Original subtitles

From the time of jesus and his life,

what do we have for historic accounts?

Dieck: This is a very sacred place.

Normally, no one is allowed to come here.

That's incredible.

That person right there, they have no clue.

Jesus could've been born right here.

This could be it.

Who said archaeology was boring?

Woo-hoo!

Downright terrifying.

Oh, boy.

Wow, look at that!

It is just stacked with skulls and bones.

♪

♪

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.

But now experts equipped with new technology

are beginning to unravel the secrets of jesus.

One archaeologist believes he's made a discovery

that could change everything we think we know

about his celebrated birth, and biblical historians

believe that secrets buried in the gospels

could shed light on the lost years of his childhood.

I'm headed to the holy land

on an expedition both human and divine.

By examining clues and relics

at the most sacred sites in christianity,

I hope to discover the true origin story of jesus.

My name is josh gates...

Look! [ laughs ]

...Explorer, adventurer...

That is it!

...And a guy who ends up in some very strange situations.

Ah, ah, aah, haa!

With a degree in archaeology

and a passion for the unexplained,

I travel to the ends of the earth,

investigating the greatest legends in history.

Okay, let's punch it.

This is "expedition unknown."

-- captions by vitac -- www.Vitac.Com

captions paid for by discovery communications

hi, there.

Well, at first glance,

I could be just about anywhere right now,

in somebody's basement or poking around in a city sewer,

and in a sense, that would be correct because for years,

it was believed that the tunnels underneath me

were just drainage for rainwater,

but since then, archaeologists have pieced together

a layer cake of history here,

from biblical times all the way up to the modern world.

There, 30 feet above us, are thousands of people

and millions of tons of stone and marble

as well as one of the most venerated sites in the world.

[ choir singing in latin ]

♪

welcome to jerusalem's church of the holy sepulchre,

the most hallowed christian shrine on earth.

According to tradition, this is the very location

where jesus died and was buried.

The church is, in a word, breathtaking.

The very air that hangs inside

seems infused with something holy,

but this is also a place of mystery

because as sacred as this structure is,

nothing that you see here today existed in the time of jesus.

The bible tells us that jesus was crucified

on a barren hill called golgotha.

His body was then laid out on a stone

before being placed in a rock-cut tomb.

Over 300 years later when christianity spread to rome,

the emperor constantine dispatched his mother, helena,

to the holy land to identify the exact site.

She was led here.

The church she placed here was destroyed

and rebuilt over the centuries as jerusalem

changed hands between christians, moors and jews.

This is, religiously speaking, a high-traffic area.

Today, the top of the crucifixion hill

is under the floor of the church.

One can also place their hands on the stone

where jesus' body was laid out.

A few hundred feet away still inside the massive building

is the tomb itself, the place where scripture says

jesus was interred for three days

before rising from the dead.

With so much destruction and renovation here,

the question has always persisted,

was this church built in the right spot?

Well, a recent excavation here

might just answer that question once and for all.

The tomb had been badly weathered by time

and millions of visitors, so in 2016,

scientists were called in to do an emergency restoration.

They were given just 60 hours to peer beneath the tomb

for the first time in centuries.

Beneath a layer of fill, they found a piece of marble

stamped with a cross from the time of the crusades,

deeper down, even older marble from the time of constantine,

and at the bottom, they found the original limestone bed,

confirming the existence of a burial cave.

All of this supports the claim that constantine and helena

built on the right spot

and that this may well have been the true tomb of jesus christ.

♪

♪

I spill out into the labyrinth of the old city,

beyond the throngs of pilgrims on the via dolorosa.

Having seen how archaeology is helping us

understand christ's death,

I'm moving on to my investigation of his birth

by meeting hebrew university teacher

and guide danny "the digger" herman.

When you walk around this part of the old city,

everywhere you go, you're confronted

with these images of christ

from the last days of his life.

Let's talk about his birth.

From the time of jesus in his life,

what do we have for historic accounts?

We have none. Nothing?

No. What we have is the gospels.

Okay.

These are the four books from the new testament --

matthew, mark, luke and john.

Yes.

The gospels are the, and I do mean the, source

of all of our historic knowledge of the life and times of jesus.

It's basically a biography of one man

from four different writers.

This is where we get the story of the holy birth,

and with sincere apologies to my old Sunday-school teacher,

this is how I remember it.

A little over 2,000 years ago in nazareth,

a virgin named mary is awakened in the middle of the night

by the angel gabriel,

the biblical version of maury povich,

who tells her she's pregnant and the father is, you know, god.

She takes the news surprisingly well

as does her very understanding husband,

a guy named joseph.

Unfortunately, the timing stinks.

Right around the baby's due date,

the roman emperor, caesar augustus,

orders a tax census to be held,

requiring all citizens to be counted in their hometowns.

Stupid taxes.

Since joseph was from the little town of bethlehem,

he and his extremely pregnant wife

take a road trip there by donkey,

and you know the rest. There's no room at the inn,

and mary gives birth to jesus in a manger

surrounded by some seriously surprised barnyard animals

and three kings from the east who followed a star

and brought some super weird stuff without a gift receipt.

This is it.

The gospels are the primary source material for this story.

The only source, actually, yes,

and only two of them care to record

his birth in bethlehem.

Only two of the four? Only two, yes.

So now we're down to two gospels?

Yes.

Yep, that's right.

Two of the books don't even bother

with jesus' birth story,

and matthew and luke offer slightly different versions,

and that's not even the strangest part.

One of the things you need to understand,

matthew and luke, just like mark and john,

they were compiled some 60 to 80 years later.

They are not from the time of jesus.

None of the gospels were written during his life?

No.

Scholars largely agree that the gospels were not written

by the people they're named after

but rather by their followers who cobbled

together the story decades later.

That's kind of mind-blowing in and of itself, right?

I mean, they're written as though

they're firsthand accounts.

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?

Yeah. That's incredible.

But just because the gospels are pseudobiographical

doesn't mean they're wrong.

As the closest thing to contemporary history we have,

they're invaluable sources for learning

about the historical jesus.

So from some of the gospels, we have the story of his birth,

but how accurate are the details?

And what about the date and the year?

I mean, you know, this is the story that we hear.

It happened at the end of December, you know?

2,000 and somewhat years ago, yes.

Yeah, exactly.

Well, that date was created by a monk

some centuries later in europe.

What is the likelihood that he really hit

the right year, year 1?

Well, first of all, the text tells us when jesus is born,

king herod is still alive. Right.

At this time, this is a roman province.

King herod famously is in charge of that province.

Yeah, but he died 4 years earlier at the year 4 bce,

according to roman historians.

Right.

So the year that jesus was born might not be year 1

but somewhere a few years before that.

Maybe.

So we may be off by a few years in terms of his birth.

Yeah. We should all add, like,

4 years to the christian count.

And what about the monk? What about, you know?

25 of December, christmas?

Yes. Do we at least have that?

No. Okay.

Boy, it's all falling apart here.

It's all falling apart here immediately.

That was decided also centuries later.

In constantinople and in rome,

it was decided to match it with some roman pagan holiday.

Okay, so the year and the date are a little fluid,

but in terms of the fundamentals of the birth story,

the gospels do tell us where it happened, right?

Bethlehem, the house of bread in hebrew.

That's the accepted location?

The accepted location by the gospels,

and since we only have the gospels,

I cannot suggest any other place.

Do you think it is truly possible to separate

jesus the man from jesus the religious figure?

We have archaeology.

We have a lot of holy places,

and through archaeological research

that is an ongoing process,

we understand more and more.

If you really want to understand the story of jesus,

you have to start in bethlehem.

You have to go to the church of nativity,

to the crypt under identified

as the very place where he was born.

Armed with the knowledge that the gospels

are not firsthand accounts,

I want to see if the accepted place of jesus' birth

is the real deal.

I say goodbye to danny the digger

and pick up some wheels for my short trip

to the church of the nativity,

but don't confuse short for easy.

Okay, headed to bethlehem.

You know, for centuries,

christians around the world have been taught

that this is the location of the stable where jesus was born.

It's practically an article of faith,

and so you might think that bethlehem would be surrounded

by hundreds of holy christian sites,

but, in fact, that's not the case,

and that's because bethlehem actually sits

in the highly controversial area known as the west bank.

Roll the tape.

The west bank refers to about 2,000 square miles of territory

bordered by the west bank of the jordan river

and extending all the way into jerusalem.

The name, though, is the only thing people seem to agree on.

It's the center of a decades-long conflict

between the israelis and the palestinians,

and since discussing the politics of the west bank

is like wading into quicksand, I'll just say this --

I look forward to a day when the military checkpoint

I'm rapidly approaching is unnecessary.

This road is dangerous to your lives.

Okay.

Okay, here comes the checkpoint.

Just a couple of nice jewish boys

with kevlar vests, automatic weapons.

Oh, boy.

Gates: To find the historical truth about christ's birthplace,

I'm approaching the hotly contested border

between israel and the west bank.

Now is a good time to have the u.S. Embassy on speed dial.

Okay, here comes the checkpoint.

Oh, boy.

Hello.

How are you?

I'm good.

Everything good?

Okay? Thank you very much.

Toda.

♪ hallelujah ♪

♪ hallelujah, hallelujah ♪

choir: ♪ hallelujah ♪

♪ hallelujah, hallelujah ♪

gates: Well, tensions in the middle east extend

all the way to the car-rental counter.

One of the many peculiarities here

is that israeli car-rental companies

will not let you take one of their vehicles

into parts of the west bank that are under palestinian control.

There's actually a chip in this car

that tells them if I do so, so I need to pull over

and switch to a palestinian taxi.

♪

hey. -Hi.

-Bethlehem? -Yes, welcome.

All right. Great.

Okay.

[ both speak arabic ]

what's your name?

My name is osama.

Great.

Here we go.

It's a quick ride to the middle of bethlehem,

and my cab drops me at the church of the nativity,

where I've arranged a meeting

with biblical historian haytham dieck.

Haytham. Hey, how are you?

Hey, I'm josh. Hi, josh. How are you?

Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you.

First of all, I love that this

is the main entrance to the church.

That's right. The smallest door ever.

We call it the door of humility.

Door of humility, yeah.

What could be more humble than this?

Exactly. The most important church

in the world with the smallest door ever.

Right. Should we go inside?

Absolutely, please. Please.

After you. Thank you.

♪

so beautiful.

Gates: This is the oldest-standing church

in the holy land,

said to have been built on the exact spot

of jesus christ's birth.

And like the holy sepulchre in jerusalem,

we have the emperor constantine to thank for it.

After he made christianity the official religion

of the roman empire in the year 325,

he sent his mother, helena, here to preserve

and memorialize the events of jesus' life,

and this was one of the first places she found.

After his mother, helena, was at the site here

and discovered the site of the birth.

And according to tradition, this miraculous birth

happened underneath us, right?

Yes. Happened underneath us, exactly, just there.

Down the stairs?

Would you like to come and see it?

Yes. Let's go.

Such a mysterious entrance.

Oh, yes.

Haytham brings me down ancient stone steps

to the place helena discovered,

the purported location of the nativity.

Absolutely stunning, look at this.

Here we are, right? And this is it?

That's it. This is the spot, yes?

It's the spot.

The accepted birthplace of jesus christ.

Yes. The star of bethlehem.

Absolutely amazing,

and, you know, what's so remarkable about this

is that it's not at all what most people,

I think, would expect. That's right.

I think of this story from Sunday school.

Mm-hmm.

And I remember there was no room at the inn,

and so mary and joseph, they stay in a manger,

and there's hay on the ground,

and there's donkeys, and there's animals.

This feels more like we're in a cave.

In fact, it is a cave. It is?

This idea that they went to the inn,

and they didn't find any space, actually,

the inn is the guest room.

So this is not an inn

like they were going to the motel 6,

and they were sold out?

Not at all. Absolutely...

That's how people think about it, though, I think...

Exactly.

...Like it was some sort of guest lodging,

but this would probably have been

one of their relatives' or friends' homes?

Absolutely, one of their relatives', friends' home,

and they found the guest room occupied,

so they had to go down into a cave

in order to give birth here in this place.

Many people back in the 1st century

would use caves or grottos for protecting their animals.

Early paintings of the nativity,

like this one, depict the birth in a cave,

not away in a manger as later illustrations

and christmas carols would have us believe.

In a sense, this is a manger... -This is a manger.

...Just maybe not the one we picture.

Exactly.

And so what evidence do we have that the church

was constructed in the correct place?

We have lots of evidence from the early christian witnesses.

Back in the 2nd and the 3rd century,

local people were showing the pilgrims

and people coming to visit the place where jesus was born,

which means we have a very high authenticity.

And what about archaeologically?

Do we have any evidence, any bones,

any pottery from this time period

when jesus was born that's been found down here?

So far, we have not found

any archaeological remains to that period,

but close by, there's a place I'm going to show you,

a secret place where we might have that evidence.

Yeah? Let's see it.

Let's see it. Okay, please.

So though the manger itself is sacred,

it doesn't offer us any archaeological evidence,

but nearby is another chamber,

one that most pilgrims aren't even aware exists,

which might tell a different story.

I don't know what to expect at the end of this dark tunnel,

but I'm pretty sure it isn't this.

Oh, my word.

These are tombs.

So these are bench-style rock-cut tombs?

Yes, exactly.

Wow, look at this.

And if you look down, you can see some remains.

Wow.

This is a very sacred place.

Normally, no one is allowed to come here.

That's incredible.

And the big question...

When do the bones date from?

From the time of jesus, the 1st century.

So this brings us back to the 1st century?

Exactly.

It's not just this room.

There are other chambers I want to show you also.

There's more?

Yes. There's more. Come with me.

Josh, come and see here.

Whoa, unbelievable.

It is just stacked with skulls and bones.

Gates: Deep beneath the church of the nativity in bethlehem,

biblical scholar haytham dieck believes he can prove

that this is the site of jesus' true birthplace.

No definitive archaeological evidence

has been found to date the nativity site itself,

but deeper in the complex,

he brings me through a restricted area

and to a shocking site.

Unbelievable. Look at this.

It is just stacked with skulls and bones.

How many people are in here?

As many as 2,000.

As many as 2,000 people.

Yes.

The cave here is called the cave of the holy innocents.

Many believe it's the evidence

of the massacre by herod.

Okay, so this story comes from the book of matthew.

Herod, who was the king in this region for the romans,

was nervous about an old testament prophecy

about a child from bethlehem

who would grow up to be the true king of the jews.

So to deal with this future threat,

herod has his soldiers kill all male children in bethlehem

who are younger than 2 years old.

The resulting slaughter is known

as the massacre of the innocents.

Though horrific to contemplate, many historians doubt the story

because the only source yet to be found

for such a notable event is the book of matthew.

Even roman historians make no mention

of what would be an unprecedented bloodbath,

and some contend the bones

are simply the remains of early christian worshippers.

Haytham and other biblical scholars, though,

believe these bones are the victims of the massacre

and proof that matthew's gospel is historical fact.

They are the first christian martyrs

ever that were killed for the blood of jesus.

It's a really kind of disturbing sight,

but it is extraordinary.

Thank you so much, haytham. You're welcome, josh.

I appreciate it. It's a real pleasure.

Thank you. Okay. Back to the surface.

The church of the nativity has offered

tantalizing connections to the 1st century,

but there are no artifacts that tie it directly to jesus,

and the human remains nearby are unsettled as evidence.

Haytham's belief, however, is as constant

as the star the three kings followed 2,000 years ago.

♪

leaving bethlehem, I decide to saddle up

to put the nativity story through a test of my own.

Now, 2,000 years later, it is, of course,

impossible to scientifically test

every element of the nativity story,

but we can certainly take some educated guesses.

Now, I am not, nor have I ever been, 9 months pregnant,

but I've been sitting on this donkey for about a mile now,

and I can tell you, my butt is already killing me.

The idea that a woman who is so pregnant

she's within a day of giving birth

riding close to 100 miles from her hometown on a donkey

does seem, well, let's use the word unlikely.

Now, that doesn't mean the event didn't take place,

but some archaeologists and historians have begun to suspect

that maybe the most famous birth in history

took place somewhere else.

My car is just up here.

Come on.

I haul my sore ass back to my rental

and drive back into israel

to find archaeologist aviram oshri.

For some reason, in a country where you can drive end-to-end

in less than 4 hours, he's asked me to meet him

at an airport.

So I've just come from the church

of the nativity in bethlehem,

and I take it that you do not think

this is where jesus was born.

No, absolutely not. Why?

One of the reason is the complete lack

of the archaeological evidence of inhabitants

in bethlehem, judea.

Yeah. I mean, I was struck by the fact

that there doesn't seem to be a lot of material there.

Exactly.

So you don't accept this idea

that jesus was born in bethlehem.

No.

I do believe jesus was born in bethlehem,

but there is a second bethlehem.

There's a second bethlehem?

Exactly.

I didn't know there was another bethlehem.

There is a second one in the galilee.

In galilee.

Galilee is in the northern region of israel

and the place where jesus would eventually

establish his ministry.

It also contains mary and joseph's hometown of nazareth.

So what if instead of traveling nearly 100 miles

to the accepted site of bethlehem,

they traveled only a few miles to a lesser-known settlement

by the same name?

Bethlehem of galilee,

and did both of those exist at the same time?

At the same time, yeah.

How confident are you

that he's from this other bethlehem?

I'm 100% convinced.

-100%? -Yeah.

The question is, how do you prove it?

Well, for that reason, we have the plane,

so let's get airborne, and I'll show you.

All right. After you, please.

Aviram intends to scan bethlehem of galilee

for proof that he's right.

We board a cessna grand caravan where robin terry is waiting.

-Hi. -I'm josh.

Josh, hi. I'm robin.

Robin, nice to meet you.

I'm the leader-operator for this flight today.

Terrific.

Aviram, you look nervous.

Pilot: Me too.

Who said, "me too"?

The pilot is not allowed to say that.

Everybody else is allowed to be afraid.

That's good. That's reassuring.

Gates: Our cessna is cleared for the runway.

The pilot hits the gas, and our 675-horsepower engine kicks in.

We lift off.

Next stop...The new bethlehem.

Now, this dangerous-looking box back here, robin,

I assume this has something to do with you.

Okay, so we're gonna be doing some laser mapping.

Lidar technology uses lasers

to map billions of points of data.

Then robin can strip away surface layers of vegetation

from the image to show the true terrain underneath.

So, aviram, what's the hope here?

What do you want the lidar to reveal?

A wall? So why would that be significant?

And is there a fortification wall

at the bethlehem that I've been to?

No? No.

So if there's a wall at your site,

that could be the real bethlehem.

I got it, makes sense.

Do we have any historical evidence

or anything from the bible that indicates

that jesus may have been born here?

It says he was born in galilee?

When exploring mysteries about jesus,

I make it a policy to always carry a bible with me,

and in this case, it pays off.

Verse 40, "some of the people were saying,

'this is certainly the prophet.'

others were saying, 'this is the christ.'

others were saying, 'but surely the christ

is not going to come from galilee, is he?'"

this literally says that jesus is from galilee.

Wow.

I had no idea that was even in the bible.

Different gospels telling slightly different stories,

but which one is correct?

Right down there?

Robin, your move.

We need to cover the site in strips, like mowing a lawn.

But the plane doesn't handle as well

as your average john deere.

Woo-hoo!

Gates: I'm in israel with archaeologist aviram oshri,

who thinks that the little town of bethlehem

from jesus' birth story

isn't the one most of the world accepts

but, instead, a different city by the same name

located in the northern region of galilee.

Now, we're performing a lidar scan to see

if a telltale fortification wall surrounds the site.

But our plane does not turn on a dime.

Gates: Woo-hoo!

Who said archaeology was boring?

It's downright terrifying.

[ laughter ]

terry: Okay, guys.

It looks like the scan is complete.

Okay. Let's get back on the ground

and take a look at the data.

We touch down, and I'm grateful

to see israel at eye level again.

Okay, wheels down.

Robin brings the lidar data to his lab for analysis.

While we anxiously wait for the results,

aviram brings me to the site that we just scanned from above,

what he believes is bethlehem 2.0.

Okay, josh, pull in here.

Over a decade ago, aviram dug in this area

and found the remains of a huge byzantine-era church

that he thinks was built over a significant site,

but he was forced to backfill his excavation to preserve it.

Now a busy street is running right through

the footprint of the building that he thinks could be on top

of the true site of the nativity.

Okay, this is where the church was, here.

Okay, above us? Above us.

So this was higher then? Yeah.

And during those excavations, what did you find?

I found on the northern side the remains of northern hole

and the baptistery hole,

one paved with a beautiful mosaic floor.

It's an ornate structure for such a small village,

so its very presence may be an indicator of an important site.

And so in terms of today,

can any of this church be seen still?

Is any of it exposed?

There is maybe only few stones that we can detect.

Oh, look at that.

There's stones here and here.

This would have continued up and over the road...

Yeah. ...And back this way?

Mm-hmm.

But the church by itself wouldn't be enough to prove

that this was the birthplace.

The cave that served as jesus' manger

would have to be here as well.

Well, aviram's found that, too.

Gates: Right in here?

Oshri: That's the place.

It wasn't big. Uh-huh.

It was just the remains of the cave.

And so if you're right, hundreds of people

a day are driving by here

who have no idea that this could be

one of the most significant sites in the world.

Yeah.

That person right there, they have no clue.

Jesus could have been born right here.

They don't know. This could be it.

Yeah.

-Please. -Let's go.

Which brings us back to the wall.

Historical sources tell us that the right bethlehem

was surrounded by a large fortification wall.

Aviram contends that the other bethlehem lacks this wall,

and while the lidar will tell us more about this place,

aviram has already found an intriguing hint.

This is a part of the wall we've found.

Aha! Look at that, amazing!

I mean, a proper wall,

really well-preserved in here, too.

This is from the right time, you think?

Yeah. It's byzantine.

Gates: There's no doubt this is an impressive wall,

but is it our fortification wall,

and did it surround the one true bethlehem?

More wall, and it keeps going through here.

[ cellphone rings ] uh-huh.

They have the lidar results.

They have them? Yeah, they have them.

Yeah, okay. Come on. Let's go.

We peel out of the site and speed toward the lab

where robin's team has analyzed the lidar data.

What we're seeing here is the topography

plus the vegetation.

So with the vegetation,

it's very hard to detect anything.

Now, let's just take the vegetation off.

Oh ho! Look at that!

That is a wall right there,

and so we were able to see part of that in the field.

The question is, how big it is.

Could it be a fortification wall?

So can we see if it continues to the north or the south?

Yeah. It goes on down south.

And then what happens to it?

There is something here.

We see something here. What is this?

I think the wall continues here.

You think it turns. It keeps going to the east.

Yeah.

I think this is where the gate of the city was.

It may be that it turned there.

It does look like the same stone piles

we're seeing in the wall.

So there's some evidence on here

that it might go to the east,

but the whole thing has been leveled and built over.

So final analysis, what do you think?

So I think we have a lot of reasons to dig here.

Now we have to excavate.

Okay, well, I look forward to coming back

and seeing what's under the ground here.

Me too. Thanks very much, aviram.

Thank you, guys, so much.

I really appreciate it.

Gates: Aviram is dead sure he's found

the genuine site of the nativity,

and though it will take a lot more investigating,

the proof he's searching for might only be one shovel away.

I wish him luck and make my way back to the car to investigate

a third and final contender

for the true birthplace of jesus.

Aviram's theory about bethlehem 2.0 is intriguing,

but the fact is, for as famous a name as bethlehem is,

it's only mentioned twice in the entire new testament.

Two of the gospels don't mention it at all,

but there is another town that's mentioned a lot in the bible,

a place that is so associated with christ

that it's practically attached to his name.

He's not just jesus.

He's jesus of...

I pull into nazareth feeling about half past dead,

but instead of taking a load off,

I take a walk around the remarkable city

where jesus grew up.

Nazareth is where jesus spent his childhood years.

In fact, it may be one of the only things that we can say

for sure about his early life, but modern nazareth

probably isn't anything like you'd expect.

Sure, it has old-world markets,

but, really, this is a modern, bustling city

with a population of 75,000 people

and the largest arab population in all of israel.

Now, if you want to see the nazareth of the bible,

you need to look down.

The nazareth of jesus' time sits on solid bedrock,

buried about 10 feet underground,

but a few years ago,

archaeologists discovered something extraordinary.

I'm inside an ancient silo,

a rock-cut chamber used for storing food

and above it... Check it out.

♪

this subterranean room opens up into the basement of a dwelling

but not just any dwelling -- the very first home in nazareth

ever excavated from the time of jesus.

Gates: The markets of jerusalem cater to pilgrims of all faiths,

but what if I'm shopping for a new career?

Well, turns out they've got me covered.

Hello. This is your shop?

This is my shop. All of these shops?

Yes, all of it. Terrific.

Where do you come from, sir?

I come from usa. Usa?

Can I be an actor one day, maybe?

You want to be an actor?

Well, my friend, they say I'm a good actor.

Really? Yeah.

Let me see sad.

Let me see scared.

You got the part.

You've won a job hosting the show.

I take it as a compliment.

I'm going to work here now, and you'll do this.

Good luck. Thank you.

You can have the hat. Here you go.

All right. And let me see how it looks.

I'll just be here at the shop. Good luck.

All right. Thank you.

Good luck. Follow him around now, guys.

That way.

I'll just be here.

Half off, everything is half off!

Gates: In search of the truth

behind the story of jesus' birth,

I've examined the church of the nativity in bethlehem

and scanned a second site

purported to be the real place where he was born.

Now I'm exploring his hometown of nazareth,

where archaeologists recently unearthed a unique dwelling.

But not just any dwelling -- the very first home in nazareth

ever excavated from the time of jesus.

The find revealed for the first time

what life might have been like for the young family of three

that came home from that manger.

Archaeologists found pottery and other artifacts,

a portrait of this modest village

that had a very special kid playing in its streets.

What's truly incredible about this place

isn't its grandeur but rather its modesty.

The real nazareth was a tiny jewish village,

probably 40 or 50 small brick-lined houses like this.

Nazareth doesn't even show up on a proper map

until 300 years after jesus dies.

In a town that small, for all we know,

jesus himself could have walked inside this very house,

but the more that you learn

about the real, historic nazareth,

the more that the mysteries about the birth of jesus

come into focus.

♪

the story of jesus doesn't actually begin with his birth.

It begins when the angel gabriel informs mary

that she's carrying the child of god.

This is known as the annunciation,

and not only is there a church here to mark

the occasion, there are two.

There's a huge basilica at the site

where helena believed it took place,

and if that's not to your liking,

there's a second shrine where the greek orthodox church

holds that the blessed event really happened,

and that's where I meet dr. Uzi dahari...

Dr. Dahari. Hi.

Nice to meet you.

...An archaeologist who thinks that nazareth

was the site of more than just the annunciation.

So let's talk about the birth of jesus.

I've been to not one but two bethlehems now,

and what do you make of this idea

that jesus was born in bethlehem?

Do you think there's any history to support that?

No. You don't?

No. I don't think so.

Where do you think he was born?

Somewhere in nazareth?

Okay. We're going to need a bigger headline.

Unlike the other archaeologists I've met with,

dr. Dahari doesn't believe jesus was born in bethlehem

at all, not the one in judea, not the one in galilee

but right here in nazareth.

Right, and one of the other stories

that I think so many of us know

is the idea that the reason that he's born in bethlehem

is because there's this tax census.

Is there any evidence that a census like this

ever took place?

The only known census in that time was around 6 ad,

well after the birth of jesus.

The idea that everybody would have to go back

to the place they were born to be taxed

seems like a pretty crazy system.

There's no real evidence that romans ever required

people to road-trip to their hometowns to be taxed.

Instead, dr. Dahari believes that the tax census

was a kind of plot device by later authors

who were trying to reconcile jesus' birth story

with old testament prophecies of who the messiah needed to be.

For example, the messiah was thought to be from the house

of the great jewish leader king david

who was born in, you guessed it, bethlehem.

If we can connect him to david,

then he is the sort of rightful heir.

When you think about what a kind of humble place

nazareth was, the idea that he was born here

does make the most sense.

Right.

Consider this -- from the time of his birth until his baptism

by john around 30 years later, jesus lived here in nazareth

all but the last three years of his life,

and the only thing the bible tells us

about this entire period is one story

of a teenage jesus getting lost on a trip to jerusalem.

That's it.

It's the humbleness of jesus

and the simplicity of his life

that causes this mystery because nobody really,

in his time, wrote down anything about him.

Right.

Right.

With dr. Dahari's words,

I'm once again reminded of the remarkable fact

that jesus, the central figure in 2 millennia of human history,

was, in his own time, simply a man among men.

When that changed, many of the details of his early life

had already been lost.

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 neighbor as thyself, care for the weakest among us

and stand for the dignity of all.

Whether historic or divine,

it's a message that's worth following.