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| From Jesus to Christ: The First Christians | 
 enlarge | Actor: From Jesus To Christ-first Christians
Studio: Pbs Paramount
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.99
Buy New: $14.21
You Save: $5.78 (29%)
New (7) Used (1) from $13.72
Avg. Customer Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 5395
Format: Color, Dvd-video, Full Screen, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Running Time: 240 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: PARD705045D
UPC: 841887050456
EAN: 0841887050456
ASIN: B000BITUBG
Release Date: August 24, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW, Factory Sealed items direct from the Studios. 30 Day Satisfaction Guarantee. Quick International Airmail!
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Product Description
Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 09/23/2005
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
 One of the best January 8, 2009
This is by far and away one of the best historical investigations of the primitive Church i have yet seen.
Although the fundies among us will find a few sticky wickets in the results of an obviously careful piece of scholarly research, i found it enlightening and quite thought provoking. A must see for serious inquirers of early church history. And with Frontline, how can you go wrong?
Their findings presented no serious challenge to my faith, An excellent piece of religious and historical investigation..
 Value Depends on Your Purpose July 10, 2008
2 out of 10 found this review helpful
This video series is an object lesson on assumptions. It demonstrates how far off base even intelligent scholars can be when a basic assumption precedes all data, thereby colouring grossly all subsequent data and analysis.
The overpowering, underlying assumption to this entire series, and for the scholars interviewed, is that Jesus lived, was very likely martyred for his teachings, very likely rose from the dead, and very likely was a son of god, or the Christ, the son of the God.
Never minding the data is what most of these scholars have done, which makes them professional myth-makers, little more. Never mind that many of them are excellent speakers and excellent story tellers, and caring human beings. Never mind that the video series was written, filmed and produced with the utmost care and delicacy towards the sensitivities of every sort of "believer", whether Jewish or Christian. This series is, above all, a proponent of a myth. In this sense I give the series 5 Stars. But from the perspective of the latest scholarship, discoveries of documents, discoveries within documents, discoveries in archeology, I give this series 0.5 Stars.
Of course, Frontline is no stranger to myth-making, but mostly their expertise in that category lies within the political arena. After all, they are, in essence, an organ of the state.
 you will find your reflection in it June 26, 2008
3 out of 10 found this review helpful
i'm one of those people the series calls "orthodox Christians", theologically conservative, and knowledgable about many of the issues they talk about.
the show strikes me as a bit arrogant to assume that their particular viewpoint is widely shared, it isn't, but rather is restricted to academics and theologically liberal churches. but i supposed when they count noses on the issues, these are the only people whose opinions or noses count. sadly, it is not a unbiased presentations but rather the current state of the art for a specific theological tradition.
but if you can stomach the documentary hypothesis, Q, and the principle that prophecy is impossible so if a document mentions X that it must have been written after event X has occurs, there is some value to watching it.
have watched this over and over June 14, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I am not religious but have watched this doc many times. Initially I had a VHS copy from the broadcast, then bought the DVD. It is extremely well presented and gives a lot of insight into the time of Jesus and the following years of the early Christians. Highly recommended.
Some good points of view, some not. February 8, 2008
12 out of 15 found this review helpful
This DVD presents mostly the points of views of several bible scholars. Most of the observations about how Christianity initially developed are acceptable, and some are very good; but most of the final commentaries are way off target.
First, Constantine the Great did tell the Christian soldiers that, in a vision, he had been instructed to place a cipher of Christ (not exactly a cross, as they indicate in the DVD) on the shields of his soldiers, in order to win a crucial battle against Maxentius and to become the sole Roman emperor. But all these scholars appear to ignore that, at the same time, he had told the pagan soldiers that, in a visit to a sanctuary of Apollo in France, he also had a vision in which this pagan god had promised victory and long life to him; thus, it is evident that he was more of a shrewd politician than a true convert.
Second, at the end of the DVD, the narrator says that, with the adoption of Christianity by Rome, some saw the fulfillment of the prophesy that "the kingdom of the world would become the kingdom of God," or vice versa, and that now Jesus of Nazareth had become Jesus the Christ. Well, on one hand Saint Paul had started teaching extensively and in different terms about Christ more than two centuries before; and, on the other hand, Constantine stands for one of the most, if not the most corruptive person in the history of the Church, for now it was the Roman state who pulled many of the strings in the government of the Church, and, in general, authority in the Church became a matter not only of brotherly service, as Jesus taught, but of power and political influence.
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