it s a dangerous, tumultuous time in the roman empire. nowhere more so than in the province of judea on the far edge of the mediterranean. its capital, the holy city of jerusalem, is teeming with pilgrims for the springtime feast of passover. many of them looking for an earthly key, a messiah who will deliver them from the yoke of roman oppression. into this powder keg walks jesus of nazareth. his protests against the romans make him a popular hero. to some, he is the messiah. but to the romans, he s political trouble, so they crucify him. the followers of jesus believed that he has risen from the dead and will soon usher in the kingdom of heaven, but when and how will this new faith survive after jesus? 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, is teeming with pilgrims for the springtime feast of passover. many of them looking for an earthly key, a messiah who will deliver them from the yoke of roman oppression. into this powder keg walks jesus of nazareth. his protests against the romans make him a popular hero. to some, he is the messiah. but to the romans, he s political trouble, so they crucify him. the followers of jesus believed that he has risen from the dead and will soon usher in the kingdom of heaven, but when and how will this new faith survive after jesus? 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
needed something more permanent to preserve the faith in jesus. so they compiled a history, sacred books, and a clergy to stand in for jesus, but that didn t happen overnight. i think most people imagined that after jesus died, the church just emerged suddenly, and that you had christians confessing the nicene creed, reading the canon of the 27 books of the new testament, and that it was all in place after jesus death. and in fact, it took centuries for these things to fall into place. the core of christian belief is the story of jesus life, death, and resurrection, as told in the four gospels the books of matthew, mark, luke, and john, named after the evangelists, said to have written them. matthew and john were two of the disciples of jesus. matthew, the tax collector and john, the beloved disciple.
disappointment and disillusion? it didn t break down because christian leaders decided they needed something more permanent to preserve the faith in jesus. so they compiled a history, sacred books, and a clergy to stand in for jesus, but that didn t happen overnight. i think most people imagined that after jesus died, the church just emerged suddenly, and that you had christians confessing the nicene creed, reading the canon of the 27 books of the new testament, and that it was all in place after jesus death. and in fact, it took centuries for these things to fall into place. the core of christian belief is the story of jesus life, death, and resurrection, as told in the four gospels the books of matthew, mark, luke, and
into a sort of collapse of disappointment and disillusion? it didn t break down because christian leaders decided they needed something more permanent to preserve the faith in jesus. so they compiled a history, sacred books, and a clergy to stand in for jesus, but that didn t happen overnight. i think most people imagined that after jesus died, the church just emerged suddenly, and that you had christians confessing the nicene creed, reading the canon of the 27 books of the new testament, and that it was all in place after jesus death. and in fact, it took centuries for these things to fall into place. the core of christian belief is the story of jesus life, death, and resurrection, as told in the four gospels the books of matthew, mark, luke, and john, named after the evangelists, said to have