Smithsonian Channel - The Real Jesus of Nazareth (2017)

Actor Robert Powell, star of the TV miniseries "Jesus of Nazareth," is on a journey across the Holy Land to discover the real story of the role he played decades ago. Guided by the Gospels and the latest archaeological and historical research, Powell will travel to Israel, Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt. With the help of scholars and theologians, he will examine Jesus's lost adolescent years, the start and growth of his ministry, and his death and believed resurrection, which would spark the birth of one of the largest religions on the planet.

Part 1: The Lost Years
Enter the Holy Land as we examine what Jesus's life may have been like during the undocumented years of his young life.
THE LOST YEARS explores Jesus' early years around Nazareth and Bethlehem, most of which are not covered in the Bible. As he journeys through the Holy Land, Powell catches references to the young Jesus – from his famous birth, to the 12-year-old child debating scripture in the temple in Jerusalem, to his mysterious lost years, where he disappears from history before reappearing in the gospels around the age of 30. Powell walks where Jesus conceivably walked and travels to Nazareth, Bethlehem, Sepphoris and Jerusalem, consulting with leading historians, archaeologists and theologians to uncover what life was like as a Jew in first-century Judea.

Part 2: The Ministry Begins
Follow us to Mount Precipice, the River Jordan, and Jerusalem as we investigate the start of Jesus's ministry. Learn how he built a following with his words, charisma, and miracles and developed his radical message of the coming apocalypse.
THE MINISTRY BEGINS highlights Jesus' baptism by John the Baptist, the first event in Jesus' life that is reported in all four gospels. Powell looks to uncover how Jesus might have developed the message – radical for its time – that would form the basis of the future Christian religion. Powell travels into the Judaean desert where Jesus fasted for 40 days, and then follows the ancient routes to Galilee where Jesus taught after his exile from Nazareth.

Part 3: From Galilee to Jerusalem
Discover the history beyond the legend as we reveal how Jesus built his ministry and the great danger that came with it.
In the third hour in the series, FROM GALILEE TO JERUSALEM, Powell travels to Capernaum, a fishing village where Jesus expanded his ministry, where he learns more from historians about the people who chose to follow Jesus, including his disciples. He then goes to the Mount of Beatitudes where Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount, the cornerstone of Christian ethics. Powell follows in Jesus' footsteps to Jerusalem, where after speaking with historians, rabbis and archaeologists, he uncovers a radical new idea about Jesus' final confrontation with the Jewish authorities before his arrest.

Part 4: The Final Days
Join us as we examine Jesus's final days, using Christian tradition and archaeology to separate the man from the myth.
The fourth installment, THE FINAL DAYS, chronicles the last moments of Jesus' life, following his entry into Jerusalem for the Jewish festival of Passover. Powell learns that Jesus' claim to be the messiah was what caused him to be sent before Pontius Pilate, and Powell gets a chance to stand on the exact steps from where Pilate would have sent Jesus to be crucified. After meeting with professors to demonstrate how different the reality of crucifixion would have been from the traditional depictions, Powell returns to Jerusalem one final time to explore a traditional tomb and discover how the apostles' belief in the resurrection of Jesus — as described in all four gospels — would become be the catalyst for a new religion: Christianity.