03x10 - The First Supper

[bunniefuu]

♪ He's a tall tall man ♪

- What does it all mean?

This is where the archeology has been found.

Oh, hi, How are you?

Look at that.

I need a planter.

♪ From the mountain tops ♪

Try, 'Le belly button.'.

This is a rock of salt?

♪ He digs for clues ♪

Look at that.

♪ He's a tall tall man ♪

No one gets into this place?

- No one.

- Listen. Whoa!

Don't take me too far.

Now that's naked archeology.

♪ For his archeology ♪

♪ For his archeology ♪

♪ For his archeology ♪

I'm on the shores of the Sea of Galilee

and I'm interested in Bethsaida,

which is on the other saida, of this, lake.

And I'm particularly interested, in a cross,

that they found, just across, this lake.

And now why am I so interested?

Because it's earlier than anybody

believes a cross was a Christian symbol.

It may upset everyone's understanding of early Christianity.

(fast-forwarding of tape)

Now I can do a lot of things.

But walking on water, is not one of them.

So I'll get across another way.

But according to the gospels,

that miracle of Jesus took place, right here.

So maybe this is the water that he walked on,

to take a shortcut, to Bethsaida.

A name you probably don't know.

If you haven't heard about it, you'll hear about it now.

It's one of the towns, mentioned in the gospels,

as a hangout, for Jesus and his movement.

Five.

Count them, five of the disciples,

were in diapers, right over here.

This is were they were born.

And very close by within a few feet, few meters,

they found...

(intense sound)

A cross.

Yes, they found a cross and nobody celebrated.

Why?

Because, it wasn't where everyone, expected it to be.

What's it doing here, dated to the time of Jesus?

The cross was not always the symbol of Christianity.

When the Roman government crucified Jesus

in the first century,

they also intended to k*ll his movement.

(g*n sh*ts)

Since many of his early followers were fishermen,

fish symbols became their secret handshake.

(ding)

When the religion, was outlawed.

According to scholars, the first followers of Jesus,

wouldn't have used a cross, an image of the crucifixion

as the symbol of their movement.

Why not?

This is Mark Appold, whose specialty is the new Testament.

So let's ask him.

- It's considered a terrible instrument of death.

The cross has become sanitized, in modern Christianity.

But in the ancient times,

it was the instrument of brutality, and horror and death.

- So that's the argument that it couldn't have been

an early Christian symbol. - Yeah.

(mellow music)

So what we've been told,

is that you never see the cross as a symbol for Christianity

before the fourth century.

According to scholars,

the credit for making the cross,

Christianity's iconic symbol,

goes to this guy.

The Roman emperor, Constantine.

In the year ,

Constantine is sleeping before a big battle.

When he gets a vision of the cross, in the sky.

A premonition, that he will win,

if he puts the cross on the shields of his soldiers.

He does.

He wins the battle.

He later converts to Christianity,

and declares, that what was an outlawed religion,

is now the legal religion favored by the emperor.

- Well I'll be a monkey's uncle.

- [Simcha] From then on,

you see crosses everywhere.

But where was Constantine coming from?

Before his conversion, Constantine is a sun worshiper.

A follower of Sol Invictus.

Which means unconquered sun.

Why unconquered?

Because the sun seems to be conquered by night

only to be resurrected every morning.

After Constantine, the cross becomes very important,

because it is the symbol of crucifixion.

Jesus' death and resurrection,

becomes the central message of Christianity.

Instead of worshiping the resurrected sun,

Romans started worshiping the resurrected son.

According to this view, before Constantine,

Christians would never have used the image of the cross

as their symbol.

(fast-forwarding tape sound)

But what if scholars are wrong?

What if early Christians did use the cross,

but it meant something different to them,

than it means to us.

After all, if the cross wasn't already a Christian symbol,

why did Constantine associate it with Christianity?

But I've been down this road before,

and every time I see an early cross,

scholars deny it's a cross.

This is museum curator, David Mevorah.

and we have differing opinions, regarding the etchings,

carved into these first century estuaries, or bone boxes.

Essentially, limestone coffins.

This is a cross.

- [David] No, it's not across.

It's a flower or a 'Z', but poorly ex*cuted.

My reason tells me when I see a flower, that it's a flower.

Not a poorly ex*cuted tree.

If I see a fish,

I don't think it's a poorly ex*cuted hippopotamus.

One sec. I look over there, okay.

And that looks to me, like a cross.

- If you want to go into serious research,

I'm all for it,

Take all the data.

All the data is there.

Lay it in front of you.

Write an article.

- Why does it have to be in a paper,

Why can't it be in a film?

- [David] It can be anything, but,

it has to be done seriously.

- So that's why I have to ask myself--

- And you are trying to prove here,

that the cross was adopted by the Christians

years before, it was.

- [Simcha] That's exactly what I suspect.

So let's head back to Bethsaida,

and meet professors of archeology and biblical studies,

Richard Freund and Rami Arav.

Whose team, has discovered, a first century, cross.

And you've got the goods.

So can, can I see it?

(upbeat music)

This image of a cross,

is not only archeologically dated to the time of Jesus,

it's the oldest cross ever found, period.

And the problem is when you, the level at which you found it

- [Richard] Right.

Everybody thought initially,

first century cross doesn't make any sense at Bethsaida.

And first century cross in general,

is certainly not a symbol of Christianity.

- But are you saying that they adopted this symbol?

- Absolutely.

They adopted this symbol as a representation,

of what was meaningful to them.

If this was the place

where the apostles met for the first time,

every single symbol on every single piece of pottery,

is meaningful.

- [Simcah] If this is the place.

So let's find out if it is.

Because if this place matches up with the Gospels,

then what we're holding in our hands,

could be the key, to unlocking the early Jesus movement.

♪ He's a tall, tall man ♪

♪ He's a tall, tall man. ♪

(fast-forwarding tape sound)

Back in the fourth century,

the Roman emperor Constantine,

changes Christianity, from an outlawed sec.

(g*nsh*t sound)

To a legal religion.

According to scholars,

you can thank him, for inventing the cross

as a Christian symbol.

That's the story we've been told.

But now that a first century cross has been found

in Bethsaida in the Galilee.

Right where Jesus and the disciples hung out.

We'll find out, the real story.

(animated sound of alarm)

We're here with archeologist, Rami Arav, who tells us,

that Bethsaida is the only place in the Holy land,

where you can actually walk in the footsteps of Jesus.

- This is the one and only street,

on the entire sites of Israel,

where you can look at it and say,

"Jesus walked on this very street.".

Something that you cannot say, anywhere else in the country.

- The actual stones.

Yeah, because if you go to Jerusalem, it's all medieval.

You go to Capernaum, it's all Byzantine and later.

- [Simcha] Unlike the other towns, mentioned in the gospels

only Bethsaida has remained, as it was in the first century.

So if the gospels are correct,

Jesus walked on the stones I'm walking on now.

(upbeat music)

But does the archeology here,

match the story in the gospels?

(upbeat music)

Since Jesus and the apostles were Jewish,

what would you expect to find?

[Richard] People have always asked me,

where is the synagogue, at Bethsaida?

And I always tell them, 'you're looking at the synagogue'.

They're courtyard houses, just like house churches.

There were house synagogues.

That was the beginning of synagogues.

This is the way the church began.

This is the way I think the synagogue began

in the land of Israel.

- [Simcha] Richard is talking about this house.

But how do they know it was a synagogue?

(tape speeding up sound)

Anybody home?

Nobody's here, you can go in.

- Thank you.

- [Simcha] Look at this place.

It's a huge house for the time, and for this area.

And it's this huge courtyard

that Richard must be talking about.

- They must have prayed and they must have gathered,

as they would have in any house synagogue.

That was their background.

- What's a house synagogue?

- You'd meet in someone's home.

This fits that description perfectly.

You've got this courtyard.

Open courtyard.

What a wonderful place to gather.

For prayer.

'Cause not everyone has a house, big enough--

- No. - For people to gather.

It sounds good.

But if you want me to believe that this is a place

where Jews were praying,

I would expect to see the remains of a, large kitchen.

Or at least some evidence of catering.

- This is the kitchen here.

- Oh, you know how I know this is the kitchen.

- How's that?

- 'Cause it says kitchen.

- Oh, there you go.

- [Simcha] And this kitchen is so big,

it has not one, but two ovens.

This house is too large for a family,

but it's the perfect size for a movement.

And we know, that's one of the earliest practices

of the Christian movement, was the communal meal.

From early on, one of the big things for the Jesus movement,

was the communal meal.

- The communal meal.

- And this is what it's all about.

You're gonna stay at a separate table,

this religion is going to get nowhere.

- Right.

- Here they had room for it.

- Yeah.

I mean, it'd be a gathering.

- [Simcha] We know from the gospels,

that five of the disciples of Jesus, came from this town.

We also know, that Jesus spent time here.

Is it possible that Christianity began in this very house?

But if you think that's farfetched,

I've got news for you.

It's in this house right here that they found the cross.

And when you add up the evidence,

this house, perfectly fits the bill

for the movement that would later be called Christianity.

But if you're still not convinced

there's something else here,

that you don't usually find,

near run of the mill fisherman's village.

- [David] In here, we discovered four intact,

large wine jars.

- And did you find the remains of wine

inside the, the jars?

- There's residue on the inside of the jar

that helped us identify them as wine jars.

Now, could you tell

whether that's wine had previously been water?

(dramatic swooshing sound)

I'm going into the wine cellar

of the earliest house church on the planet.

(stomping sound)

Wow.

The Gospels tell us,

that bread and wine were central rituals

of the communal meal.

So if this house was where Jesus and the disciples

had their first communal meals,

this wine cellar makes perfect sense.

Huge!

They're either winos, or they're accommodating a movement.

- Why would you have a wine cellar in a fisherman's village?

They didn't have wine tastings back then.

"Oh, I like this Merlot.

"what year is it?

" Four."

(hitting of ancient drum sound)

No.

The discovery of this large house, and wine cellar

is a clue, that this is a gathering place

for people to pray together, eat together

and bless the wine. (pouring sound)

(upbeat music)

And if the cross, the kitchen, the courtyard

and the wine cellar, add up to the start of Christianity,

what about archeological proof of the profession of fishing?

After all, nearly half of the apostles were fishermen.

So what would really close the case,

that this is where Christianity began,

is evidence of fishing.

And you know what,

right next door to this house,

archeologists found, a fisherman's house.

- And how do you know it's a fisherman's house?

- Because of the, abundance of fishing implements.

Everything that you would expect, a fishermen

to have in his home.

The name Bethsaida, is made up of two Aramaic words.

'Beth', meaning house, and 'Saida', meaning fishing.

And in this house,

they found dozens of fishing related objects.

(upbeat music)

They store and catalog, all their finds in this warehouse.

Do I believe this is the fisherman's house?

I bite, hook, line, and sinker.

And interestingly, there are quite a few rooms here.

It's not just for one fisherman.

You find this, right next to, it looks like a barracks.

- Right.

It's a huge courtyard house.

The largest fisherman's house.

With rooms all around the outside.

- It's looks like the guy's running a huge, enterprise.

- No it's a Manor house.

We would call it a Manor house today.

- [Simcha] So I don't know about you,

but I'm convinced,

that this is where the Jesus movement began,

which makes this cross of Supreme importance.

No one is going to mistake this,

for a poorly ex*cuted flower.

But clearly there is no image of crucifixion here.

So what was it's meaning, for the early followers of Jesus?

I've got a theory.

♪ He's a tall, tall man ♪

♪ He's a tall, tall man ♪

(fast forwarding of tape)

I'm in Bethsaida.

Where Jesus gathered his followers years ago.

(crinkling sound)

And what's happened here, lately?

Plenty.

A first century cross has just been found.

ruffling the feathers, of everyone who believes,

that the cross only became a symbol for Christianity

in the fourth century. (laser-like sound)

After Constantine.

(animated zooming sound)

But if this is a cross,

since it was found in a first century house of prayer,

then it literally, marks the spot

where Christianity was born.

(sound of rolling tape)

As we've seen most scholars denied

that the cross was identified with Christianity

before the fourth century.

So I'm off, to Rome.

To find more evidence of pre-Constantine, Christian crosses.

In the Palatine Antiquarian Museum in Rome,

there is a Roman graffiti,

which marks the beliefs of the early Christians.

In this crude joke,

We can clearly see that a hundred years before Constantine,

the cross and Jesus on the cross,

is already, a Christian symbol.

Darius Arya, is an archeologist in Rome.

And he's going to explain, the ancient graffiti to us.

- [Darius] so this date, to the first half,

of the third century AD.

This is extremely old.

And essentially what it is, is a man on a crucifix,

But this man, has the head of an ass.

The inscription beneath and says that Alexamenos,

so this is a Greek person, is worshiping his God.

So it seems to be then,

someone making fun of this Alexamenos person,

who is a Christian,

who is worshiping, of all things, a god who is crucified,

who was k*lled.

People are taking notice of this new religion.

Taking notice of these people

that are worshiping a new kind of God,

a God that's crucified.

And then ultimately making fun of it, and getting a laugh.

- [Simcha] So if someone's making fun of Jesus on the cross,

(children laughing) in the third century,

that means the cross has already been a Christian symbol

for a while.

Once we realize, that the cross as a Christian symbol,

predates Constantine,

this gives new meaning to all the crosses that we see

on these first century estuaries, which are in the warehouse

of the Israel antiquities authority,

just outside of Jerusalem.

(mellow music)

But if scholars are right,

and the first century is too close to Jesus' suffering

for his followers to identify with the cross.

Why did they adopt it as their symbol?

(fast-forwarding tape sound)

Well, in ancient Hebrew,

the shape of the last letter of the alphabet,

called the tav.

Is, guess what?

In the shape of a cross.

And in the Bible, it says, set a tav,

upon the foreheads of the men who cry

because of all the abominations.

In other words,

the cross was the sign of righteousness,

for centuries before Jesus.

(upbeat music)

God says to Ezekiel,

put the sign of the last letter of the Hebrew--

- Right, the tav - The tav,

- Right.

which is an X.

- Right, which was an X in that period.

Put it on the forehead of the righteous.

- [Richard] Right.

- Meaning, it's already a symbol of righteousness.

In fact, Tertullian, the,

the church father... - Church father.

- Marks the early Jesus movement.

The so-called Ebionites. - Right.

- He says these guys, they pray all day

and they make the sign of the tav on their foreheads.

So much! - [Richard] Right?

- [Simcha] So often, they're going to have scars there.

(upbeat music)

So since the cross,

was a symbol of righteousness prior to Jesus,

it shouldn't surprise us to find it in the house

where he may have prayed.

But what did the circle mean for the people who knew Jesus?

I think the answer to this question,

holds within it, the secret origins of Christianity.

♪ He's a tall tall man ♪

♪ He's a tall tall man ♪

(fast-forwarding of tape)

I'm in Bethsaida, in the Galilee.

Where a cross, has just been discovered,

exactly from the time and place

where Jesus was gathering his disciples.

(upbeat music)

I think, it could help us to understand

the early Jesus movement,

once we know why that movement started here

and what this cross, meant to his disciples.

Five of his disciples come for, five of the

from right where you're sitting.

From right here from Bethsaida.

What does that say though?

- Well.

- About his movement, his ideology?

- Bethsaida was clearly a mixed population.

- Mixed, what were--

- Mixed population.

Jewish, and clearly non-Jewish population.

We can find ethnic markers like from their pottery.

Markings on, oil lamps,

that we find here, are clearly clearly Jewish.

But we also find pagan ethnic markers.

So we know that there are non Jews and Jews living together

in this area of Bethsaida.

In some kind of a community where,

they were obviously working together

for the industry of fishing.

- So maybe Jesus is not bucking, that maybe he's actually--

- Building on that building.

- Building on that.

- Right.

- [Simcha] Remember the pagan Roman god, Sol Invictus?

The unconquered sun.

This image of the sun, with emanating rays

shows up later in countless depictions of Jesus.

The Bethsaida cross, looks like the Sol Invictus image

that Gentiles at the time would've worshiped.

And that everyone in Bethsaida, would have known,

as we have seen,

the emperor Constantine is credited with combining the sun

with the son.

But here it is, Sol Invictus imagery,

fused with the Jewish tav, years, before Constantine.

What I have in my hand now that you guys have dug up

is actually, as close as you can get,

to the moment that they're fusing

and becoming a symbol of this, new movement,

that's surrounding Jesus.

- It was a movement that may have encompassed,

many people, who were not Jewish.

- From day one.

- From day one.

- That's a big, wow. (laughing)

Here in Bethsaida aren't we looking at,

really ground zero in a sense of Christianity.

- Well, if you wanna look

and compare it with anything else that's been found,

this is the closest thing we have to ground zero.

So it seems that the Bethsaida cross has been decoded.

And it's a symbol that could only have been born,

in this particular Galilean village.

If X marks the spot,

then this is the most important side of Christianity.

The original Vatican.

Where the first supper, not the last supper, took place.

♪ He's a tall tall man ♪

♪ From a tall tall land ♪

♪ He makes no apologies ♪

♪ For his archeology ♪

♪ He's, a, tall, tall man ♪

♪ From a tall tall land ♪

♪ No apologies ♪

♪ For his archeology ♪