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00:00Their leader, Jesus of Nazareth, had just been executed.
00:06The disciples are terror-struck. They don't know what to do.
00:11Twelve men in fear for their lives.
00:14I was just looking at the group being composed. I'd say, disaster area.
00:18Yet these terrified men became the founders of a worldwide faith.
00:23None of them ever expected it to turn out the way it did.
00:27Modern science can now help us understand...
00:31...how twelve ordinary men from the backwaters of Galilee...
00:35...could end up as giants of history. The disciples.
00:57The disciples spread Jesus' message across the ancient world.
01:15Many of them sacrificed their lives for it.
01:21The transformation of this tiny, threatened group...
01:37...into a world religion is a remarkable story.
01:40But to understand it, we need to trace their journey from the very beginning.
01:56The story starts as the first century dawns in Galilee.
02:06Jesus and the disciples are still just children...
02:09...when a band of men protesting about rising taxes and Roman rule...
02:14...stage an uprising in the key city of Sepphoris.
02:18The Romans immediately put down the revolt with complete destruction of the city...
02:28...and killed all the inhabitants or sold them as slaves.
02:32And it must be a memory which the locals kept for generations.
02:37In fact, during the first century, Galilee was a hotbed of rebellion.
02:47Helen Bond has studied this social and historical background to the Bible.
02:53We know there were quite a lot of bandit leaders about the time of Jesus.
02:57We hear of people taking to the hills and going and living in caves...
03:01...and where other people came to them and they led resistance movements against the Romans.
03:11The disciples grew up against this background.
03:14Some may even have witnessed the Sepphoris rebellion.
03:18Perhaps in Jesus, they saw a leader who could free them from the Romans.
03:23Historical breakthroughs are giving us new insights into the lives of the disciples.
03:32The picture that's emerging is vivid and surprising.
03:41One thing's clear from the outset.
03:43The disciples came to Jesus for a set of very different reasons...
03:47...and with very different hopes.
03:50By the time they were in their twenties, the first of those reasons may have been financial.
03:55Hefty taxes would have been a constant concern for the four disciples...
03:59...who worked as fishermen.
04:01John.
04:03Brothers Peter.
04:06And Andrew.
04:08And James.
04:09We know that James and John, Peter and Andrew, were in a partnership from the Gospels, from Luke.
04:21So they are under a lot of pressure to catch the fish in order that they meet their obligations...
04:28...both to feed the families and to pay the tax collector.
04:32The fishermen were forced into a contract with the tax collector to hand over their catch, including fresh fish like carp and sardines...
04:44...in return for inferior salted fish.
04:47It was an unfair exchange bound to breed resentment.
04:51All of the fish have been counted from the catch, and the agents of the tax collector come and take that away...
04:58...to go to some of the tables of the rich people in the city.
05:03In return, the fishermen are going to receive, as a part of their contract, processed fish, probably salted fish.
05:13And the feeling that they have at that moment must be, we can't eat our own take.
05:21This amounted to enormous financial pressure.
05:24People longed for more control over their lives.
05:27They were looking for a leader to help them fight back.
05:35Maybe they thought that leader was Jesus.
05:38The initial followers of Jesus were attracted to something very practical...
05:44...that dealt with daily life, that dealt with real issues.
05:48We would misconstrue it to call it a purely religious movement.
05:57While some of the disciples may have joined the Jesus movement to challenge taxes...
06:02...it doesn't explain why all twelve joined.
06:05In particular, it doesn't explain Matthew.
06:08Before he became a disciple, Matthew was a tax collector.
06:13We know about his job from the Gospels, but they don't tell us why he was attracted to Jesus.
06:19For one thing, unlike the fishermen, Matthew lived the comfortable life of a wealthy man.
06:24James Strange is an archaeologist whose excavations of ancient villages...
06:40...have helped to paint a picture of life in the first century.
06:43People who lived in any village in the Galilee, their houses from the outside would look absolutely identical.
06:51The only way you could have a luxury good would be inside the house.
06:55You might plaster a room very finely and paint it very nicely, but that's only for those inside the house.
07:03No one outside would have any idea unless they were invited in.
07:07The inside of Matthew's house would have shown that he was far wealthier than his neighbours.
07:15If Matthew were a low-level tax official and only had a few villages assigned to him...
07:21...he would still be richer than anybody else in any of those villages.
07:25But his wealth would have made Matthew a hated figure in his community.
07:31Every day he would have faced an uphill struggle just to get the job done.
07:41Richard Horsley is particularly interested in the economic side of life in first century Galilee.
07:47He's found that tax was paid in produce rather than money...
07:51...and that the Galileans would have devised ways of limiting how much they handed over.
07:56Over the centuries, peasants have developed clever ways of avoiding heavy taxes.
08:01Let's say this is the amount of grain that's owed to the tax collector.
08:05Peasant brings it in, puts it on the scales, the tax collector sees that it's just the right weight.
08:11But then when we look inside the basket, see what's actually in there.
08:19Sure enough, it's grain, but at the bottom, sticks and stones.
08:23And by that device, the peasant was able to save some of the grain...
08:27...that he otherwise would have owed to the tax collector.
08:32This daily confrontation could have been the spur for Matthew to join Jesus.
08:38He would be really utterly alone.
08:43I mean, it would be very difficult for him to find people to have just ordinary socialising with.
08:50He'd be in a very precarious position.
08:52And I imagine, to tell you the truth, that he would probably also have to have bodyguards.
08:57By joining Jesus, Matthew turned his back on tax collecting and was welcomed, maybe for the first time, into a community.
09:12Perhaps an even more puzzling disciple than Matthew is Judas Iscariot.
09:18Judas has a bad reputation, untrustworthy and disloyal.
09:22But ironically, he was the group's treasurer, looking after donations to the group and organising provisions.
09:31So here you have this band of disciples.
09:33They're living out of some kind of a common fund.
09:35And he apparently is the bursar.
09:37He handles all the accounts, keeps track of what we need.
09:41A quartermaster, if you...
09:43I think it involves some organisational ability, some trustworthiness, some leadership.
09:50So far from being the bad boy, when Judas joined the Jesus movement, he must have been regarded as one of its most reliable members.
10:11Unfortunately, we know very little about the remaining disciples.
10:24There's Thomas, and Philip, who's said to come from the same area as the fishermen.
10:31There's a Bartholomew, and a Simon, known as the Zealot, probably because he was very strict about upholding Jewish religious law.
10:42But there is a controversial theory that Simon, along with Jude and another disciple called James, were actually Jesus' brothers.
10:52They may have been stepbrothers rather than blood relatives.
10:57Nevertheless, some experts believe that they were part of Jesus' family.
11:02The brothers of Jesus that are named in the Gospels turn out to be, lo and behold, James, Simon and Judah.
11:12I think we have to entertain at least the possibility, since Jesus, when he dies, passes on the control of his community to his own brother James.
11:25Whatever the blood ties between Jesus and some of his disciples, it's clear that these twelve men were very different from one another.
11:38Such variety might make an interesting group, but you'd think a radical movement such as this would need like-minded recruits.
11:46Carey Cooper specializes in group psychology.
11:58We asked him to apply modern psychological principles to what we know about the disciples,
12:05to find out how hard it would be for such a group to work together and become founders of a new faith.
12:11When I look at the disciples, I would have thought, as a psychologist, if I was just looking at the group being composed,
12:15I'd say disaster area, coming from totally different kind of backgrounds,
12:21a tax collector, people who are revolted by the taxes, a zealot, all sorts of different characters, very different.
12:30Now, if they had a leader that could kind of resolve their differences and the potential conflicts that are going to come on, on board,
12:37and got them to think about what the ultimate objective is and how that objective could meet their own personal needs,
12:43then it would work.
12:44These twelve men from such diverse backgrounds did have a strong leader in Jesus, and they had a mission.
13:01They may have been prepared to give working together a chance if it meant they would see some action against the Romans.
13:09But following Jesus was never going to be easy.
13:13There's evidence that traveling together as a group may have been a harsh enough experience in the first century
13:18to put these very different personalities to the test.
13:25Galilee is about 35 miles across.
13:29The disciples could walk it in a day or so.
13:32But the terrain can be rugged.
13:34In these places there was little protection from the elements or from robbers.
13:38Life on the road is quite hard actually.
13:43There are people who regard that as their territory sometimes and they don't like you coming through.
13:48There are wild animals you have to think about.
13:51In the ancient world actually lions and bears were the two prime predators you had to think of.
13:57As if life on the road wasn't dangerous enough, the Bible records that Jesus told the disciples to leave their possessions behind.
14:04Even so, there are some basics that experts believe they would have needed.
14:10For example, in very bad weather, you really need a wool mantle like this to dress yourself in.
14:17You can wrap it tightly about yourself and sleep in it like a tent.
14:21You can also use it as a raincoat because it is impervious to water.
14:26If someone is not friendly and has not given you fire, you have to have a way to make fire.
14:34You will need a piece of iron and a piece of flint and a scorched piece of linen so that you can nap your own fire.
14:42Otherwise, you are in a terrible position.
14:46In terms of security, you might need to defend yourself from wild animals, from predators.
14:51Here is a sword. It is rather small but you get the idea.
14:56When Jesus is arrested, two of the disciples have swords.
14:59If the disciples did leave everything behind to follow Jesus, even something as fundamental as finding food could be a problem.
15:18There is a clue in the Bible as to how they fed themselves.
15:25In one story, they are said to take grain from a field.
15:28This may sound as though the disciples turned into thieves, but Jewish law made provision for the poor, including travelers.
15:35If you have a field, because you're a landowner, and you're harvesting the field, you have to leave bits with the sort of the corner of the field untouched so that the poor can come and collect from it.
15:52One of the most important things that you have to do in ancient Judaism is practice hospitality.
16:03And part of the reason for this is very simple.
16:06You're at the mercy of people when you're traveling.
16:09There are no hotels, there are no inns, there are no nothing.
16:11So both in Jewish law and in Jewish custom, you practice hospitality.
16:15When they traveled, the disciples left behind more than their livelihoods. Many had other responsibilities.
16:27Most of the disciples seem to have been married. We certainly know that Peter was married.
16:31And I think it would have been very difficult for his wife and children left behind.
16:35The disciples were the people who brought in the money.
16:38They were the ones who caught the fish or who worked on the land.
16:40And I think it would have left the families in very, very difficult circumstances.
16:47However, we may be wrong to assume that once they left, they never returned.
16:53We have a number of references to them going out, and it couldn't be more than a few days, and then they come back again.
16:59So I don't think we should picture it as a lot of the movies and popular books have the idea.
17:04He's always on the road, day and night, just traveling from the day starts till the day he dies.
17:11There's lots of time in between.
17:14The disciples and Jesus may have gone home at night.
17:19We do have the story of Peter, who's called by Jesus. He leaves everything.
17:24And then, only a few verses later, he's going to have tea with his mother-in-law.
17:27And so, that gives the impression that maybe the break, at least in the early period when Jesus' ministry was located in Galilee,
17:35maybe the break wasn't quite so clear-cut as we are often led to believe.
17:41As Jesus' ministry grew, there were occasions when the disciples had to travel well beyond Galilee.
17:47On these journeys, they really did have to rely on the hospitality of strangers.
18:00But it's a little-known fact that the disciples had something to offer in return.
18:06Something that was much sought after, and rarely available.
18:13When we dig up tombs, most people in the tombs in their 40s and 50s when they die.
18:23And the mortality rates look like they do for third world nations today.
18:28Because after all, a very ordinary infection could simply kill you, because they had no way to deal with that.
18:34There was no formal health system in first century Galilee.
18:49Villagers depended on local healers who had developed home cures that seemed to work.
18:55Jesus had a big reputation as a healer, but so too did his disciples.
19:01If they went to a village, they seemed to have two main tasks.
19:06One was to announce the kingdom of God was upon you.
19:10The other was to heal the sick.
19:12And if they successfully healed the sick, then they could have their daily bread.
19:16They might have a place to lay their heads.
19:20The fact that the disciples could heal should not come as a surprise.
19:23Faith healing has a long history. For centuries, it was the only healing people had.
19:31It's not at all unusual to pray to the gods, if you're a pagan, or to God, if you're a Jew, for healing.
19:39That's absolutely acceptable.
19:42And people who specialize in praying to God for healing are also very well known.
19:46But delivering healing and delivering it in association with a religious movement would be perfectly understandable and acceptable.
19:55Now modern medicine may be able to explain how it can work.
19:59A little low and a little medial, so we need to go higher and lateral.
20:12In Houston, Texas, surgeon Bruce Moseley treats patients with arthritic knee pain.
20:19In a recent experiment, he treated three different groups.
20:22All patients were taken down to the operating room and had incisions made in the knee.
20:28But only the first group received routine surgery.
20:31The second group had a smaller operation, and the third had no treatment at all.
20:36The results of the experiment were quite remarkable.
20:39They all improved. They all got benefit from the surgery.
20:43They all reported less pain. They all reported improved function.
20:47And they were all very satisfied.
20:48But interestingly, the pretend surgery group did just as well as the real surgery groups.
20:59Tim Perez was one of Dr. Moseley's first patients.
21:04Well, I could be walking, and a sharp pain would hit my knee.
21:10And it'd give, you know, you know, when you're in pain, you just don't have no strength at all.
21:16Tim was in the group that had no surgery, but his knee got better.
21:22That was eight years ago, and Tim still feels better.
21:25And I call that a miracle because it's something that didn't take no medicine, didn't take nothing to heal it.
21:35So it had to be the mind.
21:37In medical terms, Tim was part of the placebo group, which means he didn't receive a real treatment.
21:42Physicians are now closer than ever to understanding how the placebo effect works.
21:49I think the placebo works through a psychological or an emotional impact that a treatment has on a patient.
21:56And it ties into what the patient's expectations and beliefs are.
22:02If the patient expects and believes that a treatment's going to be effective, it almost certainly will.
22:07And now hands in front, up over your head, as high as you can go.
22:11OK.
22:12And if people today can get better because they believe in the doctor's ability to cure them, maybe the same was happening back in the first century.
22:23Dr. Mosley still believes God was involved in the disciples' healing, but he does not discount the importance of the patient's belief that they can be cured.
22:31You can certainly draw parallels between what Jesus and the disciples were doing and what a doctor does today.
22:39In both situations, they have a belief that the healer is going to help them.
22:43And you could certainly imagine that some of the benefit that the ancient healers have had is from a placebo effect.
22:51In part, thanks to their ability to heal, Jesus and the disciples began to attract larger and larger crowds.
23:03But for all the good work the disciples did, healing could be a deeply frustrating experience.
23:10The Bible tells us that sometimes they just couldn't do it.
23:13In the Gospel of Matthew, there's a story of a man who brings his son to Jesus, and the son is exhibiting symptoms we would call epilepsy.
23:30And he complains the disciples had failed to heal his son.
23:33Well, Jesus does heal the son.
23:52Later on, the disciples come and say, Well, why couldn't we do it? What was the problem?
23:58And Jesus says, It was your lack of faith.
24:01The reference to the disciples' lack of faith rings true with modern doctors.
24:07Physician Bruce Mosley believes that even today, the amount of confidence a doctor has in his treatment can affect the outcome.
24:16If the surgeon has a high expectation and a faith that their treatment is going to have a benefit, then I believe that the patients can realize that.
24:26They can feel that. They can sense that.
24:27And the more confident the surgeon is, then I'm sure the more confident the patient is that that treatment is going to work.
24:37But the disciples' occasional inability to heal may have been symptomatic of a more fundamental problem.
24:43To have complete faith in Jesus as a leader, the disciples needed to share his vision, and for much of the time they appeared to do so.
24:55But a closer examination of the Gospels reveals that the disciples did not always have the same outlook as their leader.
25:08Indeed, there's evidence of underlying tensions and disagreements flaring up in public.
25:12One instance is when Jesus tells his disciples to take their message to the Samaritans.
25:23Today, the word Samaritan describes a do-gooder, but to a first century Jew, he was the enemy.
25:29If Jesus told me we had to go through Samaria, my heart would sink. I would say, oh no. We've had hostility between us and the Samaritans for 500 years. And it doesn't look like it's going to get better.
25:43The relationship between Jews and Samaritans was a very difficult one. It seems to have gone back to a problem over what was the proper site for the temple.
25:57The Samaritans said that the sacred site should be on their holy mountain, whereas the Jews said that the holy site should be in Jerusalem.
26:05Samaritan villagers were not interested in what these Jewish preachers had to say.
26:11And they threw the disciples out.
26:20Instead of acting with humility, the disciples were furious.
26:24It was a flagrant breach of Jesus' teaching on loving your enemies.
26:30James and John were so angry, they wanted to send down fire on the village and obliterate it.
26:36I think today we would see this as a kind of a racism, but it's even more than racism.
26:41If you think about what they were really saying, they were saying, let's kill these people.
26:46Whereas Jesus says, no, that's not the way he works.
26:49He'll offer them salvation, but if they don't accept it, that's up to them.
26:53And he simply goes on to another place.
26:54The disciples were not just at odds with Jesus.
26:55On more than one occasion, the Bible says they argue between themselves about which of them is the greatest.
27:07James and John even asked Jesus if they can have thrones next to his in the new kingdom.
27:21I think this shows that there's a lot more competitiveness and rivalry between them than we often think.
27:35In many ways, this is only to be expected because first century society was full of squabbles over honor and shame and status.
27:44And so in this, the disciples are really just behaving like typical first century men.
27:48These squabbles may have been typical, but according to psychologist Kerry Cooper, they could escalate into damaging power struggles.
28:03We have in almost all groups a James and a John.
28:07And the reason I say that is because they're a bit fiery, a bit revolutionary.
28:13But I think that they actually kind of want a leadership role.
28:17I think they're people who one has to manage quite carefully.
28:22Otherwise, their innate needs for leadership or to be in a position of influence or to be rebellious will get in the way.
28:28The disciples managed to keep their differences in check most of the time.
28:49But on one occasion, these divisions threatened the very survival of the movement.
28:54A woman came in and poured expensive perfume over Jesus.
28:59The disciples were not impressed.
29:07The disciples are annoyed that this woman has wasted this oil on Jesus.
29:11They say she should have taken it away.
29:12She should have sold it and given the money to the poor.
29:15But Jesus sees things quite differently.
29:17He says she's done a beautiful thing.
29:19As treasurer of the group, Judas seems particularly upset by this act.
29:40Every group has disagreements, but the consequences of Judas' reaction were catastrophic.
29:45The Gospels of Mark and Matthew say Judas goes to the religious authorities to talk about leading them to Jesus.
29:58But for now, the other disciples appear to know nothing of Judas' actions.
30:02They are excited because after three years on the road, their leader has just made a momentous decision.
30:11Jesus is about to take his disciples to Jerusalem, the power base of the authorities.
30:17At last, they thought, we are about to see some action.
30:21They were in for a shock.
30:22The disciples entered Jerusalem with Jesus on what's become known as Palm Sunday.
30:34Jesus received a rapturous welcome.
30:37But it couldn't have come at a more politically sensitive time.
30:40Jerusalem was packed with pilgrims come to celebrate the festival of Passover,
30:50remembering how Moses had led their ancestors out of captivity in Egypt.
30:59According to James Charlesworth, a biblical historian based in Jerusalem,
31:03Passover would have prompted the disciples to think about freedom and overthrowing the Romans.
31:10It is a time of great excitement.
31:13The Jews are going to celebrate Passover.
31:16What does that mean?
31:18They are going to reenact and relive God's salvation of his people.
31:22So it's a very volatile time.
31:25It's a time when everybody is at the peak of excitement.
31:29The highlight of the festival was a shared meal later that same week.
31:42But as they settled down to eat what has become known as the Last Supper,
31:47Jesus was unusually subdued.
31:50Suddenly, in the midst of the meal, Jesus starts to talk about his death.
31:55He picks up the bread and says, this is my body.
32:03He picks up the cup and says, this is my blood.
32:05And he starts talking about doing things in remembrance of him.
32:08And I think the disciples must have wondered what on earth he was on about.
32:16It's not clear why the disciples didn't understand what Jesus was talking about.
32:20Perhaps all along they had just been waiting for some kind of uprising.
32:25The death of their leader was not part of the plan.
32:29But what happens next seals their fate.
32:38Judas sets off a chain of events that would lead to Jesus' crucifixion.
32:42He makes his fatal deal with the authorities.
32:57He agrees to betray Jesus.
33:01In return, he gets 30 pieces of silver.
33:04If we're right that the piece of silver in question is the Roman and Greek denarius,
33:13then he's getting about 30 days' wages in silver.
33:17And that happens to be the price in some slave markets for a slave.
33:22Not much for someone who would come to be worshipped as the son of God.
33:28But Judas nonetheless accepts the money.
33:32He leads the guards to where he knows the group will be.
33:37Suddenly, everything they had worked towards begins to unravel.
33:41The disciples panic and lash out.
33:44The disciples are terror-struck. They don't know what to do.
33:52Peter's reaction was to draw his sword and to cut off the ear of the high priest's slave.
33:57And I think that's quite understandable.
33:59They really don't know what's happening.
34:01They don't know at that stage whether the arresting party are just going to arrest Jesus,
34:04or whether they've come for them as well.
34:05In fact, only Jesus is arrested. The disciples themselves scatter.
34:14We have this single line in the Gospels, they all forsook him and fled.
34:18And I think we should see this on very human terms.
34:21It's nothing very theological or profound.
34:24They just got scared and they ran.
34:29All the work of Jesus and the disciples undone by one man's act of treason.
34:36But some experts are not so sure that Judas was to blame.
34:44A new theory suggests that a fundamental mistake was made in translating the word betray,
34:50and that Judas did not in fact betray Jesus.
34:55In Greek, the word simply means to hand over.
34:59It does not have the more sinister implications of betrayal.
35:03Indeed, there's other evidence that Judas was not a traitor.
35:07Everyone, including the religious authorities, knew Jesus and where to find him.
35:12What did he betray? Does he betray who Jesus is?
35:18Everybody knew who Jesus was.
35:20Did he betray where Jesus could be found?
35:22It makes the Gospels very clear that he goes to his customary place.
35:26So if we're not sure what he betrayed, how could he be called the betrayer?
35:39Certainly when Judas comes with guards to arrest Jesus, his greeting is strange for a traitor.
35:46A kiss.
35:47Does a kiss suggest betrayal?
35:57In all our ancient sources, Philo, Josephus, and the New Testament, we hear that a kiss means a greeting or a farewell.
36:06There's no such thing as a kiss of betrayal.
36:08What's convinced some experts that Judas didn't mean to betray Jesus is his response when he hears that Jesus is to be executed.
36:22He throws the money back at the men. Obviously, something has gone wrong. He then is so disturbed, he goes out and he hangs himself.
36:40But if Judas didn't want to betray Jesus, there still must have been a reason for his deal with the authorities.
36:57I think one thing we could suggest is that he thought this would help Jesus to have the audience with a high priest.
37:03This would help the man that could do miracles, even bring people back from the dead, to confront his enemies straight on and establish the kingdom that he so earnestly wanted to establish.
37:16This is a controversial theory and not everyone is convinced.
37:20There's a certain attractiveness in that, I think, in that it makes what Judas has done more understandable, but I think that's very unlikely.
37:30All the gospels suggest that Judas did betray Jesus for whatever reason, and we'll perhaps never know what that reason was.
37:39Intentionally or not, the fact remains that Judas hastened the death of Jesus.
37:50If the disciples had any doubt that Jesus' arrest meant the end of the group, they must have been certain the next day.
38:01As their leader was crucified, it isn't clear where the disciples went.
38:09They could have gone to a safe house where they had had the Last Supper.
38:13There seems to be some kind of a connection there when they rent that place or arrange for that place.
38:19But I think we have to assume that when they fled, they really fled.
38:24They wanted to stay out of danger.
38:30The disciples were at their lowest ebb.
38:34This is a critical stage because they've lost their leader.
38:37All groups need their leader, and particularly an inspirational leader like Jesus.
38:41It's very, very critical.
38:42There is no real deputy, so that's a bit of a problem.
38:46So the group is likely to split up or have enormous difficulties.
38:52With their leader dead, the disciples were left utterly depressed and broken.
38:58And yet we know that these forlorn individuals founded what went on to become a major world faith.
39:04Clearly something happened to change their fate.
39:12Within days of Jesus' execution, there were stories of him rising from the dead.
39:18Maybe this was what kept the disciples going.
39:27All the disciples are together again in the upper room.
39:29They've got the doors firmly shut because they're worried about the Jewish authorities.
39:37And suddenly, Jesus appears in the room and says,
39:40Peace be with you.
39:41This, I think, is a significant moment in the Gospel story.
39:49I think the thing that really differentiates the Jesus movement from similar messianic movements in the first century,
39:55is they're full of the conviction that their Messiah has survived death.
40:01And so this is a symbolic, empowering moment.
40:05This belief that Jesus was still alive was one thing.
40:06But if the movement was to continue, they had to convince others that Jesus had risen from the dead.
40:10And that wasn't going to be easy.
40:11And that wasn't going to be easy.
40:12For this reason, many think another is that Jesus had risen from the dead.
40:13And that wasn't going to be easy.
40:14For this reason, many think another event was crucial for the survival of the movement.
40:17It's because of the fact that Jesus had survived death.
40:18And so this is a symbolic, empowering moment.
40:24This belief that Jesus was still alive was one thing.
40:28But if the movement was to continue, they had to convince others that Jesus had risen from the dead.
40:34And that wasn't going to be easy.
40:38For this reason, many think another event was crucial for the survival of the movement.
40:42It's become known as Pentecost, and it took place several weeks after Jesus appeared to the disciples.
40:50Since that appearance, they had been spending their time together in prayer.
40:55And something very strange happens to them.
40:58They feel this mighty wind rushing through the building.
41:04They see the Holy Spirit like little flames of fire resting above each other's heads.
41:13And somehow they feel empowered to go out and preach to people.
41:19And the amazing thing is that everybody seems to be able to understand their preaching in whatever language they natively speak.
41:25It's this religious event that psychologist Kerry Cooper believes transforms the group.
41:38Pentecost, in my view, is the critical event for the group.
41:41And the reason is because they don't have a leader and the shared experience brings them together.
41:47It motivates them. It encourages them to go out and preach and to convert people and to share their common experiences.
41:54It's a kind of surrogate leadership role.
41:56Before Pentecost, the odds of the disciples founding a new faith were slim.
42:06Their different backgrounds.
42:09Their infighting.
42:11And above all, the loss of their leader.
42:15It was a remarkable transformation.
42:17On the surface, it seemed to be simply a psychological shift.
42:22But there may be more to it than that.
42:25There is now neurological evidence that religious experience causes a real and quantifiable change in the brain.
42:32I'm trying to get on just so that we can get the vein for you to put the IV in.
42:41OK, so we don't want you to bend your arm too much because it might, it could kink the catheter.
42:49OK.
42:51Professor Andrew Newberg is a neuroscientist at Pennsylvania University.
42:55He's been studying the effects of such experiences on Buddhist monks and Catholic nuns.
43:00We had them go through a practice such as meditation or prayer.
43:05And at the height of that practice, we would inject them through an intravenous line, a line that was in their vein,
43:12with a material that would allow us to measure the blood flow.
43:16At the time of the injection, it then is capturing a picture of what her brain is doing at the moment that she is in that heightened state of prayer.
43:22We can scan the brain sometime later to see what the snapshot is of what was going on in the brain during that particular practice.
43:33The scan taken during prayer on the right is compared to that of a normal brain, said to be in its baseline state.
43:42It recorded a change in the part of the brain that helps us to sense everything around us.
43:49This area had less activity during prayer, which showed up as the colour yellow.
43:57We are not so aware of our surroundings when activity in this part of the brain is reduced and our sense of self lessens.
44:04Instead, the mind begins to feel that it's at one with the whole universe.
44:09In fact, some people say that's when they become strongly aware of the presence of God.
44:15If they go far enough in their prayer session, then they would lose all sensory information.
44:20And we think that this would be associated with a complete blurring of the boundary between the self and God and all things in the world.
44:26Sister Celeste took part in the study. She agrees that she can feel closer to God during prayer.
44:36The experiment shows for me that when we are in religious experience that there is something happening within us.
44:45That within our brain, something is being shown.
44:48For the scientists, this experiment means that we have to take seriously the idea that religious experience can cause measurable physiological change.
45:00When we look at the disciples, we can ask the question as to whether or not that transformative spiritual moment actually affected a change in the brain
45:08that changed who they were, how they felt, how they thought about everything in their lives and that that was what changed the direction of what they did.
45:16Certainly after this experience, the disciples were no longer just members of the Jesus movement. They were leaders of a new faith.
45:32It's when they cease being disciples, meaning students, and start being apostles and messengers on their own.
45:39And that was the key event for the distinction between the periods.
45:42The disciples must have undergone an incredible personal journey. At the beginning, they were just ordinary, humble fishermen. But by the end of the story, they become leaders of what eventually becomes a world religion.
45:58The disciples don't fit the conventional image of holy men. They were rough and flawed, capable of jealousy, bitterness, selfishness, even violence.
46:15The New Testament makes it very clear. These are men of flesh and blood. These are really human people with human wishes. And I find it much more fascinating to realize that they're very much like you and me.
46:36The New Testament
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