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his first followers faced while teaching his message. The story is told not from a religious angle per se, but is effectively presented in a historical, sociological, and humanistic manner by today's leading New Testament academics. Drawing on the latest, and often controversial, historical evidence and interviews, the documentary vividly transports the viewer back to the times of the Christians whose belief, conviction, and martyrdom would create the movement that would turn the Roman Empire upside down in the next three centuries. --Rob Bracco

FROM JESUS TO CHRIST: THE FIRST CHRISTIANS, explore the life of Jesus and the movement he started – challenging familiar assumptions and conventional notions about the origins of Christianity. The film traces Jesus’ life and focuses on the events that occurred after his death and on the men and women who were his first followers and whose belief, conviction, and martyrdom created a major movement that transformed the Roman Empire.

Reviews

"History is constantly changing as new information is brought to light and our environment allows us to see things differently. This series attempts to help us with the next step in understanding the forces evolved in creating the first Christians. I was very surprised to find so much new information presented in this series. My original intent was to see what Elaine Pagels [author of "The Gnostic Paul" ISBN 1563380390] looks and sounds like. I found a lot more treasure. Going beyond the institutionalized church of today we find some of the many elements that struggled to create the understanding we have today. I was not totally aware that the different time periods of the gospels and location was so significant. The second revolt of the Jews also known about was not emphasized as well as in this series. The real positive impact of the series is that it sets a foundation for further investigation. There are several drawbacks in the series, all to do with presentation. First it is a series of sound bites. Some nice scenery and inspirational music surrounds little 15 second question and answer interviews. The people that they interview contradict each other; this would be o.k. if they weren't mixed up together. One person says that there was no middle class just "Have's and have not's." Then a second person comes in and says that the meeting was attended by all the middle class and not represented by the upper class or the lower class farmers. The nature of what the people are thinking at the time is subject to the interpretation of the speaker with no supporting evidence (of course this may be due to the short time on the review.) In any event this will need repeated reviewing. Hopefully there will be an updated version with later findings. "

"History is constantly changing as new information is brought to light and our environment allows us to see things differently. This series attempts to help us with the next step in understanding the forces evolved in creating the first Christians. I was very surprised to find so much new information presented in this series. My original intent was to see what Elaine Pagels [author of "The Gnostic Paul" ISBN 1563380390] looks and sounds like. I found a lot more treasure. Going beyond the institutionalized church of today we find some of the many elements that struggled to create the understanding we have today. I was not totally aware that the different time periods of the gospels and location was so significant. The second revolt of the Jews also known about was not emphasized as well as in this series. The real positive impact of the series is that it sets a foundation for further investigation. There are several drawbacks in the series, all to do with presentation. First it is a series of sound bites. Some nice scenery and inspirational music surrounds little 15 second question and answer interviews. The people that they interview contradict each other; this would be o.k. of they weren't mixed up together. One person says that there was no middle class just "Have's and have not's." Then a second person comes in and says that the meeting was attended by all the middle class and not represented by the upper class or the lower class farmers. The nature of what the people are thinking at the time is subject to the interpretation of the speaker with no supporting evidence (of course this may be due to the short time on the review.) In any event this will need repeated reviewing. Hopefully there will be an updated version with later findings. "

"I can't say enough about this program. I recommend it to anyone who wants to learn the basics of the early church. I saw this program on television when it first aired, which also happened to be the same time I was going through RCIA. Since I am much better at learning things visually, I found this to be a great help to me as I learned about The Church. The historical background to the Jesus movement is fascinating. I also have found myself watching this program twice a year, at Christmas and again at Easter. Every time I watch it I take another nugget of information that I had forgotten. And unlike Jesus: The complete story, different sides of theological ideas are discussed without a conclusion being made for you. The only thing I didn't like (and maybe it's just because I've seen the program about a dozen times) was the haunting period music. But it obviously fits the program."

"The historical events of Paul and the archeological findings I found fascinating. Yet the series is lacking the true reflection of the so called, Jesus Movement. Based on traditions and rituals instead of based on Jesus' claim of who He is...one must remember that the resurrection defines the Christian faith. According to the film, the early Christians "told stories through oral tradition. These were not historically accounts, but shaped by a common past." Therefore, this film had a subtle way of disproving the relevancy of the biblical scriptures. This is definitely not a film that would convert someone to Christianity and I do not think the writer's intended to do so. A good discussion film. "

"this is a very good overview of Christanity. I help a person christian or not to understant the development of the Chistian religion."

"I purchased this DVD with great anticipation, expecting a first-rate documentary not unlike many others that PBS has produced (and for which I applaud PBS) in the past. However, I was disappointed at the lack of scholarship--the documentary is riddled with unsupported, if not problematic, speculations. It's Geraldo on tranquilizers--okay, maybe not that bad. The documentary tries deperately to exaggerate the significance of their relatively obscure (interesting, nonetheless) archaelogical finds by manufacturing fantastic hypotheses and scenarios surrounding the discoveries. The documentary expects its viewers to buy into their speculations using "expert" opinions as its primary source of authentication. One such example is how the producer (whose film credits include the great work of erudition "Julia!: America's Favorite Chef") submits a recent discovery of a Roman commerce center near Nazareth (hometown of Jesus) as an evidence(?) that Jesus was a man shaped by wealth and people skills he acquired by pandering to the upper crust of the Roman elite. The line of thinking goes something like this: 1) Roman civilization was magnificent; 2) in order to navigate through it, one learns to be savvy (there was wealth to be obtained only by savvy artisans/carpenters who learn how to hobnob with the rich and the powerful); 3) we recently found this Roman cultural/commerce center near Nazareth; 4) Jesus must have worked here, catering to the wealthy Romans 5) Therefore, he must have been wealthy and savvy with his Roman clients, both aspects of which helped him become a popular figure among the Jews. Hmmm.... This is just one of many problematic line of presentation in the documentary. An alternate description of the documentary could read: "The experts try to explain the 'phenomenon' of how a plain mortal called Jesus attained a status of deity (i.e., Christ) in the minds of the early believers." They basically attribute the rise of Christianity under Roman oppression to something of a "perfect storm" of all sorts of the sociopolitical factors. What about the oppression? -- well, according to these experts, the early Christians could not have been tortured that much because the Roman society was "civilized and tolerant." Also, they make statements like "there aren't as many Christian martyrs who were killed in stadiums as commonly believed..." without substantiating what the actual numbers might be. So be prepared to throw your history lessons out the window. And for unsubstantiated claims for which they could not find expert testimony, the producer tries to sneak them past the viewer (or cover them up) by using narration of a soothing voice while distracting the viewer with a majestic image of a religious relic or a picturesque landscape (e.g., "many experts believe that Jesus was actually born in Nazareth and not in Bethlehem"--this is all they say on the subject after a long drawn-out discussion on what year he may have been born). Stylistically, I found the pace of the documentary slow. I think the whole thing (4 hours!) could have been packaged into 2 hours because much of time is spent in background music. It was a chore getting to the end. I give the documentary two stars (I'm one of those people who have hard time believing people who give five stars to everything)--I'm being generous because as a student of history, I actually find the archaeological discoveries and many of the historical backgrounds interesting. I did not care for the speculations, however. The documentary tries to tout itself as a showcase of revolutionary discoveries that would cause its viewers (secular or religious) to rethink their understanding of Jesus, but on this topic I would stick to the wealth of established archaelogical/historical evidences that have been unearthed and archived by the actual experts and the scholars."

"Amazingly disappointing. The story of Jesus told by theologists, historians and archeologists who completely disregard the main source, which is the Bible, and play at guessing what must have been the most probable explanation for the birth of the Christian faith. See this, the Romans only killed Jesus, because he must have been a threat to the Roman authority. This is not what I read in the Bible and nevertheless they don't explain -or even mention- the Bible's story. No mention of Pharisees nor Saducees... It would make the video too long, right. We could have heard the words of Jesus himself narrated but no. And I thought He was the main character in this story. No recreation of facts. And all that is said in each chapter of this series occupies no more than 2 pages (double spece). Slow reading, boring lectures from the professors. "We know very little about His life"... sure, and what little we know you don't even want to tell us. Don't even let us hear His words. Jesus explained who He was and the purpose of His coming. But this video ignores it. Conclusion: They tried to trivialize Jesus, stripping Him of everything appealing that we know from the Bible and they reduced Him to an ordinary Joe. History does not prove much, I know that, but neither rules out the wonderful facts narrated in the Bible. So, in the end, this story comes to nothing. Just because they didn't want to bring the Bible to the table. There's no way of knowing the real thing if it's not through the Bible, buddies. At least they could have told us what the Bible says, if only as a theory; it would be more interesting. Don't forget to read the bible, whether you believe it or not, at least it has explanations and a lot of weighty substance. Lord, these intellectuals sure don't know what they are talking about. Forgive me for waisting my time. "

"I would like to commend this DVD as a must have for both believers and non-believers as a scholarly approach to the historical circumstances surrounding the development of Christianity. The DVD inspires a lot of thought and a desire to investigate further. The foundation of the content is sound and may I say, commendable. The way that the participants in this series follow through with their presentation was a breath of fresh air that was desperately needed. After investigating further I found out that what was covered in this DVD was only the tip of the iceburg and as a result, it has only vindicated what I have always felt in my whole life, that the institutionalized church has corrupted the faith of it's followers and has sought to supress any un-orthadox material. Maybe the ignorant masses need an institutionalized church so that they feel better about themselves but as for me, I can think for myself and after seeing this DVD and reading the Nag Hammadi library, it has strengthened my belief in Jesus for who he really was, the wisest teacher in history who took a scholarly approach to his teaching because he wanted us all to do our own thinking and not let any other institutions do the thinking for us. The teachings of Jesus and what he said are the keys to wisdom, Amen!"

""From Jesus to Christ- The First Christians" follows the growth of the early church from the death of Christ to the conversion of Constantine some three hundred years later. Changing attitudes about Jesus and Christianity, from both inside and outside the movement, are examined . Jesus' ministry and death are briefly examined, but in the context of a Jewish culture that was oppressed by Rome. This is not a faith based program, as the scholars do not debate the divinity of Christ. However, it was a fascinating look at the times in which Jesus lived, taught, and died. I especially enjoyed the information about the young church in Jerusalem. Looking at the facts surrounding the "Jesus Movement" only served to strengthen my faith."

"History is constantly changing as new information is brought to light and our environment allows us to see things differently. This series attempts to help us with the next step in understanding the forces evolved in creating the first Christians. I was very surprised to find so much new information presented in this series. My original intent was to see what Elaine Pagels [author of "The Gnostic Paul" ISBN 1563380390] looks and sounds like. I found a lot more treasure. Going beyond the institutionalized church of today we find some of the many elements that struggled to create the understanding we have today. I was not totally aware that the different time periods of the gospels and location was so significant. The second revolt of the Jews also known about was not emphasized as well as in this series. The real positive impact of the series is that it sets a foundation for further investigation. There are several drawbacks in the series, all to do with presentation. First it is a series of sound bites. Some nice scenery and inspirational music surrounds little 15 second question and answer interviews. The people that they interview contradict each other; this would be o.k. if they weren't mixed up together. One person says that there was no middle class just "Have's and have not's." Then a second person comes in and says that the meeting was attended by all the middle class and not represented by the upper class or the lower class farmers. The nature of what the people are thinking at the time is subject to the interpretation of the speaker with no supporting evidence (of course this may be due to the short time on the review.) In any event this will need repeated reviewing. Hopefully there will be an updated version with later findings. "

"When I first started watching this documentary, I found it so obnoxious and unrelievedly dull that I was discouraged from continuing. Here were a bunch of know-it-all scholars, all of whom seemed to slant to the left and viewed Christianity as an engaging myth and Christ as a sort of socio-political hero. (Just look at the title, whereby it implies that Jesus was just a village carpenter who was deified after his death.) But as I progressed to the later parts, including the one about the composition of the Gospels, my interest was captured and I learned quite a bit. Yes, this film is strictly from a historical/anthropological perspective, and I don't think any religious viewpoints are represented. But even a believing Christian of any denomination (I happen to be a Catholic) could learn something from this video. But I stand firm on the absolute DULLNESS and monotony of the background music. Some of the comments made on this page distress me, and I would like to react to a few of them. To the reviewer who commented on how the gospels reveal that "loving God there is no need of a church or clergymen". I would respond to him that one can read anything into the gospel that one wants to, and one can twist it to conform to one's own pre-existing ideology. It is in age-old church tradition, and not in new-fangled re-interpretations of Christianity, that the truth is to be found. To Ian Noble, who referred to those of us who object to certain elements of this film as "religious facatics": I would caution him against casually bandying about such a strong epithet. Those who hold to traditional beliefs regarding Jesus Christ are not "religious fanatics". Fundamentalists and those who "take the Bible literally" are not the only ones who will object to certain elements of this film. I am a Catholic, and I disagreed with it in points. And to Riad from Sacramento: Why is it that traditional church beliefs about Jesus are "filtered interpretations" of the Bible, whereas secular interpretations are not? Finally, I wish people would stop thinking that there is some "institutionalized Christian church". There is no such one church. There are different churches - the Catholic, the Orthodox, and the Protestant denominations."

"I thoroughly enjoyed this program and highly recommend it. I have watched this video no less than a dozen times. It is comprehensive and tells the story of how Christianity began and evolved. It is interesting to note that many of the "experts" are not Clergy. They are College Professors and researchers who have a unique insight into the factual and researched evidence that provide the basis for the Christian faith. This program presents facts in a perspective that coincides with the mindset in the times in which they took place. We figuratively travel back in time with some outstanding commentary and perspective from a bevy of well spoken, factually prepared intellectuals who not only tell the story itself but give perspective on the story tellers, what their interests were and also what was historically going on at that time. I found the perspectives given stregnthened my faith. I found this program devoid of an agenda and solely interested in telling a profound story that has transcended the ages. I recommend this program to anyone who is on a faith journed to understanding the roots of their faith. It will provide for compelling viewing."