Transcripts For CNNW CNN Presents 20111224 : comparemela.com

Transcripts For CNNW CNN Presents 20111224



the third man's crime was marked by the sign on the cross, jesus of nazareth. no one even thought to record his death. the story of jesus has transcended generations and cultures. the tale of a routine execution that gave birth to a new religion. yet from that unlikely beginning a great faith was born. today some 2 billion people believe jesus was the son of god. but even as billions of people pledge themselves to follow jesus's teachings we know nothing about the man. no other great figure from moses to mohamed is shrouded in mystery. >> it's very difficult to classify jesus in a single category. the most accurate response to the question of who was jesus at the time is a mixture of all of these different identifications. the startling discovery of what some claim to be the burial box of jesus's brother james reopened the biggest detectivive story of all time. the mystery of jesus the man. the plain limestone container is inscribed with a clue in aramaic, the language jesus spoke. james, son of joseph, brother of jesus. the public was enthralled. could this be the first physical evidence that jesus walked the earth? so when the israeli authorities said that the inscription was forged centuries old quest for the historical jesus became ever more urgent. did he have a real brother? was mary really a virgin? how did jesus live? and why did he have to die? who was jesus the man? why is the greatest story ever told also the greatest mystery never solved? almost all we know about jesus' life comes to us from the four books of the gospels called mark, matthew, luke and john. yet the gospels were written anywhere between 40 and 70 years after jesus died and with an eye to converting people. >> gospels weren't meant to be historically accurate accounts in the way we would think of. they weren't written according to our standards of accuracy. they were meant to proclaim the good news of jesus's life, death and resurrection. >> one of the stories that historians debating is the christmas card scene of his humble birth in a manger. it's only mentioned by matthew and luke and they don't always agree. is any of it true. scholars say yes, to a degree. >> when we look at the gospel of matthew and gospel of luke, we can see that there are about 12 pieces of information, 12 facts that they share in common that they both know about jesus' early years. they both know that his mother is mary. that the father or stepfather is joseph. that they are from the family of david. that the birth took place in bethlehem. so they have this string, a skeleton of information about the very formative years of jesus and his conception but they don't have much beyond that. ♪ >> sadly, the birthplace of the man christians call the prince of peace is often a war zone, as it has been for centuries. ♪ >> the generation of pilgrims have sought out is a shock. a stone grotto that doesn't look like a cozy stable. case like this one pot mark the region with bethlehem lies. but one scholar suggests we have the wrong address. there's another bethlehem, one that borders joseph and mary's home territory of nazareth. >> that suggests to me that this is the bethlehem that we ought to be looking at instead of bethlehem of judea. >> it is unlikely that this argument is going to trump centuries of tradition that point to the bethlehem of faith. >> it is a historical place, revered for centuries by the faithful. it is the place where it is celebrated jesus was born. that's enough for me in my devotion. it's not enough for me as a scientist. >> and what of the other great tradition of the first christmas, the star in the east? was it a myth? or did it really exist? astronomer michael mulnar may have found the answer on a 2,000-year-old coin he bought a few years ago for $50. on one side, mulnar noticed the astrological sign for aries, which stood for judea in ancient astrology. on the other side was the god jupiter. >> when i came across the coin that showed me that aries the ram was the sign of the jews, and i asked myself, well, what event would have happened in aries the ram? >> so, armed with the computer and charts of the ancient heavens, mulnar started plotting the course of jupiter in the constellation of aries around the time of jesus' birth. and he suddenly hit the mother of all celestial alignments. >> according to the beliefs of 2,000 years ago, if you have the sun, jupiter and moon, accompanied by saturn in the sign of aries the ram, this created the conditions for the birth of a divine and immortal person. >> if there was a star in the east, that would have been it. just when, exactly, did this star appear? mulnar did some more calculations. >> the computer came back with only one answer. it said it happened only once in aries the ram. that was april 17th, 6 b.c. >> christmas in april? jesus born six years before we thought? it's likely true, since king herod, who went on a murderous rampage when he heard of jesus' birth, died in 4 b.c. but after his birth, jesus largely disappears from view, and the mysteries of his early life deepen. who were jesus' parents, his brothers and sisters? just how did jesus grow up? >> jesus was probably doing what most other teenagers were doing -- honing their job skills, meeting other people, helping to support the family, learning what he could about his community and his tradition. >> his tradition was jewish, and his community was the village of nazareth in rural galilee. just as the ancient prophets had said, the messiah would be a nazarene. ♪ quaker oatmeal is a super grain. ♪ it gives me warmth. ♪ [ boy ] it gives me energy to help me be my best. quaker oatmeal has whole grains for heart health. and it has fiber that helps fill me up. ♪ [ male announcer ] great days start with quaker oatmeal. energy. fiber. heart health. quaker oatmeal. a super grain breakfast. let's do it, let's go to vegas. vegas baby! maybe we should head back to the dealership first? vegas! no, this is a test drive. vegas! [ male announcer ] it's practically yours. but we still need your signature. volkswagen sign then drive is back. and it's never been easier to get a jetta. that's the power of german engineering. get zero first month's payment, zero down, zero security deposit and zero due at signing on any new volkswagen. visit vwdealer.com. gives you a 50% annual bonus! so you earn 50% more cash. according to research, everybody likes more cash. well, almost everybody... ♪ would you like 50% more cash? no! but it's more money. [ male announcer ] the new capital one cash rewards card. the card for people who want 50% more cash. what's in your wallet? woah! [ giggles ] okay... uhh. the bad news, it's probably totaled. the good news is, you don't have to pay your deductible. with vanishing deductible from nationwide insurance, you got $100 off for every year of safe driving, so now your deductible is zero. the other good news ? i held on to your coffee. wow. ♪ nationwide is on your side ( laughing ) it's actually a pretty good day when you consider. that's great. nazareth in the first century was just a small town in rural galilee, a world away from cosmopolitan jerusalem 100 miles down the road. yet it was here, the gospel of st. luke tells us, that an angel of the lord appeared to mary and told her something extraordinary. she was going to be the mother of god's son. but what do we know about this woman who would change the course of history? >> we don't know very much about mary. we get little tantalizing snapshots. and from those tantalizing snapshots, she appears to be a lively, intelligent, but basically down-to-earth woman. >> and maybe not a woman at all when she bore jesus, but a girl with a remarkable life ahead of her. >> mary was very young when she became pregnant with jesus. she was probably just in her mid-teens. which meant that by the time jesus was doing his public ministry, maybe she was 45. >> joseph, jesus' earthly father, is perhaps the most mysterious figure of all. by the time jesus has begun his public ministry, joseph has vanished from the story. that has led to speculation that joseph, a carpenter by trade, was many years older than mary. life in the nazareth of jesus' day was hard. today, a group of biblical scholars and archaeologists have built nazareth village to give a better sense of just what daily life in the nazareth of jesus' time was like. >> there were no paved streets. there were no luxuries of any kind. the houses were all made of fieldstones that are insulated with mud and straw. it was a very basic kind of hand-to-mouth existence. ♪ >> it was also an existence that closely followed the rituals of jewish life. in fact, the only time the gospels mentioned jesus as a boy is during a visit to the temple in jerusalem. this visit would have made an enormous impression on a devout 12-year-old from the hinterland. >> jerusalem was the place where particularly at festival times, people always hoped that maybe now god was going to do something dramatic. that sort of sense is in the air that you get there, and it's going to happen, the new thing is going to be born. >> jesus sat with the teachers of the law, the great rabbis, the ones who ran the academies in jerusalem, and had deep, detailed discussions about the hebrew bible, the old testament with them. and these teachers and rabbis looked at this kid and said, this kid has a real gift. we should sign him up. let's get him to enroll. he's wasted up there in nazareth. >> it was a mission, the gospels say, that jesus thought more important than his earthly family. for when they had departed for nazareth, jesus was still in the temple. >> and on the way home, mary and joseph suddenly realized after a few days that jesus is missing. this always struck me as somewhat like "home alone." and they come back and they discover him in the temple. and mary is very upset and says, how could you do this? >> jesus, in his 12-year-old, know-it-all state says, "well, didn't you know, i needed to be about my father's business?" and he understands that his destiny is somehow here. the temple is where he belongs, discussing these religious issues is what he's supposed to do. >> how could mary and joseph fail to notice jesus was missing? did this mean that the family was so large, a child like jesus could just disappear? the gospels speak of jesus' four brothers, james, joseph, judas and simon and at least two sisters. but many believe that mary remained a virgin all her life, and that these siblings were either stepchildren from joseph's earlier marriage or cousins. scholars who have read the text closely say that doesn't seem to be the case, and they don't need the controversial ossuary to make their point. >> the word that's used of james and jesus' other siblings, the greek word for "brother," is the word for "brother." some people thought, well, maybe they're cousins, for example. well, there is a greek word for cousin and that's not the word that's used here. >> the theological questions are profound. and the debate is a difficult one. especially if you're a jesuit and a scientist like tom fitzpatrick. >> i don't know if we're ever going to get to a definitive answer that satisfies every question or every person on this. it's been a very important doctrine mystery for the church over 2,000 years. it's not the most important doctrine. >> just as fascinating as jesus' family tree is the debate over just what jesus looked like. this certainly isn't a matter of doctrine, but it has always been a source of intense speculation. the centuries-old guessing game that science tells us is way off the mark. >> i could never reconcile myself to him having long blond hair and blue eyes, because he comes from a part of the world where people are basically rather swarthy, with dark hair and dark eyes. >> so, what then does science say is the true face of the son of god? ♪ they came to see us in florida... make that alabama... make that mississippi. the best part of the gulf is wherever you choose... and now is a great time to discover it. this year millions of people did. we set all kinds of records. next year we're out to do even better. so come on down to louisiana... florida... alabama... mississippi. we can't wait to see you. brought to you by bp and all of us who call the gulf home. long-lasting, too. yeah, i could really use this silverado. i'm a big hunter. oh, what do you hunt? deer. fish. fantastic. ♪ this holiday, chevy's giving more. now qualified buyers can get 0% apr for 72 months on a 2011 chevy silverado. or 0% apr financing for 60 months plus no monthly payments until spring. ♪ ♪ sen♪ co-signed her credit card - "buy books, not beer!" ♪ ♪ut the second at she shut the door ♪ ♪ girl started blowing up their credit score ♪ ♪ she bought a pizza party for the whole dorm floor ♪ ♪ hundred pounds of makeup at the makeup store ♪ ♪ and a ticket down to spring break in mexico ♪ ♪ but her folks didn't know 'cause her folks didn't go ♪ ♪ to free-credit-score-dot-com hard times for daddy and mom. ♪ you tell us what you want to pay, and we give you a range of coverages to choose from. who is she? that's flobot. she's this new robot we're trying out, mostly for, like, small stuff. wow! look at her go! she's pretty good. she's pretty good. hey, flobot, great job. oops. [ powers down ] uh-oh, flobot is broken. the "name your price" tool, only from progressive. call or click today. ♪ ♪ hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ trying to figure out what jesus really looked like has preoccupied christians for centuries. and legions of artists have stayed busy trying to supply the answer. ♪ for the lord god omnipotent reigneth ♪ >> but the difficulty in trying to flesh out the image of jesus is that his contemporaries considered his message, not his looks, all important. also, judaism forbids the worship of images and idols, especially of someone claiming to be god. of course, that did not stop christians from imagining how jesus looked. ♪ for the lord god omnipotent reigneth ♪ >> he was first depicted as a triumphant sun god, like apollo. since then, jesus has been re-imagined by every generation and movies have never tired of portraying him, from "jesus christ superstar" to the brooding artist in "jesus of montreal" to the smiling buddy christ of the film "dogma." ♪ hallelujah >> jesus is not, as far as i can tell historically, the blonde, blue-eyed max von sydow version or even jeffrey hunter who we get from the movies. >> i think he would have looked very much like what we know by the term "hippies." >> now, we may be able to literally put some flesh on the bones of centuries of guessing. that's what the noted medical and forensic artist richard neave did when biblical scholars gave him a copy of a skull from the first century, found in the present-day israel. they wanted to get an idea of what a man from jesus' time and place might have looked like. >> it is a strong skull. and to live satisfactorily, especially the kind of life jesus led, you're going to have to be a fairly tough, rugged kind of fellow. you know, he walked miles. he carried his staph. he could be flogged. he could carry his cross. i mean, you know, that takes a lot of physical strength and determination. and so, he's not a wimp. >> neave has spent nearly 30 years reconstructing the heads of mystery people -- anonymous murder victims, ancient archeological finds and suicides. but how would he approach a re-creation of a face from 2,000 years ago? >> it's done in exactly the same way as you would handle a forensic case. there's absolutely no difference, except that in this case, a nice clean, prepared cast, rather than the original skull. then you make a copy of that, and that's mounted onto a metal stand. pegs are inserted into the skull at specific anatomical points, and these indicate the average thickness of tissue that you are going to get, say, there or there or there. >> neave's skull was rendered into an image by the bbc, and further developed by the artist donato giancola, with the help of neave and biblical scholars. the result is a startling image -- nothing like the jesus that history has imagined. >> the nose is quite prominent, and a full mouth, a youngish face, between 30 and 40, i suppose. >> neave stresses that his jesus' head is not "the" jesus' head. at best, it represents a face that jesus himself might have seen or had. and still it attracts debate. >> i've had one or two comments from people suggesting that it doesn't look anything like jesus which, of course, doesn't surprise me. they actually, some of them, do go on to say that they know exactly what jesus does look like, because they took a photograph of him only three weeks ago. >> even though science has given us a better idea of what jesus might have really looked like, jesus' face wouldn't matter were it not for what he said and what he did. and the gospels tell us, in a surprisingly short time, just three years. what was the message of this carpenter's son from galilee? and why did it get him killed? capital one's new cash rewards card gives you a 50 percent annual bonus. so you earn 50 percent more cash. if you're not satisfied with 50% more cash, send it back! i'll be right here, waiting for it. who wouldn't want more cash? [ insects chirping ] i'll take it. i'll make it rain up in here. [ male announcer ] the new capital one cash rewards card. the card for people who want 50% more cash. what's in your wallet? sorry i'll clean this up. shouldn't have made it rain. well, this necklace is awesome. honey, you're getting a necklace! see what i mean? i'll surprise you. please. [ male announcer ] the only place to go for last-minute christmas gifts. walmart. [♪...] >> male announcer: book now, save up to 65%. call 1-800-sandals. hello and merry christmas everyone. here's a look at your top stories. syria's president is blaming terrorists for twin suicide bombings in damascus but opposition groups say it's the work of the regime. 300 people have been killed this week. the u.n. says more than 5,000 people have died since bashir all assad began a crackdown on protesters in march. this is the scene in moscow where tens of thousands of demonstrators have gathered. they are protesting what they claim are rigged elections. they also want to end the control of the vladimir putin's ruling party. security is tight and russian media reports bus loads of riot police lining up along administrates. similar protests are taking place across the country. a big political setback for newt gingrich and rick perry. the two republican presidential candidates have failed to qualify for the virginia primary. turns out gingrich and perry did not submit enough valid signatures to be placed on the ballot. virginia holds its primary in march as part of super tuesday. mel gibson's divorce is final and he has to pay out the biggest divorce settlement in hollywood history. that according to "people" magazine. robin gibson will receive half of mel's $850 million fortune. she had seven children with the actor. the gibsons were married almost 30 years. they had no pre-nuptial agreement. when holiday shoppers attack. a feeding frenzy for the newest model of air jordan shoes sparked scenes like this one at malls all over the country last night. indianapolis, seattle, kansas city, atlanta, crowds of crazed shoppers tore the doors off of stores, fall over each other and prompted police to use pepper spray to get people under control. last minute christmas shoppers you know who you are. procrastinators are in luck because a lot of stores will be open late this christmas eve. many retailers are hoping the struggling economy will not hold back holiday shopping this year. one estimate says sales are up 2.5% since november. ho, ho, ho. the mystery of jesus continues ri

Related Keywords

Jesus Of Nazareth , People , Oman , Figure , Nothing , Teachings , Billions , Moses , Mystery , Response , Category , Wall , Question , Discovery , Brother James , Who , Claim , Mixture , Identifications , Burial Box , Detectivive , Story , Limestone Container , Clue , Language , Jesus The Man , Aramaic , Son Of Joseph , Brother Of Jesus , The Public , Enthralled , Evidence , Authorities , Inscription , Centuries Old Quest For The Historical Jesus , Israeli , Earth , Brother , Virgin , Life , Gospels , John The Baptist , Books , Called Mark , Gospel Of Matthew , Luke , Four , Way , Accounts , They Weren T , Eye , Anywhere , Weren T , 40 , 70 , One , Death , Historians , Card , Stories , Resurrection , Scene , News , Standards , Accuracy , Birth , Manger , Scholars , Information , Pieces , Facts , Gospel Of Luke , Degree , 12 , Mary Magdalene , Place , Bethlehem , Of David , Mother , Stepfather , Father , String , Conception , Skeleton , Christians , Birthplace , Prince , War Zone , Peace , Shock , Doesn T , Case , Generation , Pilgrims , Mark , Region , Stable , Stone Grotto , Bethlehem Lies , Nazareth , Scholar , Home Territory , Borders Joseph , Address , Faith , Tradition , Point , Faithful , Argument , Judea , Scientist , Devotion , Answer , Michael Mulnar , Coin , Least , The First Christmas , Myth , The Star , 2000 , Astrological Sign , Aries , God Jupiter , Side , Judea In Ancient Astrology , 0 , 50 , Sign , Computer , Ram , Jews , Charts , Event , Ancient Heavens , Course , Beliefs , Jupiter , Constellation , Alignments , Person , Star , Conditions , Immortal , Divine , The Sun , Saturn , Moon , It , Calculations , Herod , B C , Six , 17 , April 17th 6 Bc , 6 , Mysteries , Rampage , View , Parents , Brothers And Sisters , 4 , Community , Teenagers , Doing , Job Skills , Learning , Messiah , Jewish , Prophets , Nazarene , Village , Nazareth In Rural Galilee , Quaker Oatmeal , Heart Health , Boy , Energy , Super Grain , Grains , Best , Warmth , Announcer , Fiber , Super Grain Breakfast , Vegas , Test Drive , Baby , Dealership , Let S Go To Vegas , Power , Payment , Jetta , Month , Volkswagen , Signature , Engineering , Security Deposit , Zero Down , German , Visit Vwdealer Com , Zero , Cash ,

© 2025 Vimarsana