Jesus and Paul —The Word and the Witness

In a special three-hour broadcast, Peter Jennings tells the story of Jesus of Nazareth, Paul the Apostle and Christianity in its first decades — a tiny movement that against the odds survived and then triumphed over all the gods and goddesses of the Roman Empire.

Peter Jennings Reporting: Jesus and Paul — The Word and the Witness will air Monday, April 5 from 8-11 p.m. ET on the ABC Television Network.

The first century was barely 30 years old. Rome ruled the world from Europe to the heart of the Middle East. The Caesars were gods and most people knew nothing about a young Jewish peasant named Jesus of Nazareth who was preaching along the Sea of Gallilee, at the edge of the Empire.

When Jesus died on the cross, he left behind a small and frightened group of followers struggling to make sense of his humiliating end. Most Jews either rejected his message or ignored it.

"The idea of a crucified god really did not make sense in the first century," says Ben Witherington, a scholar of the New Testament, in Jennings' report. "It's not a message you make up if you're going to start a religion in the first century A.D."

Yet within a few decades, against all odds, the tiny Jesus movement began to spread, and in spite of ridicule, suspicion and persecution it would ultimately displace the Caesars and remains the dominant religion of the West over 2000 years later.

Many historians and New Testament scholars argue that Paul did more than anyone to make that happen, even though he never knew Jesus. After Jesus' death and resurrection, Paul becomes the main character in the Bible story about the birth of Christianity.

Paul, who according to the Bible had a sudden conversion on the road to Damascus, took the stories of the crucifixion and Jesus' resurrection and preached them in a way that was appealing to a broad audience.

If it weren't for Paul, says Karen Armstrong, a noted scholar and author of the book, The History of God, "Christianity probably would have remained a small sect within Judaism."

The program includes the perspectives of a wide variety of biblical scholars — secular and religious, Christian and Jewish, liberal and conservative. Both conservative and liberal scholars say it was Paul who first articulated the ideas we have about the Jesus who was sent by God to die to redeem the world's sins. The letters Paul wrote as he traveled the Roman Empire formed the basis of the religion that today we call Christianity.

Ironically, Paul "never anticipates that 20th century Americans are going to be his audience," historian Pamela Eisenbaum told Jennings. "He has no idea, because he thinks the world is going to end."

Although Paul is as controversial today as he was in the first century, his words are read from pulpits throughout the world every Sunday. But scholars tell Jennings that in Paul's own day he fought bitterly with the closest friends and family of Jesus, who had a different vision for their fledgling movement. Paul is described by some as a madman and by many as a genius.

Paul has been accused of being anti-Semitic, anti-homosexual and a male chauvinist. The program looks at the debate, while tracing Paul's role in turning Christianity into a religion.

Without them, the religion known today as Christianity would not exist. Both sacrificed everything for the belief that God had chosen them to change the world.

Peter Jennings critiquing scripture? One of the scholars who will be participating is Paul Maier. Your thoughts!

Paul Maier is a featured scholar on ABC News special

March 30, 2004

KALAMAZOO--Dr. Paul Maier, the Russell H. Seibert Professor of Ancient History at Western Michigan University, is one of the top religion scholars from around the world slated to appear on next week's three-hour primetime ABC news special that looks at Jesus and Paul and the first 30 years of Christianity.

"Peter Jennings Reporting: Jesus and Paul--The Word and the Witness" airs at 8 p.m. Monday, April 5, on the ABC network. The program includes the perspectives of a wide variety of biblical scholars--secular and religious, Christian and Jewish, liberal and conservative--who were interviewed about how Christianity took hold and spread during the three decades following Jesus' death.

ABCNEWS.com will feature companion programming, including a comprehensive interactive map and timeline of Paul's journey, a gallery of images, Web-exclusive articles, more about the scholars interviewed in the program, and a message board for viewers to debate ideas. The broadcast will also appear on ABC News Live, the 24/7 Internet news channel for a broadband audience available to subscribers at ABCNEWS.com.

Maier, an internationally known expert on the early days of Christianity, will join some two dozen scholars whose taped comments will air on the show. He was interviewed for the program by ABC News journalist Jenna Millman, and that interview will be included as well on a separate ABC show about the first Easter, which is scheduled to air in June. Other scholars slated to appear along with Maier on the April show hail from such universities as Princeton, Duke, Columbia and Boston. Also contributing to the program were U.S. and British clerics and scholars from Hebrew University in Jerusalem and Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

The author of numerous books on the rise of Christianity, Maier's insights have been sought by numerous media including the U.S. News & World Report, The Learning Channel, the Voice of America and the Arts & Entertainment network. Maier's 1994 book, "A Skeleton in God's Closet," became a number one national best seller in the religious fiction category, and he recently released a sequel, "More Than a Skeleton."

Peter Jennings critiquing scripture? One of the scholars who will be participating is Paul Maier. Your thoughts!

Petah and ABC (anything but Catholic as you already know) have to do something... for we can't leave The Passion of The Christ and its impact floating out there without making money off Christianity; we can also perhaps doubly satisfy our lusts ... by floating a non-Catholic Christian perspective... that's always a good effort at divide and conquer as well as an acceptable prejudice. </cynicism off>

Can you tell I'm not a fan of ABC, and Disney? :-) I'll spend the evening without television if that's the best there is. FReegards.

****"The Caesars were gods and most people knew nothing about a young Jewish peasant named Jesus of Nazareth"***

No where have I ever heard Jesus called a peasant. Maybe to Jennings and ABC's secularism, a hard working carpenter who was taught properly by his foster dad St. Joseph and was instructed in his growth years by the Blessed Mother makes Jesus a peasant. I'll take that peasant anytime to the rich boys on 52nd Street.

I thought that they coming from such an elitist background, at least they could have said that Jesus came from a bourgeoisie background...or did that word fall from grace after Russia's collapse...or is some of it still being promoted by these people.

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