Episode 1 David Suchet: In the Footsteps of St Paul

'I'm David Suchet

'and I'm on a journey around the Mediterranean

'following in the footsteps of a man who, 2,000 years ago,

'travelled more than 10,000 miles around the Roman world

'on foot, and many, many more by sea.'

This is extraordinary. We must appear that size from up there.

'For the last 25 years, I've been fascinated by Saint Paul.

'He was a hugely controversial figure in his own time.

'He still is today.

'To some, he's the man who did more than anyone else to transform

'Christianity from a small Jewish sect

'into the most powerful religion on earth.

'To others, he's a preacher of prejudices that have

'echoed down throughout history.'

And they must have thought, the arrogance...

-Absolutely.

-..of the man, here he is on the basis of one vision,

so he says. He's telling everybody what to do.

Changing all the rules.

'A man of contrasts and confusions.

'But if ever there was an historical character I've longed to play

'it is Paul.

'So for me, this is a very personal quest.'

I could look like that.

-What do you think?

-A little bit.

A little bit.

'I'll be seeking out clues in the places he visited,

'deciphering new evidence from the latest archaeological research

'and meeting expert witnesses from around the region to help me uncover

'this remarkable man hidden within the pages of the New Testament.'

'Every year, millions of visitors, from all over the world,

'make pilgrimages here,

'to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, to what they believe

'is the site of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.

'But the reason they remember this crucified carpenter

is down to just one extraordinary man.

'We know him as Saint Paul.'

More than any other individual,

Paul was responsible for transforming

a fledgling Jesus Movement from a minor sect of Judaism

into a new religion that would one day become known as Christianity.

'Without him, the new faith could have died out 2,000 years ago.

'Paul was Christianity's first international ambassador

'taking the story of Jesus out to the pagan world.

'Sowing the seeds of a new idea that would sweep through

'the Roman Empire and change the course of Western civilisation.

'Paul's story is told in the New Testament Book of Acts

'and preserved in a remarkable series of his own letters,

'written to small communities of believers

'scattered around the Roman world.'

It was one of these letters that I read

when I was filming in America about 25 years ago now,

I read it in a hotel room. It was addressed simply "To the Romans."

Even after 2,000 years,

the extraordinary passion of Paul's words leap from the page.

'Paul's letter, to the small Christian community in Rome,

'inspired and fashioned my own faith.'

I became fascinated by him.

As an actor, I actually felt I would like to play him.

What sort of man was he? What gave him this power?

How did he actually change Western thought?

'To understand this man, I need to get a sense of his world.

'My journey of discovery starts here in Jerusalem,

'the spiritual home of the Jewish people.'

It's so good to be up here

and to look down on this extraordinary city.

'Today, Jerusalem is home to three of the world's major religions.

'For Jews, Christians and Muslims

'it's one of the most holy places on earth.'

I don't think you can ever forget when you're up here that this

is possibly...

..the most religious city in the world.

'But two millennia ago, Judaism and the strict requirements of

'Jewish law dominated this city and every aspect of Paul's early life.

'Today, Jewish boys enter the world of adulthood at age 13.

'From this point,

'they're considered responsible for their own actions

'under Jewish law.

'The dream of every boy and his parents is to have the Bar Mitzvah -

'his coming of age ceremony - here at the Western Wall,

'a remnant of the massive Jewish Temple

'which stood here in Paul's time.'

To all intents and purposes, it could be a wedding.

SINGING

This is Paul's early life.

This is what he longed for as a young boy.

The rights of passage into the Jewish faith -

very important moment.

And here comes their...their law. With all the sweets being thrown.

You touch it.

You see, they don't mind who touches it, I touched it.

I'm being pushed out of the way now.

'The Western - or Wailing - Wall is a reminder that in Paul's day

'the temple was the very heart and soul of the Jewish religion.

'To reach back to his time,

'I need to look beneath the surface of the modern city.'

Now we are going down underground to a tunnel.

And that tunnel was built under the main street of Jerusalem.

You see how deep you go down.

'Jerusalem is one of the world's richest archaeological sites

'and recent excavations offer tantalising glimpses

'of the city Paul would have known.

'Archaeologist Eli Shukron took me beneath the streets

'to a recently discovered drainage channel,

'filled with historical clues.'

This is really narrow.

You are in a tunnel.

I'm in a tunnel, all right.

-This is the experience.

-I'm in a 2,000-year-old tunnel.

-Yeah.

-You saw that stone?

-Yeah.

This is the foundation of the Wailing Wall. Let's see it closely.

This is the original?

Original stone, original foundation of the Western Wall,

-the Wailing Wall.

-The Wailing Wall, so we are right underground.

We are right underground on the bedrock.

You see, this is the bedrock

and this is the first stone of the Western Wall.

How old?

-2,000.

-2,000 years?

-Yes.

That is mind-boggling, actually, absolutely.

Look at the size of them.

What am I going to do now? I'm going to... Am I going to dig?

Yes, of course, you're going to dig.

Going to dig in our excavation.

I'm going to uncover

a bit of the Western Wall for the first time in 2,000 years.

Wow.

And then what you need to do, just to take the dirt here

and clean the stone of the Western Wall, OK?

-And here we have a piece of pottery.

-Oh!

A piece of jar, the rim of the jar.

-2,000 years old.

-There is dirt on it.

And this is the rim you can see, the rim of the jar.

There it is, look. And I'm uncovering the Western Wall now,

now I've got the Western wall for the first time.

You never know, with every move I make of this what will be uncovered.

I'd like to spend a longer time here.

Change of career, perhaps?

You love your job now, David?

I love my job.

'Scraping away at the foundations of the Western Wall

'had literally put me in touch with Paul's time.

'But darker clues to Paul's world had survived in these tunnels.

'Jerusalem may have been Jewish,

'but it was also occupied by a brutal foreign invader.'

Eli's just told me, this stone is the main street.

-Above us.

-Above us.

-This is the main street.

So that's the main street and we are in the main drain.

'The tunnel had been built to drain rainwater from Temple Mount,

'the site of the Jewish Temple,

'but it was to become a secret escape route for rebel Jews.

'In the year 6AD, around the time of Paul's birth,

'Jerusalem fell under direct rule of the Roman Empire.

'The Jews never accepted Roman occupation.

'Their very presence defiled the Holy City,

'but any protest was mercilessly put down.

'The Roman army maintained its iron grip on Jerusalem

'throughout Paul's life.

'In 70AD, a few years after his death,

'they would lay waste to the city, destroy the Jewish Temple

'and, on discovering these tunnels, they massacred everyone they found.'

Did you find any Roman artefacts in here?

-Yeah, we found a sword.

-A Roman sword?

A Roman sword, yes.

God, I wouldn't have liked to have escaped in this tunnel.

It's very... And with no light.

Yeah, there's no light. You know, it's very, very, very, very...

-People frightened.

-Yeah, people frightened

and the Romans above you on the street walking.

Gosh.

'Paul spent his whole life under the dark shadow of Roman rule.

'I was keen to discover how that influenced the man and his beliefs.

'Since antiquity, Jews have sought to be buried here

'on the Mount of Olives

'where they believe their long-awaited Messiah,

'God's chosen leader, will first appear to usher in the End of Days.

'A new era free of war and strife.

'By being buried here, they hope to be among the first to be

'resurrected from the dead.

'It was a good place to meet Jewish historian Danny Schwartz.'

But on the side, members of the family added

the names of the members of the family who were killed in Auschwitz.

Oh, my goodness.

Including the son of the person who was buried here,

and the grandson, and the wife of the grandson.

'Jews like Paul believed themselves to be a chosen people,

'their history and destiny controlled by God.

'But now Rome, not God, appeared to be in charge.

'For many, the End of Days,

'when God would send his Messiah to liberate them,

'could not come soon enough.'

Did they ever think it might be the beginning of the end times?

They probably did.

The Roman occupation pushed people into something

of an apocalyptic mood that the time is going to have come very soon ...

-Very soon.

-..when this will be worked out.

God can't sit back idly and let everything like this be trampled.

'Jerusalem was in political and religious turmoil.

'How should Jews respond to the Roman occupation?

'Competing groups fought for control of Jewish hearts and minds.

'Some preached armed resistance,

'others that only God could decide when Roman rule should end.

'Paul, at that time still known by his Jewish name, Saul,

'chose to join the Pharisees,

'a strictly Jewish sect who believed that the End of Days could be

'brought forward in time by rigid observance of the Jewish law.

'Paul was Jewish, but we're told also that he held Roman citizenship,

'and that he'd spent his childhood not in Jerusalem but in Tarsus.

'That's in modern-day Turkey.

'Could a confused sense of belonging help explain Paul's personality?'

DOOR BUZZER

'One of the world's leading authorities on Paul is

'Father Jerome Murphy O'Connor.

'He had a surprising theory

'about how Paul came by his Roman citizenship

'and how it had affected him.'

He was, I believe, the son of slaves.

I think he became a Roman citizen when his parents were set free.

No-one kept a slave into his 40s. It was non-productive, economically.

And the children of slaves of a Roman citizen automatically

became a Roman citizen on being set free.

'The Book of Acts claims Paul left Tarsus for Jerusalem.'

Paul came to Jerusalem, I believe, about the age of 20.

He was a Jew looking for his roots.

When he came to Jerusalem and became a Pharisee,

the law became the focal point of his life.

'Perhaps becoming a Pharisee

'answered some need in Paul to belong.

'And he threw himself into a zealous defence of the Jewish law.

'But then, around 32AD, a radical new Jewish sect appeared

'on the scene, inspired by the recent execution

'of a rabbi from Galilee.

'The Jesus Movement threatened everything Paul held most dear.'

I'm walking up the Via Dolorosa, which is the way

they say Jesus walked to his crucifixion, carrying his cross.

It's an extraordinary feeling to be part of a group like this.

You're almost caught up in it, you can't help it.

'Today, Christianity is the world's largest religion.

'It's easy to forget that 2,000 years ago it was just a minor sect of Judaism.

'The Jesus Movement could easily have withered

'and died with the death of its leader.

'But soon after the crucifixion, Jesus' followers became

'convinced that God had raised him from the dead,

'that he WAS the Jewish Messiah.

'And that claim sparked a violent response from Paul

'and his fellow Pharisees.'

What was the trouble? What was going on with this sect

that would have made Paul so angry?

So, Paul is, at that stage, showing his zeal for the law,

that these misguided Christians believe Jesus is the messiah.

But if Jesus was the messiah,

then the law no longer had any place,

and the law was what made Paul's life at that stage as a Pharisee.

And I think that's why he persecuted Christians -

they wanted to have it both ways.

To be Christians AND practising Jews. Paul says, "No.

"It's either or."

'Observance of the law was everything to Paul.

'How dare these Jewish heretics claim that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah?

'If so, then a new age had begun and the law was no longer important.

'In Paul's eyes they should be wiped from the face of the Earth.'

'According to the Book of Acts, Paul focused his anger on one

'of the leading lights of the Jesus Movement.

'A young man called Stephen who had been successfully convincing

'Jews like Paul to convert.

'Stephen was dragged outside the city gates

'and viciously stoned to death.

'We're told Paul stood watching,

'apparently minding the coats of the executioners.'

In those cases where you hear of people being stoned in Jewish

antiquity, I think, generally, it's a mob action.

-Why stoning?

-Stoning is a kind of popular thing to do.

Anybody can do it, you don't need special equipment.

-You mean it's all around you, you just pick it up?

-You just pick them up and do that.

It's the type of things mobs can do.

It must have been a pretty ugly thing, then,

to be stoned by mob rule - terrible.

I'm sure that being stoned, was a very ugly thing.

It doesn't leave much of the body

when so many stones have been thrown.

So, being a Pharisee, that would be a sort of normal reaction to that?

Certainly to oppose people who are preaching

the abrogation of Jewish law would be normal.

How far you go with that,

does it take you to stoning, is another issue.

'Paul seemed consumed with hatred for the Jesus movement.

'Yet there was something about this man I just didn't understand.'

"Love is patient, love is kind.

"It does not envy, it does not boast.

"It is not proud, it is not rude.

"It is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered,"

"it keeps no record of wrongs.

"Love does not delight in evil."

It seems strange to me that someone who can stand by, witness

and even condone such an atrocity of

stoning another human being to death is also capable of writing

some of the most beautiful words ever written, and they're used

in wedding ceremonies around the world even to this very day.

'What transformed this zealous

'persecutor of the Jesus Movement into its greatest ambassador?

'According to the Bible, the answer lies on the road to Damascus,

'in one of the most fantastic and dramatic stories ever told.

'Paul is on his way to root out more followers of Jesus

'when suddenly his whole world is turned around.'

According to Acts,

on his way to Damascus, he had a conversion experience.

He saw a blinding light that literally blinded him physically.

He heard the voice of Jesus saying "Saul",

using his Jewish name, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?"

And he was given his commission to evangelise the Gentiles.

It was a changing moment in Paul's life and we often refer to it now

as the blinding light experience of conversion.

But I would like to find out what really happened.

'In the Bible, deserts lend themselves to life-changing moments.

'Both Jesus and Moses had spent time in the wilderness.

'To help me make sense of Paul's conversion,

I met psychologist Shmuel Erlich.'

I'm searching for Paul the character.

I can't ignore that central conversion experience.

How do I make that change?

I would suggest that you look very carefully and deeply into his past.

You look into what happened before, into his persecution,

into his aggression,

into his need to kill Christians,

which I think speaks of some...

some kind I think of, I think, an inner turmoil.

What you see...

..especially in people who are struggling with their identity

and if the struggle is very deep, you...you see that, um...

they can sometimes turn round, almost, if you will, 180 degrees

and from one, what you would consider to be one identity,

-suddenly become the opposite of it.

-Right.

I think this is what happened to St Paul.

He persecuted the Christians before and then, suddenly,

he shifted completely and became their spokesman

and their guardian, in a way,

their promoter and their leader, really.

'Whatever really happened on the road to Damascus, it's clear

'that from that moment on, Paul's beliefs changed for ever.

'He was now convinced he had met Jesus face-to-face

'that God had brought him back from the dead

'and that, therefore, he must be the Messiah.

'And that the End of Days was coming very, very soon.'

'Paul is said to have returned to Jerusalem to try

'and convince the leadership of the Jesus Movement that,

'whatever his crimes against them in the past, he was now on their side.

'That God had chosen him to be an apostle,

'on a par with the disciples who had actually known Jesus.

'It must have been a difficult sell.

'Perhaps unsurprisingly, the leadership suggested

'that their former persecutor would be of most use to them

'away from Jerusalem, back in his home city of Tarsus,

'in modern-day Turkey.'

-Now, Tarsus.

-Yes, here we are.

-Where Paul was born.

-Yes.

'How had Paul's childhood home influenced his life?

'My guide, Menir, grew up in Tarsus and agreed to show me around.'

Are there many sites that one can go to that we'll see where Paul

went in the city, is he very famous here?

Very famous. We have St Paul's Well,

St Paul's House, St Paul's Church, many St Paul Cafes.

And is he a popular character? Do people like him?

They love him, it's their famous son.

'Tarsus is a Muslim city and has been for centuries.

'So I was intrigued by how today's population regarded Paul.

'After Friday prayers, Menir took me to the Grand Mosque

'to meet some of the locals.'

Could you ask our friend what he might know about St Paul?

SPEAKS TURKISH

We know him as a Christian saint who...

had this incredible energy.

-Yes.

-He walked for miles.

-Yes.

He got, probably... had a donkey and he went...

..he went from one village to another

and explained all about Jesus, what Jesus was saying.

How has much has Tarsus changed since you were a child?

The essence of Tarsus is the same.

In other words, it's retained its values. It's about...

I think, the most important value Tarsus has is

tolerance for each other.

This area is liberal, Tarsus is liberal.

Probably this is the influence of St Paul.

-Yeah. Do you think it's liberal because of St Paul?

-It has to be. What else?

-Because of St Paul?

-Yes, what else?

'It was fascinating that here in Muslim Tarsus,

'Paul was remembered as a liberal influence.

'Menir had given me a great introduction to the modern city

'but I was keen to find out

'what Tarsus would have been like in Paul's day.'

-Thank you very much.

-Which way do I go?

-You go this way.

-All right.

-I go this way.

'How had it shaped him as a boy and what had he learnt here that

'would help him on his new mission to win converts to Jesus?'

'At one of the city's few remaining Roman sites,

'I met archaeologist Serra Durogonul.'

This is the only known archaeological remain

we have from the time period Paul has lived here in this city.

This is a Roman road?

This is a Roman road.

It is dated to the first century BC, or AD, we are not yet sure.

But there is a very similar example for this road, in Pompeii...

-Aha!

-..which is dated to the first century BC.

Would Paul have actually walked along this road, do you think?

We think so. We can imagine that he walked through,

because it's just a time period he has lived here.

So he must have walked here.

Was this is a busy, busy city?

Yes, it was a very important city

because it was a philosophical city.

-Many philosophers passed by from this city...

-Did they?

..and we know that there was a school for philosophy in this town,

so along this shows that it was an important city.

And is that possibly why Paul would have said, "I'm a citizen

"of no ordinary city"?

Yes, that can be a good explanation for this sentence.

-So he was very proud of this city.

-Yes.

And he's also very proud of his dual, if you like,

dual citizenship and nationality. He says, "I'm a Jew,

"and I'm a Roman."

Yes, both characters, and he knows perfect Greek.

He's educated in that language.

He has the Roman citizenship and he's a Jew.

'Paul's early life had been very different from that of Jesus

'and the disciples.

'Paul had grown up in a city, was highly educated

'and well versed in Greek philosophy.

'But in one respect he was similar.

'We're told he had a craft and earned his living as a tentmaker.

'The countryside around Tarsus was famous for its flax,

'the plant used to make linen.

'Perhaps Paul wove his tents.'

Oh, wow.

'My guide, Ali, took me to a traditional weaver's shop

'for a lesson with the irrepressible Hassain,

'who, even though he's now in his 70s, clearly still loves his work.'

I can have a go?

HASSAIN SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE

Well, I've done certain things in my life.

This is a first.

Oh, my goodness me. What am I doing?

HASSAIN SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE

Push it back.

Right feet.

Left feet.

I'm working my feet.

'Paul was certainly proud of the fact he worked for a living

'and didn't rely on anyone for hand-outs.'

We were doing well. We WERE doing well.

It, um...

That's... I'm afraid that's all that's left of the shuttle.

I don't think I'm going to pass this particular exam.

Paul had earned his living as a tentmaker,

was highly educated and held dual citizenship,

but first-century Tarsus had influenced his life in another way.

Most of Paul's fellow citizens would have been non-Jews or Gentiles -

believers in pagan Gods.

Serra asked me to meet her again, in the mountains above the city,

where she had recently made an incredible discovery.

Gosh, she's so clear.

Wow, look at that!

This is the goddess Athena.

Athena?

Athena. Can you see what sort of a symbol

we have outside the pillar?

-Just here?

-Exactly.

That looks like the candlestick, the Jewish symbol, the Menorah.

Exactly, it's the Menorah.

I can't believe that the Jewish symbol, really,

is so close to Athena, the pagan goddess.

Yes.

What does that say about the society here?

It says to us that the people here lived peacefully

together, even though they were other beliefs.

This is a shrine, it's not only a relief, it's a cultic place,

it's a shrine, so we can imagine that Jewish people came

together with the pagans and came to pray here...

At the same time?

..at the same time.

When was this carved into the rock?

It was carved at the end of the second century or

the beginning of the third century AD, the Roman period.

So Paul would never have seen this, he wouldn't have seen this.

But the same thing may have been going on at the time that he

was around?

Yes. Why not?

The Jewish Menorah carved alongside the pagan goddess Athena

spoke of a culture of religious tolerance.

Tarsus appeared to be the sort of place where different peoples

and religions could learn from and influence each other.

Perhaps this sowed a seed in Paul -

because, he more than any other, would be the person who would

bridge the gap between the Jewish and non-Jewish worlds.

A process he probably began on his return to his home city.

I'm sure Paul must have had some success in Tarsus,

because he was then called to the huge cosmopolitan

city of Antioch to help build a new community of believers.

Wow!

What a breath-taking view of the city.

Today, the biblical city of Antioch is known as Antakya.

On the outskirts of the city, I passed the magnificent iron gate,

one of the few survivors from ancient times, and a little

further down the valley, carved into the mountainside, was a site that

tradition says played an important role in early Christianity.

It's here that I met New Testament scholar Helen Bond.

It is quite pretty, actually.

It is, isn't it?

This is St Peter's Church, where, according to church tradition,

the church at Antioch met.

Saint Paul is even supposed to have preached here on occasion.

-Really?

-Yes.

Who was he preaching to then?

Well, it's really interesting,

because this is a mixed community of people.

And people from Antioch, some of them are Jews,

some of them are non-Jews,

all kinds of people that have heard

about the new faith and have been anxious to join.

A lot of people in the ancient world

were quite interested in Jewish ideas.

The idea of monotheism, one god.

The Jewish ethics, and so Christianity was a little

bit like that.

-Clearly it was coming from a Jewish background.

-Yes.

I think also at this time, there was an interest in people towards

a sort of more personal kind of religion.

Perhaps something more than the gods of Rome were offering.

He's also talking about something he believes, you know,

the end of the world is going to come soon.

You've got to prepare yourself - get ready.

I think, you know, in this kind of place, a big thriving

city like this, that might have been quite attractive to a lot of people.

And Paul was an urban man, wasn't he?

He was a city man and he would have worked here,

and would he have been comfortable?

I think he would have been entirely at home in a place like Antioch.

It was very similar in many ways to Tarsus, where he was from,

and very different, I think, to the kind of places that Jesus

and the disciples were used to, you know, they were much more rural men.

For Paul, you know, he is part of this establishment.

You know, he can talk to anybody in this city,

He's perfectly at home here,

whereas I think it would have been much more difficult

for the first followers of Jesus.

In Antioch, the Jesus movement was building a bridge

between the Jewish and non-Jewish worlds and Paul's skills in talking

and preaching to non-Jews made him the ultimate bridge builder.

Coming into a cafe like this, into a social situation,

Paul would have been used to this sort of thing, sitting

amongst men while they were playing games.

I don't think much would have changed in 2,000 years,

and he might have taken advantage of the situation

and started chatting about his beliefs.

Something about Paul's message clearly rang true in Antioch.

I wondered if Helen was right, that maybe he was offering a more

caring alternative to the brutal norms of Roman society.

It was in Antioch that the followers of Jesus were first called

Christians, but their numbers were small,

too small for a dedicated church.

Paul is said to have preached, instead, in private homes.

It was a tactic that was to serve him well.

Holding meetings in a house not only afforded a venue,

but also gave him access to a wider network of family

and friends who could help spread the word.

When the Roman Catholics came here, they took their lead from Paul.

Father Dominic.

Oh, you're welcome.

Hello.

You can see where is today there is a Catholic church, it is

not a church at that time, it was a private house,

but we know that the first Christians

had their meetings in private houses they called house church.

So after 2,000 years we are in the same situation.

-So, you have a house church?

-We have a house church.

Is that why there's not an official, big Catholic church?

No, no, it was a private house that we have managed to use as a church.

Living and working closely with these non-Jewish communities,

Paul came to understand that some requirements of the new

faith could be a barrier to conversion.

He adapted his message...

..but back in Jerusalem, that was seen

as a threat to the purity of Judaism.

High above the city, in the sixth- century ruins of Saint Simeon's

monastery, I met Helen again.

So what was Paul teaching that was so new?

Paul was saying to the gentiles that you can become

part of the Jesus Movement without first becoming a Jew,

so you didn't have to be circumcised, you didn't have to keep

the Jewish law, all you need to be part of the Jesus Movement is to

believe in what God has done through Jesus, the cross and resurrection -

that's the central thing, and faith in that is going to save you.

Nothing else really matters and that was really radical,

because this is the first time, really, that Gentiles had been

coming into the movement without first becoming Jews.

In Jerusalem, converts to the new religion were already Jewish.

They kept Jewish Law and the males had been circumcised.

In Antioch, Paul was converting Gentiles who liked

the idea of worshipping the Jewish god

but weren't willing to undergo a rigorous conversion to Judaism.

For Paul, though, he gradually sees that

if it doesn't matter any more, for your salvation, that you have

to keep the law, then why do you have to become a Jew?

You know, you can become a follower of Christ and stay a Gentile.

Being very radical, then?

Extremely radical, and also in the face of people who'd known

Jesus, I mean, I think that's the amazing thing about him,

-and they must have thought, "The arrogance of the man!"

-Absolutely.

Here he is, on the basis of "One vision," so he says on the road

to Damascus, and he's telling everybody what to do.

Changing all the rules!

Paul had come to realise that the only way

he was going to convert large numbers of Gentiles to Jesus

was by dropping the need to become a Jew first.

He was typically bullish about that mission and was prepared to

use any means necessary to bring non-Jews to his new faith.

Even if that meant they no longer needed to observe the Jewish law.

Paul had now set himself on a collision course with

the leadership of the Jesus Movement in Jerusalem.

They summoned Paul back to Jerusalem to

account for his methods in converting the Gentiles.

Paul was certainly heading for trouble,

but it wouldn't be for the first time - or indeed the last.

I'm off to meet the Greek Patriarch of Jerusalem, Theophilos III.

The Patriarchate traces its line of succession all the way back

to James, the brother of Jesus,

and the leader of the movement after Jesus' death.

It was to James and his Jerusalem Council that Paul came to

argue his case that Gentile converts to Christianity did not first

have to convert to Judaism.

-Good morning, your Beatitude, very nice to meet you.

-Me too.

Thank you very much for letting me...

If he lost the argument, Paul risked both his mission to

the Gentiles coming to a grinding halt and personal humiliation.

Yes, please.

Could you tell me what the outcome was from the Jerusalem Council?

We must understand...

if we put ourselves in his position, right?

He was lonely.

He was the only one that took, undertook, this mission to go

and preach to Gentiles.

So again he broke the closed circle.

It was difficult.

Paul, of course, defended his case.

Paul was a wise man, don't forget that,

he was well versed in Greek

philosophy and literature, right,

so he had developed a very open mind.

Saint James was a very wise elder and...

..he did not reject Paul's argument,

right?

-This has been really kind of you.

-Thank you.

-Thank you very much indeed.

-You're welcome.

-Thank you.

The conflict was resolved in Paul's favour.

Paul had won the day.

He was now free to convert Gentiles directly to the Jesus Movement,

without first taking them into Judaism.

It was to be a key moment in the evolution of Christianity, which was

now well on the way to becoming a new religion, separate from Judaism.

The whole Gentile world now lay before Paul.

It was time to hit the road.

By the middle of the first century AD, a grid of good paved roads

and clear shipping lanes criss-crossed the Roman Empire.

Travellers like Paul could now cover enormous distances swiftly

and in greater safety than ever before.

It's been calculated, that during his journeys,

Paul covered more than 10,000 miles on foot.

See, I had to find a walk for Poirot and once that was found it helped me

with the character so much and now this is helping me understand Paul.

How he walked, where he walked, the sort of road

he would have travelled on and the speed he would have walked.

It tells me a lot about that man.

I think he was a speedy man, very speedy.

The road would carry Paul to Ephesus, the greatest

city in the whole of Roman Asia, a pagan stronghold.

The city was absolutely devoted to the fertility goddess, Artemis.

Her cult drew worshippers from across the ancient world

and Ephesus had grown rich on the tourist trade.

Paul's message - that there was only one true god -

and it wasn't Artemis - was bound to cause trouble.

At the ancient entrance to the city, I met archaeologist Julian Bennett.

At the time St Paul was here this would have been

full of ships.

Probably a hundred or so ships.

-Right up to here?

-Yes.

We're more or less on the harbour edge, we're

standing on the harbour gateway here.

When you look up into the distance you can see the hills going

round there.

The river came up to here and the sea came up to here as well.

What would Paul have found when he first arrived here as far

as religion was concerned, what would he have been faced with?

-Artemis, the goddess!

-The goddess?

The main goddess of the city.

This is her birth place, this is where she belongs,

she has a wonderful temple just outside the city,

one of the seven wonders of the world.

It would have been standing, built of beautiful white marble,

I mean Paul would have seen this when he sailed into the harbour, he

would have known he was coming into a nest of paganism, if you like.

I've always read that Paul first of all went to synagogues to

preach, whenever he visited somewhere.

Was there a Jewish population here?

Yes, there was a very large one.

Certainly from 300 years before the time of Paul.

We don't know exactly how large, but possibly between five

and ten thousand.

The population stayed here even after Paul,

carried on being Jewish, as well.

We can see that quite clearly from the Menorah

carved into the library here.

Somebody sitting down one day, carving this away.

Carving on the steps of a library?

Yes.

Ephesus had no problem tolerating other gods.

Even the Jewish god was being worshipped here.

But Paul threatened the status quo.

His new way was exclusive and his message to Ephesus was blunt.

"The end of the world is coming.

"You waste your time with idols.

"Artemis is no god at all and cannot save you.

"You must follow Jesus" -

an obscure, crucified carpenter from Galilee.

One thing you have to say about Paul -

he certainly wasn't bothered by conflict.

This is a first-century statue of the goddess Artemis.

I wonder if this could have been the very one

that Paul may have looked at.

I'm trying to imagine what he would have felt

when he saw this image for the very first time.

He probably thought the very same things as actually came

out of his mouth.

"You're just made of stone.

"Push you over and you'll break into hundreds of pieces."

We know the cult of Artemis goes back a thousand years

before Paul even arrived.

And what sort of man must he have been to come to a city

like this, that had been worshipping the goddess Artemis for a

thousand years...

and believe that he could change their system of belief?

But Paul was not only taking on a long-established religion,

he was also threatening the very economy of Ephesus.

His message put people's livelihoods at risk.

Those who came to worship Artemis were unlikely to leave

without first buying a small copy of the goddess as a souvenir.

I'm going to be taught how to make an icon here.

I've never made an icon before.

Oh, this is going to, this is going to be fun, oh, thank you,

I'm glad I wore black.

For the city's idol-makers,

anyone converting pagans was bad for business.

I don't think St Paul would be too happy with me

doing this, considering I have now become an idol-maker.

Ephesus Theatre.

-Ephesus Theatre.

-Yes.

-And here?

-Yes.

I think he's got me working on the whole thing here.

I'm now building a theatre.

Oh, here she is - just out of the oven.

As I said, I'm glad I wore black.

Oh, my goodness me.

I have never, ever done this.

This is the back of her dress coming through...

and her head and her face.

There she is, that's what all the fuss was about.

And that's what he came to change.

Artemis was perhaps Paul's greatest challenge.

He spent longer in Ephesus than anywhere on his travels.

But opposition to Paul's preaching was growing.

Eventually, we're told, craftsmen worried about both

their religion and their trade, led a riot against Paul.

They all gathered here in this theatre and Demetrius, who was

a silversmith who was making idols of Artemis, addressed the crowd.

"Men - you know we receive a good income from this business

"and you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced

"and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus

"and in practically the whole province of Asia.

"He says that man-made gods are no gods at all.

"There is a danger that not only our trade will lose its good name but

"also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited,

"and the goddess herself, who is worshipped throughout

"the province of Asia and the world,

"will be robbed of her divine majesty".

And he really did, he whipped up the crowd to a frenzy,

and they started shouting,

"Great is Artemis of the Ephesians,

"Great is Artemis of the Ephesians,

"Great is Artemis of the Ephesians".

You can hear it ringing around the theatre

and it was very soon after this that Paul probably realised that his life

was in danger, and, after two years, he decided it was time to leave.

Paul had been forced to leave the city,

but it appears his work here was not in vain.

Ephesus was one of the great hubs of the Empire

and visitors to the city eventually went home.

Some of them took Paul's message with them -

his words were spreading across Asia Minor.

Ephesus is still being excavated, but so far no churches dedicated to

Paul, or traces of his time here

have been discovered inside the city.

But high above Ephesus, in a mountainside cave,

I was told there was a reminder of him.

I'm here on a hillside above Ephesus and my guide, Sirkan, is going

to show me a cave which is associated with Saint Paul.

I'm looking forward to this very much indeed.

This is quite a climb but I think it's going to be worth it.

Nearly there.

Discovered in 1906, the Grotto of Saint Paul

is thought to have been

a sacred Christian site since the first or second century.

Got my torch.

Ha-ha!

Look there!

There he is, my goodness.

I've been hearing about him and talking about him so much.

That's extraordinary to see it, it's a bit scary actually, isn't it,

because if I grew a beard that wouldn't be too dissimilar to me.

-A little bit.

-A little bit.

Wouldn't take too much though, would it?

Let's go down there.

What's down here?

Oh, there's some more.

Some more frescoes, oh, goodness, these look like saints...

..and there's a lot of them -

there's one, two, three, four, five, six.

The grotto was decorated with frescoes

and inscriptions over the course of many centuries.

The portrait of Paul was added in the 6th century, along with

that of Saint Thecla,

famous locally as a female follower of Paul.

Hey, he does look like me, doesn't he?

That's really weird.

Anyway, bye-bye. Thank you.

You're welcome.

Seeing the image of Paul

and Thecla in Paul's Grotto really inspired me to find out more about

their story and I was reading a book called Acts Of Paul And Thecla.

And there was, what I believe, to be the only physical

description of Paul ever written and I put it down in my notebook.

"He was a man of middling size and his hair was scanty

"and his legs were a little crooked

"and his knees were projecting

"and he had large eyes.

"His eyebrows met, his nose was somewhat long

"and he was full of grace and mercy.

"At one time he seemed like a man,

"and at another he seemed like an angel."

Now, apart from the physical description, I was...

also very interested because I think that also describes his personality.

At one time, he could seem very direct, very human, very earthy.

He certainly didn't suffer fools gladly...

..and at another time, he could be very fatherly...

and very gentle.

Paul's journeys through Asia Minor helped lay

the foundations of the faith that would one day become Christianity.

Even though Turkey is now a Muslim country, his influence lasts

to this day.

Something I've got no doubt about at all is that he was

a man of total extremes - there was no grey area about Paul,

it was either black or white.

Whatever happened to him on the road to Damascus was extreme

and it changed his world view for ever.

But what's really interesting for me

is that it didn't change his personality or character.

He was a man of total conviction and extremes of behaviour.

He could be very angry, imperious, proud,

he could be very boastful -

"My way, not yours."

He had also a fanatical drive and energy

because he genuinely believed that Jesus was going to come back soon

and for him the end of the world was really imminent.

So I've learned a great deal about this man

and I'm not sure at the moment whether I like him very much.

Would I have dinner with him?

Well, I don't know, perhaps just one course.

But I've only found out about him so far, there's

so much more that I need to know to have a fully-rounded character,

so much more that I need to discover about this extraordinary man.

After ten years or so of travel around what is now modern-day

Turkey, Paul managed to set up small Christian

communities in the major cities of Rome's Eastern Empire.

And these cities were always situated on either major

roads or in major seaports and it was from these cities that

the message was able to spread out to the surrounding countryside.

But in a letter to the Romans, Paul wrote "There is no more place for me

"to work in these regions",

and so in a sense, I suppose, Paul's work in

Asia Minor was done, and so he set his sights firmly towards the West.

He wrote again, "It's always been my ambition to preach the Gospel

"where Christ was not known".

And so his journey into Europe was about to begin,

and this set him on a collision course with the power of Rome.

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