true meaning of the gospel of judas? ♪ >>> judas has been one of the greatest villains in human history. >> judas has become the symbol of the ultimate traitor. >> the man who sells out jesus for 30 pieces of silver. >> judas' crime is so easy to understand and, at the same time, so terrible. he betrayed his friend. >> along comes a bombshell, a newly translated ancient manuscript. >> just 25 tattered sheets of papyrus written in the ancient coptic language, the lost gospel of judas. it challenges our contempt for judas' character, but now will missing fragments of text complete the gospel and force us to reconsider judas' role in the story of jesus? >> the story of jesus, the story of the crucifixion is not so much a whodunit, it's a whydunit. why did judas betray jesus? that's really the biggest question in the entire gospel. >> in the new testament gospels, jesus starts his mission traveling through galilee and judea, gathering followers. from them, he chooses 12 to be his closest disciples. >> the term "disciple" simply means learner or student. so when jesus is calling disc

follower of jesus. >> i see her as one of the most compelling figures in the entire gospel. >> a witness to the crucifixion and resurrection. she is one of the most misunderstood women in the bible. >> she was the first christian. >> known as a penetant prostitute was she the wife of jesus. >> there's an air of scandal about this. >> the bible tells us little about mary. is it possible that everybody we assumed about her is wrong? and could lost gospels help fill in the missile parts of her story and tell us who really was mary magdeline. >> for more christians today mary magdalene is revered for her compassionate le for jesus. >> i think jes meant everything to mary. she was present at the crucifixion and the resurrection. she's the first-person to whom jesus appears after his resurrection. >> do not wait. no grieve. for his grace will protect you. >> yet when it comes to the details of mary's life the bible says very little. the new testament mentions her just 12 times. >> mary magdelene is remarkable. there's so few mentions of her in the gospel but they're so central to the story of

only record of what he looked like. >> there are no physical descriptions of jesus in the gospel. none. we don't know what he looked like. we don't know how tall he was. we don't know what the set of his eyes was. but he had a face. he was a real person. >> it fulfills almost a temptation. a temptation to fixate on the face of christ. to fulfill that idea of the true likeness. what did the son of god look like? >> a week before his death, jesus arrives in jerusalem, along with thousands of pilgrims for the festival of passover. within days, he's been betrayed by judas. >> jesus of nazareth! >> arrested in the garden of gethsemane after he provokes the authorities he's handed over to the romans for trial and crucifixion. it's here that the story of the shroud begins. all four gospels talk about the burial cloth in which the crucified body of jesus is laid to rest. the bible tells that the cloth was given by joseph of arimathea, a wealthy member of the jewish council, the sanhedrin. >> the gospels describe joseph of arimathea as being a sympathizer with the jesus movement. he's fas

gospels are very clear that jesus had siblings. >> from doubter. >> can you imagine if your brother said i'm the son of god. >> to leader. >> james run the whole show in jerusalem. >> but why has james been lost to history? >> james is the forgotten man. >> one of the longest forgery trials ever, could this be the first physical evidence of jesus and his secret brother james? >> fall, 2002, royal ontario museum in toronto canada opens it's doors to what may be the most significant discovery ever in biblical archaeology. a limestone burial box. scientifically dated to the time of christ. on its side, an encryption in ancient arabaic which reads james, son of joseph, brother of jesus. >> it came just as we crossed the threshold. we had the y2k bug, the visit to the holy land and this seemed to be another one of those happenings. >> it's claimed that this box measuring 10 inches by 20 is no less than the burial casket of james, the brother of jesus christ. >> it's so important not just for the fact that it says the brother of jesus. but you have to understand that there's no physical eviden

. but who was his brother james? >> the gospels are very clear that jesus had siblings. >> from doubter. >> can you imagine if someone said my brother is the son of god? >> james really is the forgotten man. >> embroiled in one of the longest forgery trials ever, could this box be the first physical evidence of jesus and his secret brother james? ♪ >>> fall 2002. the royal ontario museum opens its doors to what may be the most significant discovery ever in biblical archaeology. a limestone burial box known as an ossuary, scientifically dated to the time of christ. on its side an inscription in ancient aramaic which reads "james, son of joseph, brother of jesus". >> it came just as we'd crossed the millennium threshold. we'd already had the y2k bug, and this seemed to be another one of those millennial happenings. >> it's claimed that this box, measuring 10 inches by 20 is no less than the burial casket of james, the brother of jesus christ. >> ossuary is so important, not just for the fact that it says the brother of jesus, but you have to understand that there's no physical e

. ♪ >> according to all four gospels, roman soldiers marched jesus of nazareth to a hill called golgotha, the place of the skull. a place so evil, few who saw it will ever forget it. but 300 years have passed. jerusalem is now a very different place. >> the question is how could helena find it? well, it really takes us back to the year 135 a.d. when the emperor, hadrian, builds a pagan temple over the site and ends up marking for all posterity the place of his death. >> the year before helena's son, the emperor constantine, ordered the temple be torn down. >> it wasn't his policy to destroy all of them, but that temple was the very antithesis of what christians thought christ was about. >> the account of what happened next is recorded in a later church history. >> at some point, perhaps as early as the 360s, we begin to see a legend emerge that describes helena's role in the finding of the true cross. >> which hold helena personally with her own bare hands removes some of the earth and uncovers three wooden crosses jumbled together. >> when she came across what she thought was t