by the start of the 2nd century, christianity was at a crossroads. after the crucifixion of jesus around 30 a.d., the new testament recounts how the faith he started took on a new life.a. so they compiled books. but to the south, the desert sounds of egypt, the group of
four were finally selected for the new testament canon, but beyond that, there were plenty of other gospels. other gospels? more than one version of the faith? in fact, there were many. there were even christians who believed in more than one god. all of these groups said that they were following the teachings of jesus, and that they themselves were the true christians, and that other groups are wrong. by far the most successful and threatening was a group called the gnostics who lived in egypt in the 2nd century, and they wrote their own version of the life of jesus. the word gnostic comes from the greek gnosis, which means knowledge, but it s not the kind of knowledge you simply get out of books. but rather it s mystical knowledge. it is insight into the true nature of who you are and what is your relationship to god. and is there an essence, a
today, more than 2 billion people call themselves christians, people who believe jesus rose from the dead. but perhaps it s a miracle that christianity did not disappear when the romans crucified jesus on a lonely hill outside jerusalem almost 2,000 years ago. this region, jerusalem and judea, represented an important land bridge between syria and egypt. so throughout history, this has been a critical place. jerusalem had been the holy city of judaism for more than 1,000 years, a place that the romans had occupied since 63 b.c. at the time the romans killed jesus, around 30 a.d., scholars say, the jews were desperate for
christian monks were writing their own version of the life of jesus, one that launched a battle for the very heart of christianity. of all the threats to christianity over the past 2,000 years, perhaps the greatest came in 1945 near the village of nag hammadi in southern egypt where the waters of the nile dry up into desert sands. this is where a farmer named mohammed ali was digging for fertilizer when he discovered a clay jar with 13 ancient books hidden inside. within these books, there were over 50 texts, most of which we did not know about before, that could help us understand the beginnings of
spirit. so they sat there in a state of anticipation and expectation, but not really knowing. then on the jewish feast of pentecost, 50 days after jesus died, the sign came. and suddenly, from heaven, there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind. it filled the entire house where they were sitting. divided tongues as a fire appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them, all of them were filled with the holy spirit and began to speak in other languages. so that jews who were in jerusalem, be they from egypt or syrene or greece or even rome would be able to understand this new proclamation in their own dialect. and so now, all of a sudden, 8,000 jews in jerusalem have