Our film begins in 1799 with the discovery of a mysterious Zodiac in an Egyptian temple. Dated back to 5000 BC, it triggered a huge row over the reliability of creation story, which the church had traditionally dated back to 4004 BC. Bible hunting took a new turn with the discovery of the Gospel of Peter, the first to be found that hadn’t been included in the bible. And soon after, the British archaeologist Grenfell and Hunt discovered unknown writings attributed to Jesus. The bible hunters had wanted to find evidence in support of the bible. Inadvertently, their discoveries may have added to the ongoing erosion of the faith. Today, bible hunting continues with the help of modern technology. The story of the bible hunters isn’t over yet.

This first episode begins in 1844 with the arrival in Egypt of leading German bible scholar, Constantin von Tischendorf, in search of evidence to prove the historical truth of the Bible. This film follows Tischendorf’s epic journey to the ancient monastery of St. Catherine’s in the Sinai desert, and his remarkable, chance discovery of Codex Sinaiticus, the oldest Christian Bible containing the earliest copy of the New Testament dated to the mid-4th century. We also trace the story of Charles Lang Freer. An avid art collector, it was a chance purchase on the Cairo antiquities market that assured his place in the Bible Hunter Hall of Fame, after he acquired the Freer Gospels, the third oldest parchment manuscript of the gospels dating from the 4th or early 5th centuries.