Original subtitles

[wind whooshing]

[woman singing]

[dramatic music]

- The story of Jesus is the greatest story ever told.

♪

- Get out, you sinner!

- Where is he?

♪

male narrator: For over 2,000 years,

the story of Jesus Christ has touched the lives

of billions around the globe.

[whip cracks] - [screams]

- Jesus felt what we felt.

He faced what we face today.

♪

- If we want to understand Western history at all,

we must understand the story of Jesus.

narrator: Now, for the first time,

his story is told through the eyes

of those who knew him best.

- One of you will betray me.

- Judas' betrayal of Jesus

is one of the great mysteries of the New Testament.

- He has to be stopped.

- [grunts] - [grunts]

- Judas probably began asking himself,

"Is this the kind of messiah I want to follow?"

- He betrayed Jesus for reasons we don't understand.

- Do what you have to do, but do it quickly.

- I'm not sure that Judas fully realizes

the impact that this is going to have.

- Are you betraying the Son of man with a kiss?

- Every story needs a bad guy and he's it.

♪

♪

[soft dramatic music]

♪

- Lazarus, come out.

♪

[crowd gasps]

♪

- [sobs]

- Each of us grows up

hoping we can make our mark,

become something special.

- [laughs]

- Until Jesus came into my life,

I was a nobody.

But not now.

Now, the world will remember the name

Judas Iscariot forever.

♪

[all cheer]

- Lazarus lives!

- He lives.

- The raising of Lazarus from the dead

is the greatest miracle in Jesus' ministry bar none.

And it would've impressed and astonished

and even terrified his closest disciples,

including Judas Iscariot.

[indistinct chatter]

- Judas Iscariot is the symbol of betrayal.

♪

Even for people who don't know the biblical stories,

the name Judas means "traitor."

♪

[indistinct chatter]

[indistinct cheers]

- Get back, all of you. Get back.

- The reason why Judas decides to betray Jesus

is one of the biggest mysteries of the New Testament.

It's not a whodunit. We know who did it.

It's a why-done-it?

Why did Judas decide to give up Jesus?

♪

- I said, get back.

- We don't know a lot about Judas' relationship with Jesus.

He wasn't one of those disciples

that was mentioned all the time.

However, we do know that he spent a lot of time

with Jesus.

- Be careful, Lord.

- It's too late for that.

- No. These crowds are dangerous.

- This is nothing compared to the dangers I will soon face.

♪

- Judas was close to Jesus,

in his inner circle--

Jesus was good to him.

Yet, Judas overcome by darkness.

He betrayed Jesus for reasons we don't understand.

This makes Judas a compelling and mysterious character.

♪

- He was the best thing that ever happened to me.

♪

I was proud to call him friend.

- Ask, and it will be given you.

♪

Search,

and you will find.

- There's a possibility that Judas was a little different

than the rest of the disciples of Jesus.

Most of them came from the Galilee

where Jesus was from, but Judas' name, Iscariot,

appears to be a southern name, a Judean name.

- It might be that he's named after a town

because there is a town called Kerioth,

so maybe he comes from that town.

Judas "IsKerioth."

Or maybe--and this is the most

exciting sort of compelling theory--

there's a group of kind of trained assassins

in the first century called the Sicarii

from these daggers that they carry,

and maybe Iscariot comes from Sicarii,

so he's actually kind of one of these dagger men.

♪

- Judas actually has a job among the disciples of Jesus,

and he's their Treasurer,

and this would have been an important job

among a group that doesn't have a lot of money.

- Which seems to speak to a level of trust.

I mean, most people don't

entrust their banking situation

to people that are untrustworthy.

♪

- There's a moment in the Gospel of John

where Jesus is at Mary and Martha's house

and Mary comes up to Jesus

with a jar of ointment.

♪

- Mary begins anointing Jesus

as an act of gratitude because Jesus has resurrected

her brother, Lazarus, from the dead.

♪

- Mary brings out this Pistic Nard,

which was the ancient equivalent

of Chanel No. 5.

This is not cheap perfume.

- Why wasn't this perfume sold

and the money given to the poor?

- I thought that--

- That jar is worth a week's wage.

- Leave her alone.

Why do you trouble her? - Rabbi--

- She has performed a good service for me.

♪

- This rebuking by Jesus marks

a kind of turning point for Judas.

It's the first time we see him

actually in opposition to Jesus.

- I was only thinking of those who were less fortunate.

- You will always have the poor.

You can show them kindness whenever you wish.

You will not always have me.

♪

- Judas always had his mind

on the financial aspects of Jesus' ministry.

This was his job.

But Jesus yells at him for doing the responsible thing,

embarrassing him in front of the disciples--

maybe that was something that caused Judas

to think twice about his following Jesus.

♪

- I was convinced he couldn't see how much I cared.

I thought he was mocking me.

That's the only way I can explain it.

♪

- There's a lot of symbolism in Mary's anointing of Jesus.

The idea is that Mary sees Jesus

for who he is--the Messiah--

and there are some who argue that

Mary was actually foreshadowing

the preparation for Jesus' burial

while he was alive.

- So she understands and she's doing this act of service

for him and Jesus understands,

but Judas clearly doesn't.

- This actually is the beginning of the end

for Judas as a disciple

because he begins to part ways with Jesus' ways.

♪

[birds chirping]

♪

- What are your plans for Passover, Lord?

♪

- We will enter Jerusalem again.

- What, just march back in there?

After last time?

Am I the only one who cares for the rabbi's safety?

- Jesus was taking a huge risk.

Jerusalem, at the best of times,

is extremely fraught-- it's extremely dangerous.

And then, of course, Jesus knows that he's been

chased out of Jerusalem before for his teachings.

[dramatic music]

- It is not for your good work that we're going to stone you,

but for blasphemy.

[overlapping shouts]

- Jesus was coming into a lot of confrontation

with the Jewish authorities.

He was putting himself on a dangerous path

that might put him into confrontation

with the Roman authorities,

and that was a dangerous path that could get him killed.

♪

[birds chirping]

♪

- Although Jesus and his disciples

know that Jerusalem, especially on Passover,

is an incredibly dangerous place to be, they have to go.

If they're gonna continue preaching Jesus' message

of salvation and afterlife,

Jerusalem--the capital both politically and religiously--

is the only place that they can do it.

♪

- Go to the village over there and at once,

you will find a donkey tied there with her colt.

Untie them and bring them to me.

- Jesus absolutely knows what he's doing.

He's orchestrating this entire scene.

♪

He's going to get on the back of a donkey

and ride up into Jerusalem.

In fact, he's fulfilling a prophecy of Zechariah

that says, "See your King comes to you,

"righteous and victorious,

gentle and riding on a donkey."

Jesus is basically reenacting

the coronation of the ancient Kings of Israel.

[tense music]

♪

[indistinct chatter]

First century Jerusalem was essentially a powder keg.

Under Roman occupation and Roman oppression,

the Jews are looking for God

to save them from this present oppression.

♪

- The Jewish people do not like the Roman occupiers

and they're waiting for somebody to liberate them.

So when Jesus enters Jerusalem,

it's potentially a big bomb waiting to go off.

- Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.

Hosanna in the highest heaven.

- Jesus is coming to Jerusalem

to say the status quo is corrupt,

the current world is wrong,

and we need to change it now.

- Blessed is the coming kingdom

of our ancestor David.

I was convinced my destiny

was to stand at the right hand

of the King,

not to seal his fate.

♪

[crowd shouting] - Hosanna!

Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.

- By riding up into Jerusalem on a donkey,

Jesus is claiming to be the King of Israel,

and he's setting himself on a collision course--

both against the Jewish establishment

and the Roman authority.

- Hosanna in the highest. - Jesus, the miracle worker,

has now become the political and religious agitator.

♪

- Hosanna!

♪

- They're heading for the temple.

I want reinforcements sent there now.

- Malchus is described as the servant of the high priest,

somebody who was involved with security.

The concern for the authorities is that

Jesus is getting a huge hearing.

There are many crowds who are very excited

about this charismatic prophet.

- [ululating]

- Jerusalem probably had about

50,000 permanent residents,

and one estimate is it was tenfold bigger

at Passover-- a half million people.

♪

- A crowd can revolt. A crowd can be dangerous.

So, the Romans are very nervous about what Jesus is doing.

♪

- In the First Century AD,

Jewish religion was based around worship in the temple.

And as a Jew, if you were in the area,

you were expected to go to the temple in Jerusalem

at least once a year.

♪

- To venture near the temple

is to go to the center of the world,

the center of the universe,

and to actually approach God himself.

♪

- At the heart of the practice of Judaism

was the sacrifice of animals

at the Jewish temple.

- There are tables or booths that are set up

for money changers.

People are coming from all over the empire

in order to have sacrifices performed for them.

And they're bringing their money.

- You had to pay in Jewish currency

because Roman money had the image of the emperor in it,

which was idolatrous for Jews.

So you had to change the money.

♪

- Everybody's in this together--

the money changers,

the people selling the animals,

and the priesthood are all making a little bit of money.

This makes Jesus angry.

♪

- This place should be a house of prayer for all nations.

♪

You have made it a den of robbers!

- [yelps] [trays clattering]

Get out! Get out!

All of you, out!

Get out! Get out!

- Jesus causes a huge ruckus, a riot...

- You! Out!

- Something that was very, very dangerous

in this particular setting.

- [shouts] You sinner!

- Rabbi! This way, Lord.

♪

- It's hard to tell what Judas would have thought.

He probably began asking himself,

"I liked his message when it was about forgiveness

"and peace and love, but now this guy

"is about to become public enemy number one.

Is this the king of messiah I want to follow?"

♪

- Jesus' anger with the money changers

is really an expression of

his disgust for Caiaphas,

the High Priest growing fat and rich from Roman favor

and the money of honest Jewish pilgrims.

♪

Once can talk about Caiaphas

with understanding if not sympathy.

There were constant riots, rebellions,

which were all brutally put down

by the Romans with massive loss of life.

- He drove the merchants from the temple.

- So, Caiaphas was really just trying to save lives

by preventing a new outbreak

of instability in Jerusalem.

- It'll look to the Romans that

we can't control our own people.

- Caiaphas' big fear is that

Jesus is gonna spark some sort of rebellion.

- This troublemaker of a king has to be stopped.

♪

- Caiaphas would probably be sacked,

but at its worst,

it could lead to the suppression

of the entire practice of Judaism by the Romans.

- Jesus is now in the cross-hairs of Caiaphas.

This means that Jesus has to be dealt with

immediately and severely.

♪

- I need to see Caiaphas now.

Please. Just let me pass.

♪

- Judas' betrayal of Jesus

is one of the great mysteries of the New Testament.

♪

- I think Judas saw Jesus

as not what he had hoped a messiah would be

and he was deeply disappointed and disillusioned.

♪

- It's about Jesus.

- As the Gospels are written,

different explanations are given

as for why Judas betrayed Jesus.

Remember, Mark just simply says,

"Judas sought out to betray Jesus."

Luke actually says that Satan entered into Judas

and that's why he did it.

John just calls Judas the devil.

♪

But the best reason is probably,

Jesus wasn't the kind of messiah

that Judas was looking for.

♪

- I can imagine when Judas went to the High Priest,

he was torn and confused.

I don't think he realized the magnitude

of what he was about to do.

♪

- I think a lot of people lose sight

of the human side of Judas.

They just see him as the evil guy wearing the black hat.

But Judas was actually wrestling

with a difficult decision.

He wasn't sure. He had doubts.

- [clears throat]

Can I ask why you have come to us?

- He has to be stopped.

- You must look for an opportunity

to hand him over-- somewhere quiet.

♪

This is for your efforts.

♪

- According to the Gospel of Matthew,

Judas receives 30 pieces of silver.

Now, it depends on whether these are

denarii or shekels.

So it's either going to be one month's wages

or four month's wages, but either way,

this is a significant amount of money

to just give Caiaphas

the time and date and the location

of where Jesus is going to be.

♪

[indistinct chatter]

♪

- In itself, it would not have been enough

to motivate Judas to betray Jesus,

but when you add it

to all of the things that Judas was now objecting to

about Jesus,

this was just enough to push him over the top.

♪

- I'm not sure that Judas fully understands

e impact that this is going to have.

I'm not sure that he's fully wrapped his mind around the

eternal import of his decision to betray Jesus.

♪

♪

[indistinct chatter]

- The last meal that Jesus had with his disciples

is a celebration of the Jewish Passover.

♪

- The Passover festival gets its name

from the story in the Book of Exodus,

where God literally passes over the entirety

of the land of Egypt to slay the firstborn sons

of the Egyptians.

He doesn't slay the firstborn of the Jewish households

because Jews have slaughtered a lamb,

taken the blood from the lamb to put on their doorposts

as a sign that they are Jewish households.

♪

- The scene at the Last Supper was remarkable.

There was so much love in that room,

and yet, at the same time, you have in that same room

the disciple that would betray Jesus.

♪

- You're very quiet, friend.

- Am I?

♪

- This Last Supper was an incredibly

awkward moment for Judas.

He knows that he's betrayed Jesus,

but he's not sure if Jesus is aware of this.

[soft dramatic music]

- I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you...

♪

Before I suffer.

♪

I will not eat again until the fulfillment

of the kingdom of God.

♪

- Jesus starts talking about his death,

and this is confusing to the disciples.

♪

- This is my body...

♪

Which is given for you.

♪

Do this in memory of me.

Take it and eat it.

♪

- Essentially, Jesus is taking a well-known

Jewish tradition, the Passover meal,

and he's adding to it

new meaning, and he's saying,

"This isn't just the bread that's broken at Passover.

This is my body, which is broken for you."

♪

- This is the blood of my covenant...

♪

Which is poured out for many.

- "This isn't just the wine that is drunk during Passover.

This is my blood, which is shed for you."

We see this is a point of separation

between Judaism and Christianity

where Jews continue to celebrate the Passover

and Christians now will celebrate the Eucharist,

or the Holy Communion, and this becomes

one of the essential elements of Christianity.

[tense music]

- I have no doubt the disciples

couldn't take it all in,

but they knew it was serious,

and that it looked like Jesus was headed for a fate

they had not anticipated.

And the Last Supper becomes all the more somber.

♪

- One of you will betray me...

♪

One who is eating here.

♪

- Which of us is the traitor, Lord?

[indistinct whispering]

♪

- It is the one to whom I give this piece of bread...

[bread rips]

When I have dipped it in the dish.

♪

- Surely, you don't mean me?

- When Jesus singles out Judas,

and hands Judas that piece of bread,

that must have been a gut-wrenching feeling

for Judas.

♪

- Do what you have to do...

♪

But do it quickly.

♪

- And suddenly, Judas is gone.

So at some point during the meal,

Judas was so scared or embarrassed

that he just slipped away into the night.

[soft dramatic music]

- Maybe the disciples thought,

"Well, he's going out to do something

Jesus wanted him to do."

I don't think any of them thought that

what he's really going to do is go and betray Jesus.

- Jesus' calling out of Judas show either one of two things--

either his divine knowledge

of everything that is going to happen,

or his simple human intuition.

Jesus knows what Judas is going to do

because Jesus knows Judas so well.

♪

- If he knew what I was about to do,

why didn't he stop me?

But then again, why should he?

It was my choice to carry out this crime

against everything I believed in.

It was the coward you see now

that committed the ultimate sin against him.

♪

- I think Judas may even have thought,

"Jesus must want me to do this.

Jesus has a death wish."

♪

- It's time.

♪

♪

- After the last supper,

Jesus takes his disciples

out of the security of the confines

of the walls of Jerusalem, across the valley

to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray.

He did this a lot, and Judas knows this.

♪

- Gethsemane itself means "oil press,"

and so we probably are talking about

a vineyard which grows olives.

♪

- My Father...

♪

If it is possible, let this cup of suffering

be taken away from me.

- In the Garden of Gethsemane,

Jesus seems to be going through real anguish.

He's pleading with God.

He sees what is coming

and he is traumatized by the possibility

of this impending suffering and death.

♪

- But if it is your will, then let it be done...

♪

Not mine.

- It is clear that he doesn't want to die,

but eventually he understands that

this is his Father's will, and he accepts it.

[dramatic music]

♪

- A group of the High Priest's servants and temple guards

are sent to arrest Jesus.

This includes Malchus.

♪

Jesus was very popular

and Caiaphas was reluctant

to arrest Jesus publicly.

What Judas could offer Caiaphas

is knowledge about where Jesus would be

in private.

- You ready for this?

- The one I kiss is the man.

- Many early Christians

greeted one another with a holy kiss.

This is something that has been initiated

throughout Jesus' ministry by Jesus himself.

- Rabbi?

♪

- Judas!

- [panting]

Are you betraying the Son of man with a kiss?

♪

Do what you came for, friend.

♪

- Arrest him.

- When it dawns on Peter that

what's going on is a betrayal...

- [grunts] - [groans]

- He takes violent action against Malchus.

- Put your sword back in its place,

for all who draw the sword will die by it.

♪

- After Peter cuts the ear of Malchus,

Jesus heals the damage.

- [grunts, pants]

♪

- Jesus was committed to a ministry of non-violence,

and he certainly doesn't want

the climax of his Earthly ministry to be marred

by a violation of his basic ethical principles.

♪

- Take them all.

Take them all!

♪

- Go.

♪

- With that bitter kiss,

I tore down everything

he gave his all to build.

♪

- Where do you think you're going?

- I'm part of this.

- Your job here is done, informer.

♪

- Jesus is fully human and fully divine,

but the fully human part-- the man--

would have felt deeply betrayed by one of his closest friends,

one of the 12 apostles, betraying him in this way.

[soft dramatic music]

♪

[handcuffs clinking]

- This is the moment that's been building for so long.

Jesus meets Caiaphas for the first time...

♪

An innocent man meets the man who's trying

to defend Judaism and the Jewish faith

against what he believes to be a rabble rouser.

♪

- I do think that Judas,

when he began to realize what he had done,

deeply regretted it.

- There were ideas in the Jewish circles that

the Messiah was gonna be a military leader.

He was gonna lead the Jews to freedom from their oppressors.

So if this was the case, maybe Judas thought that

that moment of Jesus stand before Caiaphas,

that Jesus would have the opportunity to be that Messiah,

to come and to show his power.

♪

- This is the man who has caused me so much trouble

with his marauding and his miracles.

- [laughs softly]

- Smile all you like,

but I will prove you are no messiah.

♪

- There is a real battle that's gonna take place

and the big question is,

is justice going to be shown to Jesus?

♪

- I realized how desperate they were to silence him,

and how I had played right into the High Priest's hands.

♪

♪

- Lord, what have I done?

To carry out such treachery

against the man I loved above all others...

♪

- Thank you for coming at such short notice.

♪

- Caiaphas calls together the Sanhedrin.

Sanhedrin simply means "council."

This is a group of important people in Jerusalem

that Caiaphas has brought together

in order to judge Jesus.

♪

- Do you recognize this man?

- Yes.

I saw him at the temple.

- Doing what?

- Driving pilgrims out into the streets.

♪

- There are all sorts of peculiarities

about the Sanhedrin trial.

It's taking place in the middle of the night.

It's taking place on a holy day.

You have false witnesses involved.

Under Jewish law, this is all illegal.

♪

- Did he make any claims to his followers?

- He said

he was able to destroy the Temple of God

and rebuild it in three days.

♪

- One of the responsibilities of the Sanhedrin

is to address problems of blasphemy

and sedition,

questions of whether or not somebody is being a good Jew

both in terms of their ritual conduct,

but also their social conduct.

- Are you not going to answer these accusations?

♪

What is this testimony

that these witnesses are bringing against you?

♪

I charge you.

Tell us you are the Messiah,

the Son of God.

♪

- This is a key moment in the trial

as far as Caiaphas is concerned.

He's making Jesus claim divine authority,

setting himself up way above the priests

as high an authority as God himself.

It's kind of worse than blasphemy.

- [laughs softly]

You have said so.

♪

But I say to all of you:

from now on, you will see the Son of man

sitting at the right hand of the mighty one

on the clouds of heaven.

♪

- Jesus is claiming that he's going to be sitting

at the right hand of God,

to have authority above not only Caiaphas,

but equal with God,

and this, to Caiaphas, is blasphemy,

and punishable by death.

♪

- The irony is that Jesus turns the tables

on the High Priest and says, you think you're judging me.

I'll be back to judge you.

♪

- What about the rest of you?

♪

What do you think this...

"messiah" deserves?

♪

- He is worthy of death.

♪

- Judas expected that

the authorities would treat Jesus fairly--

not a kangaroo court.

- Is that the opinion of you all?

You.

♪

You.

♪

- Most of the Sanhedrin will back Caiaphas.

They're opposed to Jesus.

But there are these two--

Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus.

And they're not followers of Jesus,

but they're curious about him.

- Nicodemus,

do you agree?

- The question is,

do they have the courage to stand up against Caiaphas

and say, "No, we're not ready

to pass judgment against a potentially innocent man"?

♪

- Joseph?

♪

Then it is decided.

Take the prisoner Jesus away.

♪

- Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus

have caved in to pressure,

voting along with the rest of the Sanhedrin

and they find Jesus guilty.

♪

- Judas is distraught.

This is not the end that he was hoping for.

♪

- Judas was trying to throw Jesus into the deep end

and trying to force Jesus' hand to see what we would do,

but of course, that backfired.

♪

- Judas probably thought maybe Jesus would even

perform some great miracle or something like that,

but Jesus appears humble, shamed,

and Judas is horrified by the spectacle.

- [grunts]

[handcuffs clinking]

- [panting]

- One of the problems with the trial of Jesus is that

because the Gospels depict the Jewish authorities

as holding what is essentially an illegal trial

in order to condemn Jesus,

it makes the Jews, and therefore,

the Jewish people throughout history

look like awful people.

♪

- The presentations of Judas in the Gospels

have fed into anti-Semitism because what's happened is that

Judas has been seen as a kind of stand-in

for the Jewish people,

but the Jewish people were not responsible--

either then or today-- for Jesus' death.

♪

- I finally understood my true legacy.

I was the man

who handed Jesus over to his executioners.

♪

Lord, what have I done?

♪

[overlapping chatter in foreign language]

- I never thought it would end like this.

There was a time when it felt like

nothing could stop us--

until some evil seed

sprouted into my mind

that made me doubt his every word.

♪

Caiaphas?

♪

Caiaphas!

- In one gospel account, you do have

Judas, at the end,

wanting to give back the money...

- Let him approach.

- Recognizing that he was complicit

in setting up an innocent man.

♪

- I have sinned,

for I have betrayed innocent blood.

♪

- What is that to us? That is your responsibility.

♪

I don't want your blood money.

♪

Do you hear me? I don't want your blood money.

♪

Hey, do you hear me?

I don't want it! Caiaphas--no!

Get off me! Hey!

I don't want your blood money!

Caiaphas! Come back here!

I don't want it! I don't want it!

- After the deed is done

and after he can't return the money,

rather than seek forgiveness, rather than seek atonement,

Judas is probably overwhelmed by guilt.

[indistinct chatter]

♪

- Was I born like this?

A weak-minded

treacherous coward?

Or did I let Satan somehow creep into my soul?

♪

- It's the age-old question-- the question of fault.

Was it Judas' fault that he did what he did?

Well, the reality is,

we as human beings have free will.

♪

- The story of Judas shows us

the battle between good and evil.

Here is someone, who after all,

was chosen by Jesus to be one of the apostles,

so there's clearly some good in him.

But then at the end, he turns towards choosing evil.

So there's this great sense of a battle going on within Judas

throughout the Gospels.

♪

- I think what's fascinating about Judas is that

we never really get a handle on his motivation--

makes him really compelling.

I think people want to understand it,

or maybe he's just a bad guy too,

and people also need a villain.

♪

- In an honor and shame culture,

it's better to die

than to live publicly with the shame

of having done the wrong thing to a great person.

♪

- I wish I could

go back to those precious months

when I first knew Jesus--

praying together,

spreading his word.

[all cheering]

But not now.

I'm destined for a darker place.

God will never forgive the crime I have committed

against his beloved Son.

♪

- The New Testament actually gives us

two separate accounts of Judas' death.

In the Gospel of Matthew,

he tragically commits suicide by hanging himself,

whereas in the Book of Acts, he goes into a field,

falls over, and his guts burst open.

- Judas presents us

with a huge theological conundrum,

and that is that without the actions of Judas,

Jesus doesn't get handed over

to the Romans to be executed.

So if Judas hadn't done what he did,

we wouldn't have the story

of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus,

which is the centerpiece of the Christian faith.

♪

- High Priest Caiaphas here with the prisoner Jesus

to see Prefect Pilate.

♪

You gave me no choice.

♪

You brought this on yourself.

♪

[woman vocalizing]

♪

[dramatic music]

- The story of Jesus is the greatest story ever told.

♪

- Get out!

You sinner!

- Where is he?

♪

male narrator: For over 2,000 years,

the story of Jesus Christ has touched the lives

of billions around the globe.

[whip cracks] - [screams]

- Jesus felt what we felt.

He faced what we face today.

♪

- If we want to understand Western history at all,

we must understand the story of Jesus.

narrator: Now, for the first time,

his story is told through the eyes

of those who knew him best.

- Pilate was a pretty tough, hard-bitten political player.

He had to be.

- Are you the King of the Jews?

♪

[all screaming]

- He needs to stop any uprising before it starts.

- I have the power to free you or to crucify you.

- Is this person a threat to Roman stability?

- Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.

- Pilate is looking for any way out of the situation.

- I am innocent of this man's blood.

[dramatic music]

♪

[dramatic music]

♪

- I hate this place.

Once, I wanted to make a name for myself.

♪

[horse whinnies]

Now I just want to scrub the place from my skin.

[overlapping chatter]

- Clear!

- Every year, they test my patience.

- Pontius Pilate was the prefect,

that is, the Roman military governor

in the province of Judea, from 26 to 36 A.D.

♪

- He's famous for one thing:

he's the man in charge during the execution of Jesus.

♪

- Every Passover, this gets worse.

- It won't be for long.

♪

- Pilate has a wife.

We don't know her name from the Gospels,

but later tradition fills it in as Claudia Procula.

- Press on.

Get them out of the way!

♪

- Pilate's come from

the lowest level of Roman nobility,

and he probably clawed his way up the Roman army,

fighting barbarians in distant corners of the empire.

And now he'd been sent out

to a backwater far from Rome, Judea.

♪

- We know from history that Pontius Pilate would have

arrived in Jerusalem right on the eve of Passover.

Passover is the single worst time

to be a Roman governor in the entire year.

Not only do you have 500,000 pilgrims coming into the city,

but you also have a festival whose whole purpose

is about God liberating the Jewish people

from oppressive, tyrannical rule,

and the Romans are in charge.

Everybody is celebrating liberation

and yet not being free.

Everything's on a knife's edge,

and if there's one false move, the city could explode.

♪

- Pilate despises Jerusalem.

Pilate lives over in Caesarea Maritima

on the Mediterranean.

Pilate only goes to Jerusalem

when he absolutely has to during festival times.

♪

Pilate has an important role behind the scenes

during the Passover festival.

He works closely with Caiaphas, the high priest,

to make sure that there's no unrest.

♪

- Caiaphas is the high priest of the Jews,

and so not only is he the religious leader of the people,

but next to Pilate,

he's the most important political leader as well.

- You will want your ceremonial robes?

- Yes.

♪

- One of the reasons why Pilate

comes into the crowded city of Jerusalem at Passover

has to do with the fact that he holds onto the ceremonial robes

that Caiaphas needs to wear at the temple for the ceremonies.

♪

- That, that they hold

the ceremonial robes of the priests hostage,

suggests what they're telling Caiaphas is essentially,

"Look, you can have all the local autonomy you want,

"but at the end of the day,

"if you don't actually make the right decision,

"something might happen to your robes

or they won't be there for when you need them."

♪

- Is there anything I need to know about?

- Uh, no, I'm not expecting any trouble, Prefect.

♪

- Pilate and Caiaphas don't really like each other.

They don't get along,

but they know that they have to work together.

♪

- Why answer with that?

Of course he was expecting trouble.

♪

[knock at door]

♪

- When Pilate is awoken in the middle of the night

at the height of Passover by a messenger from Caiaphas,

I imagine Pilate's heart sunk with a sense of foreboding.

♪

- Every festival, they drag their troubles to my door.

♪

Who is he?

- His name is Jesus of Nazareth.

♪

- Caiaphas wants Pilate to deal with Jesus

because Jesus was popular among the people

and Caiaphas doesn't want to be seen

as the one who is taking care of Jesus.

He wants to pass that off to the Romans.

♪

- What accusation do you bring against this man?

- This man has been perverting our nation,

forbidding our people paying taxes to the emperor,

and calling himself the Messiah...

♪

A king.

♪

- Let me speak with him.

♪

Are you the King of the Jews?

♪

- Is this person a threat to Roman stability?

That's what's behind his question that he asks him.

He needs to know, is this person gonna be trouble?

♪

- This is the crime of sedition.

There is no king but the emperor.

♪

- You say so.

♪

- I need you both to hold your nerve.

Jesus is one man weighed against the safety of many.

- Caiaphas seems to be genuinely concerned

that if Jesus has a following,

perhaps he'll stage a rebellion,

and if that happens,

there will be massive bloodshed.

♪

- He stirs up the people of Judea with his teaching.

He started in Galilee,

and now he has come all the way here.

♪

- Take him yourselves and judge him by your own laws.

♪

- Initially, it seems like Pilate doesn't want

to get involved in the trial of Jesus

because he has transgressed Jewish law,

and so he wants the Jewish leaders

to take responsibility for it.

- But we have no right to execute anyone.

♪

- Execute him?

Why was Caiaphas even pushing for that?

♪

- The Jewish authorities couldn't legally condemn

anybody to death for any crime without the assistance,

permission, or direct action of Pontius Pilate.

♪

- Why did they want him dead?

What was I missing?

♪

- Leave him with me.

♪

- Pontius Pilate is one

of the few figures from early Christian history

that we know about from outside of the Bible.

♪

- There's definitely a contrast between

the Pilate of the Gospels and the Pilate of history.

The Pilate of the Gospels:

weak, vacillating, conflicted, tormented.

The Pilate of history: ruthless and merciless.

[people shouting indistinctly]

[people screaming]

- Historically, Pilate was not the sort of person

who would shy away from violence.

He was an unrestrained sadist, a vicious, petty tyrant.

[people screaming]

- At one point early in Pilate's career,

Pilate brutally crushes the protest

over an aqueduct that he was building.

[people screaming]

There are a lot of deaths, there's a lot of injuries,

and Pilate's trying to show to the Jewish people,

"I'm the one in charge."

♪

- The Pilate that we know from history was decisive,

but the Pilate of the Gospels is different,

is someone who's not quite sure of his own authority,

who wavers a little,

who doesn't want to take full responsibility

for the events around Jesus' death.

♪

- The original account of the trial of Jesus

is really based on the Gospels,

and the Gospels were written 40, 50, 70 years

after the death of Jesus Christ,

and they were written

partly to show loyalty to the Roman Empire

to blame the Jews for the death of Jesus.

♪

This was to enable the conversion of Romans

to the new religion, Christianity.

♪

The trial of Jesus by Pilate, as told in the Gospels,

doesn't really reflect

the historical political realities,

and it doesn't reflect the power of the Roman prefect.

- Are you the King of the Jews?

♪

♪

- In all four Gospels,

Pilate summons Jesus to repeat the key charge against him.

♪

- Are you the King of the Jews?

♪

- Is that your thinking?

- Anyone who claimed to be king

would have been in direct contradiction

to the authority of Caesar,

which Pilate had sworn to uphold.

♪

- Your own people and chief priests

have handed you over to me.

- In no way is this a normal trial.

There's no procedure here.

There's no witnesses.

There's no judge other than the prefect

talking to a potential revolutionary.

This is all very strange.

♪

- In the Gospels' telling of the story,

it seems that Pilate is overwhelmingly anxious

to find out whether Jesus is actually guilty or innocent.

♪

- They want him dead.

For what?

♪

What have you done?

♪

- My kingdom is not of this world.

♪

If it were, my servants would fight

to prevent me being handed over to our leaders.

♪

And now my kingdom is from another place.

♪

- He's signaling to Pilate, "I'm no threat to you.

I'm no political or military threat to you."

His kingdom is not like ordinary human kingdoms.

He's not going to tax the people.

He's not going to raise an army.

- Your kingdom.

Then you are a king.

- You say that I am a king.

♪

For this, I was born.

For this, I came into the world...

♪

To testify to the truth.

♪

Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.

♪

- What is truth?

- When Pilate asks Jesus this famous line, "What is truth?"

he is being perfectly ironic

because here is Pilate sitting as judge, jury, executioner,

managing this whole bizarre criminal trial.

Truth should be the one thing he cares about.

♪

- While Jesus has been in custody,

something extraordinary happens.

Pilate's wife has a dream, a very, very troubling dream.

♪

- [shuddered breathing]

[foreboding music]

♪

[hammer rings]

- [screaming]

[whispers] Our Father in Heaven.

♪

- [gasps]

[breathing heavily]

- Romans take dreams seriously.

♪

- Dreams and omens were really important

in the way that Romans understood the gods

trying to communicate with them.

♪

- Take him away.

♪

I could not see what Caiaphas feared from this man.

If anything, Jesus was passive, quiet.

♪

- Do not have anything to do with that innocent man.

I have suffered today in a dream because of him.

♪

- The Pilate in the Gospels

was already reluctant to get involved in Jesus' trial,

and so this information from his wife, this dream,

would have just fueled, fueled the flames of his reluctance.

[dramatic music]

♪

- There was ill omen about Jesus.

♪

I wanted no part of this.

♪

- As Jesus' trial progresses in the Gospels,

the overwhelming impression we get of Pilate

is that he's deeply frustrated,

he doesn't want to be involved in this,

he just wants this to go away,

and he wants nothing to do with it.

♪

- You say this man is Galilean?

- He is from Galilee.

- Good.

Then this is a matter for Herod Antipas.

♪

- Pilate is looking for any way out of the situation,

so when he hears that Jesus is from Nazareth in Galilee,

well, if you're Herod's race, you're Herod's case.

Off you go then to Herod Antipas.

♪

Pilate knows how to pass the buck

and send the hot potato

to somebody else to make a hard choice.

♪

- Herod Antipas is the son of King Herod the Great

and the ruler of Galilee.

♪

- [groans]

- He's the one who had executed John the Baptist,

and he also always came to Jerusalem for Passover.

- Miracle worker. [scoffs]

At last!

- Herod Antipas is very glad to see Jesus.

♪

Unfortunately for Herod Antipas,

the meeting with Jesus

doesn't unfold as he would have liked

because Jesus is simply not very forthcoming.

♪

- They call you King of the Jews,

don't they?

♪

- Antipas was a hated figure.

Jesus, for one, had great contempt for him.

He called him "that fox, Herod Antipas."

♪

- But you won't stoop to speak to your subjects, King?

Very well.

♪

- Herod put a royal robe on Jesus.

This is an honor-and-shame culture,

so if you think someone

is a clown or a pretender or an imposter,

you would mock them or demean them or shame them.

Perhaps Herod thought this was a sufficient shaming

to keep Jesus from making bold claims again.

♪

- Antipas concludes that Jesus isn't worthy of death.

Ultimately, Antipas simply sends him back to Pilate.

♪

[dramatic music swells]

♪

- Pontius Pilate's in a tough spot.

He doesn't really want to make a decision,

and that's actually his job, power over life and death.

♪

[ominous music]

♪

- With all of this to and fro,

Jesus is becoming like a political football.

Nobody wants to take responsibility

for making the decision.

♪

- You brought me this man

as one who has perverted the people,

and here I have examined him and have not found him guilty.

Neither has Herod, for he sent him back to us.

Indeed...

♪

He has done nothing to deserve death.

♪

- The crime which would

most readily lead to execution is being a revolutionary,

leading a revolt of slaves like Spartacus,

or claiming to be a king directly yourself,

so some serious military threat.

Does Pilate really think

that Jesus is providing that kind of threat to himself?

No, I don't think he does.

♪

- Crucify him.

♪

- The portrayal of Caiaphas in the Scriptures

has created a template for antisemitism

throughout the ages.

It's actually naive to regard Caiaphas

as a terribly evil character.

I think, in many ways, he just wanted to save lives.

He knew what happens when you confront Rome in any way.

♪

- Only the Roman prefect can order someone to be crucified,

but Pilate has to be really careful.

If he crucifies an innocent man,

one who has a popular following,

then he might face a rebellion as a result.

♪

- Caiaphas meant to force my hand.

I am not to be pushed around.

It is your custom for me

to release one prisoner at the time of the Passover.

♪

Fetch me Barabbas!

♪

I would use their custom to settle their dispute.

♪

- According to the Gospel of Luke,

Barabbas is a violent revolutionary.

I mean, he's killed people,

and he was locked up sometime earlier during Passover week.

♪

[overlapping chatter]

♪

Pilate knows what Caiaphas wants.

Caiaphas wants Jesus dead...

[people shouting indistinctly]

But he's not sure how popular Jesus really is.

So Pilate devises a plan to see,

"If I were to execute Jesus, would anybody really protest?"

- You want me to release the King of the Jews...

[people groaning]

Or Barabbas?

[people shouting]

- Barabbas! - Barabbas!

- Barabbas! - Barabbas!

[people shouting indistinctly]

♪

- Barabbas! - Barabbas!

- In the Gospels,

when Pilate presents Barabbas and Jesus to the crowd,

it's a kind of unfair choice because Jesus' disciples,

his supporters, have all scattered,

and so there's no one there left

to yell, "Jesus, give us Jesus!"

- Not Jesus! Give us Barabbas!

all: Barabbas!

- Barabbas!

[all chanting] Barabbas! Barabbas!

- One theory would be

that the crowd that clamors for Barabbas

were stirred up by the religious authorities.

But another theory would be

there were enough people in Jerusalem

that would rather see a violent revolutionary

like Barabbas released.

- Barabbas!

[people shouting]

- Release Barabbas.

- Barabbas!

[people shouting]

- Historically, there's no way that Pilate would give

the people of Jerusalem the choice and release

a dangerous political insurgent into their midst.

[people shouting]

- The custom of releasing a prisoner

because of the Passover

doesn't appear in other sources.

But the story of Barabbas serves

as an incredibly important function for the Gospel writers

because what it does is, it allows them to blame

all of the Jewish people for the crucifixion of Jesus.

It's not just Caiaphas. It's not just the priests.

It's all of the Jewish people who choose Jesus,

not Barabbas, for crucifixion.

It also conveniently exonerates the Romans.

[people shouting]

♪

- To execute him would not then meet with much outrage.

I have killed before

as soldier and statesman.

They should see I am not afraid to shed blood.

♪

- When the crowd choose Barabbas over Jesus,

Pilate knows that there's not a lot of support for Jesus.

He can get away with punishing Jesus

without there being a major uprising.

[people shouting]

- Flog him!

♪

[whip cracks] - [screams]

- Pilate has Jesus flogged because it was part and parcel

of the punishment of crucifixion.

It had to happen.

[whip cracks] - [screams]

- They are flogging with a cat-o'-nine-tails.

It's a torture device, in effect,

which is not just one strip.

Could be 16, could be as many as 32

different strips of leather that are heavy,

and on the end of them,

as if that weren't already enough to tear open

the skin and expose the veins and the sinews,

there are little metal hooks.

[whip cracks] - [screams]

- It would have actually

ripped chunks of flesh out from the individual.

It was unthinkably, unspeakably brutal.

♪

- [laughs]

[laughter]

- When the soldiers mock Jesus with the red cloak,

put a crown on him...

- [grunts]

- Hail, King of the Jews.

[laughter]

- They're mimicking the celebration

in a Roman triumph of a Roman imperator commander

traveling in his chariot through Rome.

♪

- The way the New Testament Gospels tell the story,

Jesus is reconciled to his fate,

and that fate includes torture and death on a cross.

There was no escaping it.

It was part of his mission, and he accepted it.

[laughter]

- This is the theater of crucifixion...

- [gasping]

- That reminds everyone of the danger of being disruptive,

of the danger of pushing against the kingdom of Caesar,

of the danger of rallying the people up.

♪

- I have had men tortured before.

♪

They will say anything to make the pain stop.

♪

And yet this man made no demands.

He didn't claim anything, want anything.

Behold the man.

♪

- In John's Gospel,

Pilate presents Jesus to the authorities.

He's beaten, he's bloodied,

he's wearing a crown of thorns,

and he has this immortal line: "Behold the man."

"Ecce homo."

Pilate may be mocking the Jewish authorities,

saying, "Beholdyour king. Look atyour king."

♪

- I wanted to see

if they still had an appetite for killing him.

They should not be spared the cost of it.

After all this pain and suffering,

could they still stomach it?

♪

- Now crucify him and be done with it.

♪

- Part of Pilate's reluctance to execute Jesus

seems to be political maneuvering.

He doesn't want to give the high priest

what the high priest wants.

He'd rather say, "See, I have the final authority here,

and what I say goes."

- You take him and crucify him.

- This is another example of the power play

that exists between these two important figures.

♪

Pilate knows that Caiaphas can'tcrucify Jesus,

and he's reminding Caiaphas

that he ultimately has the authority

and Caiaphas needs to stay in his lane.

♪

- As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.

- We have a law,

and according to that law,

he must die because he claimed to be the Son of God.

♪

- When Caiaphas says that Jesus claims to be the Son of God,

this, according to the Gospels,

causes Pilate to freeze in his tracks.

- The Gospels say he was afraid,

and this could have been due to the fact

that he believed in the Roman pagan gods,

who had children who walked the Earth.

He was wondering, is this a Hercules-type character?

Is this a demigod?

Is this someone that I should know about?

♪

- Where do you come from?

- [gasping]

♪

- Do you refuse to speak to me?

[pounds table]

Don't you understand?

I have the power to free you or to crucify you.

- [gasping] You would have no power over me

if it were not given to you from above.

♪

- Now, I often wonder what Pilate really was thinking

when Jesus said, "You wouldn't have any power over me

if it had not been given to you from above."

I have a feeling Pilate was probably thinking,

"You don't know what power is.

"I represent the Roman Empire, the superpower of the day.

You don't know the might of Rome."

- What happens when Caiaphas suggests he claims

to be a Son of God is that it seems to backfire.

It's an insufficient suggestion

to really get Pilate to take action.

There has to be one more step.

♪

♪

- In the Gospels, we get this reluctant Pilate,

and Caiaphas is pushing to try and get Jesus crucified.

This is more likely to represent

the circumstances of the Gospel writers,

who want to put the blame on the Jewish authorities.

If they can present Romans more sympathetically,

it becomes easier to convert Romans

to the new Christian movement.

- Why do you delay, Prefect?

You have the charges and the man.

- I have found no grounds in him for the sentence of death.

He had to learn.

I don't obey these people; I obey Rome.

♪

But, of course, Caiaphas knew that.

- If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar.

Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.

[dramatic music swells]

- This is Caiaphas' trump card.

I think this is his moment where he pulls out

the last bit that he's got in his arsenal:

that is, to accuse him of treason

if he doesn't go ahead and do this.

I think it's absolutely tactical of him.

♪

- I think that Pilate

was a prisoner of political expediency.

I don't think Pilate had a long view of history.

I think that Pilate was insecure.

♪

- The ambush.

Caiaphas knew I could not risk

another misstep with Rome, not for one man.

I needed to tread carefully,

especially where Jewish customs were concerned.

[people shouting]

I made one mistake,

and I made it for the glory of Rome.

Caiaphas has never let me forget.

♪

- Pilate's been in trouble with the Emperor Tiberius before.

He had commissioned shields,

which were dedicated to the Emperor Tiberius.

[people shouting]

- When these are brought into Jerusalem,

the sacred city of the Jews, the Jews are offended.

[people shouting]

There is an inscription with the full name of Tiberius,

including his title, "Son of a God."

[clamoring continues]

This is a terrible, blasphemous thing to do.

Somebody complains and reports this

and goes all the way up the chain to the emperor,

and Tiberius thinks that their outrage is justified

and he calls for Pilate to withdraw

these offensive things from Jerusalem.

- What Pilate had done with the shields

would have been widely known throughout Judea.

♪

Jews would have known

that Pilate was on notice from Rome.

♪

- We do not want to displease Caesar...

♪

Do we?

♪

- If you don't execute Jesus,

we will report that you are no friend of Caesar,

you're a bad governor of the province.

We'll send out an embassy

to Tiberius on Capri and report you.

That finally reaches home for Pilate.

- You would have me crucify your king?

- We have no king but Caesar.

- Pilate's boss is the Emperor Tiberius,

the most powerful man in the world.

But by the time of Jesus,

he'd become paranoid and depraved.

- He was actually having people

thrown off the cliff in front of him,

and Pontius Pilate knows

that it's not just his job that's on the line.

It's actually his life.

He's not gonna get in the way of Tiberius.

- Then I will kill your king for you.

♪

- In the Gospels, Pilate is ultimately

talked into sending Jesus to the cross.

He thinks that Jesus is innocent of these charges,

but, basically, he's pressurized

into doing something against his will.

♪

- When you look at the exchange

between Caiaphas and Pilate,

you end up despising them both.

There are no winners here.

There's only losers, including Jesus.

♪

♪

- Caiaphas got what he wanted,

but he answers to me.

I will have the final word.

♪

- If we were to only read the Gospels...

[dramatic music]

We might come away from the story

having sympathy for Pilate as a character.

♪

He's thoughtful, he's a worrier,

he listens to his wife,

he tries to do the right thing,

and that's in very sharp contrast to what we know

about Pontius Pilate as a historical figure.

♪

Pilate has to have Jesus executed because he needs

to do the right thing vis-à-vis the emperor.

He wants to keep his job.

He wants to ensure that there are

no revolutionaes running loose,

that the Jews stay a subjugated people

under Roman domination.

And for all those reasons,

he probably didn't lose too much sleep

over the decision to have Jesus crucified.

♪

- With Pontius Pilate's actions are a display of his loyalties.

His loyalty is with the empire and with self-preservation.

♪

- You have heard the charges, King.

There is a throne for you out in Golgotha.

- There are many scenes in the trial

and execution of Jesus that are full of irony...

♪

And perhaps the one that's most full of irony

is the washing of his hands.

♪

- I am innocent of this man's blood.

♪

It is your responsibility.

♪

- Of course he's not innocent of the man's blood,

since he's finally responsible for the execution of Jesus.

But he's attempting to pass the buck,

pass the blame onto Caiaphas.

♪

- The Gospel writers are trying to put

more of the decision on the Jewish authorities

as the people that get Jesus taken off the scene

when, historically speaking,

it's much more believable to think

that Pontius Pilate was in control of his decision.

♪

- The historical reality is likely to have been

that if Caiaphas had brought Jesus to Pilate,

Pilate would have not even batted an eye

in ordering the crucifixion of Jesus.

Pilate didn't care that much about these Jewish subjects,

and he worked with Caiaphas

to make sure that there was no insurgency.

♪

- What does another dead man matter to me anyway?

Golgotha is soaked in the blood of countless men,

and I remember none of them.

Rome won't give a second thought

to Jesus of Nazareth,

so why should I?

- We should not blame Caiaphas

and the Jewish authorities for the death of Jesus.

Only one person had the authority

to put Jesus to death,

and that was Pontius Pilate, a Roman.

[poignant music]

♪

- If Pontius Pilate had not executed Jesus of Nazareth,

Pontius Pilate would be lost to history.

He was just another prefect of another distant province.

But Pontius Pilate has a unique legacy in Christianity.

But without Pontius Pilate's decision to execute Jesus,

there would be no Crucifixion and Resurrection

and no Christianity as we know it.

Pontius Pilate's legacy for Christianity is so central

that his name made it into the Christian creed.

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