Documentary retraces Jesus' steps in Galilee

4/19/2003

During the two-plus decades that the Rev. Bargil Pixner lived on the shores of Israel's Sea of Galilee, he would often take a Bible in one hand and a surveying scope in the other and try to figure out where the events in the life of Christ actually took place.

The archaeologist and Benedictine monk believed that by studying the geography around Galilee and the distances Jesus would have walked from place to place, he could develop a practical timeline for the events described in the gospels of the Christian scriptures.

He published his findings in a 1992 book called With Jesus through Galilee according to the Fifth Gospel. Now, a documentary based on his work and made before his death last year will be shown on PBS stations around the country, including WGTE-TV (Channel 30) at 11 tomorrow night.

Written and produced for Family Theater Productions by Sister Judith Zielinski, a member of the Sisters of St. Francis in Sylvania, The Fifth Gospel: the Land and Sea of Galilee was filmed in Israel in