord"" "Rome understood quite clearly they were saying "And you are not."" "They were taking the titles of Caesar and giving them to Jesus." "Claims about Jesus and his kingdom would have run headlong into imperial politics." "For if they didn't actively foster rebellion, they envisjoined a future that was incompatible with Rome's continued supremacy on earth." "Rome's client king cracked down." "(DRUMS BEAT)" ""During that time, King Herod Agrippa accosted some members of the assembly." ""He had James, the brother of John, killed with the sword."" "One Apostle was executed like a political criminal." "And Peter was caught in Agrippa's net, too." "He was arrested and destined to die the next day." "The followers of Jesus stood on the brink of ruin." "As the gospel author Luke tells the story, only divine intervention could explain Peter's survival." "(SWORD CLANGS)" "(MYSTERIOUS MUSIC)" ""Peter, bound with two chains, was sleepin_ between two soldiers" ""while guards in front of the doors were watching the prison." ""Then, an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the room." ""The chains fell from Peter's hands and Peter followed the angel out." ""When they had passed the first and then the second guard" ""they came before the iron gate leading into the city," ""which opened by itself for them."" "Peter's escape was a pivotal moment for him and for the other Jesus followers." "Peter would survive." "But the crackdown seemed to end his tenure as leader of this Jewish splinter movement." "After keeping the community alive for over a decade," "Peter, the Rock, left the city and under the strain of repression, a figure less known to the authorities took Peter's place." "It was James, the brother of Jesus." "HORSLEY:" "We have to read between the lines to figure out what sort of leadership James may have exerted in Jerusalem." "It's a bit speculative but it may be that, under pressure from other Jews in JerusaJem, there was pressure to make sure that this movement wasn't rocking the boat in too many ways at once, so that they had to appear to be keeping, upholding the Jewish covenantal law." "So, James appears to be very scrupulous about that." "(FOREBODING MUSIC)" "The forces of empire, it seems, would drive James and the Jerusalem Jesus followers into a protective posture." "In these dangerous times, it was best not to stand out, and strict observance of Jewish law might lower their profile." "But it wouldn't be enough." "For even as they recovered from their first major persecution, another crisis loomed... aCriSiSgrowing withintheirownmovement." "(OMINOUS MUSIC)" ""l want you to know, brothers and sisters," ""that the gospel preached by me, Paul, is not from human ori_in," ""for I did not receive it from a man, nor was I taught it," ""but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ."" "Some 300 miles north of Jerusalem, in the Roman city of Antioch, the Apostle Paul and his colleague Barnabas were working fervidly to spread the Jesus movement." "Paul was a latecomer to the cause." "He was an educated Jew from outside Judea and dedicated to bringing news of Jesus beyond the Jewish community." "Preaching in synagogues," "Paul sought converts among the non-Jews, or Gentiles, in the audience." "And the more he succeeded, the more conflict he sparked." "Many Jews worried that Paul's outreach efforts would anger the pagan maiority." "Others thought he was corrupting Jewish traditions." "Paul had fallen under attack and his Gentile mission soon fell under scrutiny by James and the leading Jesus followers back in Jerusalem." "WOMAN:" "As a Jeader of the Church, James was, in effect, worried about his fJock." "He did not want believers to be killed." "He did not want them to be persecuted and I suspect he did not want them to draw a great deal of attention to themselves." "Paul, preaching in the synagogues of Damascus or Antioch, wouJd have called attention to the early Jesus movement." "James is worried about Paul, and well he should have been." "Before long, some members of James's inner circle travelled north to see Paul's activities first-hand." "It would be a dramatic encounter." "When they reached Antioch, Luke says, they made a startling demand." ""Some, who had come down from Judea, were teaching the brothers" ""that if you are not circumcised in the custom of Moses" ""you cannot be saved." ""This led Paul and Barnabas" ""to enter into no small disagreement and debate with them."" "The visitors demanded Paul's Gentile recruits convert to Judaism." "Paul bridled in anger." "The very idea, he insisted, ran counter to God's explicit instructions." "Paul claimed that God had told him that Gentiles should enter His kingdom without first becoming Jews." "Paul stormed to Jerusalem, intent on asserting this view to James and the other Jesus followers living there." ""I left for JerusaJem with Barnabas, taking Titus with me." ""l went in response to a revelation," ""to ensure that I was not running or had not run in vain."" "Paul set out on an arduous journey, taking along a fellow Jesus follower, a non-circumcised Gentile named Titus." "They travelled some two weeks across harsh terrain... to a city Paul had not seen in 14 years." "(REFLECTIVE MUSIC)" "His rapport with Jerusalem leaders must have been weak." "But Paul himself was forceful." ""Then, in private, I laid before those who seemed to be in charge" ""the good news that I proclaim among the Gentiles."" "Peter was back in the city." "Speaking to him, James and some others," "Paul stated his case against circumcision for men like Titus." "God didn't restrict His kingdom to Jews or Jewish converts, he said." "God wanted a united movement of Jew and Gentile together." "A few Jerusalem stalwarts angrily dissented." "Arguments about circumcision symbolised different visions of God's plan and different visions of how to face the wider world." "HORSLEY:" "In this debate, it may help us to appreciate where the different players are coming from." "Let's remember that Peter and James are both from Galilee." "They're from the sticks." "Their perspective is somewhat limited, shall we say?" "Paul comes from the Diaspora." "He's seen a wider part of the world and has a sense of the difference of those peoples out there." "So, it looks as though Peter's sort of in between." "James is the one who's the more strict..." "ri_orous on this issue of circumcision." "And Peter, perhaps, was the one who mediated that agreement." "It is not clear how the dispute was resolved." "Luke says that Peter rose to support Paul's position, that the Rock lived up to his name by becoming a stepping stone between the two camps." "Whatever was said, Titus escaped circumcision." "And as the followers of Jesus parted company," "James and the others made a deal, a deal that seemed to confirm Paul's special mission to the Gentiles." ""They gave their right hands in fellowship to me and Barnabas," ""acknowledging that we would go to the Gentiles" ""and they would work with the circumcised." ""They only stressed one point..." ""that we should remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do."" ""Remember the poor."" "It seemed a simple gesture of shared values." "But as Paul, Barnabas and Titus returned to Antioch, pleased with their victory, the conflict over Gentile converts was far from settled." "(TENSE MUSIC)" "Around the year 40, about the time that Paul first left for Antioch, his comrades in Jerusalem were feeling the force of Rome once again." "And once again, Josephus reports, the eye of the storm was the new emperor..." "Caligula." ""Galigula wished to be acknowledged as a god." ""He cut down the best men in his own land" ""and spread his profanity even to Judea."" "Caligula's sanity seemed to be failing." "He demanded grovelling worship and, while many Romans were offended, the emperor's Jewish subjects were devastated." "For Jews worshipped only one god... the God of Israel." "Caligula decided that was a personal challenge." "And he decided to test it in the Jews' most sacred refuge of purity and tradition... the Holy Temple of Jerusalem." "(DRAMATIC MUSIC)" ""Caligula sent an army against Jerusalem" ""with orders to set up statues of himself in the Temple." ""And if the Jews would not receive the statues," ""he would kill the resisters" ""and reduce the rest of the population to slavery." ""fear grasped them all." ""They held out their law and the customs of their fathers." ""The Jews said that if Cali_ula wished to set up statues," ""it would be necessary to sacrifice the whole Judean people."" "(MUSIC REACHES CRESCENDO)" "Luckily for Judea, Caligula was suddenly killed." "A massacre was narrowly averted." "But the episode sent a chilling message and it reached the Jerusalem Jesus followers with ringing clarity." "Roman power was all-encompassing." "Any denial of imperial supremacy could be dangerous." "In general, the 4Os lived under the shadow of what happened when Caligula had tried to put his own statue into the Temple of Jerusalem, a deliberate desecration that would have brought revoIts, possibly all over the Roman Empire, from Jewish citizens." "There was massive, public, non-violent protest." "And that probably rippled through the 4Os in the entire Jewish homeland." "Up in Antioch," "Paul and Barnabas surely would have heard about Caligula's statue." "But Paul's many letters never refer to it." "It seems that Paul was more absorbed by his growing Gentile mission." "Widespread conversions, he believed, heralded God's kingdom." "But as more Gentiles joined," "Paul's recruits were also bringing vexing changes to the Jewish Jesus movement." "Judaic laws were being abridged, Jewish customs set aside." "And some of Paul's Jewish colleagues found that trend increasingly disturbing." "The more Gentiles who came into the Church, the more difficult it was for particularly the earliest members of that community to determine what they were supposed to do, how they were supposed to behave." "Eventually, if Gentiles outnumbered Jews, who was going to control the Church?" "By what practices were Jesus followers to be known?" "These questions began to emerge in Antioch as early as the year 49." "About that time, Peter arrived from Jerusalem." "It may be that Peter was fulfilling his part of the Jerusalem agreement." "He may have been preaching to Antioch's large Jewish community while Paul and Barnabas addressed the city's Gentiles." "Whatever the arrangement, it seems Peter adapted to local conditions." "He welcomed non-Jewish followers and ate at non-kosher tables." "But the concord would not last." "New men arrived from Jerusalem." "They were sent, Paul declared later, by James." "And they were dismayed by what they saw." "Antioch's Jesus followers seemed to be flouting the most distinctive laws of Judaism... laws delivered by Moses, which prohibited non-kosher food and went to the heart of Jewish identity." "CROSSAN:" "For hundreds of years," "Jewish matyrs had died to observe the Jewish law." "Now Paul is saying that pagans can become full Jews without being converted." "So, what they had died for was now somehow abrogated or could be skipped or could be bypassed." "And for many Jews that was just not acceptable." "(SOMBRE MUSIC)" "(SOMBRE MUSIC)" "The men from Jerusalem insisted the Jewish leaders take their meals apart from non-kosher Gentiles." "They invoked all the authority of the Jerusalem Apostles... men who had known Jesus personally and, in James's case, were even members of his family." "Peter and Barnabas acquiesced." "But Paul accepted no retreat." "Furious at his colleagues for back-pedalling, he gave Peter a public tongue-lashing." ""l opposed him to his face because he was seIf-condemned." ""for before ce_ain people came from James he'd eaten with the CentiJes," ""but when they arrived, he withdrew," ""fearing_ those in the circumcision faction." ""The remaining_ Jews joined his hypocrisy" ""so that even Barnabas was led astray."" "Paul seems a bit uncompromising here, pig-headed, if you will." "But it's important for him that this movement... have some way of demonstrating the solidarity among the different peoples, and that seems to be, for him, a table fellowship." "Jt's hard to tell just how far Paul pushed this." "ls this where the schism happened, over just this issue of table fellowship?" "It's possible, but we don't know for sure." "We do know that the conflict over table fellowship exposed a deep rift between the visions of Paul and James." "Peter, the mediator, could not hold the two together." "It seems the crisis caused Paul to break with Barnabas, to turn his back on the community he'd worked almost a decade to build." "And worse, it seems the crisis fractured Paul's hope for a single Jesus movement." "That movement confronted the most portentous crossroads in its short history." "CROSSAN:" "What is at stake in this is if we're going to have a Gentile Christian community and a Jewish Christian community, are we going to have two Churches or one?" "If we're going to have one, how are they to be integrated together?" "That's what's at stake in this." "How is the Church, with these two wings, these two divisions, as it were..." "How is it to remain one Church?" "IS it going to remain one Church?" "In the heat of conflict, it seems, Paul had answered no." "But he would not give up." "Instead, he would expand his missionary vision." "Jew and Gentile, rich and poor," "Greek, Israelite, Spaniard and Roman..." "The entire world must hear the news, and they must hear Paul's version." "Time was running out." "The kingdom of Rome was doomed, he believed." "The kingdom of God was dawning." "But time was running out for Paul, too." "Any man who inflamed public passions in city after city, group after group, was bound to confront the defenders of Roman order sooner or later." "(GENTLE MUSIC)" "As the 50s began to unfold, Jesus had been dead some 20 years." "His movement had kept growing, but so did the gulf between the infant Jesus communities outside Judea and their founding group in Jerusalem." "(DRAMATIC MUSIC)" ""A fight broke out on the great plain outside Jerusalem." ""Many Jews were passin_ throu_h on their way to a festival" ""and one of them was killed."" "According to Josephus," "Judea was lurching ever closer to open conflict with Rome." ""When the murder was reported in JerusaJem," ""the whole crowd was thrown into disarray." ""They marched to do battle at the scene." ""But the Roman governor went with a troop of horsemen" ""and seized many and killed even more."" "(HORSES NEIGH)" ""He ordered the captives to be crucified."" "HORSLEY:" "The Romans came down rather ferociously on any a_itators, especially in the "uncivilised pa_s", quote unquote, such as Palestine." "They would send in the troops, burn, destroy villages, slaughter some of the population, enslave the rest of the population." "And then, of course, they would crucify thousands of people as a demonstration to the rest of the people, to intimidate them." "Now, that is simple, plain brutality." "Such atrocities rarely blighted Greece, Macedonia or Asia Minor, the lands that welcomed Paul's mission during these same years." "For Rome's Eastern Empire was long accustomed to Roman rule." "(GOATS BLEAT)" "It was here, far from the influence of the beleaguered Jerusalem leaders, that Paul began to build a new kind of community, a community based neither on kinship, conquest nor geography, but on a shared yearning for God's kingdom." "Paul spent nearly a year in Asia Minor." "Then, about the year 50," "Paul travelled to the Greek city of Corinth." "It would be one of the most important places in his missionary career." ""Our heart is open wide to you, Corinthians," ""for we were the first to come such a distance to you" ""with the good news of Ghrist."" "When he got there," "Paul was delighted to find that no other Jesus missionary had preceded him." "Paul's vision was uncontested." "The first converts he made in Corinth were Stephanas and his large household." "Probably of Roman extraction, they probably included a number of servants and slaves." "There was Erastus, thought to be a rising public servant." "And there were Priscilla and Aquila." "This couple had recently been expelled from Rome." "Like Paul, they were tent-makers, and would become his strongest supporters." "Under Paul's guidance, the Corinth assembly assumed a special quality." "In an age of stark divides, the Corinthians bridged different groups." "Prosperous and poor, slave and master, man and woman... all mingled in Paul's community and all were central to his life project." "GALLAHAN:" "Paul has committed himself entirely to this project and has really identified himself with it, to the extent that, if it faiJs, he faiJs." "What's... at Jeast to me, especially poi_nant about this is that he's invested himself in people." "See, his project is people." "And that's aJways..." "J mean, that's very volatile stock." "(FOREBODING MUSIC)" "Paul would face that reality just two years later." "He had moved on, trusting the Corinthians were solidly grounded." "He was wrong." "A messenger arrived, informing Paul that his cherished congregation had fallen into disarray." "A man had begun an affair with his father's wife." "Marriages unravelled." "Paul was aghast." ""Do not be led astray." ""Neither prostitutes, idoJaters nor aduJterers," ""neither drunks nor thieves..." ""none of these will inherit the kingdom of God." ""And some of you used to be these things," ""but you were cleansed, you were made holy."" "(DRAMATIC MUSIC)" "But there was worse news." "Charismatic new missionaries had come to Corinth in Paul's absence and they had poached followers from Paul's flock." "Some, like a mysterious preacher named Apollos, offered a different route to salvation, a route that seemed to worsen social divisions." "The Corinth community split into factions and open rivalry broke out." "Paul dispatched a passionate appeal." ""To the assembly of God that is in Gorinth." ""l appeal to you, brethren," ""that all of you be united in the same mind and of the same opinion." ""for l have heard that there are disagreements among you." ""l hear that each of you says 'l belon_ to Paul'" ""or 'l belong to Apollos' or 'l belong to Gephas#" "Paul rushed to Corinth to reassert his vision." "(URGENT MUSIC)" "He confronted a hostile meeting." "He was accused of embezzling funds and swindling his congregation." "(HUBBUB)" "Despite all his persuasive powers," "Paul was ousted by his own community, displaced by other preachers." "It was one of the worst blows in Paul's tumultuous life." "GALLAHAN:" "Paul is in a very bad way." "His _eneral public relations are at an aJJ-time Jow from people whom he re_ards as kind of his children, spiritually." "And he says "Now, you guys remember the Gospel that I preached." ""It's about a Messiah who suffered." ""You can't understand that, you can't understand that _ospel," ""unless you understand suffering." ""And I understand suffering." ""If those guys competing with me are not recommending THAT as their credentials," ""then they don't know what they're talking about."" ""Are they Hebrew?" "So am I." ""Are they Israelites?" "So am I." ""Are they ministers of Christ?" ""l speak like a madman, but I exceed them." ""My sufferings are greater, my imprisonments more numerous" ""and my beatings more frequent, often near death." ""I'm a fooJ." ""You Corinthians made me one." "You should have been my advocates." ""for in no way am I inferior to these super apostles."" "Despite his efforts, it seems that Paul was unable to turn the tide." "He next went to Ephesus, perhaps intending to shore up that community against similar disputes." "But lust when it seemed the situation couldn't get worse, it did." "Perhaps the political undertones of his message finally caught up with him." "Perhaps he wrangled the wrong person." "Whatever the cause, Paul was arrested and jailed." "Paul's urgent mission came to a sudden and alarming halt." "Two precious years ticked away as Paul languished in an Ephesus jail." "(SOLEMN MUSIC)" "His life efforts, it seemed, had come to a fruitless close." "Two decades of preaching, organising and sacrificing seemed about to end in the isolation of a Roman prison." "Writing to some early converts, Paul seemed resigned to his fate." ""It is my earnest expectation and hope that lack of courage will not shame me," ""but that Ghrist will be exalted in my body," ""whether in life or in death." ""I do not know which I would choose."" "Paul braced himself for a painful death at the hands of his Roman captors." "But it did not come." "Despite his record for disrupting the peace, Paul was freed." "It was, his followers believed, nothing short of a miracle... o n e m o re Si g n of God 's inexorable plan ." "But there was more." "As Paul walked the mountainous byways of Macedonia, now northern Greece," "Paul received astonishing news." "His old friend and co-worker Titus arrived from Corinth with word that the Corinthians had undergone a change of heart." "They had re-entered Paul's fold." "I And most miraculous of all the scattered communities which Paul had founded had ioined together in an act of unprecedented unity." "They had heeded his call for a great collection for the poor and had amassed a large donation to be sent to Jerusalem." "It was a demonstration of their shared faith and, to Paul, a vindication of his battered vision." ""The thing is this." ""He who sows sparingly will reap sparingly" ""and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully." ""Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift."" "With the collection achieved," "Paul seemingly concluded that his work in Rome's Eastern Empire was complete." "He decided to secure the blessings of Jerusalem's Jesus leaders by delivering the collection personally." "He would prove the strength of his universal movement and honour his pledge to James to remember the poor." "(SOMBRE MUSIC)" "Around the year 56, Paul set sail for Judea, launching one last dramatic effort to forge a united Jesus movement." "(TENSE MUSIC)" ""Another breed of criminal sprouted in JerusaJem, called the Sicarii." ""They killed men in broad daylight in the middle of the city." ""They were especially known to min_le in festival crowds" ""with small daggers hidden under their clothes" ""with which they stabbed their enemies." ""The first to have his throat cut was Jonathan, the high priest," ""and then more were killed every day."" "(GRIM MUSIC)" "As Paul approached Jerusalem, the Jewish historian Josephus describes a city beyond compromise." "Local assassins lurked in the streets, killing Jewish clients of Rome." "Demagogues urged mobs to openly challenge Roman troops." "But despite it all, Paul pushed ahead." "(REFLECTIVE MUSIC)" ""We want you to know, brothers and sisters," ""about the grace of God which has been given to the assemblies of Macedonia."" "His congregations in modern-day Greece and Turkey had dispatched him with a rich offering." ""Their abundant joy and their extreme poverty" ""have oveflowed in rich generosity." ""for, as I can testify, they _ave freely what was within their means" ""and even beyond their means," ""pleading that we allow them the privilege to share in this ministry to the saints."" "What's at stake in the collection, for Paul, is not just ordinary almsgiving but a way of cementing... by love, as it were, for him, the two wings of the Church." "This is the only way he could see it being united, because he would not agree that his Gentile churches should observe any, say, kosher regulations." "So, he wants to be personally there to bring the collection in the hope that it might hold together the two wings of the Church." "(SOMBRE MUSIC)" "Luke describes a cordial meeting between Paul's Gentile delegation on the one hand and James and his supporters on the other." "Luke says that Paul recounted his many successes in the north." "Luke says nothing, however, regarding the great collection which Paul had carried all the way from Greece." "LEVINE:" "Was the collection accepted?" "I don't think so." "If the collection had been accepted, I think we would have evidence of it." "Either Luke would have mentjoined it - and Luke suppresses any mention of it whatsoever - or Paul wouJd have noted it, perhaps in one of his later letters." "But since all we know from the New Testament is that the collection was taken up, but we have no evidence that it was received, I'm inclined to think that Paul failed in this particular endeavour." "(FOREBODING MUSIC)" "If James and the others refused Paul's collection, they would have been refusing Paul's vision of a united movement." "Perhaps they saw no options." "In the 26 years since Jesus's death, the Jerusalem assembly had struggled under difficult conditions." "They had wisely refrained from challenging the city's powerbrokers and carefully avoided raising hackles among the intensely religious crowds that flocked daily to the Temple... crowds that had grown increasingly volatile in Paul's long absence." "In this atmosphere," "Paul's Gentile companions could easily have alarmed James and the others." "And as they may have feared," "Paul's efforts in Jerusalem soon turned dangerously sour." "As Luke tells the story, the very next day, Paul was confronted for brazenly ushering Gentile recruits into the Temple." "(DRAMATIC MUSIC)" "(EXCITED HUBBUB)" ""Then the whole city was agitated and all the people gathered together." ""They seized Paul and dragged him outside the Temple" ""and immediately closed the doors." ""While they were trying to kill him," ""the Roman authorities ran down to the crowd."" "According to Luke," "Rome's tribune prepared to flog Paul for disturbing the peace." "But as the missionary was being chained, Paul revealed he was a Roman citizen." "Because citizens were rarely punished without trial, the officer sent Paul to Rome for the emperor to hear his case." "There, in Luke's account," "Paul was inexplicably allowed to work freely." "But Paul himself wrote no letters about these events, and scholars are far from certain if Luke's report can be taken at face value." "Luke's account is written maybe even as late as half a century after Paul's life." "It's meant to provoke belief and affirmation of Luke's particular construction of what the Jesus movement is about." "We don't even know what sources Luke would have had available to him." "So, to say that it's an apologetic account isn't to say that there's nothing historically valuable in it, but it is to say that we really have no way of assessing_ it." "(SOLEMN MUSIC)" "It is clear that Paul had intended to visit Rome and that the capital of empire was already home to a significant community of Jesus followers lust decades after Jesus's death." ""To all God's beloved who are in Rome," ""Grace to you and peace from God our father."" "Before arriving in Jerusalem, Paul had sent envoys to Rome carrying a letter to the Jesus followers who lived there." "In it, Paul asked Rome's first assemblies to welcome the people bearing his message." ""l commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the Church," ""for she has been a _ood friend to many, includin_ myself." ""Greet Priscilla and Aquila, who risked their own necks on my behalf." ""Greet my beloved Epaenetus," ""who was the first convert in Asia for Ghrist." ""Greet Mary, who has laboured greatly for you."" "Priscilla and Aquila, Phoebe and Epaenetus." "These are lust a few of those honoured by name in Paul's letters." "They are friends and relatives, deacons and benefactors, men and women." "Luke claims that Paul lived and preached among these people for two full years." "And while many scholars question whether Peter and Paul actually arrived in Rome, there's little doubt that these people did." "Shortly thereafter, disaster struck." "(CONFUSED HUBBUB)" "In the year 64, fire broke out." "It destroyed large sections of Rome and decimated Paul's beloved followers." "For in its wake, the emperor Nero decided to blame Rome's fledgling Jesus community for the disaster." "(ANGRY voices)" ""The first arrests were seIf-proclaimed Christians," ""who informed on many others." ""They were convicted not for arson, but for hatred of mankind."" "The Roman historian Tacitus describes the first Roman purge of Jesus followers." "although other purges would follow, few matched the brutality of Nero's." ""Their executions were made a public spectacle." ""They were covered in wild animal skins and torn to pieces by dogs," ""or naiJed to crosses," ""or prepared to be set aflame" ""so they could be burnt as lamps at ni_ht." ""Even though they were guilty as charged, and deserved harsh punishment," ""they evoked pity" ""since they were bein_ sacrificed not for the public _ood," ""but to the cruelty of one man."" "Later writers claim that Peter and Paul were also martyred in this orgy of violence." "Paul is said to have been beheaded and Peter crucified upside down." "Wherever Peter and Paul died, the stories of their deaths reveal a central truth." "The faith of the two Apostles would thrive in Rome and would ultimately expand across the entire empire... but not before a final climactic showdown between Jerusalem and its Roman overlord." "(ANGRY SHOUTING)" "Within two years of Rome's great fire, decades of mounting tensions in the troubled province of Judea erupted into full-scale rebellion." "War raged for four years." "When the Roman army finally gained control, they torched the sacred Temple." "Jerusalem went up in smoke and so, too, did the Jesus movement centred there." "Still the promised kingdom of God did not come." "(DRAMATIC MUSIC)" "(SOMBRE MUSIC)" "Here, in the smouldering destruction of Jerusalem, the parallel tracks embodied by Peter and Paul finally parted ways." "Each man had immeasurably aided the survival of their shared faith." "Each lent it a different strength." "LEVINE:" "Peter and Paul allowed the Church to grow." "They took a movement that expected Jesus to come back and bring in the kingdom of God immediately... and turned it into a movement that lasted for _eneration after _eneration." "They took a proclamation which made sense primarily, if not only, to Jews living in the Galilean Judea and rephrased it in a way so that it made sense to Gentiles in the wider world." "They took a proclamation of the kingdom of God and made it palpable, made it meaning_ful, to people who had never heard of that God and could not imagine a kingdom other than the one that Rome had provided." "Without Peter and PauJ, we wouJd not have the Church as we have it today." "Peter had ushered the first followers of Jesus out of the countryside and into the city." "He had kept that early community of believers together across the crucial years of doubt, persecution and dissent." "But after the Temple was destroyed, the scorched ground of Judea could no longer nurture a movement like Peter's and in the end, it was Paul's communities that would evolve into the Churches we know today and spread around the world."