Who was Jesus – really? Has the real Jesus been so buried by tradition and legend that he is now lost to people living in the 21st century?
Historian Dr John Dickson sets out to discover what we can know for certain about the life of one of history’s best known and most influential figures.
In a captivating journey across the globe, Dr Dickson examines ancient documents and consults the world’s most respected historians and scholars. Beginning with the Gnostic Gospels, he criss-crosses continents on a search back through time for the historical sources that reveal the real Jesus – a search for The Christ Files.
- Gnostics and Romans (Sun 17th January 2016): examining manuscripts stretching from AD 250 to 75, Greco-Roman historians and the Gnostic gospels give us a picture of how the ancient world viewed Jesus of Nazareth.
- Jews and Christians (Sun 31st January 2016): starting with the records of Jesus’ own people, the Jews, we arrive at the early Christian sources, letters and biographies assembled between AD 90 and 48.
- Lost Sources and Oral Traditions (Sunday 7th February 2016): with a 20-year gap between Jesus’ death and the earliest written accounts of his life, we turn to the source of information considered most reliable in the 1st century – oral tradition.
- Archaeologists and Artefacts (Sun 14th February 2016): having uncovered a solid picture of the historical Jesus, archaeology helps us piece together the world in which Jesus lived, giving context to the things he said and did.