David Suchet: In the Footsteps of St Paul
Season 1
Episode #101. Suchet begins on the path of St. Paul throughout the Middle East/Asia Minor from Jerusalem to Turkey, and explores Paul's Damascus conversion road experience that would change his life forever. He also seeks to show how Paul's early life in Tarsus would prepare him for his missionary work that would take him across the Roman Empire. In Antioch we encounter Paul and the fledgling church as they make the crucial decision to admit Gentiles into the Christian faith. This episode ends with Suchet's saying that Paul's next big step would be to convert the populations in Europe - which sets Paul up with a confrontation with Rome. Episode #102. Suchet follows Paul's journey to the west where the name of Jesus was not known. Paul wants to convert people to Jesus before the end of the world arrives. But he is doing so in areas where Caesar himself is believed to be a God, and his mission is not well received. Successes are met with failures in places like Philippi and Thessaloniki, but Paul is proud of hardships as they serve to strengthen his resolve to change the world. All roads lead to Rome, the hub of early Christianity, and it is here that Paul will pay the ultimate price.
Where to Watch Season 1
2 Episodes
- Part 1E1
Part 1In this first programme actor David Suchet undertakes an epic journey spanning the Mediterranean. His inspiration is a charismatic individual whose own travels through this region, two thousand years ago, changed the world forever - Paul the Apostle. In this first episode, David visits Jerusalem to discover Paul's early life as a devout Jew and his subsequent, life-changing, conversion to the new Jesus Movement. David journeys to Tarsus in modern Turkey where Paul was born, and learns he was a citizen of two worlds. He travels to Antioch in Eastern Turkey, where Paul set about his mission of converting the Gentile world to the new religion of Christianity; and to Ephesus, where Paul challenged the gods of Empire. In so doing, he was challenging the might of Rome itself. - Part 2E2
Part 2On this journey, David seeks to uncover how an obscure Jewish sect from the edge of the Roman Empire shattered the world of the classical gods and challenged the might of Caesar, to become the dominant force in Western civilization. The catalyst for this social and religious revolution was a 5'8" powerhouse called Paul. After Jesus, Paul is the most significant figure in the history of Christianity and the Western world. He was the first international ambassador of this new faith, catapulting the radical salvation message of Jesus from Judea to the wider Mediterranean world. In this episode, David follows Paul's mission in Europe to convert the Gentile, Roman world to the new Christian faith. In Greece David visits the ancient city of Philippi, where Paul made his first convert in Europe, and then heads on to Thessalonika, Athens and Corinth.
