Mysteries of Jesus

**Mysteries of Jesus** is the 3rd episode in Season 6 of Expedition Unknown.

## Plot Synopsis

Josh Gates journeys to the Holy Land to find out where Jesus was born; his investigation leads to potentially explosive revelations that may change people's understanding of Jesus' origin story.

## Historical Context

"Jesus Christ. Perhaps you've heard of him, the key figure of the largest religion on the planet, worshipped by more than 2 billion people. His story is one of miracles but also of mysteries, specifically the early part of his life. In fact, in the roughly 30 years between his birth and his baptism, virtually nothing is written about the most influential person in history."

~ Josh Gates

## Summary

Josh goes to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, Israel, and then heads out into the Old City. He meets Danny Herman, an archaeologist who says there are no sources, except the Gospel about Jesus' life. Danny explains the Gospel is not from Jesus' lifetime and that we don't know for sure when Jesus was born. Josh then heads to Bethlehem in the West Bank and he visits the Church of the Nativity where he meets Haytham Dieck, a biblical scholar. They see where Jesus was supposedly born and Haytham shows Josh tombs found nearby from Jesus' time as well as bones which Haytham believes are from the Massacre by Herod.

Josh rides one mile on a donkey and believes it's unlikely that Mary would've ridden 100 miles by donkey while nine months pregnant. Afterwards, Josh meets with Aviram Oshri, an archaeologist, at an airport and Aviram explains there is another Bethlehem in Galilee not far from Nazareth, where Mary and Joseph would've ridden from for the census. They meet Robin Terry, a LIDAR technician, and use LIDAR to scan Bethlehem of Galilee for signs of a fortification wall which was built around the "true" Bethlehem. Aviram shows Josh a bible verse (John 7:40-42) that states Jesus is from Galilee, and the more well-known Bethlehem is not located in Galilee and does not have a wall around it.

In Bethlehem of Galilee, Aviram shows Josh stones of an old church and the remains of a cave where Jesus may have been born. On the ground, they see the fortification wall and find it on the LIDAR scans too. Josh's final stop is to Nazareth and he goes to a dwelling that's from the time of Jesus. He then meets Dr Uzi Dahari, an archaeologist, at a local church. Uzi believes Jesus was born in Nazareth because there is no evidence of a census until after Jesus was born and there is no evidence that people had to go back to their hometown to be taxed. Uzi believes authors of the Bible wanted to connect Jesus with King David, who was from Bethlehem.

## Final Words

"Having heard three different theories about the location of Jesus' birth, it does seem that the simplest story is the likeliest, that he was born where he grew up - here in Nazareth. The search for the historic truth around Jesus' birth and early life has turned up sincere differences of opinion and some contradicting liturgy. But what's remarkable is the universal desire, even after 2,000 years, to know more about the man named Jesus Christ. His history may always remain something of a mystery, but the most fundamental of his teachings are as clear as when they were first written down here in the 1st century - love thy neighbour as thyself, care for the weakest among us and stand for the dignity of all."

~ Josh Gates

## Notes & Trivia

* *This is where you can put notes and trivia, anything that is interesting or strange can be included here*

## Quotes

* "The biblical version of Maury Povich."
* "Three kings from the east who followed a star and brought some super weird stuff without a gift receipt."
* "So this would be like if I was writing about Woodstock, and I wasn't there for it, but my dad went, and he told me all about it, and then I write it as though I was there?"
* "This road is dangerous to your lives. Okay."
* "So this is not like an inn like they were going to the Motel 6, and they were sold out?"
* "The pilot is not allowed to say that. Everybody else is allowed to be afraid. That's good. That's reassuring."

## References

1. ↑ https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYzEzNGE0YzQtNzE1OS00YzdhLTg4ODctMGU3MmUwODY2NzI4XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTI0MDY5NzI@.\_V1\_.jpg