directed them from afar. writing letters or epistles to keep them on jesus message. paul s epistles to these various christian communities are the earliest survivors of, older than the gospels. and he preached everywhere from small-town synagogues to athens, the center of world culture. convincing philosophers and slaves alike that god had sent his son, jesus, to die and rise again to save everyone. in his letter to the romans, written in 57 a.d., paul says that, by god s will, i may somehow at last succeed in coming to you. nearly three decades after the death of jesus, paul would make his way to rome. but only after he was jailed in jerusalem, where he found
earliest surviving christian documents. older than the gospels. and he preached everywhere from small-town synagogues to athens, the center of world culture. convincing philosophers and slaves alike that god had sent his son, jesus, to die and rise again to save everyone. in his letter to the romans, written in 57 a.d., paul says that, by god s will, i may somehow at last succeed in coming to you. nearly three decades after the death of jesus, paul would make his way to rome. but only after he was jailed in jerusalem, where he found himself threatened with death.
understood by the jews, then opposition to this movement is no longer a political thing. it s a very strong religious thing. in fact, it will come to bitterly divide the family and lead to centuries of persecution. but now in the years after the death of jesus, his followers needed to keep his message alive. and they get two messengers, who could not be more different. peter, the simple fisherman from galilee, who was jesus chief apostle. and paul, the sophisticated pharisee. together they will create a religion that would change the world. [ sniffles, coughs ] shhhh! i have a cold with this annoying runny nose. [ sniffles ] i better take something. [ male announcer ] dayquil cold and flu doesn t treat all that. it doesn t? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus fights your worst cold symptoms plus has a fast-acting antihistamine. oh, what a relief it is!
paul reached rome in chains. just in time for rome s first official persecution of christians at the hands of the emperor, nero. in the year 64 a.d., when a fire destroyed much of imperial rome, nero famously fiddled while the city burned. but he had his reasons for letting the fire burn. he wanted to clear out space for grand new buildings. the christians living in the south of the city are immune from the fire that sweeps northwards. the christians were under suspicion. nero, the emperor, being blamed widely, realizes the christians are the scapegoats, the natural scapegoats. he apparently had some of them burned as human torches in his gardens. he had others wrapped in animal
and an identity of their own. it marked the beginning of the public split with judaism. you both claim the same heritage going back to abraham. at some stage, you begin to give yourself a label or perhaps other people begin to give you a label. and labels themselves begin to set up differences. they begin to make you aware of differences. but delivering the jesus message put paul and peter in conflict. paul s open door mission to the pagan gentiles was a huge problem for peter, who thought the resurrection of jesus was for the jews alone. if you wanted to follow jesus, you had to become a jew and obey jewish law. and peter wielded considerable power back in jerusalem, power given to him by jesus. according to the gospel of matthew, jesus says to peter, you are peter, the greek term