The Real Jesus of Nazareth Miniseries

The Real Jesus of Nazareth will debut on Smithsonian Channel on Easter Sunday, April 16, at 8 p.m. The program features British actor Robert Powell, who played Jesus in the 1977 miniseries from Italian filmmaker Franco Zeffirelli, as he travels to the Holy Land to seek out clues about the historical figure. The Real Jesus of Nazareth combines scenes from the landmark series with Powell’s journey throughout modern Israel, where he meets archaeologists and scholars who help him reconstruct the story of Jesus. The first hour of the series, The Real Jesus of Nazareth: The Lost Years, will explore Jesus’s early life. The second episode, The Ministry Begins, will air immediately after and will focus on Jesus’s baptism by John the Baptist and other key events in his life. The final two hours of the series, From Galilee to Jerusalem and The Final Days, will air on Monday, April 17 starting at 8 p.m.