1 00:00:01,640 --> 00:00:04,319 Ours is said to be a Godless age, 2 00:00:04,320 --> 00:00:09,319 yet billions remain faithful to religions thousands of years old. 3 00:00:10,400 --> 00:00:14,399 In this series, eight well known commentators will go 4 00:00:14,440 --> 00:00:19,439 on personal journeys to explore the world's most powerful faith. 5 00:00:20,360 --> 00:00:23,199 How it began in a remote part of the Middle East 6 00:00:23,200 --> 00:00:25,679 and spread to every corner of the planet. 7 00:00:25,680 --> 00:00:29,679 From Africa to South America, from Syria to Britain, 8 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:34,999 how it transformed the way we think - about God and about ourselves. 9 00:00:35,920 --> 00:00:38,919 How it brought the promise of salvation to countless people, 10 00:00:39,320 --> 00:00:43,319 and death and destruction to countless more. 11 00:00:46,760 --> 00:00:50,759 Whether we are believers or we are not, this global religion continues 12 00:00:51,120 --> 00:00:56,119 to exert the profoundest influence on the world in which we live. 13 00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:17,319 CHANTING 14 00:01:17,320 --> 00:01:20,959 This film is the story of the origins and consequences 15 00:01:20,960 --> 00:01:24,959 of Christian belief. 16 00:01:26,160 --> 00:01:31,159 The bare facts are that Christianity originated in devout Judaism 17 00:01:31,720 --> 00:01:34,519 and yet for Jews Christianity has, 18 00:01:34,520 --> 00:01:37,919 all things considered, been a calamity. 19 00:01:37,920 --> 00:01:41,319 Here in this central square there was a big gallows to hang people. 20 00:01:41,320 --> 00:01:43,399 It was terrorism. 21 00:01:43,400 --> 00:01:44,239 To hang Jews? 22 00:01:44,240 --> 00:01:45,359 Yes, to hang Jews. 23 00:01:45,360 --> 00:01:47,679 The Jews, very much for Christians, 24 00:01:47,680 --> 00:01:50,359 represent that element of original sin. 25 00:01:50,360 --> 00:01:52,279 I still remember, 26 00:01:52,280 --> 00:01:56,279 I was seven years old, they actually called me the Christ Killer. 27 00:01:56,360 --> 00:01:59,839 To understand Christianity's Jewish origins 28 00:01:59,840 --> 00:02:03,839 we first need to understand the man whose life inspired it. 29 00:02:04,080 --> 00:02:05,599 He was not a Christian - 30 00:02:05,600 --> 00:02:08,599 Christianity could not grow out of Christianity. 31 00:02:08,600 --> 00:02:15,599 Jesus was, and not incidentally, but through and through, a Jew. 32 00:02:24,160 --> 00:02:28,159 I am a convinced Jew, but not a practicing one. 33 00:02:28,760 --> 00:02:31,479 I'm a Jew of the head and of the heart. 34 00:02:31,480 --> 00:02:35,479 The Judaism in which I grew up was not so much liberal or Orthadox 35 00:02:35,960 --> 00:02:38,119 as befuddled. 36 00:02:38,120 --> 00:02:41,479 We were proud of being Jewish but we weren't always certain 37 00:02:41,480 --> 00:02:43,559 what being Jewish meant. 38 00:02:43,560 --> 00:02:46,599 Thus, we would not dream of having 39 00:02:46,600 --> 00:02:49,799 bacon in the house, but my father was perfectly happy 40 00:02:49,800 --> 00:02:53,799 to dress up as Father Christmas every year and deliver us presents. 41 00:02:53,800 --> 00:02:56,199 But we had no tree 42 00:02:56,200 --> 00:02:59,959 and we feared the cross as any vampire might. 43 00:02:59,960 --> 00:03:04,959 The crucifix encapsulated all our troubles. 44 00:03:09,880 --> 00:03:12,239 Because we Jews had killed Christ, 45 00:03:12,240 --> 00:03:16,239 as Christians believed, we were an outcast people. 46 00:03:16,360 --> 00:03:18,999 And because we had been made outcasts in Christ's name, 47 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:22,999 we were alarmed by every aspect of Christianity. 48 00:03:23,040 --> 00:03:26,239 No matter that what the first Christians said, 49 00:03:26,240 --> 00:03:30,239 they said, "As Jews, to Jews". 50 00:03:30,400 --> 00:03:35,399 So, is Judaism Christianity's guilty secret? 51 00:03:35,600 --> 00:03:39,599 And does that guilt explain the abhorrence of Jews 52 00:03:39,600 --> 00:03:43,599 sewn into the garments of the Christian faith? 53 00:03:45,520 --> 00:03:48,639 This two thousand year history of Christianity 54 00:03:48,640 --> 00:03:52,639 begins with the idea of a Messiah. 55 00:03:54,320 --> 00:03:58,319 The word Messiah does not mean God, or even Son of God. 56 00:03:58,760 --> 00:04:02,759 A Messiah prepares the way for God. 57 00:04:04,040 --> 00:04:08,039 In Jesus' day, the Jewish people lived under Roman occupation. 58 00:04:08,760 --> 00:04:10,719 In a frenzy of expectation 59 00:04:10,720 --> 00:04:14,199 for a Messiah who would liberate their country 60 00:04:14,200 --> 00:04:17,759 and prepare them for the coming of the Lord. 61 00:04:17,760 --> 00:04:19,839 It's always amazing to me how many Jews think 62 00:04:19,840 --> 00:04:21,439 Messiah's not a Jewish concept. 63 00:04:21,440 --> 00:04:23,359 They think it's a purely Christian concept. 64 00:04:23,360 --> 00:04:26,039 The reality is it began with the Jewish people, as we'll see. 65 00:04:26,040 --> 00:04:29,999 Christianity took the concept and changed it dramatically. 66 00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:33,359 The Old Testament makes frequent promise of a Messiah 67 00:04:33,360 --> 00:04:35,799 or redeemer of the Jewish nation. 68 00:04:35,800 --> 00:04:39,999 Part prophet, part soldier, he would be of the royal line of David, 69 00:04:40,760 --> 00:04:43,319 whose birthplace was Bethlehem. 70 00:04:43,320 --> 00:04:47,319 In order for Jesus to fulfil these Messianic prophecies, 71 00:04:48,040 --> 00:04:51,959 he too had to be born here. 72 00:04:51,960 --> 00:04:55,959 For First Century Jews, Bethlehem would be considered a royal town. 73 00:04:56,040 --> 00:05:01,439 This had been the birthplace of David and in the prophecy of Micah 74 00:05:01,760 --> 00:05:06,759 it was foretold that a successor to David, one of his descendants 75 00:05:07,400 --> 00:05:11,399 way down the line hundreds of years later, would be born there. 76 00:05:12,120 --> 00:05:19,119 And so, according to many scholars, Christians simply invented Bethlehem 77 00:05:19,640 --> 00:05:22,239 because they thought of Jesus as the Messiah. 78 00:05:22,240 --> 00:05:25,239 Now, I don't believe that. 79 00:05:26,800 --> 00:05:30,999 The sequence of events, or at least one sequence of events, 80 00:05:31,480 --> 00:05:33,999 is familiar to everybody, Christian or not. 81 00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:38,499 Mary and Joseph, travelling from Nazareth to pay their Roman taxes, 82 00:05:38,960 --> 00:05:43,959 no room at the inn, baby Jesus born in a manger, 83 00:05:44,760 --> 00:05:48,559 three wise men bearing gifts. 84 00:05:48,560 --> 00:05:52,239 How much is history and how much is belief 85 00:05:52,240 --> 00:05:57,239 wanting to be history? Scholars and theologians cannot agree. 86 00:05:57,560 --> 00:05:59,239 But even the two Gospel writers 87 00:05:59,240 --> 00:06:01,479 who agree that Jesus was born in Bethlehem 88 00:06:01,480 --> 00:06:04,239 disagree over the circumstances of the nativity. 89 00:06:04,240 --> 00:06:06,239 Even those two that mention it, 90 00:06:06,240 --> 00:06:09,679 are at pains to get Jesus to Bethlehem somehow. 91 00:06:09,680 --> 00:06:12,199 Not get him to Bethlehem because, 92 00:06:12,200 --> 00:06:14,719 for Matthew, Jesus is born in Bethlehem 93 00:06:14,720 --> 00:06:17,479 because that is the residence of his parents, 94 00:06:17,480 --> 00:06:19,959 they have a house according to the text. 95 00:06:19,960 --> 00:06:22,759 They end up in Nazareth as refugees. 96 00:06:22,760 --> 00:06:25,079 Luke made a mistake. 97 00:06:25,080 --> 00:06:31,079 Jesus of Nazareth, ah, but then how come he was born in Bethlehem? 98 00:06:31,200 --> 00:06:35,199 So he has to invent the census to get him to Bethlehem. 99 00:06:35,280 --> 00:06:37,799 But how can you know it was Luke that made the mistake 100 00:06:37,800 --> 00:06:39,759 and not Matthew that made the mistake? 101 00:06:39,760 --> 00:06:41,879 Because the census is nonsense. 102 00:06:41,880 --> 00:06:45,479 The census, we're told, was for the Roman Empire. 103 00:06:45,480 --> 00:06:47,559 This wasn't part of the Roman Empire. 104 00:06:47,560 --> 00:06:51,559 This was an independent Jewish Kingdom. It's a complete nonsense. 105 00:06:52,080 --> 00:06:54,879 But Luke had to try and find a motive 106 00:06:54,880 --> 00:06:58,879 where a heavily pregnant woman would travel the length of the country. 107 00:06:58,920 --> 00:07:01,359 He made a guess and he got it wrong. 108 00:07:02,360 --> 00:07:06,359 # Silent night 109 00:07:06,520 --> 00:07:10,519 # Holy night...# 110 00:07:12,480 --> 00:07:14,199 And the guessing goes on. 111 00:07:14,200 --> 00:07:18,199 Christians flock to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, 112 00:07:18,560 --> 00:07:23,559 said to be built over the site of the manger in which Jesus was born. 113 00:07:23,960 --> 00:07:26,639 I think Bethlehem was an embarrassment 114 00:07:26,640 --> 00:07:28,239 to the early Christians 115 00:07:28,240 --> 00:07:32,539 because there was a Messianic prophecy centred on Bethlehem, 116 00:07:32,960 --> 00:07:34,679 the prophecy of Micah, 117 00:07:34,680 --> 00:07:37,679 which promised a warrior king. 118 00:07:37,680 --> 00:07:39,759 And Jesus was anything but. 119 00:07:39,760 --> 00:07:42,879 He spent his time with tax collectors and sinners. 120 00:07:42,880 --> 00:07:46,879 He didn't fulfil the Messianic prophecy of Bethlehem. 121 00:07:47,000 --> 00:07:50,999 # Sleep in heavenly peace...# 122 00:07:54,040 --> 00:07:56,839 And there for Jews is the nub of it. 123 00:07:56,840 --> 00:07:58,959 How could Jesus be the Messiah 124 00:07:58,960 --> 00:08:02,799 if he fulfilled none of the Old Testament prophecies? 125 00:08:02,800 --> 00:08:06,799 What's the point? This is a crucial point to understand - 126 00:08:07,120 --> 00:08:09,559 you don't get the title until... 127 00:08:09,560 --> 00:08:12,119 You finish the job. 128 00:08:12,120 --> 00:08:14,919 OK? This by the way is the number one issue 129 00:08:14,920 --> 00:08:18,559 that Judaism would have with Jesus and Christianity. 130 00:08:18,560 --> 00:08:21,719 What was the issue? 131 00:08:21,720 --> 00:08:24,079 Jesus didn't fulfil this description here. 132 00:08:24,080 --> 00:08:28,079 Ah, and how does Christianity theologically sidestep the issue? 133 00:08:29,200 --> 00:08:30,719 Second Coming. 134 00:08:30,720 --> 00:08:34,719 He'll come again in the future and then the job will be done. 135 00:08:37,480 --> 00:08:40,839 Jesus did not bring about God's Kingdom here on earth. 136 00:08:40,840 --> 00:08:45,839 Later Christians turned his material failure into spiritual success. 137 00:08:46,360 --> 00:08:50,359 Salvation, they said, would happen in another world. 138 00:08:52,000 --> 00:08:55,999 But for Jews, the Messiah they had long awaited was of this world - 139 00:08:56,520 --> 00:08:59,479 a real man, in the royal line of David, who would free them 140 00:08:59,480 --> 00:09:03,439 from Roman occupation or at least make them fit 141 00:09:03,440 --> 00:09:07,439 to be free from Roman occupation by bringing in an age 142 00:09:07,720 --> 00:09:10,679 of truth and justice and holiness. 143 00:09:11,680 --> 00:09:13,119 Since none of this had happened, 144 00:09:13,120 --> 00:09:16,039 Jesus could not have been the Messiah. 145 00:09:16,040 --> 00:09:20,039 To Jews, for whom the world remains unredeemed, 146 00:09:20,160 --> 00:09:24,159 the true Messiah is still to come. 147 00:09:25,440 --> 00:09:29,439 So if Jesus the Jew wasn't the Messiah, what was he? 148 00:09:30,480 --> 00:09:34,879 I think the most shocking thing I could say to you, is the apostles, 149 00:09:35,160 --> 00:09:40,159 all 12 apostles, Jesus himself, were not baptised as Christians. 150 00:09:52,760 --> 00:09:56,759 HORN BLARES 151 00:09:59,560 --> 00:10:03,559 Bar Mitzvahs, Bar Mitzvahs, everywhere you look, Bar Mitzvahs. 152 00:10:03,760 --> 00:10:06,279 Jewish boys becoming Jewish men 153 00:10:06,280 --> 00:10:10,279 and dancing wildly with the word of God. Lovely that. 154 00:10:10,440 --> 00:10:13,839 My own Bar Mitzvah was a much more sedate affair in Manchester, 155 00:10:13,840 --> 00:10:17,719 and all I remember about it was worrying about my suit 156 00:10:17,720 --> 00:10:20,679 and whether I could keep my Yarmulkah on. 157 00:10:20,680 --> 00:10:24,519 But it's worth remembering that Jesus would have had a Bar Mitzvah, 158 00:10:24,520 --> 00:10:27,199 probably in Jerusalem, probably in the temple 159 00:10:27,200 --> 00:10:31,199 and probably in exactly this spirit. 160 00:10:32,040 --> 00:10:36,039 In fact, Jesus's Bar Mitzvah is one of the few details 161 00:10:36,040 --> 00:10:40,039 the Bible hints at about his early life. 162 00:10:42,080 --> 00:10:44,319 What Jesus did between his birth 163 00:10:44,320 --> 00:10:47,559 and his sudden appearance as a holy man aged 30, 164 00:10:47,560 --> 00:10:52,559 what his life was like as a Jew growing up in first century Israel, 165 00:10:52,680 --> 00:10:56,679 are questions that have baffled scholars for centuries. 166 00:11:00,680 --> 00:11:04,679 The Gospels are more theological justification than history, 167 00:11:05,640 --> 00:11:09,639 written after Jesus's death, by Christians, for Christians. 168 00:11:12,320 --> 00:11:17,319 The first major event in Jesus's life they do relate is his baptism. 169 00:11:18,000 --> 00:11:19,839 according to her faith 170 00:11:19,840 --> 00:11:21,639 and because we love Jesus together, 171 00:11:21,640 --> 00:11:23,759 we baptise her in the waters of the Jordan 172 00:11:23,760 --> 00:11:27,759 in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. 173 00:11:27,880 --> 00:11:31,799 Amen! Hallelujah! 174 00:11:31,800 --> 00:11:34,759 For Christians, baptism is the defining moment 175 00:11:34,760 --> 00:11:38,239 of their religious lives, the sacramental new beginning 176 00:11:38,240 --> 00:11:42,239 that symbolises admission to the Christian faith. 177 00:11:43,480 --> 00:11:49,479 To Jews, the word Baptism has grown alien by association. 178 00:11:51,360 --> 00:11:55,359 Throughout history, Christianity has sought to convert Jews 179 00:11:55,560 --> 00:11:59,559 out of their Jewishness by imposing baptism on them, 180 00:12:00,440 --> 00:12:04,439 though, ironically, baptism was ours, in the first place. 181 00:12:06,560 --> 00:12:11,559 But to be baptised, you need a baptiser, even if you are Jesus. 182 00:12:14,000 --> 00:12:16,679 of coming to the River Jordan. 183 00:12:16,680 --> 00:12:20,679 How important to the Jesus story is John the Baptist? 184 00:12:21,240 --> 00:12:25,239 I think he is the key to the whole thing, 185 00:12:25,400 --> 00:12:26,919 because you open the Gospels, 186 00:12:26,920 --> 00:12:31,919 Mark, the earliest Gospel, and who's there? It's John is on the scene. 187 00:12:32,140 --> 00:12:33,679 He's thoroughly Jewish, 188 00:12:33,680 --> 00:12:36,039 and this is the sort of the catch, 189 00:12:36,040 --> 00:12:37,599 because he's baptising, 190 00:12:37,600 --> 00:12:40,039 and the word baptise immediately, as a Jew, 191 00:12:40,040 --> 00:12:42,999 you would think of something Christian, right? 192 00:12:43,000 --> 00:12:45,079 Yeah, John is baptising. 193 00:12:45,080 --> 00:12:47,079 Yeah, don't do that to me. 194 00:12:47,080 --> 00:12:51,079 So, here's this Jew baptising, and it's just a trick of the language. 195 00:12:51,080 --> 00:12:53,199 Baptise means to immerse. 196 00:12:53,200 --> 00:12:56,239 So, he's immersing people in water, 197 00:12:56,240 --> 00:13:01,239 but he's doing it as a thoroughly Jewish thing, an apocalyptic thing. 198 00:13:02,200 --> 00:13:06,199 He says the time is near, repent of your sins, be baptised. 199 00:13:06,560 --> 00:13:10,239 But the shocking thing for Christians, I think, 200 00:13:10,240 --> 00:13:14,119 is that Jesus as a Jew, we should say Jesus the Jew, 201 00:13:14,120 --> 00:13:18,119 comes down to the Jordan River and is baptised by John. 202 00:13:19,240 --> 00:13:23,239 So, he is participating in this very Jewish rite of baptism. 203 00:13:23,520 --> 00:13:27,399 So there's no question at all of his joining a new faith 204 00:13:27,400 --> 00:13:30,599 by going to John the Baptist to be baptised? 205 00:13:30,600 --> 00:13:33,999 No, not at all. What John is telling the people, 206 00:13:34,000 --> 00:13:37,999 the crowds, is you're already Jews, but what you need to do 207 00:13:38,480 --> 00:13:41,359 is repent of your sins and turn to God. 208 00:13:41,360 --> 00:13:42,399 So, be better Jews? 209 00:13:42,400 --> 00:13:45,159 Be better and be part of this revival, 210 00:13:45,160 --> 00:13:48,039 of a people prepared for God's Messiah. 211 00:13:48,040 --> 00:13:51,839 You can see the difficulty for later Christians. 212 00:13:51,840 --> 00:13:55,939 Once Jesus the Jewish teacher becomes Jesus the Christian God, 213 00:13:56,760 --> 00:14:01,759 his baptism, by a Jew, as a reaffirmation of his Jewishness, 214 00:14:02,320 --> 00:14:04,799 has to be explained away. 215 00:14:04,800 --> 00:14:07,159 It's very interesting in the Gospels. 216 00:14:07,160 --> 00:14:09,999 They have more of a problem with this as time goes on. 217 00:14:10,000 --> 00:14:12,239 Mark doesn't really have a problem with it. 218 00:14:12,240 --> 00:14:15,119 He said Jesus came and was baptised by John. 219 00:14:15,120 --> 00:14:17,719 Then you get to Matthew, the next gospel, 220 00:14:17,720 --> 00:14:20,279 and Matthew's like, "OK, yes, he was," 221 00:14:20,280 --> 00:14:22,159 but John objected. 222 00:14:22,160 --> 00:14:23,719 He said, "You're too righteous." 223 00:14:23,720 --> 00:14:27,039 And it's starting to sound like the story's getting embellished. 224 00:14:27,040 --> 00:14:31,039 And then you go to Luke, and he doesn't even say John baptised him. 225 00:14:31,680 --> 00:14:33,759 And then you get to the Gospel of John, 226 00:14:33,760 --> 00:14:35,839 and the baptism isn't even mentioned. 227 00:14:35,840 --> 00:14:39,839 So I think the most shocking thing I could say to you, 228 00:14:39,920 --> 00:14:42,879 on your quest as a Jew, is the apostles, 229 00:14:42,880 --> 00:14:48,879 all 12 apostles, Jesus himself, were not baptised as Christians. 230 00:14:51,640 --> 00:14:55,639 Only after his baptism, the New Testament tells us, 231 00:14:55,640 --> 00:14:59,119 did Jesus take up his rabbinical vocation, 232 00:14:59,120 --> 00:15:04,119 urging all Jews to repent their sins and prepare for the Kingdom of God. 233 00:15:05,760 --> 00:15:09,759 Here was where he preached that sometimes invigorating, 234 00:15:10,080 --> 00:15:14,079 sometimes divisive message, the Galilee. 235 00:15:17,520 --> 00:15:21,519 "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth. 236 00:15:21,560 --> 00:15:25,559 "I came not to send peace, but a sword. 237 00:15:26,320 --> 00:15:30,079 "For I am come to set a man at variance against his father 238 00:15:30,080 --> 00:15:34,079 "and the daughter against her mother." 239 00:15:40,200 --> 00:15:44,199 Jesus based his new movement not in his home town, 240 00:15:44,560 --> 00:15:48,559 no man is a prophet in his home town, but in Capernaum. 241 00:15:49,040 --> 00:15:50,679 Once a Jewish fishing village, 242 00:15:50,680 --> 00:15:54,679 Capernaum is today a site for Christian pilgrims. 243 00:15:55,600 --> 00:15:59,599 It was a place chosen by Jesus Christ. 244 00:15:59,640 --> 00:16:04,639 He himself chose this town especially. 245 00:16:04,920 --> 00:16:08,039 So what are we looking at here? What's, what's this? 246 00:16:08,040 --> 00:16:10,679 We are looking at the houses of the village. 247 00:16:10,680 --> 00:16:14,679 They are common houses for common people, fishermen, farmers... 248 00:16:15,080 --> 00:16:17,439 And we think Jesus had a house here? 249 00:16:17,440 --> 00:16:20,399 He would have been a known figure here? Seen walking about? 250 00:16:20,400 --> 00:16:21,159 Oh, yes. 251 00:16:21,160 --> 00:16:23,319 Teaching, healing? 252 00:16:23,320 --> 00:16:28,319 Yes, Jesus was living like a good Jew, going to the synagogue, 253 00:16:29,000 --> 00:16:33,999 praying and living according to the Law of Moses in his house. 254 00:16:34,520 --> 00:16:37,559 You wonder how many of the pilgrims that come here 255 00:16:37,560 --> 00:16:41,519 know that what they're looking at is the town that in Jesus's time 256 00:16:41,520 --> 00:16:43,719 would have been devoted to Judaism. 257 00:16:43,720 --> 00:16:46,679 Yes. 258 00:16:46,680 --> 00:16:49,239 In synagogues similar to this, 259 00:16:49,240 --> 00:16:52,639 all across Galilee, Jesus and the 12 disciples 260 00:16:52,640 --> 00:16:55,199 preached his apocalyptic message, 261 00:16:55,200 --> 00:16:59,199 calling on people to change their lives before it was too late. 262 00:17:09,280 --> 00:17:13,279 The Galilee in Jesus's time was a remote, rebellious place. 263 00:17:13,720 --> 00:17:17,639 Religious, yes, but prickly, a thorn in the side of the Romans 264 00:17:17,640 --> 00:17:20,399 and the Jewish authorities in Jerusalem. 265 00:17:20,400 --> 00:17:24,159 In this atmosphere, the character of Jesus was formed. 266 00:17:24,160 --> 00:17:26,999 It was as a Galilean Jew 267 00:17:27,000 --> 00:17:29,479 that he befriended the poor and the despised. 268 00:17:29,480 --> 00:17:31,119 It was as a Galilean Jew 269 00:17:31,120 --> 00:17:35,119 that he thundered against the powerful and the haughty. 270 00:17:35,160 --> 00:17:38,799 But his genius transcended locality. 271 00:17:38,800 --> 00:17:42,639 However inconsistent the apostles' accounts of Jesus, 272 00:17:42,640 --> 00:17:46,279 there emerges from them all a man extraordinary for the dark, 273 00:17:46,280 --> 00:17:48,559 riddling power of expression, 274 00:17:48,560 --> 00:17:52,359 for the magnificently scornful sweep of his mind, 275 00:17:52,360 --> 00:17:57,359 and for the example he evokes of a true communion of man and God, 276 00:17:57,720 --> 00:18:01,719 not in Heaven, but here on Earth. 277 00:18:04,120 --> 00:18:08,119 The Galilee used to be described as a spiritual crossroads, 278 00:18:09,840 --> 00:18:12,799 a melting pot of people and religions, 279 00:18:12,800 --> 00:18:16,799 in which it would be easy for a questioning Jew such as Jesus 280 00:18:17,760 --> 00:18:21,759 to realise the deficiencies of his obsolete ancestral faith. 281 00:18:22,160 --> 00:18:24,399 This is the Jewish world. 282 00:18:24,400 --> 00:18:26,919 This is their land. This is their homeland. 283 00:18:26,920 --> 00:18:29,479 There were according to... 284 00:18:29,480 --> 00:18:33,479 there were 204 Jewish towns and villages in the Galilee 285 00:18:33,880 --> 00:18:37,879 when he arrived at the Galilee 30 years after Jesus. 286 00:18:38,040 --> 00:18:41,959 So, the Galilee was entirely Jewish. 287 00:18:41,960 --> 00:18:45,479 In recent years, archaeologists have unearthed 288 00:18:45,480 --> 00:18:49,479 a wealth of new evidence to show that, far from being faint-hearted 289 00:18:49,720 --> 00:18:54,719 in its religion, Galilee was a thriving centre of Jewish practice. 290 00:18:55,920 --> 00:18:59,919 You hear about the Galileans as, as rebellious men, 291 00:18:59,920 --> 00:19:05,919 hard men, rough speaking men, men whom Jews in Jerusalem were wary of. 292 00:19:06,680 --> 00:19:09,599 These are hard life. You have to wake up in the morning, 293 00:19:09,600 --> 00:19:12,999 you have to go to the field to work till sunset and then come home. 294 00:19:13,000 --> 00:19:16,439 People were farmers, and that's mainly what they would do. 295 00:19:16,440 --> 00:19:19,439 20 years ago people were asking who lived in Galilee 296 00:19:19,440 --> 00:19:21,279 and there was some discussions, 297 00:19:21,280 --> 00:19:24,079 how Jewish was Galilee, the Galileans, you know, 298 00:19:24,080 --> 00:19:27,959 were not really good Jews like those of Jerusalem, 299 00:19:27,960 --> 00:19:30,279 and this is why Jesus succeeded 300 00:19:30,280 --> 00:19:33,959 in building and creating here the new religion. 301 00:19:33,960 --> 00:19:37,959 And now we all agree, all archaeologists and historians agree, 302 00:19:38,320 --> 00:19:41,479 that Galilee was Jewish, completely Jewish, 303 00:19:41,480 --> 00:19:46,479 and Judaism of Galilee was very similar to Judaism in Jerusalem. 304 00:19:50,240 --> 00:19:52,279 This ruined village 305 00:19:52,280 --> 00:19:56,279 is also thought to be a likely site of the famous Wedding of Cana 306 00:19:56,680 --> 00:20:02,679 at which, according to the Gospel of John, Jesus turned water into wine. 307 00:20:04,280 --> 00:20:05,439 Not being great drinkers, 308 00:20:06,440 --> 00:20:09,439 Jews often joke that, had Jesus been an even better Jew, 309 00:20:09,920 --> 00:20:13,919 he'd have turned the wine into water. 310 00:20:17,560 --> 00:20:19,399 In the fourth century, 311 00:20:19,400 --> 00:20:23,399 Christian pilgrims carved a cave out of this hilltop, 312 00:20:23,680 --> 00:20:27,319 creating a shrine to commemorate the event. 313 00:20:27,320 --> 00:20:31,319 For them, this miracle, performed at a Jewish wedding, 314 00:20:31,640 --> 00:20:33,719 had a subversive symbolic meaning - 315 00:20:33,720 --> 00:20:37,719 Jesus transforming the old water of Judaism 316 00:20:38,520 --> 00:20:41,599 into the new wine of Christianity. 317 00:20:41,600 --> 00:20:44,439 This despite Jesus's warning... 318 00:20:44,440 --> 00:20:47,799 "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets. 319 00:20:47,800 --> 00:20:51,799 "I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." 320 00:20:52,520 --> 00:20:54,839 How does it harm a Christian's faith 321 00:20:54,840 --> 00:20:58,599 to restore Jesus to the real Jewish world in which he lived, 322 00:20:58,600 --> 00:21:00,919 to hear again in fear and trembling 323 00:21:00,920 --> 00:21:03,919 the words he spoke, freed from the distortions 324 00:21:03,920 --> 00:21:09,919 of a later, self-justifying and Jew-falsifying Christianity? 325 00:21:11,520 --> 00:21:14,559 Jesus never once expressed the intention 326 00:21:14,560 --> 00:21:16,519 of starting a new religion. 327 00:21:16,520 --> 00:21:20,819 His ambition was to renew Judaism, to reawaken it to its own grandeur, 328 00:21:21,320 --> 00:21:22,879 not to abolish it. 329 00:21:22,880 --> 00:21:26,359 His great sermons, delivered almost certainly in Aramaic 330 00:21:26,360 --> 00:21:28,679 and wrought from homilies and parables 331 00:21:28,680 --> 00:21:32,679 familiar to the Jews of Galilee, are masterpieces of Jewish thought. 332 00:21:32,920 --> 00:21:36,919 That they derived from a highly refined Jewish ethic 333 00:21:37,200 --> 00:21:40,639 does not diminish their humanity or their truth. 334 00:21:40,640 --> 00:21:44,639 Jesus is the more remarkable, to my mind, and the more inspiring, 335 00:21:45,240 --> 00:21:49,239 for being the Son of Man than the Son of God. 336 00:21:52,040 --> 00:21:55,159 The event which once and for all severed Jesus 337 00:21:55,160 --> 00:21:58,199 from his actual Jewish past and propelled him 338 00:21:58,200 --> 00:22:01,079 into his supernatural Christian future, 339 00:22:01,080 --> 00:22:04,799 the final act, was his crucifixion. 340 00:22:04,800 --> 00:22:06,799 I still remember, I was seven years old 341 00:22:06,800 --> 00:22:10,799 and they actually called me the Christ Killer. 342 00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:28,999 Few modern Christians doubt that Jesus was a Jew. 343 00:22:29,200 --> 00:22:32,599 But the idea that he improved on Judaism, 344 00:22:32,600 --> 00:22:35,879 founding a movement that spiritually superseded it, 345 00:22:35,880 --> 00:22:39,879 still lives at the heart of Christianity. 346 00:22:40,880 --> 00:22:44,679 Every day Christian pilgrims come here to relive the Passion. 347 00:22:44,680 --> 00:22:48,319 As the story has it, Jesus is betrayed by Judas, 348 00:22:48,320 --> 00:22:50,159 condemned by Jews to die 349 00:22:50,160 --> 00:22:53,439 and then paraded through the streets of Jerusalem 350 00:22:53,440 --> 00:22:56,399 bearing the cross on which he will be executed. 351 00:22:56,400 --> 00:23:00,399 These final hours of Jesus's life ending in his agonising crucifixion 352 00:23:01,520 --> 00:23:04,679 have become the central symbol of Christianity. 353 00:23:04,680 --> 00:23:08,679 The cross also symbolises Christianity's final bloody break 354 00:23:10,320 --> 00:23:14,079 with Jesus the Jew. 355 00:23:14,080 --> 00:23:18,079 The story of Judas's betrayal, one of Jesus's closest disciples 356 00:23:18,920 --> 00:23:22,439 handing him over for 30 pieces of silver, 357 00:23:22,440 --> 00:23:26,439 has served a deadly purpose in the Christian demonisation of Jews. 358 00:23:28,360 --> 00:23:32,359 Alone among the disciples, Judas has retained his Jewish identity, 359 00:23:33,280 --> 00:23:37,279 Jewish features, and what it has suited some Christians to believe 360 00:23:37,640 --> 00:23:41,639 are Jewish characteristics. 361 00:23:42,280 --> 00:23:45,599 But recent scholarship forces us to rethink 362 00:23:45,600 --> 00:23:48,039 the role of Judas in Jesus's death. 363 00:23:48,040 --> 00:23:52,039 For where would Christianity have been without him? 364 00:23:52,680 --> 00:23:56,639 I feel very ambivalent about Judas. 365 00:23:56,640 --> 00:23:58,759 And recently there has been, 366 00:23:58,760 --> 00:24:02,759 you know, a serious effort to get behind the stereotype 367 00:24:04,480 --> 00:24:08,479 and I think you can make a case that Judas was working for Jesus. 368 00:24:11,200 --> 00:24:15,199 That Jesus, I am convinced, knew that his death would be 369 00:24:16,080 --> 00:24:18,599 the highlight of his mission. 370 00:24:18,600 --> 00:24:22,599 But if you are right in this account that Judas is an agent of 371 00:24:22,640 --> 00:24:26,639 Jesus's will, it is lamentable, is it not, that Judas is then... 372 00:24:27,240 --> 00:24:31,239 then becomes the figure of derision -a by-word for treachery and evil 373 00:24:31,920 --> 00:24:33,679 and malice and greed. 374 00:24:33,680 --> 00:24:37,479 And very unfairly. I think it's in the Gospels 375 00:24:37,480 --> 00:24:40,039 where, you know, the suicide of Judas 376 00:24:40,040 --> 00:24:43,679 is interpreted as condign punishment for betrayal. 377 00:24:43,680 --> 00:24:46,199 I think there's no question about that. 378 00:24:46,200 --> 00:24:50,199 That they thought him at the beginning as a traitor. 379 00:24:52,360 --> 00:24:56,359 The second leading actor in the Passion Play was the Roman Governor 380 00:24:56,360 --> 00:25:00,359 who ordered Jesus's execution, Pontius Pilate. 381 00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:04,999 In the Christian story, Pilate reluctantly condemned Jesus 382 00:25:05,480 --> 00:25:09,479 only at the behest of the baying Jewish mob. 383 00:25:09,600 --> 00:25:13,599 When he washes his hands of responsibility, he washes all Roman 384 00:25:14,560 --> 00:25:17,519 and all Gentile hands as well. 385 00:25:17,520 --> 00:25:19,599 What goes on in the Gospel story 386 00:25:19,600 --> 00:25:21,599 is there's a shifting of emphasis 387 00:25:21,600 --> 00:25:25,599 from Roman responsibility over to the Jews, 388 00:25:25,640 --> 00:25:29,939 an attempt to make the Jews, both through their authorities and through the mob, which eventually 389 00:25:30,400 --> 00:25:33,959 when you get to John is screaming, "Crucify him! Crucify him!" 390 00:25:33,960 --> 00:25:36,839 and instead of Pilate you get to Judas, who has the misfortune 391 00:25:36,840 --> 00:25:40,839 of having a name which sounds like it means Jew in general. 392 00:25:46,120 --> 00:25:49,559 As each new Gospel is written, so the contrast between 393 00:25:49,560 --> 00:25:53,559 Pontius Pilate and Judas Iscariot is made more stark. 394 00:25:54,120 --> 00:25:59,119 See it as a moral whirligig - Pilate ascending into sainthood 395 00:25:59,600 --> 00:26:02,799 as Judas descends into hell. 396 00:26:02,800 --> 00:26:06,599 For "Judas", read "the Jews". 397 00:26:06,600 --> 00:26:10,899 When I was growing up, we lived in a part of Brooklyn where everyone in the neighbourhood 398 00:26:11,280 --> 00:26:14,359 was Irish or Italian Catholic and I still remember, 399 00:26:14,360 --> 00:26:17,279 I was seven years old, they actually called me the Christ killer. 400 00:26:17,280 --> 00:26:20,319 OK, it was time for the Christ killer to go home for dinner. 401 00:26:20,320 --> 00:26:24,319 Joseph Viglia didn't invite me to his first-grade birthday party because I killed his God. 402 00:26:24,840 --> 00:26:28,399 Well, I had that too growing up - the Gentiles lived in the prefabs 403 00:26:28,400 --> 00:26:32,399 and we lived over the wall, they threw stones at us because we'd killed Christ. 404 00:26:32,480 --> 00:26:35,119 But the implications of that are very, very serious. 405 00:26:35,120 --> 00:26:39,119 The biggest sin that Jews did was to be involved in the death of Jesus 406 00:26:39,200 --> 00:26:41,879 and Jesus in Christianity is a part of God. 407 00:26:41,880 --> 00:26:44,239 Who can fight with God? The Devil. 408 00:26:44,240 --> 00:26:49,239 That created the association of the Jew and the Devil, and it also created the image of the Jew. 409 00:26:49,680 --> 00:26:53,679 Just as the Jew was a physical threat to the personage of Jesus, he was a physical threat to Christians. 410 00:26:58,240 --> 00:27:02,239 When Jesus died, any hope that he had been a Messiah in the Davidic sense, 411 00:27:02,640 --> 00:27:06,399 a liberator of the Jewish people, died with him. 412 00:27:06,400 --> 00:27:09,279 So now what could his followers believe? 413 00:27:09,280 --> 00:27:12,839 That he had been a charismatic, holy man and healer 414 00:27:12,840 --> 00:27:16,839 whose example of devotion to God's Law remained undimmed by his death? 415 00:27:17,320 --> 00:27:21,119 Or that he had been a Messiah in another sense entirely - 416 00:27:21,120 --> 00:27:25,619 the Son of God himself, who had died for our sins and whose resurrection 417 00:27:25,960 --> 00:27:29,959 promiseda personal resurrection, through faith, for everybody. 418 00:27:32,320 --> 00:27:35,959 The first position, wholly consistent with Judaism, 419 00:27:35,960 --> 00:27:38,719 was taken up by Jesus's family. 420 00:27:38,720 --> 00:27:42,039 The second, in a violent break with Jewish theology, 421 00:27:42,040 --> 00:27:46,039 by the Apostle Paul. 422 00:27:46,960 --> 00:27:49,239 Paul never met Jesus in the flesh. 423 00:27:49,240 --> 00:27:53,239 Not one of the original 12 disciples, he joined the new movement 424 00:27:53,280 --> 00:27:56,079 only after Jesus's death. 425 00:27:56,080 --> 00:28:00,079 In a vision on the road to Damascus, he claimed to have encountered 426 00:28:00,680 --> 00:28:04,679 the resurrected Jesus, from whom he was given the mission to proclaim 427 00:28:04,920 --> 00:28:07,319 his word among the Gentiles. 428 00:28:07,320 --> 00:28:13,319 It was Paul who transformed Jesus the Jew into Jesus the Christ, 429 00:28:14,600 --> 00:28:18,599 "not any human being," he said, "but the Son of God". 430 00:28:23,520 --> 00:28:28,519 Paul said that Jews who do not believe in Jesus 431 00:28:29,160 --> 00:28:30,999 are cut off from God. 432 00:28:31,000 --> 00:28:32,999 He said they're beloved 433 00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:36,999 for their fathers' sake, meaning, you know, they had a good history, 434 00:28:37,480 --> 00:28:41,879 but if they don't accept this thing that I'm now teaching about Jesus 435 00:28:42,160 --> 00:28:44,239 you should consider them enemies. 436 00:28:44,240 --> 00:28:46,279 Now this is, er, scary. 437 00:28:46,280 --> 00:28:47,919 It's very divisive talk, isn't it? 438 00:28:47,920 --> 00:28:48,559 It's very divisive. 439 00:28:48,560 --> 00:28:52,039 Always in Paul, there's "you're with us or you're against us" talk. 440 00:28:52,040 --> 00:28:53,559 And he had Jewish enemies 441 00:28:53,560 --> 00:28:57,559 and I think as time went on he got more and more radical about this. 442 00:28:59,600 --> 00:29:04,599 These differences came to a head about 20 years after Jesus's death, 443 00:29:04,920 --> 00:29:08,719 when his followers met to decide their future direction. 444 00:29:08,720 --> 00:29:11,639 For Jesus's family, all strict Jews, 445 00:29:11,640 --> 00:29:14,919 the new movement remained within Judaism. 446 00:29:14,920 --> 00:29:18,799 But Paul's eye was on the Gentile world. 447 00:29:18,800 --> 00:29:22,719 Salvation, for him, came through faith, not deeds, 448 00:29:22,720 --> 00:29:26,519 belief in the crucifixion as an atoning sacrifice, 449 00:29:26,520 --> 00:29:28,999 not obedience to the Jewish Law, 450 00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:31,839 the Torah. 451 00:29:31,840 --> 00:29:35,399 He said that...is obsolete. 452 00:29:35,400 --> 00:29:38,119 He said that was from Moses to Christ 453 00:29:38,120 --> 00:29:40,959 and now that Christ is come we're not under the Torah. 454 00:29:40,960 --> 00:29:45,959 So, if you think about it, you've got a sort of new view of God - not just 455 00:29:46,000 --> 00:29:49,879 the one God that a person can go to, you gotta go through Jesus. 456 00:29:49,880 --> 00:29:51,959 A new view of the Jewish people - 457 00:29:51,960 --> 00:29:55,959 you're not the Jewish people any more, you gotta go to the Church. 458 00:29:56,360 --> 00:29:59,359 And he says, "Whoever does not observe this 459 00:29:59,360 --> 00:30:03,359 "is not recognised by God." 460 00:30:05,920 --> 00:30:09,239 But it was war as much as doctrinal difference 461 00:30:09,240 --> 00:30:13,239 that caused Jesus's new movement to split finally from Judaism. 462 00:30:14,520 --> 00:30:20,519 In AD70, after a violent rebellion, Roman legions stormed Jerusalem 463 00:30:20,560 --> 00:30:24,559 and destroyed the Temple, the centre of Jewish life. 464 00:30:26,080 --> 00:30:29,319 65 years later, after another rebellion, 465 00:30:29,320 --> 00:30:33,319 the Romans finished the job, laying waste the entire city. 466 00:30:35,960 --> 00:30:39,959 Anyone wanting to sell a Jewish-based religion to the Romans 467 00:30:40,320 --> 00:30:44,319 had now to ditch the Jewish part. 468 00:30:51,640 --> 00:30:53,999 The focus of Jesus's new movement 469 00:30:54,000 --> 00:30:57,199 shifted from the ruined Jewish city of Jerusalem. 470 00:30:57,200 --> 00:30:59,119 And for the first time 471 00:30:59,120 --> 00:31:02,359 his followers became known as Christians. 472 00:31:02,360 --> 00:31:06,359 Paul's version of Christianity had won out. 473 00:31:07,600 --> 00:31:12,599 Things that are done in the Church are Paul more than Jesus. 474 00:31:12,600 --> 00:31:16,599 And I think the original Jewish teachings of Jesus 475 00:31:16,880 --> 00:31:19,039 have been largely muted. 476 00:31:19,040 --> 00:31:24,039 But, when you're standing and doing the creeds or eating the bread 477 00:31:24,280 --> 00:31:28,279 and taking the wine or baptising, you're... 478 00:31:28,680 --> 00:31:32,599 and those are, you know, the quintessential Christian acts... 479 00:31:32,600 --> 00:31:35,079 that's only in Paul. 480 00:31:35,080 --> 00:31:39,079 And so his triumph is... is almost complete. 481 00:31:41,080 --> 00:31:45,779 In Rome, the might-proclaiming Church of St Paul's Outside the Walls 482 00:31:45,880 --> 00:31:49,599 proves the success of Paul's Christianity. 483 00:31:49,600 --> 00:31:52,839 Above the altar, a rich mosaic depicts Paul 484 00:31:52,840 --> 00:31:54,759 at the right hand of Jesus 485 00:31:54,760 --> 00:31:57,959 and, next to Paul, Luke. 486 00:31:57,960 --> 00:32:01,079 Between them, Luke and Paul were responsible for 487 00:32:01,080 --> 00:32:05,079 15 of the New Testament's 27 books. 488 00:32:06,040 --> 00:32:10,039 Thus, again, was history written by the victors. 489 00:32:14,560 --> 00:32:17,959 The architect of Christianity's split with Judaism 490 00:32:17,960 --> 00:32:19,359 was the Apostle Paul - 491 00:32:19,360 --> 00:32:24,359 a man divided in his own Jewishness between a reverence for the old religion 492 00:32:24,360 --> 00:32:28,359 and an abomination of its laws and customs. 493 00:32:28,360 --> 00:32:32,359 This ambivalence became the ambivalence of the Christian Church, 494 00:32:32,400 --> 00:32:34,599 a destructive doublethink in which 495 00:32:34,600 --> 00:32:38,899 the Jewish religion as practised by Jesus had of course to be embraced, 496 00:32:39,240 --> 00:32:43,239 while Jews themselves were vilified for their rejection of him. 497 00:32:44,040 --> 00:32:48,539 And it is this doublethink that is the root of 2,000 years 498 00:32:48,880 --> 00:32:51,519 of Christian anti-Semitism. 499 00:32:51,520 --> 00:32:55,519 Here in this central square there was a big gallows to hang people. It was terrorism. 500 00:32:56,000 --> 00:32:56,999 To hang Jews? 501 00:32:57,000 --> 00:33:00,999 Yeah, to hang Jews. 502 00:33:07,780 --> 00:33:10,219 What do I call what I feel here? 503 00:33:10,220 --> 00:33:14,219 Sublimity, rhapsody, God? 504 00:33:14,860 --> 00:33:19,859 The idea of the soul longing to escape the flesh, of the spirit 505 00:33:20,260 --> 00:33:25,259 expressing its lightness in stone, is without doubt beautiful. 506 00:33:25,660 --> 00:33:29,659 A melancholy intrinsic to Christianity, perhaps because it 507 00:33:30,260 --> 00:33:36,259 is rooted in fleshly failure - Jesus having to die in order to live. 508 00:33:40,140 --> 00:33:44,139 This beauty is not of a kind Jews associate with worship. 509 00:33:44,900 --> 00:33:47,619 We keep a more austere church. 510 00:33:47,620 --> 00:33:52,119 No graven images, no flights of ecstatic fancy. 511 00:33:52,380 --> 00:33:58,379 No saviour dying in exquisite anguish just for me. 512 00:33:58,860 --> 00:34:03,859 As a Jew who admires Jesus for his teaching, not his bodily escapism, 513 00:34:04,340 --> 00:34:06,659 I cannot feel at home here. 514 00:34:06,660 --> 00:34:10,659 But as a spiritual tourist, I do. 515 00:34:12,940 --> 00:34:16,939 I can see why Christianity moved the world. 516 00:34:18,140 --> 00:34:22,139 But lovely as these great centres of Christian praying are, 517 00:34:22,540 --> 00:34:26,939 I cannot forget the contradiction at the heart of Christian prayer. 518 00:34:27,900 --> 00:34:32,899 Beauty requires ugliness as its opposite and Christianity 519 00:34:33,500 --> 00:34:37,499 bestowed that ugliness upon the Jews. 520 00:34:37,780 --> 00:34:41,779 How do you read that line from St Matthew, "his blood be upon us 521 00:34:42,220 --> 00:34:43,739 "and upon our children"? 522 00:34:43,740 --> 00:34:45,499 It's like a curse. 523 00:34:45,500 --> 00:34:47,459 It is. I read it with difficulty as 524 00:34:47,460 --> 00:34:51,459 one of the more problematic verses in the New Testament. 525 00:34:52,100 --> 00:34:53,579 Curse on the Jewish people? 526 00:34:53,580 --> 00:34:57,579 Yes, definitely, yes, and as they say the curse is on us 527 00:34:57,620 --> 00:35:01,059 and on our children, that's in effect in perpetuity, not 528 00:35:01,060 --> 00:35:03,539 just for the ones who are speaking. 529 00:35:03,540 --> 00:35:06,379 But that's by no means the, the worst that gets said? 530 00:35:06,380 --> 00:35:11,379 Not at all, no. That particular verse in Matthew's Gospel has a counterpart 531 00:35:11,460 --> 00:35:15,419 in the Fourth Gospel, which claims that the Jews have as their father 532 00:35:15,420 --> 00:35:18,499 Satan, not God but Satan. 533 00:35:18,500 --> 00:35:22,259 Jews arrived in Britain with William the Conqueror. 534 00:35:22,460 --> 00:35:26,459 They were permitted to lend money and practise medicine, 535 00:35:26,900 --> 00:35:29,939 but were barred from other trades - from owning land, 536 00:35:29,940 --> 00:35:33,939 from employing Christians, or living in the same house as them. 537 00:35:35,220 --> 00:35:40,219 Under Edward I, every Jew in Britain was made to wear a yellow badge. 538 00:35:41,180 --> 00:35:45,179 Yellow, the colour of treachery, depravity and greed. 539 00:35:45,460 --> 00:35:49,459 The colour, in Christian art, of Judas' robes. 540 00:35:50,020 --> 00:35:56,019 And this in Britain, mark you, over 650 years before Nazi-Germany 541 00:35:56,180 --> 00:35:57,739 hit upon the same idea. 542 00:35:57,740 --> 00:36:00,979 There's a lot of texts which were written by Christians, 543 00:36:00,980 --> 00:36:04,979 which aren't in the New Testament - a lot of these so-called apocryphal 544 00:36:05,700 --> 00:36:09,699 New Testament works, which develop and expand, distort, as it were, 545 00:36:10,620 --> 00:36:12,299 that whole picture of Jesus. 546 00:36:12,300 --> 00:36:15,819 There's a Gospel of Peter, for example, which survives only as a 547 00:36:15,820 --> 00:36:20,819 passion gospel, but the anti-Jewish sentiment in that is more strongly 548 00:36:21,300 --> 00:36:24,859 expressed than it is in any of the four gospels of the New Testament. 549 00:36:24,860 --> 00:36:28,859 But isn't all this building in to the early years of Christianity 550 00:36:29,580 --> 00:36:32,819 an implacable hatred for Jews? 551 00:36:32,820 --> 00:36:35,139 Definitely, yes, yes. 552 00:36:35,140 --> 00:36:38,939 It's part of trying to explain how it is that this death of Jesus 553 00:36:38,940 --> 00:36:40,859 wasn't just an accident of history. 554 00:36:40,860 --> 00:36:43,419 It was something that was pre-ordained and that 555 00:36:43,420 --> 00:36:46,139 there is almost a way of seeing 556 00:36:46,140 --> 00:36:50,139 the fate of the Jews as being there right from the beginning. 557 00:36:51,980 --> 00:36:55,979 On the night of Friday 16th March 1190, the Sabbath, 558 00:36:57,020 --> 00:37:02,019 York's Jewish community fled here to escape a rampaging Christian mob. 559 00:37:02,020 --> 00:37:06,519 Rather than surrender, some committed suicide. 560 00:37:06,740 --> 00:37:11,739 The rest were massacred - 150 men, women and children. 561 00:37:12,380 --> 00:37:16,379 Today there is barely a handful of Jews living in York. 562 00:37:20,380 --> 00:37:24,379 Lincoln Cathedral, 80 miles to the south, was witness to another 563 00:37:24,860 --> 00:37:28,859 and still more decisive event in the history of English anti-semitism. 564 00:37:29,500 --> 00:37:34,499 This time, it revolved around that most abominable and bizarre of all 565 00:37:34,700 --> 00:37:38,699 Christian defamations of Jews - the blood libel. 566 00:37:41,900 --> 00:37:45,859 Christians believed that Jews took the blood of Christian Children and 567 00:37:45,860 --> 00:37:49,859 mixed them with flour to make the Passover bread. That was one belief. 568 00:37:50,300 --> 00:37:53,939 The other belief was that Jews were not actually human. 569 00:37:53,940 --> 00:37:57,099 Jews were depicted as having horns, 570 00:37:57,100 --> 00:38:02,499 or distorted faces, or humps on their backs, that kind of thing. 571 00:38:03,340 --> 00:38:08,339 I think there was a sexual element to these, these kind of blood libels 572 00:38:08,340 --> 00:38:12,299 as well - that they were young boys, that they were very often accused of 573 00:38:12,300 --> 00:38:16,299 abusing them before they actually murdered them. 574 00:38:17,980 --> 00:38:20,859 On 31 July 1255, 575 00:38:20,860 --> 00:38:24,819 an eight-year-old Christian boy, Hugh of Lincoln, disappeared. 576 00:38:24,820 --> 00:38:28,819 His body was found a month later, in a pit belonging to a Jewish man 577 00:38:29,700 --> 00:38:32,299 named Koppin. 578 00:38:32,300 --> 00:38:36,299 To this day, no one really knows what happened to him. 579 00:38:38,140 --> 00:38:40,259 The Bishop of Lincoln 580 00:38:40,260 --> 00:38:44,259 decided that the child had been murdered by the Jews. 581 00:38:45,780 --> 00:38:49,379 Koppin, terrified for his life, swore that he had murdered 582 00:38:49,380 --> 00:38:55,379 the little boy and that every Jew in England had agreed to this. 583 00:38:56,460 --> 00:39:01,459 Koppin was executed, 91 Jews arrested, 18 of them hanged. 584 00:39:02,100 --> 00:39:06,099 The charge - drinking Christian blood. 585 00:39:06,260 --> 00:39:10,139 In its suggestions of cannibalism for religious purposes, 586 00:39:10,140 --> 00:39:13,219 the blood libel appears to parody the Eucharist. 587 00:39:13,220 --> 00:39:18,219 As though, for Medieval Christians, Judaism stood for something barbaric 588 00:39:18,260 --> 00:39:21,379 at the heart of Christian worship itself. 589 00:39:21,380 --> 00:39:23,739 The whole charge was ridiculous. 590 00:39:23,740 --> 00:39:27,099 Eating blood is a total anathema to the Jews. 591 00:39:27,100 --> 00:39:29,939 They would do anything to avoid blood. Therefore, 592 00:39:29,940 --> 00:39:34,639 the very idea that they would use a blood in, in a ritual manner 593 00:39:34,940 --> 00:39:36,379 was abhorrent to them. 594 00:39:36,380 --> 00:39:39,299 That's what so malevolent about that libel, isn't it? 595 00:39:39,300 --> 00:39:42,419 That of all people - I've always assumed that's deliberate - 596 00:39:42,420 --> 00:39:46,259 Of all the people to blame for that, the Jews, who you know, in who's law 597 00:39:46,260 --> 00:39:49,579 it is inscribed that you don't go near blood, that blood is a, 598 00:39:49,580 --> 00:39:51,699 blood is a, is a defiler. 599 00:39:51,700 --> 00:39:55,699 And also a people who are so meticulous in their diet. 600 00:39:55,900 --> 00:39:59,099 The last people on earth to have wanted to eat human blood. 601 00:39:59,100 --> 00:40:00,139 Yes. 602 00:40:00,140 --> 00:40:03,619 But presumably the idea of Jews killing young boys is just another 603 00:40:03,620 --> 00:40:06,539 way of telling the crucifixion story again. 604 00:40:06,540 --> 00:40:08,499 Jews killed the young and innocent 605 00:40:08,500 --> 00:40:12,099 Christ, Jews go on killing the young and innocent Christian. 606 00:40:12,100 --> 00:40:14,059 It is essentially oedipal. 607 00:40:14,060 --> 00:40:18,059 It is the younger religion in terror of the older, 608 00:40:18,260 --> 00:40:20,299 cruel, parental religion. 609 00:40:20,300 --> 00:40:24,299 Yes - a wonderful way of putting it. I think that's exactly it, yes. 610 00:40:25,180 --> 00:40:29,139 Little Saint Hugh became a Christian martyr - the object of a cult 611 00:40:29,140 --> 00:40:32,859 centred on his shrine in Lincoln Cathedral, 612 00:40:32,860 --> 00:40:36,859 which pilgrims were visiting as recently as the 20th century. 613 00:40:37,300 --> 00:40:41,299 Only in 1955 did the Anglican Church 614 00:40:41,540 --> 00:40:45,539 think it was time to set the record straight. 615 00:40:47,100 --> 00:40:50,899 There's a sort of certificate of acknowledgement or apology here. 616 00:40:50,900 --> 00:40:53,539 And it tells of trumped up stories of ritual 617 00:40:53,540 --> 00:40:57,419 murders of Christian boys by Jewish communities being common throughout 618 00:40:57,420 --> 00:41:00,219 Europe in the Middle Ages. "Such stories", it says, 619 00:41:00,220 --> 00:41:02,819 "Do not redound to the credit of Christendom. 620 00:41:02,820 --> 00:41:05,979 "And so we pray, Lord forgive what 621 00:41:05,980 --> 00:41:10,979 "we have been, amend what we are and direct what we shall be". 622 00:41:12,500 --> 00:41:16,499 Amen to that. 623 00:41:21,380 --> 00:41:25,379 Every religion finds itself in condemnation of another. 624 00:41:25,380 --> 00:41:29,379 The truth you see is the truth they won't. 625 00:41:29,500 --> 00:41:31,699 The Christian church is founded 626 00:41:31,700 --> 00:41:35,579 on an assumption of Jewish blindness, perfidy and murder. 627 00:41:35,580 --> 00:41:39,339 If the Jews rejected Jesus, one of their own sons, 628 00:41:39,340 --> 00:41:43,339 something was at fault with him or at fault with them. 629 00:41:43,460 --> 00:41:45,939 It had to be with them. 630 00:41:45,940 --> 00:41:49,939 Thereafter, the Jews become a pariah people, 631 00:41:50,420 --> 00:41:54,719 wished from the face of the earth, yet at the same time, a necessity. 632 00:41:55,340 --> 00:41:59,339 The degraded, ever-present proof of what becomes of those 633 00:42:00,020 --> 00:42:04,019 who refuse the grace of God. 634 00:42:08,140 --> 00:42:11,939 Here, in the very heart of Western Christendom, a mere breath from the 635 00:42:11,940 --> 00:42:16,939 Vatican itself, is a monument to Catholicism's aversion to the Jews - 636 00:42:17,660 --> 00:42:20,659 the Ghetto of Rome. 637 00:42:20,660 --> 00:42:24,659 It was a Ghetto in 1555 and it lasted until 1870 638 00:42:25,140 --> 00:42:29,739 and it was established for the only purpose, to save Jewish souls. 639 00:42:30,140 --> 00:42:31,459 Who established it? 640 00:42:31,460 --> 00:42:34,219 The Pope Paul IV from the family of Caraffa. 641 00:42:34,220 --> 00:42:36,379 He decided that it was absurd 642 00:42:36,380 --> 00:42:38,699 and inconvenient that Jews and Christians 643 00:42:38,700 --> 00:42:42,139 were still living together after what the Jews had done to Christ. 644 00:42:42,140 --> 00:42:43,339 They killed Christ, 645 00:42:43,340 --> 00:42:47,059 so that for that they had to pay the price of not living with Christians? 646 00:42:47,060 --> 00:42:49,379 Yeah, because Christians could be contaminated by the Jews. 647 00:42:49,380 --> 00:42:52,099 Did they say that? Did they use language like that? 648 00:42:52,100 --> 00:42:56,099 Yeah. Contamination and so no inter-marriages was allowed, of 649 00:42:56,420 --> 00:42:59,779 course, and Jews could only get out from the ghetto at sunlight 650 00:42:59,780 --> 00:43:02,779 and come back at sunset. 651 00:43:02,780 --> 00:43:06,879 Churches encircled the Ghetto, reminding the perfidious Jews 652 00:43:07,300 --> 00:43:12,299 that if Judaism was what got them in here, conversion to Christianity 653 00:43:12,820 --> 00:43:15,139 was their only way out. 654 00:43:15,140 --> 00:43:18,179 And was the idea that we would just stay here forever, or what? 655 00:43:18,180 --> 00:43:22,179 The target, his target was converting Jews to save their 656 00:43:22,660 --> 00:43:26,859 souls, because a Jew is not baptised and no baptised souls go to hell. 657 00:43:27,340 --> 00:43:30,419 And so let's say that it was a good intention. 658 00:43:30,420 --> 00:43:32,699 And as a matter of fact, Jews were 659 00:43:32,700 --> 00:43:36,459 obliged to go every single Shabbat, which is a holiday for the Jews, 660 00:43:36,460 --> 00:43:40,459 to go inside churches to listen to the Holy Mass. 661 00:43:40,780 --> 00:43:42,059 And how were they made to go in to a church? 662 00:43:42,060 --> 00:43:47,059 There would be Vatican Guards that would beat them and it was control. 663 00:43:47,540 --> 00:43:50,979 Here in this central square there was a big gallows to hang people. 664 00:43:50,980 --> 00:43:52,139 It was terrorism. 665 00:43:52,140 --> 00:43:52,699 To hang Jews? 666 00:43:52,700 --> 00:43:54,779 Yeah, to hang Jews. 667 00:43:55,780 --> 00:43:59,459 Now a pleasant place to eat kosher cheesecake, the Ghetto 668 00:43:59,460 --> 00:44:03,459 lasted until 1870, when Italy's Jews were given full citizenship. 669 00:44:06,140 --> 00:44:10,099 But it was only in 1965 that the Catholic Church 670 00:44:10,100 --> 00:44:12,259 revised its official attitude. 671 00:44:12,260 --> 00:44:17,259 The Jews, it finally conceded, were not after all responsible 672 00:44:17,420 --> 00:44:20,419 for the death of Christ. 673 00:44:22,540 --> 00:44:26,539 TRANSLATOR: At an official level, the attitude has radically changed 674 00:44:26,700 --> 00:44:30,299 and in a positive way, positive. 675 00:44:30,300 --> 00:44:34,299 Racism and these phenomena of the rejection of the other might still 676 00:44:34,300 --> 00:44:36,499 occur, so for that reason we must 677 00:44:36,500 --> 00:44:42,499 always be very vigilant, because the problem hasn't been solved for good. 678 00:44:44,140 --> 00:44:48,139 I'm wondering how, for example, a Jew can ever read parts of 679 00:44:48,660 --> 00:44:52,659 the New Testament without feeling more than scandalised? I mean, when 680 00:44:52,940 --> 00:44:56,939 John talks about the Jews as devils, for example, the children of Satan. 681 00:44:59,380 --> 00:45:03,099 TRANSLATOR: The Gospel of John isn't an anti-Jewish Gospel. 682 00:45:03,100 --> 00:45:06,099 It is a Gospel that speaks about love. 683 00:45:06,100 --> 00:45:10,699 And from this vision of love one can understand, relativise, 684 00:45:10,900 --> 00:45:15,699 the meaning of these texts, but we certainly cannot touch 685 00:45:15,820 --> 00:45:19,819 what is for us the word of God. 686 00:45:21,180 --> 00:45:23,659 But God as interpreted by whom? 687 00:45:23,660 --> 00:45:29,659 In 2007, the new Pope, to a storm of Jewish protests around the world, 688 00:45:29,900 --> 00:45:31,859 revived an Ancient Latin prayer, 689 00:45:31,860 --> 00:45:34,939 calling for the conversion of the Jews. 690 00:45:34,940 --> 00:45:38,939 Despite the thaw in relations between the two religions, 691 00:45:39,180 --> 00:45:43,179 unredeemed Jews still trouble Christianity. 692 00:45:50,580 --> 00:45:54,579 The Holocaust cannot be called a Christian crime. 693 00:45:54,860 --> 00:45:58,859 Christians connived in it, but Christians suffered in it, too. 694 00:45:59,540 --> 00:46:03,539 The Holocaust was a crime against all humanity. 695 00:46:03,900 --> 00:46:07,899 But centuries of Christian vilification of Jews enabled it, 696 00:46:08,700 --> 00:46:12,899 clearing a path for irrational loathing in the hearts of men, 697 00:46:13,100 --> 00:46:16,339 burdening Jews with a mythic guilt 698 00:46:16,340 --> 00:46:20,099 it was almost a Christian duty to avenge. 699 00:46:20,100 --> 00:46:23,699 Make no mistake - for some Christians, 700 00:46:23,700 --> 00:46:26,699 the Holocaust was pay-back time. 701 00:46:30,220 --> 00:46:35,219 If the great resounding words of Christian promise, sacrifice, 702 00:46:35,460 --> 00:46:39,459 atonement, redemption, love are to mean anything, 703 00:46:40,380 --> 00:46:45,379 the 2,000 year wrong that culminated in the Holocaust must be redressed. 704 00:46:46,180 --> 00:46:50,179 Not in deed. I cannot conceive the deed that would do it. 705 00:46:50,700 --> 00:46:54,699 But as an act of the conscience and the mind. Acknowledge it. 706 00:46:54,820 --> 00:46:58,619 Acknowledge that this Jewish religion travestied for centuries 707 00:46:58,620 --> 00:47:02,619 is the foundation of all that you believe. 708 00:47:04,220 --> 00:47:07,139 Acknowledge it is Jewishness you are honouring 709 00:47:07,140 --> 00:47:14,139 whenever you speak Jesus' words or invoke the majesty of a Messiah. 710 00:47:25,100 --> 00:47:30,099 And then maybe Jews, for their part, can take back one of their own, 711 00:47:30,660 --> 00:47:37,659 and accept him as among the greatest of their teachers - Jesus the Jew. 712 00:48:12,420 --> 00:48:16,419 Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd