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Jesus, also known as Jesus of Nazareth, is the central figure of Christianity, in which context he is known as Jesus Christ (from the Greek Ιησούς Χριστός ; transliteration: "Iesous Christos"). He is also an important prophet in Islam.

Jesus is generally accepted to have been born between 8-4 BC/BCE and to have died between 26-36 AD/CE. The primary sources regarding his life and teachings, written by followers more than 40 years after his death, are the canonical gospels from the New Testament of the Bible, which depict him – among many other things – as a Jewish Galilean preacher and healer who was often at odds with Jewish religious authorities, and who was crucified outside of Jerusalem during the rule of the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate. After his death, numerous followers spread his teachings, and within a few centuries Christianity emerged as a major religion distinct from Judaism.

Beyond the historical information accepted by most secular scholars, the gospels make various additional claims about Jesus: that Jesus was the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament (or Hebrew Bible); that he was the son of God; that he existed before the world was created (John 17:5), that Christ "and the Father are One" (John 10:30), and similar Johannine quotes seen by Christians as suggestive of divinity; that his mother Mary was a virgin; and that after his crucifixion he rose from the dead, and then ascended into heaven. These concepts are central to the theology and traditions of most Christians, who remember Jesus in church services as well as through the Christian liturgical calendar, including holidays such as Christmas and Easter.

In Christian theology, Christology is the study of the nature of Jesus. It is concerned with his divine nature, his human nature, and the interrelationship between these two, especially in terms of the incarnation. These perspectives on Jesus vary among the many forms of Christianity.

In Islam, Jesus (called Isa) is one of God's most beloved and important prophets, a bringer of divine scripture, and also the messiah; although, Muslims attach a different meaning to this term than Christians, as they do not share the Christian belief in the divinity of Jesus.

Life and teachings, based upon the gospels

Chronology

Template:JesusTimeline The most detailed accounts of Jesus' birth are contained in the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke. There is considerable debate about the details of Jesus' birth even among Christian scholars, and few scholars claim to know either the year or the date of his birth or of his death.

Based on the accounts in the Gospels of the shepherds' activities, the time of year depicted for Jesus' birth could be spring or summer. However, as early as 354, Roman Christians celebrated it following the December solstice in an attempt to replace the Roman festival of Saturnalia. Before then, Jesus' birth was generally celebrated on January 6 as part of the feast of Theophany, also known as Epiphany, which commemorated not only Jesus' birth but also his baptism by John in the Jordan River and possibly additional events in Jesus' life.

In the 248th year of the Diocletian Era (based on Diocletian's ascension to the Roman throne), Dionysius Exiguus attempted to pinpoint the number of years since Jesus' birth, arriving at a figure of 753 years after the founding of Rome. Dionysius then set Jesus' birth as being December 25 1 ACN (for "Ante Christum Natum", or "before the birth of Christ"), and assigned AD 1 to the following year—thereby establishing the system of numbering years from the birth of Jesus: Anno Domini (which translates as "in the year of the Lord"). This system made the then current year 532, and almost two centuries later it won acceptance and became the established calendar in Western civilization due to its championing by the Venerable Bede.

However, based on a lunar eclipse that Josephus reports shortly before the death of Herod the Great, the birth of Christ would have been some time before the year 4 BC/BCE. This estimate itself relies on the historicity of the story in the gospel of Matthew of the Massacre of the Innocents under the orders of Herod — an event mentioned nowhere else in contemporaneous accounts. Having fewer sources and being further removed in time from the authors of the New Testament, establishing a reliable birth date now is particularly difficult.

The exact date of Jesus' death is also unclear. The Gospel of John depicts the crucifixion just before the Passover festival on Friday 14 Nisan, called the Quartodeciman, whereas the synoptic gospels describe the Last Supper, immediately before Jesus' arrest, as the Passover meal on Friday 15 Nisan. Further, the Jews followed a lunisolar calendar with phases of the moon as dates, complicating calculations of any exact date in a solar calendar. According to John P. Meier's A Marginal Jew, allowing for the time of the procuratorship of Pontius Pilate and the dates of the Passover in those years, his death can be placed most probably on April 7, 30 AD/CE or April 3, 33 AD/CE.

Family and early life

According to the Gospels, Jesus was born in Bethlehem to Mary, a virgin, via the Holy Spirit. The Gospel of Luke gives an account of the angel Gabriel visiting Mary to tell her that she was chosen to bear the son of God (Luke 1:26-28). Catholics call this the Annunciation. Joseph, Mary's betrothed husband, appears only in stories of Jesus' childhood; this is generally taken to mean that he was dead by the time of Jesus' ministry.

Events in the
Life of Jesus according to the canonical gospels
Early life Annunciation Visitation Joseph's dreams Nativity Virgin birth Annunciation to the Shepherds Adoration of the Shepherds Circumcision Adoration of the Magi Flight into Egypt Massacre of the Innocents Presentation Return to Nazareth Finding in the Temple
Ministry Baptism Temptation Commissioning the Twelve Apostles Sermon on the Mount / Plain Beatitudes Lord's Prayer Miracles Parables Prayer Rejection Transfiguration
Passion Triumphal entry into Jerusalem Temple cleansing Second coming prophecy Anointing Last Supper Farewell Discourse Paraclete promised Agony in the Garden Kiss of Judas Arrest Sanhedrin trial Mocking Herod's court Pilate's court Flagellation Crown of Thorns Via Dolorosa Crucifixion Descent from the Cross Entombment Harrowing of Hell
Resurrection Empty tomb Appearances Noli me tangere Road to Emmaus Great Commission Ascension
In rest of the NT Road to Damascus John's vision
Portals: Christianity Bible
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Mark 6:3 (and analogous passages in Matthew and Luke) reports that Jesus was "Mary's son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon," and also states that Jesus had sisters. The 1st-century Jewish historian Josephus and the Christian historian Eusebius (who wrote in the 4th century but quoted much earlier sources that are now lost) refer to James the Just as Jesus' brother (See Desposyni). However, Jerome argued that they were Jesus' cousins, which the Greek word for "brother" used in the Gospels would allow. This was based on the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox tradition that Mary remained a perpetual virgin, thus having no biological children before or after Jesus. Luke's Gospel records that Mary was a relative of Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist (Luke 1:36). The Bible, however, does not reveal exactly how Mary and Elizabeth were related.

Jesus' childhood home is represented as Nazareth in Galilee. Aside from a flight to Egypt in infancy to escape Herod's Massacre of the Innocents, all other events in the gospels are set in ancient Israel. Only one incident between his infancy and his adult life, the Finding in the Temple, is mentioned in the canonical Gospels, although New Testament apocrypha go into these details, some quite extensively.

For most Christians, only the virgin birth and the Incarnation itself are major articles of faith for this period of time before Jesus begins his ministry. Muslims also believe in the virgin birth, but aside from that, few non-Christians believe in either, and look upon stories of the virgin birth as mythological or indicating that Jesus was conceived out of wedlock.

Later life

According to Christian belief, just after he was baptized by John the Baptist Jesus began his public teaching; he is generally considered to have been about thirty years old at the time. Jesus used a variety of methods in his teaching, such as parables and metaphors. He frequently taught, "Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand." Some of his most famous teachings are in the Sermon on the Mount, which also contains the Beatitudes. His parables (or stories with a deep or metaphorical meaning) include the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son. Jesus had a number of disciples. His closest followers were twelve apostles. According to the New Testament, Jesus also performed various miracles in the course of his ministry, including healings, exorcisms, and raising Lazarus from the dead.

Jesus frequently put himself in opposition to the Jewish religious leaders including the Pharisees and Sadducees. His teaching castigated the Pharisees primarily for their legalism and hypocrisy, although he also had followers among the religious leaders such as Nicodemus. In Jesus' role as a social reformer, and with his followers holding the controversial view that he was the Jewish Messiah, Jesus was not status quo.

Jesus' preachings included the forgiveness of sin, life after death, and resurrection of the body. Jesus also preached the imminent end of the current era of history, or even the literal end of the world; in this sense he was an apocalyptic preacher. Some interpretations of the Gospels, particularly amongst Protestants, suggest that Jesus opposed stringent interpretations of Jewish law, supporting the spirit more than the letter of the law.

It is commonly thought that Jesus preached for a period of three years, but this is never mentioned explicitly in any of the Gospels, and some interpretations of the Synoptic Gospels suggest a span of only one year; to achieve consistency with the Gospel of John, one theory suggests Jesus' public ministry took approximately one year.

Jesus' Triumphal entry into Jerusalem at the end of his ministry is usually associated with the Passover Feast, but some scholars point out that details of the entry, such as the Hosanna shout, the waving of palm fronds, and the proclamation of a king, are more consistent with the Feast of Tabernacles, or Sukkoth, than with Passover.

Arrest, trial and execution

Christian belief holds that Jesus came with his followers to Jerusalem during the Passover festival, and created a disturbance at the Temple by overturning the tables of the moneychangers there. He was subsequently arrested on the orders of the Sanhedrin and the high priest, Joseph Caiaphas for blasphemy, because, according to the gospels, he claimed to be God. He was identified to the guards by one of his apostles, Judas Iscariot, who is portrayed as having betrayed Jesus by a kiss.

Jesus was condemned for blasphemy by the Sanhedrin and was turned over to the Romans for execution. All four Gospel accounts mention that the charge noted on the tablet called the titulus crucis, attached by orders of Pilate atop the cross, included the term "King of the Jews", though the gospels represent Pilate as having found nothing inherently seditious in Jesus' teachings. See article Barabbas for more about the trial before Pilate. In art, the titulus crucis is often written as INRI, the Latin acronym for "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews."

Resurrection and Ascension

In accordance with the four canonical Gospel accounts Christians believe that Jesus was raised from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. This article of faith is referred to in Christian terminology as the Resurrection of Jesus Christ; and each year at Easter (on a Sunday) it is commemorated and celebrated by most groups who consider themselves Christians.

No one was a witness to the resurrection. However, the women who had witnessed the entombment and the closure of the tomb with a great stone, found it empty when they arrived on the third day to anoint the body. The Synoptic Gospel accounts further state that an angel was waiting at the tomb to explain to them that Jesus had been resurrected, though the Gospel according to John makes no mention of this encounter. The sight of the same angel had apparently left the guards unconscious (cf. Matt 28:2–4) that according to Matthew 27:62–66 the high priests and Pharisees, with Pilate's permission, had posted in front of the tomb to prevent the body from being stolen by Jesus' disciples. Mark 16:9 says that Mary Magdalene was the first to whom Jesus appeared very early that morning. John 20:11–18 states that when Mary looked into the tomb, two angels asked her why she was crying; and as she turned round she initially failed to recognize Jesus—even by his voice—until he called her by her name. The Gospel accounts and the Acts of the Apostles tell of several appearances of Jesus to various people in various places over a period of forty days before he "ascended into heaven". Just hours after his resurrection he appeared to two travelers on the road to Emmaus. To his assembled disciples he showed himself on the evening after his resurrection, when Thomas was however absent, though he was present when Jesus repeated his visit to them a week later. Thereafter he went to Galilee and showed himself to several of his disciples by the lake and on the mountain; and they were present when he returned to Bethany and was lifted up and a cloud concealed him from their sight.

The resurrection of Jesus is almost universally denied by those who do not follow the Christian religion. Most Christians—even those who do not hold to the literal truth of everything in the canonical Gospel accounts—accept the New Testament presentation of the Resurrection as a historical account of an actual event central to their faith. Therefore, belief in the resurrection is one of the most distinctive elements of Christian faith; and defending the historicity of the resurrection is usually a central issue of Christian apologetics. However, some liberal Christians do not accept that Jesus was raised bodily from the dead, or that he still lives bodily (e.g., John Shelby Spong, Tom Harpur).

Legacy

According to most Christian interpretations of the Bible, the theme of Jesus' preaching was that of apocalyptic repentance. During his public ministry Jesus extensively trained twelve Apostles to continue after his departure his leadership of the many who had begun to follow him mainly in the towns and villages throughout Galilee, Samaria, and the Decapolis. Most Christians who hold that Jesus' miracles were literally true, not allegory, think that the Apostles gained the power to perform healing for both Jews and Gentiles alike after they had been empowered by the Holy Spirit of Truth (to pneuma tēs alētheias, John 14:17, 26; Luke 24:49, Acts 1:8, 2:4) that he had promised the Father would send them after his departure—a promise that according to Acts 2:4 was fulfilled at Pentecost, poignantly the Jewish feast that, in addition to other Scriptural events, commemorates also the giving of the Law to Moses. For Christians, the legacy Jesus left was one of sacrifice; they believe that Jesus was sent by God to die as a sacrifice in place of all humanity. Christians hold that this sacrifice had to take place because all humans sin (they claim God's penalty for sin is death and separation from God) so God sent his son to die in their place. Christians believe Jesus' body was resurrected and ascended into heaven, so they believe that none of Jesus' body is on earth.

Non-Christians generally reject these claims. Ironically (given Jesus's Jewish identity, and profession of love), for many the legacy of Jesus was a long history of Christian anti-Semitism (of course, always with exceptions), although in the wake of the the Holocaust many Christian groups have gone to considerable lengths to reconcile with Jews and to promote inter-faith dialogue and mutual respect. For others, Christianity has often been linked to European colonialism (see British Empire, Portuguese Empire, Spanish Empire, French colonial empire, Dutch colonial empire; conversely, Christians have often found themselves oppressed minorities outside of Europe and the Americas.

Other topics pertaining to Jesus

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Background Background to the New Testament Language spoken by Jesus Jesus's race / genealogy Mental health of Jesus

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Religious perspectives

Jesus has an important role in the two largest world religions, Christianity and Islam. Most other religions, however, do not consider Jesus to have been a supernatural or holy being. Some of these religions, like Buddhism, do not take any official stance on Jesus' life, while others, such as those practicing Jesus's own religion at the time of his death, Judaism, generally reject claims of Jesus's divinity and regard him as a false prophet.

Background

Jesus probably lived in Israel for most of his life and he probably spoke Aramaic and Hebrew. Israel in the 1st century, when Jesus lived, was the center of Jewish culture. Jewish society had different religious sects such the Pharisees and Sadducees, and it had different peoples such as beggars, lepers, blind, and crippled. At this time the Jewish state was occupied by Rome. See Cultural and historical background of Jesus and Aramaic of Jesus for more about Israel in Jesus' day and what he spoke.

Historicity

A majority of Christians believe that Jesus lived as described in the Bible but a majority of scholars believe that Jesus did not live exactly as described in the Bible and a few hold he did not exist at all. See Historicity of Jesus, Historical Jesus, and Jesus-Myth for more on this subject.

Jesus' sayings according to the Christian Bible

Jesus said "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." (John 10:10) He later said "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me." (John 14:6) See Jesus' sayings according to the Christian Bible for more.

Names and titles

Jesus is the Greek version of the Hebrew name rendered Joshua in English. It literally means "God saves". Christ (which is a title and not a part of his name) is a Romanization of Messiah, and literally means "anointed one". Jesus is referred to by many titles and names: see Names and titles of Jesus.

Artistic and dramatic portrayals

Jesus has been drawn, painted, sculpted, and portrayed on stage in many different ways. See Dramatic portrayals of Jesus and Images of Jesus for more about these differing portrayals.

Relics of Jesus

There are many items which are purported to be authentic relics of Jesus. The most famous of these are the Shroud of Turin, the Sudarium of Oviedo, and the Holy Grail. Many modern Christians do not accept any of these as true relics. See Relics of Jesus for more about these and other possible relics.

Interpretations of Jesus by influential leaders

Jesus has been explained and understood by many people. Jesus has been explained notably by Paul of Tarsus, Augustine of Hippo, Martin Luther, and more recently by C.S. Lewis. Go to Jesus as understood by influential leaders for more people who have interpreted Jesus.

See also

External links

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• Jesus
• 1st century BC births
• 33 deaths