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Jesus[e] (c. 6 to 4 BC – AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ,[f] Jesus of Nazareth, and many other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader in the Roman province of Judaea.[12] He is the central figure of Christianity, the world's largest religion. Most Christians consider Jesus to be the incarnation of God the Son and awaited messiah, or Christ, a descendant from the Davidic line that is prophesied in the Old Testament. Virtually all modern scholars of antiquity agree that Jesus existed historically.[g] Accounts of Jesus's life are contained in the Gospels, especially the four canonical Gospels in the New Testament. Since the Enlightenment, academic research has yielded various views on the historical reliability of the Gospels and how closely they reflect the historical Jesus.[20][h][23][24]
According to Christian tradition, as preserved in the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, Jesus was circumcised at eight days old, was baptized by John the Baptist as a young adult, and after 40 days and nights of fasting in the wilderness, began his own ministry. He was an itinerant teacher who interpreted the law of God with divine authority and was often referred to as "rabbi". Jesus often debated with his fellow Jews on how to best follow God, engaged in healings, taught in parables, and gathered followers, among whom 12 were appointed as his apostles. He was arrested in Jerusalem and tried by the Jewish authorities,[25] handed over to the Roman government, and crucified on the order of Pontius Pilate, the Roman prefect of Judaea. After his death, his followers became convinced that he rose from the dead, and following his ascension, the community they formed eventually became the early Christian Church that expanded as a worldwide movement.[26]
Christian theology includes the beliefs that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, was born of a virgin named Mary, performed miracles, founded the Christian Church, died by crucifixion as a sacrifice to achieve atonement for sin, rose from the dead, and ascended into Heaven from where he will return. Commonly, Christians believe Jesus enables people to be reconciled to God. The Nicene Creed asserts that Jesus will judge the living and the dead, either before or after their bodily resurrection, an event tied to the Second Coming of Jesus in Christian eschatology. The great majority of Christians worship Jesus as the incarnation of God the Son, the second of three persons of the Trinity.[i] The birth of Jesus is celebrated annually, generally on 25 December,[j] as Christmas. His crucifixion is honoured on Good Friday and his resurrection on Easter Sunday. The world's most widely used calendar era—in which the current year is AD 2025 (or 2025 CE)—was based on the approximate date of the birth of Jesus.[27]
Judaism rejects the belief that Jesus was the awaited messiah, arguing that he did not fulfill messianic prophecies, was not lawfully anointed and was neither divine nor resurrected. In contrast, Jesus in Islam[k] is considered the messiah and a prophet of God, who was sent to the Israelites and will return to Earth before the Day of Judgement. Muslims believe Jesus was born of the virgin Mary but was neither God nor a son of God. Most Muslims do not believe that he was killed or crucified but that God raised him into Heaven while he was still alive.[l] Jesus is also revered in the Baháʼí and the Druze faiths, as well as in the Rastafari.
Name
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A typical Jew in Jesus's time had only one name, sometimes followed by a patronymic phrase of the form "son of [father's name]", or the person's home town.[28] Thus, in the New Testament, Jesus is commonly referred to as "Jesus of Nazareth".[m] Jesus's neighbours in Nazareth referred to him as "the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon", "the carpenter's son", or "Joseph's son"; in the Gospel of John, the disciple Philip refers to him as "Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth".[29]
The English name Jesus (Ancient Greek: Ἰησοῦς, romanized Iēsous) is a rendering of Joshua (Hebrew or Aramaic: יֵשׁוּעַ, romanized Yehoshua, later Yeshua), which means "Yahweh saves". It was a common name in Judea at the time of the birth of Jesus. The Gospel of Matthew asserts the etymological significance of Jesus's name explicitly in the prophecy of the angel to Joseph about his birth: "you will call his name Jesus (Ἰησοῦς), for he will save (σώσει) his people from their sins".[30]
Jesus Christ
[edit]Since the 1st century AD, Christians have commonly referred to Jesus as "Jesus Christ".[31] The word Christ was a title or office ("the Christ"), not a given name.[32][33] It derives from the Greek Χριστός (Christos),[34][35] a translation of the Hebrew mashiakh (משיח) meaning "anointed", and is usually transliterated into English as messiah.[36] In biblical Judaism, sacred oil was used to anoint certain exceptionally holy people and objects as part of their religious investiture.[37]
Christians of the time designated Jesus as "the Christ" because they believed him to be the messiah, whose arrival is prophesied in the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. In postbiblical usage, Christ became viewed as a name—one part of "Jesus Christ". The term Christian (meaning a follower of Christ) has been in use since the 1st century.[38]
Life and teachings in the New Testament
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Canonical gospels
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The four canonical gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) are the foremost sources for the life and message of Jesus.[28] But other parts of the New Testament also include references to key episodes in his life, such as the Last Supper in 1 Corinthians 11:23–26.[39][40][41][42] Acts of the Apostles[43] refers to Jesus's early ministry and its anticipation by John the Baptist.[44][45][12] Acts 1:1–11[46] says more about the Ascension of Jesus[47] than the canonical gospels do.[48] In the undisputed Pauline letters, which were written earlier than the Gospels, Jesus's words or instructions are cited several times.[49][n]
Some early Christian groups had separate descriptions of Jesus's life and teachings that are not in the New Testament. These include the Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Peter, and Gospel of Judas, the Apocryphon of James, and many other apocryphal writings. Most scholars conclude that these were written much later and are less reliable accounts than the canonical gospels.[52][53][54]
Authorship, date, and reliability
[edit]The canonical gospels are four accounts, each by a different author. The authors of the Gospels are pseudonymous, attributed by tradition to the four evangelists, each with close ties to Jesus:[55] Mark by John Mark, an associate of Peter;[56] Matthew by one of Jesus's disciples;[55] Luke by a companion of Paul mentioned in a few epistles;[55] and John by another of Jesus's disciples,[55] the "beloved disciple".[57]
According to the Marcan priority, the first to be written was the Gospel of Mark (written AD 60–75), followed by the Gospel of Matthew (AD 65–85), the Gospel of Luke (AD 65–95), and the Gospel of John (AD 75–100).[58] Most scholars agree that the authors of Matthew and Luke used Mark as a source for their gospels. Since Matthew and Luke also share some content not found in Mark, many scholars assume that they used another source (commonly called the "Q source") in addition to Mark.[59]
One important aspect of the study of the Gospels is the literary genre under which they fall. Genre "is a key convention guiding both the composition and the interpretation of writings".[60] Whether the gospel authors set out to write novels, myths, histories, or biographies has a tremendous impact on how they ought to be interpreted. Some studies have suggested that the Gospels ought to be seen as ancient biography.[61][62][63] Although not without critics,[64] the position that the Gospels are a type of ancient biography is the consensus among scholars today.[65][66]
Concerning the accuracy of the accounts, viewpoints range from considering them inerrant descriptions of Jesus's life,[67] to doubting whether they are historically reliable on various points,[68] to considering them to provide very little historical information about his life beyond the basics.[69][70] According to a broad scholarly consensus, the Synoptic Gospels (the first three—Matthew, Mark, and Luke) are the most reliable sources of information about Jesus.[71][72][28]
Comparative structure and content
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Matthew, Mark, and Luke are known as the Synoptic Gospels, from the Greek σύν (syn, 'together') and ὄψις (opsis, 'view'),[73][74][75] because they are similar in content, narrative arrangement, language and paragraph structure, and one can easily set them next to each other and synoptically compare what is in them.[73][74][76] Scholars generally agree that it is impossible to find any direct literary relationship between the Synoptic Gospels and the Gospel of John.[77] Many events (e.g., Jesus's baptism, transfiguration, crucifixion and interactions with his apostles) appear in the Synoptic Gospels, but incidents such as the transfiguration and Jesus's exorcising demons[78] do not appear in John, which also differs on other matters, such as the cleansing of the Temple.[79]
The Synoptics emphasize different aspects of Jesus. In Mark, Jesus is the Son of God whose mighty works demonstrate the presence of God's Kingdom.[56] He is a tireless wonder worker, the servant of both God and man.[80] This short gospel records a few of Jesus's words or teachings.[56] The Gospel of Matthew emphasizes that Jesus is the fulfilment of God's will as revealed in the Old Testament, and the Lord of the Church.[81] He is the "Son of David", a "king", and the Messiah.[80][82] Luke presents Jesus as the divine-human saviour who shows compassion to the needy.[83] He is the friend of sinners and outcasts, and came to seek and save the lost.[80] This gospel includes well-known parables, such as the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son.[83]
The prologue to the Gospel of John identifies Jesus as an incarnation of the divine Word (Logos).[84] As the Word, Jesus was eternally present with God, active in all creation, and the source of humanity's moral and spiritual nature.[84] Jesus is not only greater than any past human prophet but greater than any prophet could be. He not only speaks God's Word; he is God's Word.[85] In the Gospel of John, Jesus reveals his divine role publicly. Here he is the Bread of Life, the Light of the World, the True Vine, and more.[80]
The authors of the New Testament generally showed little interest in an absolute chronology of Jesus or in synchronizing the episodes of his life with the secular history of the age.[86] As stated in John 21:25, the Gospels do not claim to provide an exhaustive list of the events of Jesus's life.[87] The accounts were primarily written as theological documents in the context of early Christianity, with timelines as a secondary consideration.[88] The Gospels devote about one third of their text to the last week of Jesus's life in Jerusalem, referred to as the Passion.[89] They do not provide enough details to satisfy the demands of modern historians regarding exact dates, but it is possible to draw from them a general picture of Jesus's life story.[68][86][88]
Genealogy and nativity
[edit]Jesus was Jewish,[12] born to Mary, wife of Joseph.[90] The Gospels of Matthew and Luke offer two accounts of his genealogy. Matthew traces Jesus's ancestry to Abraham through David.[91][92] Luke traces Jesus's ancestry through Adam to God.[93][94] The lists are identical between Abraham and David but differ radically from that point. Matthew has 27 generations from David to Joseph, whereas Luke has 42, with almost no overlap between the names on the two lists.[o][95] Various theories have been put forward to explain why the two genealogies are so different.[p]
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Both Matthew and Luke describe Jesus's birth, especially that Jesus was born to a virgin named Mary in Bethlehem in fulfilment of prophecy. Luke's account emphasizes events before the birth of Jesus and centres on Mary, while Matthew's mostly covers those after the birth and centres on Joseph.[96][97][98] Both accounts state that Mary was engaged to a man named Joseph, who was descended from King David and was not his biological father, and both support the doctrine of the virgin birth of Jesus, according to which Jesus was miraculously conceived by the Holy Spirit in Mary's womb when she was still a virgin.[99][100][101] At the same time, there is evidence, at least in the Lukan Acts of the Apostles, that Jesus was thought to have had, like many figures in antiquity, a dual paternity, since there it is stated he descended from the seed or loins of David.[102] By taking him as his own, Joseph will give him the necessary Davidic descent.[103] Some scholars suggest that Jesus had Levite heritage from Mary, based on her blood relationship with Elizabeth.[104]
In Matthew, Joseph is troubled because Mary, his betrothed, is pregnant,[105] but in the first of Joseph's four dreams an angel assures him not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife because her child was conceived by the Holy Spirit.[106] In Matthew 2:1–12, wise men or Magi from the East bring gifts to the young Jesus as the King of the Jews. They find him in a house in Bethlehem. Herod the Great hears of Jesus's birth and, wanting him killed, orders the murders of male infants in Bethlehem and its surroundings. However, an angel warns Joseph in his second dream, and the family flees to Egypt—later to return and settle in Nazareth.[106][107][108]
In Luke 1:31–38, Mary learns from the angel Gabriel that she will conceive and bear a child called Jesus through the action of the Holy Spirit.[97][99] When Mary is due to give birth, she and Joseph travel from Nazareth to Joseph's ancestral home in Bethlehem to register in the census ordered by Caesar Augustus. While there Mary gives birth to Jesus, and as they have found no room in the inn, she places the newborn in a manger.[109] An angel announces the birth to a group of shepherds, who go to Bethlehem to see Jesus, and subsequently spread the news abroad.[110] Luke 2:21 tells how Joseph and Mary have their baby circumcised on the eighth day after birth, and name him Jesus, as Gabriel had commanded Mary.[111] After the presentation of Jesus at the Temple, Joseph, Mary and Jesus return to Nazareth.[97][99]
Early life, family, and profession
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Jesus's childhood home is identified in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew as Nazareth, a town in Galilee in present-day Israel, where he lived with his family. Although Joseph appears in descriptions of Jesus's childhood, no mention is made of him thereafter.[112][113] His other family members, including his mother, Mary, his four brothers James, Joses (or Joseph), Judas, and Simon, and his unnamed sisters, are mentioned in the Gospels and other sources.[114] Jesus's maternal grandparents are named Joachim and Anne in the Gospel of James.[115] The Gospel of Luke records that Mary was a relative of Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist.[116] Extra-biblical contemporary sources consider Jesus and John the Baptist to be second cousins through the belief that Elizabeth was the daughter of Sobe, the sister of Anne.[117][118][119]
The Gospel of Mark reports that at the beginning of his ministry, Jesus comes into conflict with his neighbours and family.[120] Jesus's mother and brothers come to get him[121] because people are saying that he is mentally ill.[122] Jesus responds that his followers are his true family. In the Gospel of John, Jesus and his mother attend a wedding at Cana, where he performs his first miracle at her request.[123] Later, she follows him to his crucifixion, and he expresses concern over her well-being.[124]
Jesus is called a τέκτων (tektōn) in Mark 6:3, a term traditionally understood as carpenter but which could also refer to makers of objects in various materials, including builders.[125][126] Given the term's broad semantic range and "the socio-historical reality of a common Nazarene τέκτων", Matthew K. Robinson, minister and academic, prefers to translate τέκτων as 'builder-craftsman'.[127][128] The Gospels indicate that Jesus could read, paraphrase, and debate scripture, but this does not necessarily mean that he received formal scribal training.[129]
The Gospel of Luke reports two journeys of Jesus and his parents in Jerusalem during his childhood. They come to the Temple in Jerusalem for the presentation of Jesus as a baby in accordance with Jewish Law, where a man named Simeon prophesies about Jesus and Mary.[130] When Jesus, at the age of twelve, goes missing on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem for Passover, his parents find him in the temple sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking questions, and the people are amazed at his understanding and answers. Mary scolds Jesus for going missing, to which Jesus replies that he must "be in his father's house".[131]
Baptism and temptation
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The synoptic gospels describe Jesus's baptism in the Jordan River and the temptations he suffered while spending forty days in the Judaean Desert, as a preparation for his public ministry.[132] The accounts of Jesus's baptism are all preceded by information about John the Baptist.[133][134][135] They show John preaching penance and repentance for the remission of sins and encouraging the giving of alms to the poor[136] as he baptizes people in the area of the Jordan River around Perea and foretells the arrival of someone "more powerful" than he.[137][138]
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In the Gospel of Mark, John the Baptist baptizes Jesus, and as he comes out of the water he sees the Holy Spirit descending to him like a dove and a voice comes from heaven declaring him to be God's Son.[139] This is one of two events described in the Gospels where a voice from Heaven calls Jesus "Son", the other being the Transfiguration.[140][141] The spirit then drives him into the wilderness where he is tempted by Satan.[142] Jesus then begins his ministry in Galilee after John's arrest.[143]
In the Gospel of Matthew, as Jesus comes to him to be baptized, John protests, saying, "I need to be baptized by you."[144] Jesus instructs him to carry on with the baptism "to fulfil all righteousness".[145] Matthew details three temptations that Satan offers Jesus in the wilderness.[146]
In the Gospel of Luke, the Holy Spirit descends as a dove after everyone has been baptized and Jesus is praying.[147] Later John implicitly recognizes Jesus after sending his followers to ask about him.[148] Luke also describes three temptations received by Jesus in the wilderness, before starting his ministry in Galilee.[149]
The Gospel of John leaves out Jesus's baptism and temptation.[150] Here, John the Baptist testifies that he saw the Spirit descend on Jesus.[151][152] John publicly proclaims Jesus as the sacrificial Lamb of God, and some of John's followers become disciples of Jesus.[72] Before John is imprisoned, Jesus leads his followers to baptize disciples as well,[153] and they baptize more people than John.[154]
Public ministry
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The Synoptics depict two distinct geographical settings in Jesus's ministry. The first takes place north of Judea, in Galilee, where Jesus conducts a successful ministry, and the second shows Jesus rejected and killed when he travels to Jerusalem.[155] Often referred to as "rabbi",[155] Jesus preaches his message orally.[156] Jesus forbids those who recognize him as the messiah to speak of it, including people he heals and demons he exorcises (see Messianic Secret).[157] John depicts Jesus's ministry as largely taking place in and around Jerusalem, rather than in Galilee, and Jesus's divine identity is openly proclaimed and immediately recognized.[85]
Scholars divide the ministry of Jesus into several stages. The Galilean ministry begins when Jesus returns to Galilee from the Judaean Desert after rebuffing the temptation of Satan. Jesus preaches around Galilee, and in Matthew 4:18–20, his first disciples, who will eventually form the core of the early Church, encounter him and begin to travel with him.[135][158] This period includes the Sermon on the Mount, one of Jesus's major discourses,[158][159] as well as the calming of the storm, the feeding of the 5,000, walking on water and other miracles and parables.[160] It ends with the Confession of Peter and the Transfiguration.[161][162]
As Jesus travels towards Jerusalem, in the Perean ministry, he returns to the area where he was baptized, about a third of the way down from the Sea of Galilee along the Jordan.[163][164][165] The final ministry in Jerusalem begins with Jesus's triumphal entry into the city on Palm Sunday.[166] In the Synoptic Gospels, during that week Jesus drives the money changers from the Second Temple and Judas bargains to betray him. This period culminates in the Last Supper and the Farewell Discourse.[133][166][167]
Disciples and followers
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Near the beginning of his ministry, Jesus appoints twelve apostles. In Matthew and Mark, despite Jesus only briefly requesting that they join him, Jesus's first four apostles, who were fishermen, are described as immediately consenting, and abandoning their nets and boats to do so.[168] In John, Jesus's first two apostles were disciples of John the Baptist. The Baptist sees Jesus and calls him the Lamb of God; the two hear this and follow Jesus.[169][170] In addition to the Twelve Apostles, the opening of the passage of the Sermon on the Plain identifies a much larger group of people as disciples.[171] Also, in Luke 10:1–16 Jesus sends 70 or 72 of his followers in pairs to prepare towns for his prospective visit. They are instructed to accept hospitality, heal the sick, and spread the word that the Kingdom of God is coming.[172]
Teachings and miracles
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In the Synoptics, Jesus teaches extensively, often in parables,[173] about the Kingdom of God (or, in Matthew, the Kingdom of Heaven). The Kingdom is described as both imminent[174] and already present in the ministry of Jesus.[175] Jesus promises inclusion in the Kingdom for those who accept his message.[176] He talks of the "Son of Man", an apocalyptic figure who will come to gather the chosen.[28]
Jesus calls people to repent their sins and to devote themselves completely to God.[28] He tells his followers to adhere to Jewish law, although he is perceived by some to have broken the law himself, for example regarding the Sabbath.[28] When asked what the greatest commandment is, Jesus replies: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind ... And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'"[177] Other ethical teachings of Jesus include loving your enemies, refraining from hatred and lust, turning the other cheek, and forgiving people who have sinned against you.[178][179]
John's Gospel presents the teachings of Jesus not merely as his own preaching, but as divine revelation. John the Baptist, for example, states in John 3:34: "He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure." In John 7:16 Jesus says, "My teaching is not mine but his who sent me." He asserts the same thing in John 14:10: "Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works."[180][181]
Approximately 30 parables form about one-third of Jesus's recorded teachings.[180][182] The parables appear within longer sermons and at other places in the narrative.[183] They often contain symbolism, and usually relate the physical world to the spiritual.[184][185] Common themes in these tales include the kindness and generosity of God and the perils of transgression.[186] Some of his parables, such as the Prodigal Son,[187] are relatively simple, while others, such as the Growing Seed,[188] are sophisticated, profound and abstruse.[189] When asked by his disciples why he speaks in parables to the people, Jesus replies that the chosen disciples have been given to "know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven", unlike the rest of their people, "For the one who has will be given more and he will have in abundance. But the one who does not have will be deprived even more", going on to say that the majority of their generation have grown "dull hearts" and thus are unable to understand.[190]
In the gospel accounts, Jesus devotes a large portion of his ministry to performing miracles, especially healings.[191] The miracles can be classified into two main categories: healing miracles and nature miracles.[192][193][194] The healing miracles include cures for physical ailments, exorcisms,[78][195] and resurrections of the dead.[196][197][198][199] The nature miracles show Jesus's power over nature, and include turning water into wine, walking on water, and calming a storm, among others. Jesus states that his miracles are from a divine source. When his opponents accuse him of performing exorcisms by the power of Beelzebub, the prince of demons, Jesus counters that he performs them by the "Spirit of God" (Matthew 12:28) or "finger of God", arguing that all logic suggests that Satan would not let his demons assist the Children of God because it would divide Satan's house and bring his kingdom to desolation; he also asks his opponents that if he exorcises by Beelzebub, "by whom do your sons cast them out?".[200][28][201] In Matthew 12:31–32, he goes on to say that while all manner of sin, "even insults against God" or "insults against the son of man", shall be forgiven, whoever insults goodness (or "The Holy Spirit") shall never be forgiven; they carry the guilt of their sin forever.
In John, Jesus's miracles are described as "signs", performed to prove his mission and divinity.[202][203] In the Synoptics, when asked by some teachers of the Law and some Pharisees to give miraculous signs to prove his authority, Jesus refuses,[202] saying that no sign shall come to corrupt and evil people except the sign of the prophet Jonah. Also, in the Synoptic Gospels, the crowds regularly respond to Jesus's miracles with awe and press on him to heal their sick. In John's Gospel, Jesus is presented as unpressured by the crowds, who often respond to his miracles with trust and faith.[204] One characteristic shared among all miracles of Jesus in the gospel accounts is that he performed them freely and never requested or accepted any form of payment.[205] The gospel episodes that include descriptions of the miracles of Jesus also often include teachings, and the miracles themselves involve an element of teaching.[206][207] Many of the miracles teach the importance of faith. In the cleansing of ten lepers and the raising of Jairus's daughter, for instance, the beneficiaries are told that their healing was due to their faith.[208][209]
Proclamation as Christ and Transfiguration
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At about the middle of each of the three Synoptic Gospels are two significant events: the Confession of Peter and the Transfiguration of Jesus.[162][210][140][141] These two events are not mentioned in the Gospel of John.[211]
In his Confession, Peter tells Jesus, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."[212][213][214] Jesus affirms that Peter's confession is divinely revealed truth.[215][216] After the confession, Jesus tells his disciples about his upcoming death and resurrection.[217]
In the Transfiguration,[218][140][141][162] Jesus takes Peter and two other apostles up an unnamed mountain, where "he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white".[219] A bright cloud appears around them, and a voice from the cloud says, "This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him."[220][140]
Passion Week
[edit]The description of the last week of the life of Jesus (often called Passion Week) occupies about one-third of the narrative in the canonical gospels.[89] It starts with Jesus's triumphal entry into Jerusalem and ends with his Crucifixion.[133][166]
Activities in Jerusalem
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In the Synoptics, the last week in Jerusalem is the conclusion of the journey through Perea and Judea that Jesus began in Galilee.[166] Jesus rides a young donkey into Jerusalem, reflecting the tale of the Messiah's Donkey, an oracle from the Book of Zechariah in which the Jews' humble king enters Jerusalem this way.[221][56] People along the way lay cloaks and small branches of trees (known as palm fronds) in front of him and sing part of Psalms 118:25–26.[222][223][224][225]
Jesus next expels the money changers from the Second Temple, accusing them of turning it into a den of thieves through their commercial activities. He then prophesies about the coming destruction, including false prophets, wars, earthquakes, celestial disorders, persecution of the faithful, the appearance of an "abomination of desolation", and unendurable tribulations.[226] The "Son of Man", he says, will dispatch angels to gather the faithful from all parts of the earth.[227] Jesus warns that these events will occur in the lifetimes of the hearers.[228][157] In John, the Cleansing of the Temple occurs at the beginning of Jesus's ministry instead of at the end.[229][85]
Jesus comes into conflict with the Jewish elders, such as when they question his authority and when he criticizes them and calls them hypocrites.[223][225] Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve apostles, secretly strikes a bargain with the Jewish elders, agreeing to betray Jesus to them for 30 silver coins.[230][231]
The Gospel of John recounts two other feasts in which Jesus taught in Jerusalem before the Passion Week.[232][120] In Bethany, a village near Jerusalem, Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. This potent sign[85] increases the tension with authorities,[166] who conspire to kill him.[233][120] Mary of Bethany anoints Jesus's feet, foreshadowing his entombment.[234] Jesus then makes his messianic entry into Jerusalem.[120] The cheering crowds greeting Jesus as he enters Jerusalem add to the animosity between him and the establishment.[166] In John, Jesus has already cleansed the Second Temple during an earlier Passover visit to Jerusalem. John next recounts Jesus's Last Supper with his disciples.[120]
Last Supper
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The Last Supper is the final meal that Jesus shared with his twelve apostles in Jerusalem before his crucifixion. The Last Supper is mentioned in all four canonical gospels; Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians[235] also refers to it.[41][42][236] During the meal, Jesus predicts that one of his apostles will betray him.[237] Despite each Apostle's assertion that he would not betray him, Jesus reiterates that the betrayer would be one of those present. Matthew 26:23–25 and John 13:26–27 identify Judas as the traitor.[41][42][237]
In the Synoptics, Jesus takes bread, breaks it, and gives it to the disciples, saying, "This is my body, which is given for you." He then has them all drink from a cup, saying, "This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood."[238][41][239] The Christian sacrament or ordinance of the Eucharist is based on these events.[240] Although the Gospel of John does not include a description of the bread-and-wine ritual during the Last Supper, most scholars agree that John 6:22–59 (the Bread of Life Discourse) has a eucharistic character and resonates with the institution narratives in the Synoptic Gospels and in the Pauline writings on the Last Supper.[241]
In all four gospels, Jesus predicts that Peter will deny knowledge of him three times before the cock crows the next morning.[242][243] In Luke and John, the prediction is made during the Supper.[244] In Matthew and Mark, the prediction is made after the Supper; Jesus also predicts that all his disciples will desert him.[245][246] The Gospel of John provides the only account of Jesus washing his disciples' feet after the meal.[107] John also includes a long sermon by Jesus, preparing his disciples (now without Judas) for his departure. Chapters 14–17 of the Gospel of John are known as the Farewell Discourse and are a significant source of Christological content.[247][248]
Agony in the Garden, betrayal, and arrest
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In the Synoptics, Jesus and his disciples go to the garden Gethsemane, where Jesus prays to be spared his coming ordeal. Then Judas comes with an armed mob, sent by the chief priests, scribes and elders. He kisses Jesus to identify him to the crowd, which then arrests Jesus. In an attempt to stop them, an unnamed disciple of Jesus uses a sword to cut off the ear of a man in the crowd. After Jesus's arrest, his disciples go into hiding, and Peter, when questioned, thrice denies knowing Jesus. After the third denial, Peter hears the cock crow and recalls Jesus's prediction about his denial. Peter then weeps bitterly.[246][157][242]
In John 18:1–11, Jesus does not pray to be spared his crucifixion, as the gospel portrays him as scarcely touched by such human weakness.[249] The people who arrest him are Roman soldiers and Temple guards.[250] Instead of being betrayed by a kiss, Jesus proclaims his identity, and when he does, the soldiers and officers fall to the ground. The gospel identifies Peter as the disciple who used the sword, and Jesus rebukes him for it.
Trials by the Sanhedrin, Herod, and Pilate
[edit]After his arrest, Jesus is taken late at night to the private residence of the high priest, Caiaphas, who had been installed by Pilate's predecessor, the Roman procurator Valerius Gratus.[251] The Sanhedrin was a Jewish judicial body.[252] The gospel accounts differ on the details of the trials.[253] In Matthew 26:57, Mark 14:53, and Luke 22:54, Jesus is taken to the house of the high priest, Caiaphas, where he is mocked and beaten that night. Early the next morning, the chief priests and scribes lead Jesus away into their council.[254][255][256] John 18:12–14 states that Jesus is first taken to Annas, Caiaphas's father-in-law, and then to the high priest.[254][255][256]
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During the trials Jesus speaks very little, mounts no defence, and gives very infrequent and indirect answers to the priests' questions, prompting an officer to slap him. In Matthew 26:62, Jesus's unresponsiveness leads Caiaphas to ask him, "Have you no answer?".[254][255][256] In Mark 14:61, the high priest then asks Jesus, "Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?". Jesus replies, "I am", and then predicts the coming of the Son of Man.[28] This provokes Caiaphas to tear his own robe in anger and to accuse Jesus of blasphemy. In Matthew and Luke, Jesus's answer is more ambiguous:[28][257] in Matthew 26:64, he responds, "You have said so", and in Luke 22:70 he says, "You say that I am."[258][259]
The Jewish elders take Jesus to Pilate's Court and ask the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, to judge and condemn Jesus for various allegations: subverting the nation, opposing the payment of tribute, claiming to be Christ, a king, and claiming to be the son of God.[q][256] The use of the word "king" is central to the discussion between Jesus and Pilate. In John 18:36, Jesus states, "My kingdom is not from this world", but he does not unequivocally deny being the King of the Jews.[260][261] In Luke 23:7–15, Pilate realizes that Jesus is a Galilean, and thus comes under the jurisdiction of Herod Antipas, the Tetrarch of Galilee and Perea.[262][263] Pilate sends Jesus to Herod to be tried,[264] but Jesus says almost nothing in response to Herod's questions. Herod and his soldiers mock Jesus, put an expensive robe on him to make him look like a king, and return him to Pilate,[262] who then calls together the Jewish elders and announces that he has "not found this man guilty".[264]
Observing a Passover custom of the time, Pilate allows one prisoner chosen by the crowd to be released. He gives the people a choice between Jesus and a murderer called Barabbas (בר-אבא or Bar-abbâ, "son of the father", from the common given name Abba: 'father').[265] Persuaded by the elders,[266] the mob chooses to release Barabbas and crucify Jesus.[267] Pilate writes a sign in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek that reads "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews" (abbreviated as INRI in depictions) to be affixed to Jesus's cross,[268][269] then scourges Jesus and sends him to be crucified. The soldiers place a crown of thorns on Jesus's head and ridicule him as the King of the Jews. They beat and taunt him before taking him to Calvary,[270] also called Golgotha, for crucifixion.[254][256][271]
Crucifixion and entombment
[edit]
Jesus's crucifixion is described in all four canonical gospels. After the trials, Jesus is led to Calvary carrying his cross; the route traditionally thought to have been taken is known as the Via Dolorosa. The three Synoptic Gospels indicate that Simon of Cyrene assists him, having been compelled by the Romans to do so.[272][273] In Luke 23:27–28, Jesus tells the women in the multitude of people following him not to weep for him but for themselves and their children.[272] At Calvary, Jesus is offered a sponge soaked in a concoction usually offered as a painkiller. According to Matthew and Mark, he refuses it.[272][273]
The soldiers then crucify Jesus and cast lots for his clothes. Above Jesus's head on the cross is Pilate's multilingual inscription, "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." Soldiers and passersby mock him about it. Two convicted thieves are crucified along with Jesus. In Matthew and Mark, both thieves mock Jesus. In Luke, one of them rebukes Jesus, while the other defends him.[272][274][275] Jesus tells the latter: "today you will be with me in Paradise."[276] The four gospels mention the presence of a group of female disciples of Jesus at the crucifixion. In John, Jesus sees his mother Mary and the beloved disciple and tells him to take care of her.[277]
In John 19:33–34, Roman soldiers break the two thieves' legs to hasten their death, but not those of Jesus, as he is already dead. Instead, one soldier pierces Jesus's side with a lance, and blood and water flow out.[274] The Synoptics report a period of darkness, and the heavy curtain in the Temple is torn when Jesus dies. In Matthew 27:51–54, an earthquake breaks open tombs. In Matthew and Mark, terrified by the events, a Roman centurion states that Jesus was the Son of God.[272][278]
On the same day, Joseph of Arimathea, with Pilate's permission and with Nicodemus's help, removes Jesus's body from the cross, wraps it in a clean cloth, and buries it in a new rock-hewn tomb.[272] In Matthew 27:62–66, on the following day the chief Jewish priests ask Pilate for the tomb to be secured, and with Pilate's permission the priests place seals on the large stone covering the entrance.[272][279]
Resurrection and ascension
[edit]
The Gospels do not describe the moment of the resurrection of Jesus. They describe the discovery of his empty tomb and several appearances of Jesus, with distinct differences in each narrative.[280]
In the four Gospels, Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb on Sunday morning, alone or with one or several other women.[281] The tomb is empty, with the stone rolled away, and there are one or two angels, depending on the accounts. In the Synoptics, the women are told that Jesus is not here and that he is risen.[282] In Mark and Matthew, the angel also instructs them to tell the disciples to meet Jesus in Galilee.[283] In Luke, Peter visits the tomb after he is told it is empty.[284] In John, he goes there with the beloved disciple.[285] Matthew mentions Roman guards at the tomb,[286] who report to the priests of Jerusalem what happened. The priests bribe them to say that the disciples stole Jesus's body during the night.[287]
The four Gospels then describe various appearances of Jesus in his resurrected body. Jesus first reveals himself to Mary Magdalene in Mark 16:9 and John 20:14–17,[288] along with "the other Mary" in Matthew 28:9,[289] while in Luke the first reported appearance is to two disciples heading to Emmaus.[290] Jesus then reveals himself to the eleven disciples, in Jerusalem or in Galilee.[291] In Luke 24:36–43, he eats and shows them his tangible wounds to prove that he is not a spirit.[292] He also shows them to Thomas to end his doubts, in John 20:24–29.[293] In the Synoptics, Jesus commissions the disciples to spread the gospel message to all nations,[107][294] while in John 21, he tells Peter to take care of his sheep.[48][295]
Jesus's ascension into Heaven is described in Luke 24:50–53, Acts 1:1–11, and mentioned in 1 Timothy 3:16. In the Acts of the Apostles, forty days after the Resurrection, as the disciples look on, "he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight". 1 Peter 3:22 states that Jesus has "gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God".[48]
The Acts of the Apostles describes several appearances of Jesus after his Ascension. In Acts 7:55, Stephen gazes into heaven and sees "Jesus standing at the right hand of God" just before his death.[296] On the road to Damascus, the Apostle Paul is converted to Christianity after seeing a blinding light and hearing a voice saying, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting."[297] In Acts 9:10–18, Jesus instructs Ananias of Damascus in a vision to heal Paul.[298] The Book of Revelation includes a revelation from Jesus concerning the last days of Earth.[299]
Early Christianity
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After Jesus's life, his followers, as described in the first chapters of the Acts of the Apostles, were all Jews either by birth or conversion, for which the biblical term "proselyte" is used,[300] and referred to by historians as Jewish Christians. The early Gospel message was spread orally, probably in Aramaic,[301] but almost immediately also in Greek.[302] The New Testament's Acts of the Apostles and Epistle to the Galatians record that the first Christian community was centred in Jerusalem and its leaders included Peter, James, the brother of Jesus, and John the Apostle.[303]
After his conversion, Paul the Apostle spread the teachings of Jesus to various non-Jewish communities throughout the eastern Mediterranean region. Paul's influence on Christian thinking is said to be more significant than that of any other New Testament author.[304] By the end of the 1st century, Christianity began to be recognized internally and externally as a separate religion from Judaism which itself was refined and developed further in the centuries after the destruction of the Second Temple.[305]
Numerous quotations in the New Testament and other Christian writings of the first centuries indicate that early Christians generally used and revered the Hebrew Bible (the Tanakh) as religious text, mostly in the Greek (Septuagint) or Aramaic (Targum) translations.[306] Early Christians wrote many religious works, including the ones included in the canon of the New Testament. The canonical texts, which have become the main sources used by historians to try to understand the historical Jesus and sacred texts within Christianity, were probably written between AD 50 and 120.[307]
Historical views
[edit]Prior to the Enlightenment, the Gospels were usually regarded as accurate historical accounts, but since then scholars have emerged who question the reliability of the Gospels and draw a distinction between the Jesus described in the Gospels and the Jesus of history.[308] Since the 18th century, three separate scholarly quests for the historical Jesus have taken place, each with distinct characteristics and based on different research criteria, which were often developed during the quest that applied them.[78][309] While there is widespread scholarly agreement on the existence of Jesus,[g] and a basic consensus on the general outline of his life,[r] the portraits of Jesus constructed by various scholars often differ from each other, and from the image portrayed in the gospel accounts.[311][312]
Approaches to the historical reconstruction of the life of Jesus have varied from the "maximalist" approaches of the 19th century, in which the gospel accounts were accepted as reliable evidence wherever it is possible, to the "minimalist" approaches of the early 20th century, where hardly anything about Jesus was accepted as historical.[313] In the 1950s, as the second quest for the historical Jesus gathered pace, the minimalist approaches faded away, and in the 21st century, minimalists such as Price are a small minority.[314][315] Although a belief in the inerrancy of the Gospels cannot be supported historically, many scholars since the 1980s have held that, beyond the few facts considered to be historically certain, certain other elements of Jesus's life are "historically probable".[314][316][317] Modern scholarly research on the historical Jesus thus focuses on identifying the most probable elements.[318][319]
Judea and Galilee in the 1st century
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In AD 6, Judea, Idumea, and Samaria were transformed from a Herodian client state of the Roman Empire into an imperial province, also called Judea. A Roman prefect, rather than a client ruler, governed the land. The prefect governed from Caesarea Maritima, leaving Jerusalem to be run by the High Priest of Israel.[320] As an exception, the prefect came to Jerusalem during religious festivals, when religious and patriotic enthusiasm sometimes inspired unrest or uprisings. Galilee with Perea was a Herodian client state under the rule of Herod Antipas since 4 BC.[320] Galilee was evidently prosperous, and poverty was limited enough that it did not threaten the social order.[28] Philip (d. AD 34), half-brother of Herod Antipas, ruled as Tetrarch yet another Herodian client state to the north and east of the sea of Galilee that included Gaulanitis, Batanea, and Iturea; it was mostly non-Jewish.[321] South of this on the east bank of the Jordan was the Decapolis; a collection of Hellenistic city-states that were clients of the Roman empire. North of Galilee were the cities of Tyre and Sidon which were in the Roman province of Syria. Though non-Jewish lands surrounded the mostly Jewish territories of Judea and Galilee, Roman law and practice allowed Jews to remain separate legally and culturally.[28]
This was the era of Hellenistic Judaism, which combined Jewish religious tradition with elements of Hellenistic culture. Until the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the Muslim conquests of the Eastern Mediterranean, the main centres of Hellenistic Judaism were Alexandria (Egypt) and Antioch (now Southern Turkey), the two main Greek colonies of the Middle East and North Africa area, both founded at the end of the 4th century BC in the wake of the conquests of Alexander the Great. Hellenistic Judaism also existed in Jerusalem during the Second Temple Period, where there was conflict between Hellenizers and traditionalists (sometimes called Judaizers). The Hebrew Bible was translated from Biblical Hebrew and Biblical Aramaic into Jewish Koine Greek; the Targum translations into Aramaic were also generated during this era, both due to the decline of knowledge of Hebrew.[322]
Jews based their faith and religious practice on the Torah, five books said to have been given by God to Moses. The three prominent religious parties were the Pharisees, the Essenes, and the Sadducees. Together these parties represented only a small fraction of the population. Most Jews looked forward to a time when God would deliver them from their pagan rulers, possibly through war against the Romans.[28]
Sources
[edit]
New Testament scholars face a formidable challenge when they analyse the canonical Gospels.[324] The Gospels are not biographies in the modern sense, and the authors explain Jesus's theological significance and recount his public ministry while omitting many details of his life.[324] James Dunn has argued that the accounts of his teachings and life were initially conserved by oral transmission, which was the source of the written Gospels.[156] The Gospels are commonly seen as literature that is based on oral traditions, Christian preaching, and Old Testament exegesis with the consensus being that they are a variation of Greco-Roman biography; similar to other ancient works such as Xenophon's Memoirs of Socrates.[325]
The reports of supernatural events associated with Jesus's death and resurrection make the challenge even more difficult.[324] Scholars regard the Gospels as compromised sources of information because the writers were trying to glorify Jesus.[68] Ed Sanders states that the sources for Jesus's life are better than sources scholars have for the life of Alexander the Great.[68]
Scholars use several criteria, such as the criterion of independent attestation, the criterion of coherence, and the criterion of discontinuity to judge the historicity of events.[326] The historicity of an event also depends on the reliability of the source; indeed, the Gospels are not independent nor consistent records of Jesus's life. Mark, which is most likely the earliest written gospel, has been considered for many decades the most historically accurate.[327] John, the latest written gospel, differs considerably from the Synoptic Gospels, and thus is generally considered less reliable, although more and more scholars now also recognize that it may contain a core of older material as historically valuable as the Synoptic tradition or even more so.[328]
Some scholars (such as the Jesus Seminar) believe that the non-canonical Gospel of Thomas might be an independent witness to many of Jesus's parables and aphorisms. For example, Thomas confirms that Jesus blessed the poor and that this saying circulated independently before being combined with similar sayings in the Q source.[329] The majority of scholars are sceptical about this text and believe it should be dated to the 2nd century AD.[330][331] Other select non-canonical Christian texts may also have value for historical Jesus research.[72]
Early non-Christian sources that attest to the historical existence of Jesus include the works of the historians Josephus and Tacitus.[s][323][333] Josephus scholar Louis Feldman has stated that "few have doubted the genuineness" of Josephus's reference to Jesus in book 20 of the Antiquities of the Jews, and it is disputed only by a small number of scholars.[334][335] Tacitus referred to Christ and his execution by Pilate in book 15 of his work Annals. Scholars generally consider Tacitus's reference to the execution of Jesus to be both authentic and of historical value as an independent Roman source.[336]
Non-Christian sources are valuable as they show that even neutral or hostile parties never show any doubt that Jesus existed. They present a rough picture of Jesus that is compatible with that found in the Christian sources: that Jesus was a teacher, had a reputation as a miracle worker, had a brother James, and died a violent death.[337]
Archaeology helps scholars better understand Jesus's social world.[338] For example, it indicates that Capernaum, a city important in Jesus's ministry, was poor and small, without even a forum or an agora.[339][340] This archaeological discovery resonates well with the scholarly view that Jesus advocated reciprocal sharing among the destitute in that area of Galilee.[339]
Chronology
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Jesus was a Galilean Jew,[12] born around the beginning of the 1st century, who died in AD 30 or 33 in Judea.[341] The general scholarly consensus is that Jesus was a contemporary of John the Baptist and was crucified as ordered by the Roman governor Pontius Pilate,[193] who held office from AD 26 to 36.[193]
The Gospels offer several indications concerning the year of Jesus's birth. Matthew 2:1 associates the birth of Jesus with the reign of Herod the Great, who died around 4 BC, and Luke 1:5 mentions that Herod was on the throne shortly before the birth of Jesus,[342][343] although this gospel also associates the birth with the Census of Quirinius which took place ten years later.[344][345] Luke 3:23 states that Jesus was "about thirty years old" at the start of his ministry, which according to Acts 10:37–38 was preceded by John the Baptist's ministry, which was recorded in Luke 3:1–2 to have begun in the 15th year of Tiberius's reign (AD 28 or 29).[343][346] By collating the gospel accounts with historical data and using various other methods, most scholars arrive at a date of birth for Jesus between 6 and 4 BC,[346][347] but some propose estimates that include a wider range.[t]
The date range for Jesus's ministry has been estimated using several different approaches.[348][349] One of these applies the reference in Luke 3:1–2, Acts 10:37–38, and the dates of Tiberius's reign, which are well known, to give a date of around AD 28–29 for the start of Jesus's ministry.[350] Another approach estimates a date around AD 27–29 by using the statement about the temple in John 2:13–20, which asserts that the temple in Jerusalem was in its 46th year of construction at the start of Jesus's ministry, together with Josephus's statement[351] that the temple's reconstruction was started by Herod the Great in the 18th year of his reign.[348][352] A further method uses the date of the death of John the Baptist and the marriage of Herod Antipas to Herodias, based on the writings of Josephus, and correlates it with Matthew 14:4 and Mark 6:18.[353][354] Given that most scholars date the marriage of Herod and Herodias as AD 28–35, this yields a date about AD 28–29.[349]
Various approaches have been used to estimate the year of the crucifixion of Jesus. Most scholars agree that he died in AD 30 or 33.[341][355] The Gospels state that the event occurred during the prefecture of Pilate.[356][357][358] The date for the conversion of Paul (estimated to be AD 33–36) acts as an upper bound for the date of Crucifixion. The dates for Paul's conversion and ministry can be determined by analysing the Pauline epistles and the Acts of the Apostles.[359][360] Astronomers have tried to estimate the precise date of the Crucifixion by analysing lunar motion and calculating historic dates of Passover, a festival based on the lunisolar Hebrew calendar. The most widely accepted dates derived from this method are 7 April AD 30, and 3 April AD 33 (both Julian).[361]
Historicity of events
[edit]
Nearly all historians (both modern and historical) agree that Jesus was a real person who historically existed.[g] Scholars have reached a limited consensus on the basics of Jesus's life.[362]
Family
[edit]Many scholars agree that Joseph, Jesus's father, died before Jesus began his ministry. Joseph is not mentioned in the Gospels during Jesus's ministry. Joseph's death would explain why in Mark 6:3, Jesus's neighbours refer to Jesus as the "son of Mary" (sons were usually identified by their fathers).[363]
According to Theissen and Merz, it is common for extraordinary charismatic leaders, such as Jesus, to come into conflict with their ordinary families.[364] In Mark, Jesus's family comes to get him, fearing that he is mad (Mark 3:20–34), and this account is thought to be historical because early Christians would probably not have invented it.[365] After Jesus's death, many members of his family joined the Christian movement.[364] Jesus's brother James became a leader of the Jerusalem Church.[366]
Géza Vermes says that the doctrine of the virgin birth of Jesus arose from theological development rather than from historical events.[367] Despite the widely held view that the authors of the Synoptic Gospels drew upon each other (the so-called synoptic problem), other scholars take it as significant that the virgin birth is attested by two separate gospels, Matthew and Luke.[368][369][370][371][372][373]
According to E. P. Sanders, the birth narratives in the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke are the clearest cases of invention in the Gospel narratives of Jesus's life. Marcus Borg concurs, explaining that, "I (and most mainline scholars) do not see these stories as historically factual."[374] Both accounts have Jesus born in Bethlehem, in accordance with Jewish salvation history, and both have him growing up in Nazareth. But Sanders points out that the two Gospels report completely different and irreconcilable explanations for how that happened. Luke's account of a census in which everyone returned to their ancestral cities is not plausible. Matthew's account is more plausible, but the story reads as though it was invented to identify Jesus as a new Moses, and the historian Josephus reports Herod the Great's brutality without ever mentioning that he massacred little boys.[375] The contradictions between the two Gospels were probably apparent to the early Christians, since attempts to harmonize the two narratives are already present in the earlier apocryphal infancy gospels (the Infancy Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of James), which are dated to the 2nd century AD.[376][377]
Conservative scholars argue that despite the uncertainty of the details, the gospel birth narratives trace back to historical, or at least much earlier pre-gospel traditions.[378][379][380][381] For instance, according to Ben Witherington:
What we find in Matthew and Luke is not the story of ... a [god] descending to earth and, in the guise of a man, mating with a human woman, but rather the story of a miraculous conception without the aid of any man, divine or otherwise. As such, this story is without precedent either in Jewish or pagan literature.[382]
Sanders says that the genealogies of Jesus are based not on historical information but on the author's desire to show that Jesus was the universal Jewish saviour.[92] In any event, once the doctrine of the virgin birth of Jesus became established, that tradition superseded the earlier tradition that he was descended from David through Joseph.[383] The Gospel of Luke reports that Jesus was a blood relative of John the Baptist, but scholars generally consider this connection to be invented.[92][384]
Baptism
[edit]
Most modern scholars consider Jesus's baptism to be a historical fact, along with his crucifixion.[8] The theologian James D. G. Dunn states that they "command almost universal assent" and "rank so high on the 'almost impossible to doubt or deny' scale of historical facts" that they are often the starting points for the study of the historical Jesus.[8] Scholars adduce the criterion of embarrassment, saying that early Christians would not have invented a baptism that might imply that Jesus committed sins and wanted to repent.[385][386] According to Theissen and Merz, Jesus was inspired by John the Baptist and took over from him many elements of his teaching.[387]
Ministry in Galilee
[edit]Most scholars hold that Jesus lived in Galilee and Judea and did not preach or study elsewhere.[388] They agree that Jesus debated with Jewish authorities on the subject of God, performed some healings, taught in parables and gathered followers.[193] Jesus's Jewish critics considered his ministry to be scandalous because he feasted with sinners, fraternized with women, and allowed his followers to pluck grain on the Sabbath.[55] According to Sanders, it is not plausible that disagreements over how to interpret the Law of Moses and the Sabbath would have led Jewish authorities to want Jesus killed.[389]
According to Ehrman, Jesus taught that a coming kingdom was everyone's proper focus, not anything in this life.[390] He taught about the Jewish Law, seeking its true meaning, sometimes in opposition to traditions. Jesus put love at the centre of the Law, and following that Law was an apocalyptic necessity.[391] His ethical teachings called for forgiveness, not judging others, loving enemies, and caring for the poor.[392] Funk and Hoover note that typical of Jesus were paradoxical or surprising turns of phrase, such as advising one, when struck on the cheek, to offer the other cheek to be struck as well.[393][394]
The Gospels portray Jesus teaching in well-defined sessions, such as the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew or the parallel Sermon on the Plain in Luke. According to Gerd Theissen and Annette Merz, these teaching sessions include authentic teachings of Jesus, but the scenes were invented by the respective evangelists to frame these teachings, which had originally been recorded without context.[72] While Jesus's miracles fit within the social context of antiquity, he defined them differently. First, he attributed them to the faith of those healed. Second, he connected them to end times prophecy.[395]
Jesus chose twelve disciples (the "Twelve"),[396] evidently as an apocalyptic message. All three Synoptics mention the Twelve, although the names on Luke's list vary from those in Mark and Matthew, suggesting that Christians were not certain who all the disciples were. The twelve disciples might have represented the twelve original tribes of Israel, which would be restored once God's rule was instituted. The disciples were reportedly meant to be the rulers of the tribes in the coming Kingdom.[397] According to Bart Ehrman, Jesus's promise that the Twelve would rule is historical, because the Twelve included Judas Iscariot. In Ehrman's view, no Christians would have invented a line from Jesus, promising rulership to the disciple who betrayed him.[398]
In Mark, the disciples play hardly any role other than a negative one. While others sometimes respond to Jesus with complete faith, his disciples are puzzled and doubtful. They serve as a foil to Jesus and to other characters. The failings of the disciples are probably exaggerated in Mark, and the disciples make a better showing in Matthew and Luke.[399] Recent studies tend to suggest that Mark is not as negative towards Peter as a previous generation of scholars thought.[400]
Sanders says that Jesus's mission was not about repentance, although he acknowledges that this opinion is unpopular. He argues that repentance appears as a strong theme only in Luke, that repentance was John the Baptist's message, and that Jesus's ministry would not have been scandalous if the sinners he ate with had been repentant.[401] According to Theissen and Merz, Jesus taught that God was generously giving people an opportunity to repent.[402]
Role
[edit]Jesus taught that an apocalyptic figure, the "Son of Man", would soon come on clouds of glory to gather the chosen ones.[403] He referred to himself as a "son of man" in the colloquial sense of "a person", but scholars do not know whether he also meant himself when he referred to the heavenly "Son of Man". Paul the Apostle and other early Christians interpreted the "Son of Man" as the risen Jesus.[28]
The Gospels refer to Jesus not only as a messiah but in the absolute form as "the Messiah" or, equivalently, "the Christ". In early Judaism, this absolute form of the title is not found, but only phrases such as "his messiah". The tradition is ambiguous enough to leave room for debate as to whether Jesus defined his eschatological role as that of the Messiah.[404] The Jewish messianic tradition included many different forms, some of them focused on a messiah figure and others not. Based on the Christian tradition, Gerd Theissen advances the hypothesis that Jesus saw himself in messianic terms but did not claim the title "Messiah".[405] Bart Ehrman argues that Jesus did consider himself to be the Messiah, albeit in the sense that he would be the king of the new political order that God would usher in,[406] not in the sense that most people today think of the term.[407]
Passover and crucifixion in Jerusalem
[edit]Around AD 30, Jesus and his followers travelled from Galilee to Jerusalem to observe Passover.[396] Jesus caused a disturbance in the Second Temple,[25] which was the centre of Jewish religious and civil authority. Sanders associates it with Jesus's prophecy that the Temple would be totally demolished.[408] Jesus held a last meal with his disciples, which is the origin of the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. His words as recorded in the Synoptic gospels and Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians do not entirely agree, but this meal appears to have pointed to Jesus's place in the coming Kingdom of God when very probably Jesus knew he was about to be killed, although he may have still hoped that God might yet intervene.[409]
The Gospels say that Jesus was betrayed to the authorities by a disciple, and many scholars consider this report to be highly reliable.[150] He was executed on the orders of Pontius Pilate, the Roman prefect of Judaea.[25] Pilate most likely saw Jesus's reference to the Kingdom of God as a threat to Roman authority and worked with the Temple elites to have Jesus executed.[410] The Sadducean high-priestly leaders of the Temple more plausibly had Jesus executed for political reasons than for his teaching.[150] They may have regarded him as a threat to stability, especially after he caused a disturbance at the Second Temple.[150][411] Other factors, such as Jesus's triumphal entry into Jerusalem, may have contributed to this decision.[412] Most scholars consider Jesus's crucifixion to be factual because early Christians would not have invented the painful death of their leader.[8][413]
After crucifixion
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After Jesus's death, his followers said he was restored to life, although the exact details of their experiences are unclear. The gospel reports contradict each other, possibly suggesting competition among those claiming to have seen him first rather than deliberate fraud.[414] On the other hand, L. Michael White suggests that inconsistencies in the Gospels reflect differences in the agendas of their unknown authors.[362] The followers of Jesus formed a community to wait for his return and the founding of his kingdom.[25]
Portraits of Jesus
[edit]Modern research on the historical Jesus has not led to a unified picture of the historical figure, partly because of the variety of academic traditions represented by the scholars.[415] Given the scarcity of historical sources, it is generally difficult for any scholar to construct a portrait of Jesus that can be considered historically valid beyond the basic elements of his life.[69][70] The portraits of Jesus constructed in these quests often differ from each other, and from the image portrayed in the Gospels.[311][416]
Jesus is seen as the founder of, in the words of Sanders, a "renewal movement within Judaism". One of the criteria used to discern historical details in the "third quest" is the criterion of plausibility, relative to Jesus's Jewish context and to his influence on Christianity. A disagreement in contemporary research is whether Jesus was apocalyptic. Most scholars conclude that he was an apocalyptic preacher, like John the Baptist and Paul the Apostle. Certain prominent North American scholars, such as Burton Mack and John Dominic Crossan, advocate for a non-eschatological Jesus, one who is more of a Cynic sage than an apocalyptic preacher.[417] In addition to portraying Jesus as an apocalyptic prophet, a charismatic healer or a cynic philosopher, some scholars portray him as the true messiah or an egalitarian prophet of social change.[418][419] The attributes described in the portraits sometimes overlap, and scholars who differ on some attributes sometimes agree on others.[420]
Since the 18th century, scholars have occasionally put forth that Jesus was a political national messiah, but the evidence for this portrait is negligible. Likewise, the proposal that Jesus was a Zealot does not fit with the earliest strata of the Synoptic tradition.[150]
Language, ethnicity, and appearance
[edit]
Jesus grew up in Galilee and much of his ministry took place there.[423] The languages spoken in Galilee and Judea during the 1st century AD included Jewish Palestinian Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek, with Aramaic being predominant.[424][425] There is substantial consensus that Jesus gave most of his teachings in Aramaic[426] in the Galilean dialect.[427][428] Other than Aramaic and Hebrew, it is likely that he was also able to speak Greek.[429][430][431]
Modern scholars agree that Jesus was a Jew of 1st-century Judea.[432] Ioudaios in New Testament Greek[u] is a term which in the contemporary context may refer to religion (Second Temple Judaism), ethnicity (of Judea), or both.[435][436][437] In a review of the state of modern scholarship, Amy-Jill Levine writes that the entire question of ethnicity is "fraught with difficulty", and that "beyond recognizing that 'Jesus was Jewish', rarely does the scholarship address what being 'Jewish' means".[438]
The New Testament gives no description of the physical appearance of Jesus before his death—it is generally indifferent to racial appearances and does not refer to the features of the people it mentions.[439][440][441] Jesus probably looked like a typical Jewish man of his time and place; standing around 166 cm (5 ft 5 in) tall with a thin but fit build, olive-brown skin, brown eyes and short, dark hair. He also probably had a beard that was not particularly long or heavy.[442]
Christ myth theory
[edit]The Christ myth theory is the hypothesis that Jesus of Nazareth never existed; or that if he did, he had virtually nothing to do with the founding of Christianity and the accounts in the gospels.[v] Stories of Jesus's birth, along with other key events, have so many mythic elements that some scholars have suggested that Jesus himself was a myth.[444]
Bruno Bauer (1809–1882) taught that the first Gospel was a work of literature that produced history rather than described it. According to Albert Kalthoff (1850–1906), a social movement produced Jesus when it encountered Jewish messianic expectations. Arthur Drews (1865–1935) saw Jesus as the concrete form of a myth that predated Christianity.[445] Despite arguments put forward by authors who have questioned the existence of a historical Jesus, virtually all scholars of antiquity accept that Jesus was a historical figure and consider the myth theory to be fringe.[446]
Religious perspectives
[edit]Jesus's teachings and the retelling of his life story have significantly influenced the course of human history, and have directly or indirectly affected the lives of billions of people, even non-Christians, worldwide.[447][448] He is considered by many people to be the most influential figure to have ever lived, finding a significant place in numerous cultural contexts.[449][450]
Apart from his own disciples and followers,[451] the Jews of Jesus's day generally rejected him as the messiah,[452] as does Judaism today.[453] Christian theologians, ecumenical councils, reformers and others have written extensively about Jesus over the centuries. Christian denominations have often been defined or characterized by their descriptions of Jesus. Meanwhile, Manichaeans, Gnostics, Muslims, Druzes,[454] the Baháʼís, and others have found prominent places for Jesus in their religions.[455][456][457]
Christianity
[edit]
Jesus is the central figure of Christianity.[82] Although Christian views of Jesus vary, it is possible to summarize the key beliefs shared by the major denominations, as stated in their catechetical or confessional texts.[458][459][460] Christian views of Jesus are derived from the texts of the New Testament, including the canonical gospels and letters such as the Pauline epistles and the Johannine writings. These documents outline the key beliefs held by Christians about Jesus, including his divinity, humanity, and earthly life, and that he is the Christ and the Son of God.[461] Despite their many shared beliefs, not all Christian denominations agree on all doctrines, and both major and minor differences on teachings and beliefs have persisted throughout Christianity for centuries.[462]
The New Testament states that the resurrection of Jesus is the foundation of the Christian faith.[463][464] Christians believe that through his sacrificial death and resurrection, humans can be reconciled with God and are thereby offered salvation and the promise of eternal life.[197] Recalling the words of John the Baptist in the gospel of John, these doctrines sometimes refer to Jesus as the Lamb of God, who was crucified to fulfil his role as the servant of God.[465][466] Jesus is thus seen as the new and last Adam, whose obedience contrasts with Adam's disobedience.[467] Christians view Jesus as a role model, whose God-focused life believers are encouraged to imitate.[82]
Most Christians believe that Jesus is both human and the Son of God.[468] While there has been theological debate over his nature,[w] Trinitarian Christians generally believe that Jesus is the Logos, God's incarnation and God the Son, both fully divine and fully human. The doctrine of the Trinity is not universally accepted among Christians.[470][471] With the Reformation, Christians such as Michael Servetus and the Socinians started questioning the ancient creeds that had established Jesus's two natures.[28] Nontrinitarian Christian groups include the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,[472] Unitarians and Jehovah's Witnesses.[469]
Christians revere not only Jesus but also his name. Devotions to the Holy Name of Jesus go back to the earliest days of Christianity.[473][474] These devotions and feasts exist in both Eastern and Western Christianity.[474]
Judaism's view
[edit]Judaism rejects the idea of Jesus (or any future Jewish messiah) being God,[411] or a mediator to God, or part of a Trinity.[475] It holds that Jesus is not the messiah, arguing that he neither fulfilled the messianic prophecies in the Tanakh nor embodied the personal qualifications of the Messiah.[476] Jews argue that Jesus did not fulfil prophecies to build the Third Temple,[477] gather Jews back to Israel,[478] bring world peace,[479] and unite humanity under the God of Israel.[480][481] Furthermore, according to Jewish tradition, there were no prophets after Malachi,[482] who delivered his prophecies in the 5th century BC.[483]
Judaic criticism of Jesus is long-standing, and includes a range of stories in the Talmud, written and compiled from the 3rd to the 5th century AD.[484] In one such story, Yeshu HaNozri ('Jesus the Nazarene'), a lewd apostate, is executed by the Jewish high court for spreading idolatry and practising magic.[485] According to some, the form Yeshu is an acronym which in Hebrew reads "may his name and memory be blotted out".[486] The majority of contemporary scholars consider that this material provides no information on the historical Jesus.[487] The Mishneh Torah, a late 12th-century work of Jewish law written by Moses Maimonides, states that Jesus is a "stumbling block" who makes "the majority of the world to err and serve a god other than the Lord".[488]
Medieval Hebrew literature contains the anecdotal "Episode of Jesus" (known also as Toledot Yeshu), in which Jesus is described as being the son of Joseph, the son of Pandera (see: Episode of Jesus). The account portrays Jesus as an impostor.[489]
Manichaeism
[edit]Manichaeism, an ancient religious movement, became one of the earliest organized religions outside of Christianity to honour Jesus as a significant figure.[490][491][492] Within the Manichaean belief system, Jesus is revered alongside other prominent prophets such as Zoroaster, Gautama Buddha, and Mani himself.[493][494]
Islam
[edit]| Part of a series on Islam Islamic prophets |
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A major figure in Islam,[495][496][497] Jesus (often referred to by his Quranic name ʿĪsā) is considered to be a messenger of God and the messiah (al-Masīḥ) who was sent to guide the Children of Israel (Banī Isrāʾīl) with a new scripture, the Gospel (referred to in Islam as Injīl).[497][498] Muslims regard the gospels' accounts in the New Testament as partially authentic, and believe that Jesus's original message was altered (taḥrīf) and that Muhammad came later to revive it.[499] Belief in Jesus (and all other messengers of God) is a requirement for being a Muslim.[500] The Quran mentions Jesus by name 25 times—more often than Muhammad[501][502]—and emphasizes that Jesus was a mortal human who, like all other prophets, had been divinely chosen to spread God's message.[503] While the Quran affirms the Virgin birth of Jesus, he is considered to be neither an incarnation nor the son of God.[504][505] Islamic texts emphasize a strict notion of monotheism (tawḥīd) and forbid the association of partners with God, which would be idolatry.[506]
The Quran describes the annunciation to Mary (Maryam) by the Holy Spirit that she is to give birth to Jesus while remaining a virgin. It calls the virgin birth a miracle that occurred by the will of God.[507][508] The Quran (21:91 and 66:12) states that God breathed his spirit into Mary while she was chaste.[507][508] Jesus is called a "spirit from God" because he was born through the action of the Spirit,[507] but that belief does not imply his pre-existence.[509]
To aid in his ministry to the Jewish people, Jesus was given the ability to perform miracles, by permission of God rather than by his own power.[505] Through his ministry, Jesus is seen as a precursor to Muhammad.[503] In the Quran (4:157–159) it is said that Jesus was not killed but was merely made to appear that way to unbelievers,[510] and that he was raised into the heavens while still alive by God.[511]
According to most classic Sunni and Twelver Shi'ite interpretations of these verses, the likeness of Jesus was cast upon a substitute (most often one of the apostles), who was crucified in Jesus's stead.[512] Some medieval Muslims, including the ghulāt writing under the name of al-Mufaddal ibn Umar al-Ju'fi, the Brethren of Purity, various Isma'ili philosophers, and the Sunni mystic al-Ghazali, affirmed the historicity of Jesus's crucifixion. These thinkers held the docetic view that, although Jesus's human body had died on the cross, his spirit had survived and ascended into heaven, so that his death was only an appearance.[513] Nevertheless, to Muslims it is the ascension rather than the crucifixion that constitutes a major event in the life of Jesus.[514] There is no mention of his resurrection on the third day, and his death plays no special role in Islamic theories of salvation.[515] Jesus is a central figure in Islamic eschatology: Muslims believe that he will return to Earth at the end of time and defeat the Antichrist (ad-Dajjal) by killing him.[497][516][517][518]
According to the Quran, the coming of Muhammad (also called "Ahmad") was predicted by Jesus:
And ˹remember˺ when Jesus, son of Mary, said, "O children of Israel! I am truly Allah's messenger to you, confirming the Torah which came before me, and giving good news of a messenger after me whose name will be Aḥmad." Yet when the Prophet came to them with clear proofs, they said, "This is pure magic."
Through this verse, early Arab Muslims claimed legitimacy for their new faith in the existing religious traditions and the predictions of Jesus.[519]
Ahmadiyya
[edit]The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community has several teachings about Jesus.[520] Ahmadis believe that he was a mortal man who survived his crucifixion and died a natural death at the age of 120 in Kashmir, India, and is buried at Roza Bal.[521]
Druze
[edit]In the Druze faith,[454] Jesus is considered and revered as one of the seven spokesmen or prophets (natiq), defined as messengers or intermediaries between God and mankind, along with figures including Moses, Muhammad and Muhammad ibn Isma'il, each of them sent at a different period of history to preach the message of God.[454][522][523][524][525] In Druze tradition, Jesus is known under three titles: the True Messiah (al-Masih al-Haq), the Messiah of all Nations (Masih al-Umam), and the Messiah of Sinners. This is due, respectively, to the belief that Jesus delivered the true Gospel message, the belief that he was the Saviour of all nations, and the belief that he offers forgiveness.[526]
Baháʼí Faith
[edit]In the Baháʼí Faith, Jesus is considered one of the Manifestations of God,[527] defined as divine messengers or prophets sent by God to guide humanity, along with other religious figures such as Moses, Krishna, Zoroaster, Buddha, Muhammad, and Baháʼu'lláh. Baháʼís believe that these religious founders or leaders have contributed to the progressive revelation by bringing spiritual and moral values to humanity in their own time and place.[528][529][530][531][532] As a Manifestation of God, Jesus is believed to reflect God's qualities and attributes, but is not considered the only saviour of humanity nor the incarnation of God.[533][534][535] Baháʼís believe in the virgin birth,[536][537] but see the resurrection and the miracles of Jesus as symbolic.[538][537]
Other
[edit]
In Christian Gnosticism (now a largely extinct religious movement),[539] Jesus was sent from the divine realm and provided the secret knowledge (gnosis) necessary for salvation. Most Gnostics believed that Jesus was a human who became possessed by the spirit of "the Christ" at his baptism. This spirit left Jesus's body during the crucifixion but was rejoined to him when he was raised from the dead. Some Gnostics were docetics, believing that Jesus did not have a physical body, but only appeared to possess one.[540]
Some Hindus consider Jesus to be an avatar or a sadhu.[541] Paramahansa Yogananda, an Indian guru, taught that Jesus was the reincarnation of Elisha and a student of John the Baptist, the reincarnation of Elijah.[542] Some Buddhists, including Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, regard Jesus as a bodhisattva who dedicated his life to the welfare of people.[543] The New Age movement entertains a wide variety of views on Jesus.[544] Theosophists, from whom many New Age teachings originated,[545] refer to Jesus as the Master Jesus, a spiritual reformer, and they believe that Christ, after various incarnations, occupied the body of Jesus.[546] The Urantia Book teaches that Jesus is one of more than 700,000 heavenly sons of God.[547] Antony Theodore in the book Jesus Christ in Love writes that there is an underlying oneness of Jesus's teachings with the messages contained in Quran, Vedas, Upanishads, Talmud and Avesta.[548] Atheists reject Jesus's divinity, but have different views about him—from challenging his mental health[549][550] to emphasizing his "moral superiority" (Richard Dawkins).[551]
Artistic depictions
[edit]
As in other Early Christian art, the earliest depictions date to the late 2nd or early 3rd century, and surviving images are found in the Catacombs of Rome.[553] Some of the earliest depictions of Jesus at the Dura-Europos church date to before 256.[554] A wide range of depictions of Jesus appeared during the next two millennia, influenced by cultural settings, political circumstances and theological contexts.[421][422][440]
The depiction of Christ in pictorial form was highly controversial in the early Church.[555][x][556] From the 5th century, flat painted icons became popular in the Eastern Church.[557] The Byzantine Iconoclasm acted as a barrier to developments in the East, but by the 9th century, art was permitted again.[421] The Protestant Reformation brought renewed resistance to imagery, but total prohibition was atypical, and Protestant objections to images have tended to reduce since the 16th century. Although large images are generally avoided, few Protestants now object to book illustrations depicting Jesus.[558][559] The use of depictions of Jesus is advocated by the leaders of denominations such as Anglicans and Catholics[560][561][562] and is a key element of the Eastern Orthodox tradition.[563][564]
In Eastern Christian art, the Transfiguration was a major theme, and every Eastern Orthodox monk who had trained in icon painting had to prove his craft by painting an icon depicting it.[565] Icons receive the external marks of veneration, such as kisses and prostration, and they are thought to be powerful channels of divine grace.[557]
In Western Europe, the Renaissance brought forth artists who focused on depictions of Jesus; Fra Angelico and others followed Giotto in the systematic development of uncluttered images.[421] Before the Protestant Reformation, the crucifix was common in Western Christianity. It is a model of the cross with Jesus crucified on it. The crucifix became the central ornament of the altar in the 13th century, a use that has been nearly universal in Roman Catholic churches since then.[566]
Associated relics
[edit]
The total destruction that ensued with the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans in AD 70 made the survival of items from 1st-century Judea very rare and almost no direct records survive about the history of Judaism from the last part of the 1st century to the 2nd century.[568][569][y] Margaret M. Mitchell writes that, although Eusebius reports (Ecclesiastical History III 5.3) that the early Christians left Jerusalem for Pella just before Jerusalem was subjected to the final lockdown, we must accept that no items from the early Jerusalem Church have survived.[571] Joe Nickell writes, "as investigation after investigation has shown, not a single, reliably authenticated relic of Jesus exists."[572][z]
Throughout the history of Christianity, relics attributed to Jesus have been claimed, but doubt has been cast on them. The 16th-century Catholic theologian Erasmus wrote sarcastically about the proliferation of relics and the number of buildings that could have been constructed from the wood claimed to be from the cross used in the Crucifixion.[574] Similarly, while experts debate whether Jesus was crucified with three nails or four, at least thirty holy nails are venerated as relics across Europe.[575]
Some relics, such as purported remnants of the crown of thorns placed on the head of Jesus, receive only a modest number of pilgrims, while the Shroud of Turin (which is associated with an approved Catholic devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus), has received millions,[576] including the popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI.[577][578]
See also
[edit]- Jesuism – Religious belief
- Jesus in comparative mythology – Comparative mythology study of Jesus Christ
- Last Adam – Title of Jesus
- Life of Christ in art – Set of subjects in art
- Liminal deity – Deity who is a crosser of boundaries
- List of books about Jesus
- List of founders of religious traditions
- List of messiah claimants
- List of people claimed to be Jesus
- List of people who have been considered deities
- List of statues of Jesus
- Outline of Jesus
- Sexuality and marital status of Jesus
Notes
[edit]- ^ Christ's features on his right side (the viewer's left) are theorized to represent the qualities of his human nature, while his left side (the viewer's right) represents his divinity.[1][2]
- ^ John P. Meier writes that Jesus's birth year is c. 7 or 6 BC.[3] Karl Rahner states that the consensus among Christian scholars is c. 4 BC.[4] E. P. Sanders also favours c. 4 BC and refers to the general consensus.[5] Jack Finegan uses the study of early Christian traditions to support c. 3 or 2 BC.[6]
- ^ James Dunn writes that the baptism and crucifixion of Jesus "command almost universal assent" and "rank so high on the 'almost impossible to doubt or deny' scale of historical facts" that they are often the starting points for the study of the historical Jesus.[8] Bart D. Ehrman states that the crucifixion of Jesus on the orders of Pontius Pilate is the most certain element about him.[9] John Dominic Crossan and Richard G. Watts state that the crucifixion of Jesus is as certain as any historical fact can be.[10] Paul R. Eddy and Gregory A. Boyd say that non-Christian confirmation of the crucifixion of Jesus is now "firmly established".[11]
- ^ Traditionally, Christians believe that Mary conceived her son miraculously by the agency of the Holy Spirit. Muslims believe that she conceived her son miraculously by the command of God. Joseph was from these perspectives and according to the canonical gospels the acting adoptive father of Jesus.
- ^ Ancient Greek: Ἰησοῦς, romanized: Iēsoús, probably from Hebrew or Aramaic: יֵשׁוּעַ, romanized: Yēšūaʿ
- ^ Coptic: Ⲓⲏⲥⲟⲩⲥ Ⲡⲓⲭ́ρⲓⲥτⲟⲥ; Geʽez: መሲህ ኢየሱስ; Greek: Ἰησοῦς Χριστός; Hebrew: ישוע המשיח; Latin: Iesus Christus; Slavonic: І҆исоу́съ Хрїсто́съ; Syriac: ܝܫܘܥ ܡܫܺܝܚܳܐ
- ^ a b c In a 2011 review of the state of modern scholarship, Bart D. Ehrman wrote, "He certainly existed, as virtually every competent scholar of antiquity, Christian or non-Christian, agrees."[13] Richard A. Burridge states: "There are those who argue that Jesus is a figment of the Church's imagination, that there never was a Jesus at all. I have to say that I do not know any respectable critical scholar who says that any more."[14] Robert M. Price does not believe that Jesus existed but agrees that this perspective runs against the views of the majority of scholars.[15] James D. G. Dunn calls the theories of Jesus's non-existence "a thoroughly dead thesis".[16] Michael Grant (a classicist), "In recent years, 'no serious scholar has ventured to postulate the non historicity of Jesus' or at any rate very few, and they have not succeeded in disposing of the much stronger, indeed very abundant, evidence to the contrary."[17] Robert E. Van Voorst states that biblical scholars and classical historians regard theories of non-existence of Jesus as effectively refuted.[18] Writing on The Daily Beast, Candida Moss and Joel Baden state that, "there is nigh universal consensus among biblical scholars – the authentic ones, at least – that Jesus was, in fact, a real guy."[19]
- ^ Ehrman writes: "The notion that the Gospel accounts are not completely accurate but still important for the religious truths they try to convey is widely shared in the scholarly world, even though it's not so widely known or believed outside of it."[21]
Sanders writes: "The earliest Christians did not write a narrative of Jesus' life, but rather made use of, and thus preserved, individual units—short passages about his words and deeds. These units were later moved and arranged by authors and editors. [...] Some material has been revised and some created by early Christians."[22] - ^ A small minority of Christian denominations reject trinitarianism, wholly or partly, as non-scriptural.
- ^ Most Christians and Alawites celebrate Christmas. Part of the Eastern Christian churches celebrate Christmas on 25 December of the Julian calendar, which currently corresponds to 7 January in the Gregorian calendar. In many countries, Christmas is celebrated on 24 December.
- ^ Often referred to by his Quranic name, ʿĪsā
- ^ Some medieval Muslims believed that Jesus was crucified, as do the members of the modern Ahmadiyya movement; see § Islamic perspectives.
- ^ This article uses quotes from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible.
- ^ Powell writes: "[Paul] does cite words or instructions of Jesus in a few places,[50] but for the most part he displays little interest in the details of Jesus' earthly life and ministry."[51]
- ^ Compare Matthew 1:6–16 with Luke 3:23–31. See also Genealogy of Jesus § Comparison of the two genealogies.
- ^ For an overview of such theories, see Genealogy of Jesus § Explanations for divergence.
- ^ Matthew: "claiming to be king of the Jews". Mark: "King of the Jews". Luke: "subverting nation, opposing payment of taxes to Caesar, claiming to be Christ, a king" John: "breaking Jewish law, claiming to be the son of God".
- ^ Amy-Jill Levine writes: "There is a consensus of sorts on a basic outline of Jesus' life. Most scholars agree that Jesus was baptized by John, debated with fellow Jews on how best to live according to God's will, engaged in healings and exorcisms, taught in parables, gathered male and female followers in Galilee, went to Jerusalem, and was crucified by Roman soldiers during the governorship of Pontius Pilate."[310]
- ^ Tuckett writes: "All this does at least render highly implausible any far-fetched theories that even Jesus' very existence was a Christian invention. The fact that Jesus existed, that he was crucified under Pontius Pilate (for whatever reason) and that he had a band of followers who continued to support his cause, seems to be part of the bedrock of historical tradition. If nothing else, the non-Christian evidence can provide us with certainty on that score."[332]
- ^ For example, John P. Meier states that Jesus's birth year is c. 7/6 BC,[3] while Finegan favours c. 3/2 BC.[6]
- ^ In the New Testament, Jesus is described as Jewish / Judean (Ioudaios as written in Koine Greek) on three occasions: by the Magi in Matthew 2:2, who referred to Jesus as "King of the Jews" (basileus ton ioudaion); by both the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4:9 and John 4:20 and by Jesus himself in John 4:22; and (in all four gospels) during the Passion, by the Romans, who also used the phrase "King of the Jews".[433] Jesus was also described as "King of Israel" in John 1:49, John 12:13, Mark 15:32 and Matthew 27:42.[434]
- ^ Ehrman writes: "In simpler terms, the historical Jesus did not exist. Or if he did, he had virtually nothing to do with the founding of Christianity." Further quoting as authoritative the fuller definition provided by Earl Doherty in Jesus: Neither God Nor Man. Age of Reason, 2009, pp. vii–viii: it is "the theory that no historical Jesus worthy of the name existed, that Christianity began with a belief in a spiritual, mythical figure, that the Gospels are essentially allegory and fiction, and that no single identifiable person lay at the root of the Galilean preaching tradition".[443]
- ^ Following the Apostolic Age, there was fierce and often politicized debate in the early church on many interrelated issues. Christology was a major focus of these debates, and was addressed at every one of the first seven ecumenical councils. Some early beliefs viewed Jesus as ontologically subordinate to the Father (Subordinationism), and others considered him an aspect of the Father rather than a separate person (Sabellianism), both were condemned as heresies by the Catholic Church.[28][469] The Church resolved the issues in ancient councils, which established the Holy Trinity, with Jesus both fully human and fully God.[28]
- ^ Philip Schaff commenting on Irenaeus, wrote, "This censure of images as a Gnostic peculiarity, and as a heathenish corruption, should be noted." (Footnote 300 on Contr. Her. .I.XXV.6. ANF.)
- ^ Flavius Josephus writing (about 5 years later, c. AD 75) in The Jewish War (Book VII 1.1) stated that Jerusalem had been flattened to the point that "there was left nothing to make those that came thither believe it had ever been inhabited".[570] And once what was left of the ruins of Jerusalem had been turned into the Roman settlement of Aelia Capitolina, no Jews were allowed to set foot in it.[569]
- ^ Polarized conclusions regarding the Shroud of Turin remain.[573] According to former Nature editor Philip Ball, "it's fair to say that, despite the seemingly definitive tests in 1988, the status of the Shroud of Turin is murkier than ever. Not least, the nature of the image and how it was fixed on the cloth remain deeply puzzling."[567]
References
[edit]- ^ Weitzmann. Sinai, the Icons. p. 15.[full citation needed]
- ^ Chatzidakis, Manolis (1967). "An encaustic icon of Christ at Sinai". The Art Bulletin. 47 (3). Translated by Walters, Gerry: 199. doi:10.2307/3048469.
The two great eyes are not, themselves, completely identical either in dimension or in shape. They are not placed on the same level, and through the difference in movement of the eyebrows, each acquires a slightly different nuance of expression: the right eye is more calm, while the left, larger, is more lively.
- ^ a b Meier 1991, p. 407.
- ^ Rahner 2004, p. 732.
- ^ Sanders 1993, pp. 10–11.
- ^ a b Finegan 1998, p. 319.
- ^ Brown 1977, p. 513.
- ^ a b c d Dunn 2003, p. 339.
- ^ Ehrman 1999, p. 101.
- ^ Crossan & Watts 1999, p. 96.
- ^ Eddy & Boyd 2007, p. 173.
- ^ a b c d Vermes 1981, pp. 20, 26, 27, 29.
- ^ Ehrman 2011, p. 285.
- ^ Burridge, Richard A.; Gould, Graham (2004). Jesus Now and Then. Wm. B. Eerdmans. p. 34. ISBN 978-0-8028-0977-3.
- ^ Price, Robert M. (2009). "Jesus at the Vanishing Point". In Beilby, James K.; Eddy, Paul R. (eds.). The Historical Jesus: Five Views. InterVarsity. pp. 55, 61. ISBN 978-0-8308-7853-6. Archived from the original on 7 September 2015. Retrieved 14 August 2015.
- ^ Sykes, Stephen W. (2007). "Paul's understanding of the death of Jesus". Sacrifice and Redemption. Cambridge University Press. pp. 35–36. ISBN 978-0-521-04460-8.
- ^ Grant, Michael (2004). Jesus. Phoenix. p. 200. ISBN 978-0-684-14889-2.
- ^ Van Voorst 2000, p. 16.
- ^ Moss, Candida; Baden, Joel (5 October 2014). "So-Called 'Biblical Scholar' Says Jesus a Made-Up Myth". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on 5 December 2021. Retrieved 14 July 2021.
- ^ Powell 1998, pp. 168–173.
- ^ Bart D. Ehrman. Historical Jesus. 'Prophet of the New Millennium'. Archived 23 January 2019 at the Wayback Machine Course handbook, p. 10 (Lecture Three. V. B.), The Teaching Company, 2000, Lecture 24[clarification needed]
- ^ Sanders 1993, p. 57.
- ^ Bowman Jr. & Komoszewski 2019, p. 22–23.
- ^ Evans, Craig A. (1993). "Life-of-Jesus Research and the Eclipse of Mythology" (PDF). Theological Studies. 54: 13–14.
First, the New Testament Gospels are now viewed as useful, if not essentially reliable, historical sources. Gone is the extreme skepticism that for so many years dominated gospel research. Representative of many is the position of E. P. Sanders and Marcus Borg, who have concluded that it is possible to recover a fairly reliable picture of the historical Jesus.
- ^ a b c d Sanders 1993, p. 11.
- ^ Sanders 1993, pp. 11, 14.
- ^ "anno Domini". Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2003. Archived from the original on 22 December 2007. Retrieved 3 November 2016.
Etymology: Medieval Latin, in the year of our Lord
. - ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Jesus Christ at the Encyclopædia Britannica
- ^ John 1:45
- ^ Matthew 1:21.
- ^ Doninger 1999, p. 212.
- ^ Pannenberg 1968, pp. 30–31.
- ^ Bultmann, Rudolf K. (2007). Theology of the New Testament. Baylor University Press. p. 80. ISBN 978-1-932792-93-5.
- ^ Maas, Anthony J. (1913). . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
- ^ Heil, John P. (2010). Philippians: Let Us Rejoice in Being Conformed to Christ. Society of Biblical Literature. p. 66. ISBN 978-1-58983-482-8. Archived from the original on 7 September 2015. Retrieved 14 August 2015.
- ^ Vine 1940, pp. 274–275.
- ^ See Leviticus 8:10–12 and Exodus 30:29.
- ^ Mills & Bullard 1998, p. 142.
- ^ 1 Corinthians 11:23–26.
- ^ Blomberg 2009, pp. 441–442.
- ^ a b c d Fahlbusch, Erwin (2005). The Encyclopedia of Christianity. Vol. 4. Wm. B. Eerdmans. pp. 53–56. ISBN 978-0-8028-2416-5. Archived from the original on 7 September 2015. Retrieved 14 August 2015.
- ^ a b c Evans 2003, pp. 465–477.
- ^ Acts 10:37–38 and Acts 19:4.
- ^ Bruce, Frederick F. (1988). The Book of the Acts. New International Commentary on the New Testament. Wm. B. Eerdmans. p. 362. ISBN 978-0-8028-2505-6.
- ^ Rausch 2003, p. 77.
- ^ Acts 1:1–11.
- ^ also mentioned in 1 Timothy 3:16.
- ^ a b c Evans 2003, pp. 521–530.
- ^ 1 Corinthians 7:10–11, 9:14, 11:23–25, 2 Corinthians 12:9.
- ^ 1 Cor. 7:10–11; 9:14; 11:23–25; 2 Cor. 12:9; cf. Acts 20:35
- ^ Powell, Mark A. (2009). Introducing the New Testament. Baker. p. 248. ISBN 978-0-8010-2868-7.
- ^ Brown 1997, pp. 835–840.
- ^ Evans, C. A. (2008). Exploring the Origins of the Bible. Baker. p. 154.
- ^ Keener 2009, p. 56.
- ^ a b c d e Funk, Hoover & The Jesus Seminar 1993, p. 3.
- ^ a b c d May, Herbert G.; Metzger, Bruce M., eds. (1977). "Mark". The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha. pp. 1213–1239.
- ^ Cross & Livingstone 2005, John, St..
- ^ Roberts, Mark D. (2007). Can We Trust the Gospels?: Investigating the Reliability of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Crossway. p. 58. ISBN 978-1-4335-1978-9. Archived from the original on 7 September 2015. Retrieved 14 August 2015.
- ^ Licona 2010, pp. 210–221.
- ^ Burridge, R. A. (2006). "Gospels". In Rogerson, J. W.; Lieu, Judith M. (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Studies. Oxford University Press. p. 433.
- ^ Talbert, C. H. (1977). What is a Gospel? The Genre of the Canonical Gospels. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Fortress Press.
- ^ Wills, L. M. (1997). The Quest of the Historical Gospel: Mark, John and the Origins of the Gospel Genre. London: Routledge. p. 10.
- ^ Burridge, R. A. (2004). What are the Gospels? A Comparison with Graeco-Roman Biography. revised updated edn. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans.
- ^ e.g. Vines, M. E. (2002). The Problem of the Markan Genre: The Gospel of Mark and the Jewish Novel. Atlanta, Georgia: Society of Biblical Literature. pp. 161–162.
- ^ Stanton, Graham N. (2004). Jesus and Gospel. Cambridge University Press. p. 192. ISBN 978-0-521-00802-0. Archived from the original on 26 February 2020. Retrieved 22 August 2017.
- ^ Rogerson, J. W.; Lieu, Judith M. (2006). The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Studies. Oxford University Press. p. 437. ISBN 978-0-19-925425-5. Archived from the original on 25 December 2019. Retrieved 22 August 2017.
- ^ Grudem 1994, pp. 90–91.
- ^ a b c d Sanders 1993, p. 3.
- ^ a b Köstenberger, Kellum & Quarles 2009, pp. 117–125.
- ^ a b Ehrman 1999, pp. 22–23.
- ^ Sanders 1993, p. 71.
- ^ a b c d Theissen & Merz 1998, pp. 17–62.
- ^ a b Haffner, Paul (2008). New Testament Theology. Gracewing. p. 135. ISBN 978-88-902268-0-9.
- ^ a b Scroggie, W. Graham (1995). A Guide to the Gospels. Kregel Publications. p. 128. ISBN 978-0-8254-9571-7.
- ^ "synoptic". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
- ^ Synoptic Gospels at the Encyclopædia Britannica
- ^ Moloney, Francis J.; Harrington, Daniel J. (1998). The Gospel of John. Liturgical Press. p. 3. ISBN 978-0-8146-5806-2.
- ^ a b c Witherington 1997, p. 113.
- ^ Ladd, George E. (1993). A Theology of the New Testament. Wm. B. Eerdmans. p. 251. ISBN 978-0-8028-0680-2. Archived from the original on 7 September 2015. Retrieved 14 August 2015.
- ^ a b c d Thompson, Frank Charles, ed. (1983). The Thompson Chain-Reference Bible. Kirk Bride Bible Company & Zondervan Bible Publishers. pp. 1563–1564.
- ^ May, Herbert G.; Metzger, Bruce M., eds. (1977). "Matthew". The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha. pp. 1171–1212.
- ^ a b c McGrath 2006, pp. 4–6.
- ^ a b May, Herbert G.; Metzger, Bruce M., eds. (1977). "Luke". The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha. pp. 1240–1285.
- ^ a b May, Herbert G.; Metzger, Bruce M., eds. (1977). "John". The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha. pp. 1286–1318.
- ^ a b c d Harris 1985, pp. 302–310.
- ^ a b Rahner 2004, pp. 730–731.
- ^ O'Collins, Gerald (2009). Christology: A Biblical, Historical, and Systematic Study of Jesus. Oxford University Press. pp. 1–3. ISBN 978-0-19-955787-5.
- ^ a b Wiarda, Timothy (2010). Interpreting Gospel Narratives: Scenes, People, and Theology. B&H. pp. 75–78. ISBN 978-0-8054-4843-6.
- ^ a b Turner, David L. (2008). Matthew. Baker. p. 613. ISBN 978-0-8010-2684-3.
- ^ Matthew 1; Luke 2.
- ^ Matthew 1:1–16.
- ^ a b c Sanders 1993, pp. 80–91.
- ^ Luke 3:23–38.
- ^ Brown 1978, p. 163.
- ^ France, R. T. (1985). The Gospel According to Matthew: An Introduction and Commentary. Wm. B. Eerdmans. p. 72. ISBN 978-0-8028-0063-3. Archived from the original on 29 February 2020. Retrieved 15 October 2018. "From David the two lists diverge, as Matthew follows the line of succession to the throne of Judah from Solomon, whereas Luke's list goes through Nathan, ... and converges with Matthew's only for the two names of Shealtiel and Zerubabbel until Joseph is reached."
- ^ Mills & Bullard 1998, p. 556.
- ^ a b c Marsh, Clive; Moyise, Steve (2006). Jesus and the Gospels. Clark International. p. 37. ISBN 978-0-567-04073-2. Archived from the original on 7 September 2015. Retrieved 14 August 2015.
- ^ Morris 1992, p. 26.
- ^ a b c Jeffrey, David L. (1992). A Dictionary of biblical tradition in English literature. Wm. B. Eerdmans. pp. 538–540. ISBN 978-0-85244-224-1. Archived from the original on 8 October 2020. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
- ^ Cox & Easley 2007, pp. 30–37.
- ^ Brownrigg, Ronald (2002). Who's Who in the New Testament. Taylor & Francis. pp. 96–100. ISBN 978-0-415-26036-7.
- ^ Lincoln, Andrew T. (2013). "Luke and Jesus' Conception: A Case of Double Paternity?". Journal of Biblical Literature. 132 (3): 639–658. ISSN 0021-9231. JSTOR 23487891.
- ^ Lincoln, Andrew T. (5 March 2015). "Conceiving Jesus: re-examining Jesus' conception in canon, Christology, and creed" (PDF). The Severn Forum. p. 4. Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 May 2020. Retrieved 2 July 2019.
- ^ For example, Carmen 18.
- ^ Matthew 1:19–20.
- ^ a b Talbert, Charles H. (2010). Matthew. Baker. pp. 29–30. ISBN 978-0-8010-3192-2. Archived from the original on 8 October 2020. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
- ^ a b c Harris 1985, pp. 272–285.
- ^ Schnackenburg, Rudolf (2002). The Gospel of Matthew. Wm. B. Eerdmans. pp. 9–11. ISBN 978-0-8028-4438-5. Archived from the original on 7 September 2015. Retrieved 14 August 2015.
- ^ Luke 2:1–7.
- ^ Luke 2:8–20.
- ^ Luke 2:21.
- ^ Perrotta, Louise B. (2000). Saint Joseph: His Life and His Role in the Church Today. Our Sunday Visitor Publishing. pp. 21, 110–112. ISBN 978-0-87973-573-9.
- ^ Reverend Archdeacon Kinane. "Section VI – The perpetual virginity of St. Joseph". Saint Joseph: His Life, His Virtues, His Privileges, His Power. Aeterna Press. p. 138. Archived from the original on 9 March 2024. Retrieved 7 June 2021.
- ^ Aslan, Reza (2013). Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. Random House. p. 36. ISBN 978-1-4000-6922-4.
- ^ Brownrigg, Ronald (2003). Who's Who in the New Testament. New York: Routledge. p. 194. ISBN 978-1-134-50949-2. Archived from the original on 9 March 2024. Retrieved 31 March 2023.
- ^ Luke 1:5, 36.
- ^ PG 97.1325.
- ^ PG 120.189.
- ^ PG 145.760 (Nicephorus Callistus, Historia ecclesiastica, 2.3).
- ^ a b c d e Harris 1985, pp. 270–272.
- ^ Mark 3:31–35.
- ^ Mark 3:21.
- ^ John 3:1–11.
- ^ John 19:25–27.
- ^ Liddell, Henry G.; Scott, Robert (1889). An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon: The Seventh Edition of Liddell and Scott's Greek–English Lexicon. Clarendon Press. p. 797.
- ^ Dickson 2008, pp. 68–69.
- ^ Robinson, Matthew K. (2021). ""Is This Not the Τέκτων?": Revisiting Jesus's Vocation in Mark 6:3". Neotestamentica. 55 (2): 431–445. doi:10.1353/neo.2021.0038.
- ^ "Matthew Robinson". University of Oxford. Retrieved 1 April 2025.
- ^ Evans, Craig A. (2001). "Context, family and formation". In Bockmuehl, Markus N. A. (ed.). Cambridge companion to Jesus. Cambridge University Press. pp. 14, 21. doi:10.1017/CCOL0521792614.002. ISBN 978-0-521-79678-1. Archived from the original on 7 September 2015. Retrieved 14 August 2015.
- ^ Luke 2:22–35.
- ^ Luke 2:41–52.
- ^ Sheen, Fulton J. (2008). Life of Christ. Random House. p. 65. ISBN 978-0-385-52699-9. Archived from the original on 10 September 2015. Retrieved 14 August 2015.
- ^ a b c Blomberg 2009, pp. 224–229.
- ^ Köstenberger, Kellum & Quarles 2009, pp. 141–143.
- ^ a b McGrath 2006, pp. 16–22.
- ^ Luke 3:11.
- ^ Luke 3:16.
- ^ Dunn, James D. G.; Rogerson, John W. (2003). Eerdmans commentary on the Bible. Wm. B. Eerdmans. p. 1010. ISBN 978-0-8028-3711-0.
- ^ Mark 1:9–11.
- ^ a b c d Lee 2004, pp. 21–30.
- ^ a b c Harding, Mark; Nobbs, Alanna (2010). The Content and the Setting of the Gospel Tradition. Wm. B. Eerdmans. pp. 281–282. ISBN 978-0-8028-3318-1.
- ^ Mark 1:12–13.
- ^ Mark 1:14.
- ^ Matthew 3:14.
- ^ Matthew 3:15.
- ^ Matthew 4:3–11.
- ^ Luke 3:21–22.
- ^ Luke 7:18–23.
- ^ Luke 4:1–14.
- ^ a b c d e Cross & Livingstone 2005, Jesus Christ.
- ^ John 1:32.
- ^ Boring & Craddock 2004, p. 292.
- ^ John 3:22–24.
- ^ John 4:1.
- ^ a b Orr, James, ed. (1939). "International Standard Bible Encyclopedia Online". Wm. B. Eerdmans. Archived from the original on 17 August 2016. Retrieved 30 July 2016.
- ^ a b Dunn, James D. G. (2013). The Oral Gospel Tradition. Wm. B. Eerdmans. pp. 290–291.
- ^ a b c Harris 1985, pp. 285–296.
- ^ a b Redford 2007, pp. 117–130.
- ^ Vaught, Carl G. (2001). The Sermon on the mount: a theological investigation. Baylor University Press. pp. xi–xiv. ISBN 978-0-918954-76-3.
- ^ Redford 2007, pp. 143–160.
- ^ Nash, Henry S. (1909). "Transfiguration, The". In Jackson, Samuel M. (ed.). The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Thought: Son of Man-Tremellius V11. Funk & Wagnalls. p. 493. ISBN 978-1-4286-3189-2. Archived from the original on 7 September 2015. Retrieved 14 August 2015.
{{cite encyclopedia}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) - ^ a b c Barton, Stephen C. (23 November 2006). The Cambridge Companion to the Gospels. Cambridge University Press. pp. 132–133. ISBN 978-0-521-80766-1.
- ^ John 10:40–42.
- ^ Cox & Easley 2007, p. 137.
- ^ Redford 2007, pp. 211–229.
- ^ a b c d e f Cox & Easley 2007, pp. 155–170.
- ^ Redford 2007, pp. 257–274.
- ^ Matthew 4:18–22, Mark 1:16–20.
- ^ Brown 1988, pp. 25–27.
- ^ Boring & Craddock 2004, pp. 292–293.
- ^ Luke 6:17.
- ^ Patella, Michael F. (2009). "The Gospel According to Luke". In Durken, Daniel (ed.). New Collegeville Bible Commentary: New Testament. Liturgical Press. p. 255. ISBN 978-0-8146-3260-4. Archived from the original on 10 September 2015. Retrieved 14 August 2015.
- ^ Theissen & Merz 1998, pp. 316–346.
- ^ Mark 1:15.
- ^ Luke 17:21.
- ^ Mark 10:13–27.
- ^ Matthew 22:37–39.
- ^ Matthew 5–7.
- ^ Stassen, Glen H.; Gushee, David P. (2003). Kingdom Ethics: Following Jesus in Contemporary Context. InterVarsity. pp. 102–103, 138–140, 197–198, 295–298. ISBN 978-0-8308-2668-1. Archived from the original on 26 February 2020. Retrieved 14 August 2015.
- ^ a b Osborn, Eric F. (1993). The emergence of Christian theology. Cambridge University Press. p. 98. ISBN 978-0-521-43078-4.
- ^ Köstenberger, Andreas J. (1998). The missions of Jesus and the disciples according to the Fourth Gospel. Wm. B. Eerdmans. pp. 108–109. ISBN 978-0-8028-4255-8.
- ^ Pentecost, J. Dwight (1998). The parables of Jesus: lessons in life from the Master Teacher. Kregel. p. 10. ISBN 978-0-8254-9715-5.
- ^ Howick, E. Keith (2003). The Sermons of Jesus the Messiah. WindRiver. pp. 7–9. ISBN 978-1-886249-02-8.
- ^ Lisco, Friedrich G. (1850). The Parables of Jesus. Daniels and Smith Publishers. pp. 9–11.
- ^ Oxenden, Ashton (1864). The parables of our Lord?. William Macintosh Publishers. p. 6.
- ^ Blomberg, Craig L. (2012). Interpreting the Parables. InterVarsity. p. 448. ISBN 978-0-8308-3967-4. Archived from the original on 10 September 2015. Retrieved 14 August 2015.
- ^ Luke 15:11–32.
- ^ Mark 4:26–29.
- ^ Boucher, Madeleine I. "The Parables". Frontline. PBS. Archived from the original on 10 August 2013. Retrieved 3 June 2013.
- ^ Matthew 13:10–17.
- ^ Green, McKnight & Marshall 1992, p. 299.
- ^ Twelftree 1999, p. 350.
- ^ a b c d Levine 2006, p. 4.
- ^ Charlesworth, James H. (2008). The Historical Jesus: An Essential Guide. Abingdon Press. p. 113. ISBN 978-1-4267-2475-6. Archived from the original on 8 October 2020. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
- ^ Theissen & Merz 1998, p. 298.
- ^ Green, McKnight & Marshall 1992, p. 300.
- ^ a b Metzger, Bruce M.; Coogan, Michael D. (1993). Oxford Companion to the Bible. Oxford University Press. p. 649. ISBN 978-0-19-974391-9.
- ^ Tabor, James (22 March 2013). "What the Bible Says About Death, Afterlife, and the Future". UNCC. Archived from the original on 23 August 2016. Retrieved 13 June 2015.
- ^ Hoekema, Anthony A. (1994). The Bible and the Future. Wm. B. Eerdmans. pp. 88–89. ISBN 978-0-85364-624-2. Archived from the original on 8 October 2020. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
- ^ Luke 11:20.
- ^ Hindson, Edward E.; Mitchell, Daniel R. (2010). Zondervan King James Version Commentary: New Testament. Zondervan. p. 100. ISBN 978-0-310-25150-7. Archived from the original on 10 September 2015. Retrieved 14 August 2015.
- ^ a b Achtemeier, Paul J.; Green, Joel B.; Thompson, Marianne M. (2001). Introducing the New Testament: Its Literature and Theology. Wm. B. Eerdmans. p. 198. ISBN 978-0-8028-3717-2.
- ^ Ehrman 2009, p. 84.
- ^ Twelftree 1999, p. 236.
- ^ van der Loos, Hendrik (1965). The Miracles Of Jesus. Brill. p. 197. Archived from the original on 10 September 2015. Retrieved 14 August 2015.
- ^ Pentecost, J. Dwight (1981). The words and works of Jesus Christ. Zondervan. p. 212. ISBN 978-0-310-30940-6. Archived from the original on 10 September 2015. Retrieved 14 August 2015.
- ^ Twelftree 1999, p. 95.
- ^ Donahue & Harrington 2002, p. 182.
- ^ Lockyer, Herbert (1988). All the Miracles of the Bible. Zondervan. p. 235. ISBN 978-0-310-28101-6.
- ^ Kingsbury, Jack D. (1983). The Christology of Mark's Gospel. Fortress Press. pp. 91–95. ISBN 978-1-4514-1007-5.
- ^ Cross & Livingstone 2005, John, Gospel of.
- ^ Karris, Robert J. (1992). The Collegeville Bible Commentary: New Testament. Liturgical Press. pp. 885–886. ISBN 978-0-8146-2211-7.
- ^ Kingsbury, Jack D.; Powell, Mark A.; Bauer, David R. (1999). Who do you say that I am? Essays on Christology. Westminster John Knox Press. p. xvi. ISBN 978-0-664-25752-1.
- ^ Donahue & Harrington 2002, p. 336.
- ^ Yieh, John Y. H. (2004). One teacher: Jesus' teaching role in Matthew's gospel. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 240–241. ISBN 978-3-11-018151-7. Archived from the original on 8 October 2020. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
- ^ Pannenberg 1968, pp. 53–54.
- ^ Matthew 16:21, Mark 8:31, and Luke 9:22.
- ^ Matthew 17:1–9, Mark 9:2–8, and Luke 9:28–36.
- ^ Lee 2004, pp. 72–76.
- ^ Matthew 17:1–9.
- ^ Zechariah 9:9.
- ^ Psalms 118:25–26.
- ^ a b Boring & Craddock 2004, pp. 256–258.
- ^ Majerník, Ponessa & Manhardt 2005, pp. 133–134.
- ^ a b Evans 2003, pp. 381–395.
- ^ Mark 13:1–23.
- ^ Mark 13:24–27.
- ^ Mark 13:28–32.
- ^ John 2:13–16.
- ^ Lockyer, Herbert (1988). All the Apostles of the Bible. Zondervan. pp. 106–111. ISBN 978-0-310-28011-8. Archived from the original on 29 February 2020. Retrieved 11 July 2017.
- ^ Hayes, Doremus A. (2009). The Synoptic Gospels and the Book of Acts. HardPress. p. 88. ISBN 978-1-313-53490-1.
- ^ John 7:1–10:42.
- ^ John 11.
- ^ Funk, Hoover & The Jesus Seminar 1993, pp. 401–470.
- ^ 1 Corinthians 11:23–26.
- ^ Cox & Easley 2007, pp. 180–191.
- ^ a b Cox & Easley 2007, p. 182.
- ^ Luke 22:19–20.
- ^ Cross & Livingstone 2005, Eucharist.
- ^ Pohle, Joseph (1913). . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
- ^ Freedman 2000, p. 792.
- ^ a b Perkins, Pheme (2000). Peter: apostle for the whole church. Fortress Press. p. 85. ISBN 978-1-4514-1598-8.
- ^ Lange, Johann P. (1865). The Gospel according to Matthew. Vol. 1. Scribner. p. 499.
- ^ Luke 22:34, John 22:34.
- ^ Matthew 26:31–34, Mark 14:27–30.
- ^ a b Walvoord & Zuck 1983, pp. 83–85.
- ^ O'Day, Gail R.; Hylen, Susan (2006). John. Westminster John Knox Press. pp. 142–168. ISBN 978-0-664-25260-1.
- ^ Ridderbos, Herman (1997). The Gospel of John: A Theological Commentary. Wm. B. Eerdmans. pp. 546–576. ISBN 978-0-8028-0453-2.
- ^ Cross & Livingstone 2005, Jesus.
- ^ Michaels, J. Ramsey (2011). John. Understanding the Bible Commentary Series. Baker Books. p. 187. ISBN 978-1-4412-3659-3. Archived from the original on 26 February 2020. Retrieved 7 September 2017.
- ^ Josephus Antiquities 18.2.2.
- ^ Brown 1997, p. 146.
- ^ Bromiley, Geoffrey W. (1988). International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: E–J. Wm. B. Eerdmans. pp. 1050–1052. ISBN 978-0-8028-3782-0. Archived from the original on 7 September 2015. Retrieved 14 August 2015.
- ^ a b c d Evans 2003, pp. 487–500.
- ^ a b c Blomberg 2009, pp. 396–400.
- ^ a b c d e Holman Concise Bible Dictionary. B&H. 2011. pp. 608–609. ISBN 978-0-8054-9548-5.
- ^ Evans 2003, p. 495.
- ^ Blomberg 2009, pp. 396–398.
- ^ O'Toole, Robert F. (2004). Luke's presentation of Jesus: a christology. Subsidia Biblica. Editrice Pontificio Istituto Biblico. p. 166. ISBN 978-88-7653-625-0.
- ^ Binz, Stephen J. (2004). The Names of Jesus. Twenty-Third Publications. pp. 81–82. ISBN 978-1-58595-315-8.
- ^ Ironside, H. A. (2006). John. Kregel. p. 454. ISBN 978-0-8254-9619-6.
- ^ a b Niswonger 1992, p. 172.
- ^ Majerník, Ponessa & Manhardt 2005, p. 181.
- ^ a b Carter 2003, pp. 120–121.
- ^ Evans 2012b, p. 453.
- ^ Matthew 27:20.
- ^ Blomberg 2009, pp. 400–401.
- ^ John 19:19–20.
- ^ Brown 1988, p. 93.
- ^ Senior, Donald (1985). The Passion of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew. Liturgical Press. p. 124. ISBN 978-0-8146-5460-6.
- ^ Blomberg 2009, p. 402.
- ^ a b c d e f g Evans 2003, pp. 509–520.
- ^ a b Köstenberger, Kellum & Quarles 2009, pp. 211–214.
- ^ a b Doninger 1999, p. 271.
- ^ Ehrman 2009, p. 82.
- ^ Luke 23:43.
- ^ John 19:26–27.
- ^ Köstenberger, Kellum & Quarles 2009, pp. 213–214.
- ^ Morris 1992, p. 727.
- ^ Vermes, Geza (2008). The Resurrection. London: Penguin. p. 141. ISBN 978-0-14-191263-9. Archived from the original on 9 March 2024. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
- ^ Harris 1985, pp. 308–309.
- ^ Mark 16:5–6, Matthew 28:5–6, and Luke 24:4–6.
- ^ Mark 16:7, Matthew 28:7.
- ^ Luke 24:12.
- ^ John 20:2–8.
- ^ Matthew 28:7.
- ^ Matthew 28:11–15.
- ^ Mark 16:9, John 20:14–17.
- ^ Matthew 28:9–10.
- ^ Luke 24:13–31.
- ^ Mark 16:14, Matthew 28:16–17, and John 20:19–23.
- ^ Luke 24:36–43.
- ^ John 20:24–29.
- ^ Harris 1985, pp. 297–301.
- ^ Cox & Easley 2007, pp. 216–226.
- ^ Bruce, Frederick F. (1990). The Acts of the Apostles. Wm. B. Eerdmans. p. 210. ISBN 978-0-8028-0966-7. Archived from the original on 8 October 2020. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
- ^ Acts 9:5.
- ^ Johnson, Luke T.; Harrington, Daniel J. (1992). The Acts of the Apostles. Liturgical Press. pp. 164–167. ISBN 978-0-8146-5807-9.
- ^ Van den Biesen, Christian (1913). . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
- ^ Catholic Encyclopedia: Proselyte Archived 10 June 2017 at the Wayback Machine: "The English term 'proselyte' occurs only in the New Testament where it signifies a convert to the Jewish religion (Matthew 23:15; Acts 2:11; 6:5; etc.), though the same Greek word is commonly used in the Septuagint to designate a foreigner living in Palestine. Thus the term seems to have passed from an original local and chiefly political sense, in which it was used as early as 300 BC, to a technical and religious meaning in the Judaism of the New Testament epoch."
- ^ Ehrman 2012, pp. 87–90.
- ^ Jaeger, Werner (1961). Early Christianity and Greek Paideia. Harvard University Press. pp. 6, 108–109. ISBN 978-0-674-22052-2. Archived from the original on 17 December 2019. Retrieved 26 February 2015.
{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) - ^ Galatians 2:9, Acts 1:13; See Historical reliability of the Acts of the Apostles for details.
- ^ Cross, F. L., ed. (2005). "Paul". The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (3rd rev. ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-280290-3.
- ^ Cohen, Shaye J. D. (1987). From the Maccabees to the Mishnah. Philadelphia: Westminster John Knox Press. pp. 224–225. ISBN 978-0-664-25017-1.
- ^ Fee, Gordon; Stuart, Douglas (2014). How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth: Fourth Edition. Zondervan. ISBN 978-0-310-51783-2. Archived from the original on 26 June 2019. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
- ^ Ehrman, Bart D. (1997). The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings. Oxford University Press. p. 8. ISBN 978-0-19-508481-8. Archived from the original on 16 April 2019. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
The New Testament contains twenty-seven books, written in Greek, by fifteen or sixteen different authors, who were addressing other Christian individuals or communities between the years 50 and 120 C.E. (see box 1.4). As we will see, it is difficult to know whether any of these books were written by Jesus' own disciples.
- ^ Levine 2006, p. 5.
- ^ Powell 1998, pp. 19–23.
- ^ Levine 2006, p. 4
- ^ a b Theissen & Winter 2002, p. 5.
- ^ Charlesworth, James H.; Pokorny, Petr (15 September 2009). Jesus Research. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans. pp. 1–2. ISBN 978-0-8028-6353-9.
- ^ Keener 2012, p. 163.
- ^ a b Chilton & Evans 1998, p. 27.
- ^ Evans 2012a, pp. 4–5.
- ^ Borg, Marcus J. (1994). Jesus in Contemporary Scholarship. Continuum. pp. 4–6. ISBN 978-1-56338-094-5.
- ^ Theissen & Winter 2002, pp. 142–143.
- ^ Anderson, Just & Thatcher 2007, p. 131.
- ^ Meier 2006, p. 124.
- ^ a b Horsley, Richard A. (2014). Jesus and the politics of Roman Palestine. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press. pp. 26–53. ISBN 978-1-61117-293-5.
- ^ Goodman, Martin (1996). "Judaea". In Bowman, Alan K.; Champlin, Edward; Andrew Lintott (eds.). The Cambridge Ancient History. Vol. 10 (2 ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 737–781. ISBN 978-1-139-05438-6. Retrieved 16 December 2024.
- ^ Barr, James (1989). "Chapter 3 – Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek in the Hellenistic age". In Davies, W. D.; Finkelstein, Louis (eds.). The Cambridge history of Judaism. Volume 2: The Hellenistic Age. Cambridge University Press. pp. 79–114. ISBN 978-1-139-05512-3.
- ^ a b Blomberg 2009, pp. 431–436.
- ^ a b c Harris 1985, p. 263.
- ^ Gray, Patrick, ed. (2021). The Cambridge Companion to the New Testament. Cambridge University Press. pp. 98–99. ISBN 9781108437707.
- ^ Rausch 2003, pp. 36–37.
- ^ Anderson, Paul N.; Just, Felix; Thatcher, Tom (2007). John, Jesus, and History. Vol. 2. Society of Biblical Literature. p. 291. ISBN 978-1-58983-293-0. Archived from the original on 10 September 2015. Retrieved 14 August 2015.
- ^ Anderson, Just & Thatcher 2007, p. 292.
- ^ Funk, Hoover & The Jesus Seminar 1993, pp. 471–532.
- ^ Casey, Maurice (30 December 2010). Jesus of Nazareth: An Independent Historian's Account of His Life and Teaching. A&C Black. ISBN 978-0-567-64517-3. Archived from the original on 9 March 2024. Retrieved 18 May 2021.
- ^ Ehrman, Bart D. (1997). The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-508481-8. Archived from the original on 9 March 2024. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
- ^ Tuckett, Christopher (2001). "Sources and methods". In Bockmuehl, Markus N. A. (ed.). Cambridge Companion to Jesus. Cambridge University Press. pp. 123–124. ISBN 978-0-521-79678-1.
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- ^ Robinson 2005; Lawson 2009. The substitution theory was criticized and rejected by the Sunni Quran commentator Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (1150–1210); see Lawson 2009, pp. 156–162. According to Abu Mansur al-Baghdadi (d. 1037), the substitution theory was also applied to the death of Ali ibn Abi Talib by the semi-legendary 7th-century figure Abdallah ibn Saba'; see De Smet 2016, pp. 98–99.
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Jesus is known in the Druze tradition as the "True Messiah" (al-Masih al-Haq), for he delivered what Druzes view as the true message. He is also referred to as the "Messiah of the Nations" (Masih al-Umam) because he was sent to the world as "Masih of Sins" because he is the one who forgives.
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Sources
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- Vine, William E. (1985) [1940]. Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words. Fleming H. Revell. ISBN 978-0-916441-31-9.
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External links
[edit]
- LatinVulgate.com, The Complete Sayings of Jesus Christ in parallel Latin and English, provided by Mental Systems, Incorporated
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Jesus
View on GrokipediaHistorical and Cultural Context
First-Century Judea and Galilee
Primary Sources and Evidence
Sources used in historical research on Jesus consist primarily of written texts, supplemented by archaeological evidence that illuminates the broader first-century context but does not identify Jesus as an individual. The earliest extant Christian writings are the widely accepted Pauline letters, commonly dated to the mid-first century on the basis of internal references and synchronisms with externally dated events; they provide limited biographical detail and focus mainly on Jesus’ crucifixion, beliefs about his resurrection, and early community traditions. However, the oldest surviving manuscript witnesses to these writings are later: for example, a major early codex of Paul’s letters (𝔓46) is commonly dated to around the late second or early third century, and the earliest Gospel fragments (such as 𝔓52 for John) are typically dated to the second century. Other New Testament epistles vary in genre and purpose and are evaluated case by case because authorship and dating remain disputed for several letters. The canonical Gospels offer more extensive narratives of Jesus’ life, teachings, ministry, and death and are typically dated to the late first century, while reflecting theological and literary aims. Later non-Christian references, such as passages in Josephus and Tacitus, are often cited as external attestations relevant to Jesus’ execution under Pontius Pilate and to the early Christian movement, though, like Christian writings, they survive in later manuscripts (earliest for Josephus' Antiquities around the 11th century; for Tacitus' Annals, 9th-11th centuries), and their evidentiary scope and textual histories are debated. Archaeological findings can corroborate contextual elements of Roman-period Judea and Galilee, including places, practices, and some historical figures mentioned in the texts, without providing any material identification of Jesus himself.New Testament Gospels and Epistles
Many scholars regard seven Pauline letters—Romans, 1–2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, and Philemon—as authentic, dating their composition to the mid-first century (often the 50s CE), based on internal indicators such as situational references, travel plans, conflicts, and implied chronology.[34] These letters offer limited biographical details about Jesus, portraying him as a Jew descended from David "according to the flesh," emphasizing his crucifixion, burial, resurrection, and post-resurrection appearances, and transmitting traditions like the Lord’s Supper.[34] In 1 Corinthians 15:3–8, Paul describes receiving and delivering core traditions, indicating their pre-Pauline origins; similar claims for other passages (e.g., Philippians 2:6–11) rely on form-critical analysis of style and structure, though precise dating remains debated.[34] Other letters attributed to Paul, such as Ephesians, Colossians, 2 Thessalonians, and the Pastorals, are disputed, with many critical scholars proposing later authorship (late first or early second century) due to differences in linguistic style, ecclesial structures, and themes; defenders of authenticity argue for shorter date ranges.[34] Non-Pauline epistles, like James, face analogous debates over authorship, genre, and historical context, leading to variable proposed dates.[34] The canonical Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) were written 30–70 years after his death. While the texts lack internal author names, early tradition attributes them to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—a debated question among scholars. Scholarly consensus places their composition in the late first century, with Mark typically earliest, followed by Matthew and Luke (under Markan priority), and John later; estimates draw from internal allusions (e.g., Temple references), literary dependencies, and early attestation, though absolute dates and early-dating alternatives vary.[34] Synoptic relationships influence assessments of evidentiary value: the two-source hypothesis invokes Mark and a hypothetical "Q" source alongside unique material, while Farrer models suggest Luke used Matthew directly; these unresolved debates affect how scholars weigh agreements and divergences for reconstructing historical elements.[38] Historical-Jesus research treats the Gospels and epistles as theological-literary compositions that may preserve authentic traditions, subject to criteria like multiple attestation and dissimilarity, while acknowledging limitations from redaction, dependence, and transmission; conclusions remain probabilistic amid methodological disputes.[34]Extra-Biblical Written References
Several Greco-Roman and Jewish writings are regularly discussed in connection with Jesus or early Christians. Because these works survive through later manuscript transmission, proposed wording, interpolations, and degrees of independence are evaluated through textual criticism and historical analysis, and both composition and extant-witness dates are treated as inferential and method-dependent. Josephus (Antiquities of the Jews) Composition date inferred based on Josephus’ own internal dating notice that Antiquities was completed in the thirteenth year of Domitian (i.e., 93–94 CE), alongside its relationship to his other works. Extant manuscript dates: for key sections (including Antiquities 18), the earliest surviving Greek manuscripts are typically dated to the 11th century, with dating based on the script/codex profiles of the surviving Byzantine manuscripts. The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus includes two passages relevant to Jesus in Antiquities of the Jews. In Book 20, Josephus describes high priest Ananus II executing “James, the brother of Jesus who was called Christ” and others by stoning around 62 CE, after which complaints led to Ananus’s removal. This reference is widely treated as substantially authentic, citing its contextual fit in Jerusalem politics, neutral tone without Christian theology, and function in the narrative. In Book 18, the Testimonium Flavianum describes Jesus as a wise teacher executed under Pontius Pilate. The transmitted text includes phrasing (such as identifying Jesus as “the Christ” and allusions to resurrection) that conflicts with Josephus’s usual perspective. Many scholars therefore distinguish a hypothesized neutral core from likely later Christian interpolations, though some argue the entire passage is a later insertion or too conjectural to reconstruct confidently. Tacitus (Annals)
Archaeological and Material Corroborations
Archaeology and material-culture studies corroborate contextual elements in early Christian literary sources—such as administrative offices, named elites, settlement patterns, buildings, and penal practices—but yield no direct artifacts securely linked to Jesus. This evidence thus contextualizes New Testament narratives rather than verifying specific biographical details.[14]
Timeline of Surviving Sources
This timeline distinguishes estimated composition dates (inferred from internal chronological cues, textual relationships such as literary dependence, and external attestations or early citations) from the dates of the earliest surviving manuscript witnesses. Witness dates are inferred from the physical and scribal features of the surviving copies—especially handwriting analysis (comparison of letterforms, stroke patterns, spacing, and layout to dated documents) and book-production analysis (materials such as papyrus/parchment, codex format, quire construction, pagination, and, where present, colophons or provenance indicators).- c. 50–64 CE — "Undisputed" Pauline letters composed. Earliest substantial witness: Papyrus 46 (palaeographic proposals typically late 2nd–early 3rd c., often summarized as c. 175–225, with broader proposals extending roughly c. 150–250).
- c. 60–80 CE — 1 Peter composed. Earliest substantial witness: Papyrus 72 (usually 3rd–4th c.; often left broad rather than a narrow year-range).
- c. 60–90 CE — Epistle to the Hebrews composed. Earliest substantial witness: Papyrus 46 (same proposed ranges as above, since Hebrews is within the same codex witness used here).
- c. 66–75 CE — Gospel of Mark composed. Earliest witness: Papyrus 137 (catalogued 2nd/3rd c.; commonly expressed as late 2nd–early 3rd c.). Earliest substantial witness: Papyrus 45 (typically 3rd c.; often summarized as c. 200–250, sometimes more broadly early–mid 3rd c.).
- c. 80–90 CE — Gospel of Matthew composed. Earliest witness: P.Oxy. 4404 (Papyrus 104) (usually late 2nd c., though some descriptions keep a broader 2nd c. range). Earliest substantial witness: Papyrus 45 (typically 3rd c.; often summarized as c. 200–250).
- c. 80–90 CE — Luke–Acts composed. Earliest substantial witness for Luke: Papyrus 75 (dates are notably contested: often late 2nd–early 3rd c. (e.g., c. 175–225), with some proposals shifting later into 3rd/early 4th c. ranges). For Acts: Papyrus 45 (typically 3rd c., often c. 200–250).
- c. 80–120 CE — Didache compiled in extant form. Earliest witness: P.Oxy. 1782 (catalogued late 4th c.). Earliest substantial witness: Codex Hierosolymitanus (dated 1056 by colophon; no range).
- c. 80–120 CE — Epistle of Barnabas composed. Earliest witness: Codex Sinaiticus (see Sinaiticus range note above).
- c. 85–100 CE — Johannine Epistles (1–3 John) composed. Earliest witness: Papyrus 9 (typically 3rd c., often left broad). Codex Sinaiticus (usually 4th c., though some scholarship urges treating “c. 360” as overly precise and allowing a broader 4th–early 5th c. window).
Assessment of Historicity
Historians assess the historicity of events and sayings attributed to Jesus by applying historical-critical methods developed in New Testament and early-Christianity scholarship for evaluating ancient literary sources. These methods often employ “criteria of authenticity” as heuristics—tools intended to guide probabilistic judgments under conditions of limited, text-mediated evidence rather than to deliver mechanical verification. Commonly invoked criteria include multiple attestation (traditions appearing across sources judged not to be directly dependent), the criterion of embarrassment (the idea that some potentially counterproductive details—such as Jesus’ association with John the Baptist—may be less likely to be invented in certain settings), dissimilarity (elements judged not easily derived from both contemporary Judaism and later Christian formulation), and contextual coherence (fit with first-century Jewish and Roman social, political, and religious conditions). These criteria are typically used in combination, and conclusions are framed as more or less plausible given the state of the evidence rather than as certainties. Debates persist over both the criteria themselves and their application. Critics argue that the criteria can embed substantial subjectivity (e.g., what counts as “embarrassing” or “dissimilar”), can become circular if “authentic” materials are used to define the context that then validates them, and can be undermined by uncertain source relationships (for example, when independence among traditions is difficult to establish). Many scholars therefore treat the criteria as best suited for limited claims—especially when a tradition is early, multiply attested in plausibly independent forms, and contextually plausible—while treating unique, late, or overtly theologized material as evidentially weaker and more dependent on interpretive judgment. The anonymity of the canonical Gospels, their post-event composition, and their literary-theological aims (rather than modern historiographic detachment) are consequently cited as reasons for heightened critical scrutiny, particularly for singular details lacking corroboration in earlier or independent evidence.[21] In specialist historical-critical scholarship—especially New Testament and early-Christianity studies, Second Temple Judaism, and ancient Mediterranean history engaging these sources—the combined use of these methods is commonly taken to support Jesus’ existence and a small “core” (often including association with John the Baptist and crucifixion under Pontius Pilate) as comparatively well supported within a probabilistic, text-mediated evidentiary base, while leaving most narrative particulars disputed. [28] Analysts in the academic study of religion argue that such assessments can also reflect institutional and disciplinary incentives where much training and employment occur in Christian confessional settings: mission- or faith-statement expectations, ministerial-formation roles, donor/board or denominational oversight, and reputational stakes can encourage “caretaking” norms and boundary-policing over what counts as “mainstream” or “fringe.” [5][6] Fitzgerald adds that inherited, historically Christian-coded analytic categories can pre-shape plausibility judgments independently of any new evidence. [7] Parallel debates within biblical studies about “faith-based” constraints versus publicly contestable historical method are sometimes cited as corroborating this concern. [1][2][4]Rationale for Dating the Gospels
Mark: arguments clustering around the Jewish war and the Temple’s destruction
Scholarly Consensus on Existence and Core Biography
In historical scholarship on early Christianity, “consensus” is typically inferred from patterns of convergence across peer-reviewed monographs, specialist articles, and academic reference works rather than from formal unanimity, vote-counting, or cross-disciplinary agreement. [28][29][30] The field is institutionally mixed in the sense that relevant work is produced and reviewed in secular university departments (e.g., religious studies, classics, history) as well as in theology/divinity faculties and seminaries, with substantial overlap in learned societies, academic presses, and expectations of philological and historical method. [29] At the same time, training and employment pathways remain closely linked to explicitly Christian institutions: in North America, many specialists—including those later appointed in secular universities—receive significant language and textual formation in confessional colleges, seminaries, or theology/divinity programs, and professional job-market reporting often distinguishes “special focus” institutions (including stand-alone seminaries) as a major component of the discipline’s institutional ecology. [29][30] Because scholars’ personal religious commitments are not systematically measurable from publication patterns alone, bibliometric surveys cannot, by themselves, sort scholarship into “confessional” and “nonconfessional” authorship; nonetheless, it is common for specialists across a range of self-described stances (including skeptics or atheists) to have been trained in explicitly Christian educational settings as part of their linguistic and textual preparation. [30] Critics in the academic study of religion argue that the field’s historical and ongoing proximity to theology and confessional institutions can shape evaluative norms in ways that are difficult to separate from “purely evidential” adjudication: McCutcheon frames this as a recurrent “caretaking versus critique” tension, Wiebe emphasizes continuing disciplinary entanglements and legitimacy pressures vis-à-vis theology, and Fitzgerald argues that inherited, historically Christian-coded analytic categories can structure what problems are posed and what hypotheses appear prima facie “serious.” [31][32][33][14][34] These critiques are typically advanced as contextual, sociology-of-knowledge considerations about incentives, boundary-work, and category formation; they do not, by themselves, settle specific historical claims about Jesus. [31][32][33] Within the relevant specialist fields (New Testament studies, Second Temple Judaism, and ancient history engaging these sources), the dominant view is that Jesus existed and can be situated, at minimum, as a first-century Jewish figure associated with Galilee whose activity contributed to the emergence of early Jesus-movements. [29][32] Within that broad agreement, many scholars treat a small set of claims as comparatively secure—especially traditions about Jesus’ association with John the Baptist (often framed as a baptism tradition) and Jesus’ death by crucifixion under Pontius Pilate—because these points are supported by relatively early textual evidence and are generally compatible with what is known of first-century Jewish and Roman contexts. [32][33] Arguments commonly appeal to cumulative considerations such as multiple attestation (in forms judged not to be straightforwardly dependent) and contextual plausibility; some scholars also invoke traditional “criteria” such as embarrassment, while methodological literature emphasizes that such criteria function as heuristics and have recognized limits, including subjectivity and risks of circularity. [33][14] Beyond these frequently cited “core” elements, reconstructions vary more substantially: assessments of particular sayings, miracle attributions, and especially resurrection claims diverge across approaches and are typically presented as probabilistic judgments rather than high-confidence reconstructions. [29][33] Views denying Jesus’ historicity are discussed in the literature but are generally treated as marginal in peer-reviewed specialist venues, with most mainstream reference works and monographs proceeding on the assumption that some historical Jesus remains the most parsimonious explanation for the movement’s early emergence and character. [31][34]Key Historical Events: Baptism, Ministry, and Crucifixion
Historians of early Christianity and Second Temple Judaism commonly reconstruct episodes such as Jesus’ baptism, public activity, and execution primarily from early Christian writings (especially the undisputed Pauline letters and the canonical Gospels), supplemented more cautiously by a small number of later non-Christian notices (most often Josephus and Tacitus). Because these sources differ in genre, chronology, and apologetic or theological aims, many reconstructions are presented as graded probabilities rather than as definitive narratives, applying criteria like multiple attestation, embarrassment, and contextual coherence. [57]
The Christ Myth Theory and Fringe Challenges
Definition and scope
“Christ myth theory” (often “mythicism”) refers to affirmative assertions of Jesus's non-existence, typically involving claims that early Christianity began with belief in a primarily mythic or celestial “Christ,” and that later authors retrojected this figure into recent earthly history, producing narrative biographies (the Gospels) as a form of historicization (euhemerization). In modern scholarship this is usually distinguished from mainstream historical-critical skepticism, which typically grants that Jesus may have existed as a first-century Jewish figure while disputing many specific Gospel details and emphasizing the limitations inherent to the late, mediated, theological, and retrospective character of the sources.[25]Evidentiary limitations and minority agnostic positions
Because the earliest sources are limited in number, uneven in genre, and largely written by insiders to the movement, a recurrent methodological issue is how far historicity can be inferred from the surviving evidence. A small minority of credentialed scholars, including some writing with mainstream critical tools (e.g., literary-dependence arguments or philosophical critiques of inference), have argued that the extant evidence may be insufficient to establish Jesus’ historicity with high confidence, or that agnosticism is methodologically preferable. These views remain contested and do not represent the prevailing position in New Testament and ancient history scholarship, which more commonly treats Jesus’ existence as historically probable while treating most biographical particulars as uncertain.[25]What “new evidence” would mean
In this context, “new evidence” would typically involve additional early material data (e.g., newly recovered papyri, inscriptions, or securely dated documentary references) that bear directly on claims about Jesus or the earliest movement. Most contemporary mythicist arguments do not introduce new empirical datasets; rather, they re-read the same core sources—Pauline letters, the Gospels, and the later testimonies in Josephus and Tacitus—by emphasizing silences, proposing different models of tradition formation, and reclassifying relevant texts by genre (e.g., myth, allegory, or theological fiction).Typical models and arguments
Many mythicist models posit a heavenly or revelatory origin for “Christ” devotion that was later recast as an earthly biography. Common arguments include: (i) the relative scarcity of explicit biographical detail about Jesus in the undisputed Pauline letters and Paul’s emphasis on revelation; (ii) the claim that key Gospel episodes are best explained as literary constructions from earlier scriptures and narrative tropes; and (iii) appeals to analogies with Greco-Roman “dying-and-rising” or mystery-cult motifs. In mainstream scholarship these moves are often criticized on the grounds that they (a) treat silence as stronger evidence than it can bear, (b) underdetermine conclusions from plausible genre and tradition models, and (c) rely on disputed or imprecise comparisons (e.g., overstated parallels to Mithraic material). Mythicist replies typically focus on selection effects in preservation, the theological aims of early texts, and the possibility that later narrative concretion can occur without a single founding individual.[25]Scholarly reception and main points of critique
In peer-reviewed New Testament and early-Christianity scholarship, mythicism is commonly treated as a marginal or fringe position relative to the dominant assessment that positing Jesus’ historical existence is, on balance, a more parsimonious explanation for several early data points—such as the emergence of communities organized around a crucified founder, traditions locating that figure in Judea, and passages in the Pauline letters that many interpreters read as presupposing a recent human individual (while still disputing the historical reliability of many Gospel particulars). [39][40] Within specialist critiques of mythicist arguments, recurring objections include: (i) heavy reliance on arguments from silence; (ii) an inferential slide from “literary/theological shaping” of traditions to “non-existence” of a referent; and (iii) probabilistic reasoning that depends on contestable assumptions about what early authors would or would not have said under particular circumstances. [39][40] Mythicist responses typically argue, conversely, that mainstream historical-Jesus reconstructions underweight the extent to which theological interests, retrospective interpretation, and late narrative stabilization can reshape earlier materials, thereby making “existence” inferences less secure than commonly presented. [39] Some historical-Jesus methodologists in the mainstream literature emphasize that even non-mythicist reconstructions proceed by constrained, probabilistic inference from sources shaped by transmission and interpretation rather than by direct access to events, which increases reliance on methodological judgment where the evidence underdetermines competing reconstructions. [41] Building on this point about underdetermination, several scholars in the academic study of religion argue that assessments such as “mainstream,” “responsible,” or “fringe” are not purely evidential descriptors but also reflect disciplinary norms that can be influenced by institutional location and inherited categories. McCutcheon frames this as a “caretaking versus critique” tension: in fields historically adjacent to theology and confessional institutions, professional incentives may favor interpretations perceived as protecting or stabilizing a tradition’s core referents and boundaries. [31] Wiebe similarly argues that religious studies’ continuing entanglement and competition with theology in the academy can encourage boundary-policing and legitimacy work—i.e., heightened sensitivity to approaches perceived as threatening to a tradition’s foundational narratives, even when disputes are argued in methodological terms. [32] Fitzgerald’s critique of “religion” as a historically Christian-coded analytic category is often invoked to suggest an additional pathway for bias: when key scholarly categories and problem-formations are inherited from the tradition being studied, judgments about plausibility can be shaped by what those inherited frames make easier to imagine or harder to treat as intellectually “serious.” [33] On these accounts, the reception of mythicism is partly a sociological question about norm-enforcement in a field with substantial confessional training and employment pipelines, alongside the substantive question of whether mythicist inferences satisfy historical-critical standards. [31][32][33] The dispute is therefore typically characterized as centering on historical method and inference rather than the emergence of new primary evidence. [39][40]Related nonstandard variants
Some proposals go beyond “minimal historicization” models to claim a wholly celestial origin with no historical referent, or a near-total fabrication of early Christian origins. These variants have generally attracted little support among specialists, in part because they require stronger assumptions about the coordination of diverse textual traditions and about the absence (or uniform suppression) of countervailing traces in early polemic and documentary contexts.Reconstructed Biography from Sources
How dates in this section are established
This section employs three distinct chronological layers, which should not be conflated. Dates across these layers represent probabilistic inferences from limited evidence, not precise measurements.
Nativity, Genealogy, and Early Life
Gospel accountsThe nativity accounts appear only in Matthew and Luke. Both describe Jesus' birth in Bethlehem to the virgin Mary, betrothed to Joseph, a Davidic descendant, fulfilling Micah 5:2's prophecy of a Messiah there. Matthew mentions wise men following a star, Herod's infant massacre, and flight to Egypt until Herod's death. Luke cites a census under Quirinius drawing the family to Bethlehem, with angels announcing to shepherds and Jesus in a manger. The accounts differ greatly beyond Bethlehem, Davidic ties, and virgin birth, which draws from Isaiah 7:14's Septuagint rendering of "parthenos" (virgin) for Hebrew "almah" (young woman). Both Gospels trace Joseph's Davidic lineage for messianic claims, but diverge after David: Matthew (1:1–17) uses three 14-generation sets from Abraham to Jesus via Solomon; Luke (3:23–38) lists 77 generations to Adam via Nathan. Early life details include Luke's notes on circumcision, Temple presentation, and recognition by Simeon and Anna; Matthew describes settlement in Nazareth after Egypt; Luke's childhood story (2:41–52) shows 12-year-old Jesus debating Temple teachers.[29][30][31][32] Historical assessment
No extra-biblical sources confirm the star, magi, massacre, or census timing. Scholars propose the birth around 6–4 BC based on Herod's reign; December 25 lacks Gospel support and arose later. Theories for genealogical differences, such as Matthew for Joseph's royal line and Luke for Mary's, remain unverified; the genealogies prioritize theology over history, lacking independent confirmation. Early life details fit legendary development, stressing divine favor and prophecy, with Nazareth upbringing unverified contemporaneously. Second-century apocryphal tales of boyhood miracles hold no historical weight.[33][34][35][36][37] The Gospels refer to Jesus and his legal father Joseph as τέκτων (tekton). In Mark 6:3, local residents ask of Jesus, "Is not this the tekton (ὁ τέκτων), the son of Mary?" while Matthew 13:55 phrases it as "Is not this the carpenter’s son?" (referring to Joseph as the tekton). The Greek term τέκτων, commonly rendered as "carpenter" in English translations, more accurately denotes a craftsman, artisan, or master builder in the first-century context. In rural Galilee, where wood was scarce and stone abundant, this trade likely involved general construction, repair work, and working with various materials rather than specialized woodworking alone.
Baptism, Temptation, and Initial Ministry
Gospel accountsThe Synoptic Gospels describe Jesus traveling from Nazareth to the Jordan River for baptism by John the Baptist, who preached repentance and forgiveness. Upon emerging, the heavens opened, the Holy Spirit descended as a dove, and a voice declared him God's beloved Son (Mark 1:9-11; cf. Matthew 3:13-17, including John's reluctance; Luke 3:21-22). John's Gospel alludes to the event, focusing on John's testimony of the Spirit (John 1:29-34). The Synoptics follow with the temptation: the Spirit drives Jesus into the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan amid wild animals and angels (Mark 1:12-13). Matthew and Luke detail three challenges—turning stones to bread, jumping from the temple to test protection, worshiping Satan for kingdoms—with Jesus responding via Deuteronomy (Matthew 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13). After temptation and John's imprisonment by Herod Antipas, Jesus returned to Galilee, preaching: "The kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe the gospel" (Mark 1:14-15). He called fishermen Simon (Peter), Andrew, James, and John to follow as "fishers of men" (Mark 1:16-20; Matthew 4:18-22; cf. Luke 5:1-11). In Capernaum, he taught in the synagogue, exorcised an unclean spirit, healed Peter's mother-in-law, and cured many with diseases or demons.[38][39] Historical assessment
A common view in historical Jesus research holds the core baptism to be historical via the criterion of embarrassment: Jesus submits to a rite implying repentance, conflicting with later theology portraying him as sinless. The temptation is interpreted as visionary or symbolic, echoing Israel's wilderness trials, though post-baptism solitude fits prophetic preparation. These initial acts of disciple recruitment and authority displays are historically plausible for an itinerant preacher drawing from laborers.[40][41][42]
Galilean Ministry: Disciples, Teachings, and Miracles
Gospel accountsFollowing his baptism and temptation, Jesus began his public ministry in Galilee, preaching the imminent Kingdom of God and calling for repentance. The Synoptic Gospels center this period in Capernaum and areas near the Sea of Galilee, where he gathered followers from local fishermen and others. Jesus called brothers Simon (later Peter) and Andrew, and James and John, sons of Zebedee, who left their boat and father to follow him as "fishers of men." He later appointed twelve apostles from his disciples, including Matthew the tax collector and Judas Iscariot, to preach and exorcise demons. Jesus' treatment of women stood out for its dignity, respect, and inclusion, contrasting sharply with first-century Jewish and Greco-Roman norms where women had limited public roles, could not serve as formal disciples of rabbis, and were sometimes viewed as inferior or ritually unclean. He taught women publicly, accepted them as disciples and financial supporters (e.g., Luke 8:1-3), engaged them in deep theological discussions, defended and healed vulnerable women, and elevated them as key witnesses. Key examples include the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4), to whom he revealed himself as Messiah and who evangelized her town; Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42), where he affirmed Mary's choice to learn as a disciple; the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11), defending her against stoning; the woman with chronic bleeding (Mark 5:25-34; Luke 8:43-48), healing her and calling her "daughter"; and ensuring his mother Mary's care from the cross (John 19:26-27). Jesus proclaimed the Kingdom using parables like the Mustard Seed, Leaven, and Sower. The teachings urged ethics such as loving enemies and forgiving others, as in the Sermon on the Mount's Beatitudes and Lord's Prayer. In Galilee, the Gospels record miracles mainly healings and exorcisms—cleansing lepers, restoring sight to the blind, casting out demons—along with nature miracles like calming a storm and feeding multitudes. Historical assessment
Most historians date this ministry to around AD 28-30. Josephus confirms Jesus drew disciples who remained loyal after his crucifixion. Scholarly reconstructions in historical Jesus studies highlight the Kingdom's imminence and social reversals, distinct from yet echoing prophetic Judaism. Many critical scholars accept a historical core of acts viewed as healings and exorcisms, similar to other itinerant healers, though supernatural elements lack empirical verification; Josephus mentions "startling deeds" seen as wondrous, and early Talmudic claims of "sorcery" indirectly confirm circulating reports. These intertwined with teachings, casting Jesus as a charismatic challenger to authorities.[43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52]
Final Week: Entry into Jerusalem, Last Supper, and Arrest
Gospel accountsJesus entered Jerusalem from Bethany and Bethphage during Passover week, riding a donkey colt as crowds spread cloaks and palm branches, acclaiming him as the Son of David with "Hosanna." He taught in the temple and clashed with leaders. The Last Supper occurred Thursday evening: a Passover meal in the Synoptics, pre-Passover in John, where Jesus shared bread and wine as his body and blood of the new covenant. He predicted Judas's betrayal and Peter's denial. Afterward, in Gethsemane, he prayed in anguish while disciples slept; Judas led an armed crowd, identifying Jesus with a kiss. A disciple cut a servant's ear, but Jesus rebuked violence; disciples fled.[53][54][55][56] Historical assessment
Most scholars propose AD 30 or 33 for these events; the entry's public messianic acclaim followed by crucifixion often supports historicity in historical Jesus research via the criterion of embarrassment. It aligns with Zechariah 9:9, though crowd size may be exaggerated theologically, alarming temple authorities. The Last Supper's historicity draws from early Pauline tradition (1 Corinthians 11:23–25), seen as an eschatological farewell, though timing and Seder conformity post-AD 70 remain debated. Betrayal and arrest hold as plausible, targeting nighttime to avoid unrest, with temple actions and crowd sway as political triggers.[57][58][59][60][61][57]
Trials, Crucifixion, and Burial
Gospel accountsJesus was arrested at Gethsemane after Judas identified him to those sent by Jerusalem authorities, at night before Passover. Hearings involved the high priestly circle (Annas and Caiaphas) and a broader council. Accusations included claims about Jesus’ identity and authority, framed in terms of messiahship or “Son of God”; to Pilate, the charge was cast in political terms (kingship). Pilate questioned Jesus and ordered crucifixion. Luke describes Pilate sending Jesus to Herod Antipas. Crucifixion involved scourging, procession, and death on a cross outside the city, with a titulus "King of the Jews." Jesus’ body was placed in a tomb by Joseph of Arimathea, with some accounts adding Nicodemus.[62][63] Historical assessment
Historians of Roman-era Judaea treat a pre-Roman Jewish role in arrest and questioning as plausible, though Gospel details vary and are theologically shaped. The shift to political charges before Pilate is intelligible given Roman jurisdiction. The core execution by Roman crucifixion under Pilate (AD 26–36) is defensible, associated with threats to order; the titulus consistent with punishing perceived kingship claims. Luke's Herod episode lacks independent attestation. Descriptions align with Roman practices; death from multiple stresses. Most scholars, including historians of Roman-era Judaea, date the crucifixion to AD 30 or 33 near Passover. Burial in a tomb is plausible given Jewish concerns, though some dispute specifics; Yehohanan's remains show nailing and possible burial.[64][20][65]
Resurrection Claims and Ascension Narratives
Gospel accountsThe prominence of women as the first witnesses to the resurrection is notable in a cultural context where female testimony often held less weight. Female followers discovered the empty tomb on the first day after crucifixion, with angelic announcements and appearances of the risen Jesus. Mark has Mary Magdalene, Mary mother of James, and Salome finding the stone rolled away and a young man announcing resurrection; women flee in fear. Matthew includes an earthquake, angel, guards, and Jesus meeting women. Luke features women encountering two men, followed by Jerusalem appearances. John centers on Mary Magdalene, Peter, empty linens, and appearances. Paul's creed (1 Corinthians 15:3-8) lists appearances to Cephas, the Twelve, 500, James, apostles, and Paul. Ascension appears in Luke 24:50-53 near Bethany and Acts 1:3-11 after 40 days from Olives. Historical assessment
An early creed in Paul (circa AD 53-54, from 2–5 years post-death) underscores antiquity in proclamation, though appearances may range from physical to visionary. Historians view ascension as theological, lacking non-Christian corroboration; supernatural aspects evade empirical verification. Non-Christian Roman evidence is limited but consistent with execution under Pilate.[66][67]
Teachings and Theological Claims
Ethical Instructions and Parables
Jesus' ethical instructions in the Synoptic Gospels emphasize repentance, devotion to God, and love for others—including adversaries—amid the kingdom's arrival. These draw from Jewish traditions but demand inner righteousness beyond rituals. Core elements, like loving God and neighbor, appear in Mark and align with first-century apocalyptic ethics, earning wide scholarly acceptance as authentic to Jesus based on criteria such as multiple attestation.[68][69][70] In Mark 12:29-31, Jesus names the greatest commandments: love God fully and love neighbor as self, summarizing the Law and Prophets from Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and Leviticus 19:18. Attested across Synoptics and transmitted orally before Gospel writing, historians like Bart Ehrman deem this authentic to Jesus on grounds of early attestation and contextual fit.[69][71] A related proactive form, the Golden Rule in Matthew 7:12 and Luke 6:31—"Do to others as you would have them do to you"—promotes benevolence over retaliation.[70]
- The Sower (Mark 4:3-9; parallels in Matthew 13:3-9, Luke 8:5-8): Shows responses to kingdom message, calling for fruitful endurance.
- The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37): Expands "neighbor" to include enemies, mandating aid.
- The Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32): Portrays God's grace to sinners, challenging self-righteousness.
- The Unforgiving Servant (Matthew 18:23-35): Demands boundless forgiveness, echoing divine mercy.
Eschatological and Messianic Proclamations
In the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus proclaims himself indirectly as the Messiah through allusions to scriptural expectations, notably identifying with the "Son of Man" from Daniel 7:13-14, who approaches the Ancient of Days with clouds of heaven to receive everlasting dominion.[75] This title, expanded in intertestamental texts like the Similitudes of Enoch (1 Enoch 37–71) as a pre-existent celestial judge executing divine judgment, contrasts with its mundane use in Ezekiel.[76] Jesus employs it over 80 times in the Gospels, often denoting authority, suffering, and future glory; scholars debate authenticity via criteria like multiple attestation and dissimilarity, with many attributing the earthly and suffering aspects to Jesus due to their tension with later developments.[77] For example, responding to the high priest, Jesus affirms his messiahship and invokes the Son of Man seated at God's right hand and coming on clouds, evoking apocalyptic judgment and prompting blasphemy charges for claiming divine prerogatives.[78] By contrast, the Gospel of John shows Jesus explicitly identifying as the Messiah to the Samaritan woman: "I, the one speaking to you—I am he" (John 4:25-26).[79] Messianic implications also appear in Peter's confession at Caesarea Philippi, where Jesus accepts the title but commands secrecy to delay confrontation.[80] These claims adapt Jewish expectations of a Davidic deliverer, stressing suffering and vindication over immediate political victory, unlike figures in the Dead Sea Scrolls.[81] Historical-critical analysis debates the extent to which these reflect Jesus' self-understanding versus later editorial shaping. Eschatologically, Jesus announces the kingdom of God's imminent arrival, calling for repentance amid apocalyptic judgment, as in Mark 1:15: "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand."[82] This fits scholarly consensus on Jesus' Jewish apocalyptic outlook, anticipating divine intervention against Roman rule, seen in sayings like "some standing here will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God come with power" (Mark 9:1).[83]
Supernatural Attributions and Their Historical Evaluation
The New Testament Gospels attribute to Jesus about 37 miracles, including healings of the blind, paralytics, and lepers; exorcisms; nature miracles like calming storms, walking on water, and feeding thousands; raising the dead (e.g., Jairus’ daughter, the widow’s son at Nain, Lazarus); and his resurrection.[87][88] These depict Jesus exercising authority over illness, spirits, and nature, often provoking awe and opposition. Many scholars, including James D. G. Dunn and E. P. Sanders, view his reputation as a healer and exorcist as one of the most attested aspects of his ministry, supported by multiple independent attestation across sources, contextual fit in first-century Judaism, and elements of embarrassment such as limited success in Nazareth (Mark 6:5-6).[51][89] Exorcisms align with era beliefs in demons; historical methods document these reports and the inferred reputation but cannot verify supernatural causation, with some proposing psychosomatic or placebo explanations.[88][90][91][92] Non-Christian sources like Josephus indirectly reference "startling deeds," though debated.[93] Separately, early Christian devotion incorporated Jesus into worship patterns within Jewish monotheism. Paul’s letters apply Yahweh texts to Christ, describe his role in creation (1 Corinthians 8:6), and feature confessions like Philippians 2:6–11.[94] Historians Larry Hurtado and Richard Bauckham describe a “dyadic” pattern, where Jesus shares divine identity alongside the Father.[94][95] Triadic formulas mention the Holy Spirit (e.g., Matthew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 13:14), but early focus was on Father and Son. Pliny’s report of Christians hymning Christ “as to a god” by AD 110 attests this.[96] The rapid emergence of high Christology, evaluated through early creeds and rapid spread, suggests followers attributed profound significance to Jesus post-crucifixion. Tacitus and Pliny confirm the movement's growth and divine treatment of Christ.[97][96] Yet historical methods document beliefs and reports but cannot confirm supernatural causation, relying on later texts without contemporary neutral evidence from Jesus’ era (c. 4 BC–AD 30).[98] No non-Christian sources detail miracles; Hume’s argument—that testimony rarely overrides natural regularity—fuels skepticism, viewing reports as faith expressions amplified in oral tradition, akin to figures like Honi.[176][177][169] For the resurrection, 1 Corinthians 15:3–8 preserves an early creed (dated 2–5 years post-crucifixion) attesting death, burial, third-day rising, and appearances to disciples including Peter, the Twelve, over 500, James, and Paul. Some scholars, such as Gerd Lüdemann, regard post-death appearances to disciples as historically certain.[99][100] Certain scholars propose "minimal facts" approaches, evaluating elements like disciple transformations, conversions of Paul and James, and an empty tomb to weigh alternatives such as hallucinations or theft; others favor naturalistic explanations. Bayesian analyses have been applied by some with theistic priors to assess probabilities, but these represent interpretive frameworks rather than consensus. History’s limits highlight overlaps with philosophy and theology, leaving no agreement on supernatural causation.Emergence of Early Christianity
Post-Crucifixion Community Formation
Early Christian texts describe Jesus as having been executed by Roman authority and present subsequent claims that his followers continued as a Jerusalem-centered movement that interpreted his death and reported post-death experiences within Jewish scriptural and apocalyptic frameworks. Reconstructions of the group’s size and practices (e.g., shared meals, prayer, expectations of vindication or return) are inferential and vary across scholarship, given the limits and genres of the surviving evidence.[101] Paul’s letters (commonly dated to the late 40s–50s) are the earliest extant writings that refer to this movement’s leaders and beliefs. In Galatians 1:18–19, Paul reports visiting Cephas (Peter) and James (“the Lord’s brother”) a few years after his call/conversion, which many interpreters take to imply that identifiable leaders and networks existed relatively early in the movement’s development. References to “the brothers of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 9:5) are frequently discussed as indicating kinship and/or recognized status within early communities, though the meaning and implications of the phrase remain debated.[102] A tradition cited in 1 Corinthians 15:3–7 is widely treated as an early formulation of resurrection belief that Paul says he “received” and passed on. Many scholars argue that at least parts of this tradition circulated before Paul wrote, but proposals for its precise origin (e.g., “within a few years” of the reported execution) are contested and depend on judgments about transmission, memory, and Paul’s relationship to earlier communities. The passage is often used to illustrate how appearance-claims to Cephas, “the Twelve,” James, and others functioned to sustain communal identity, while remaining dependent on the interpretive use of a later written witness to earlier tradition.[103] Later narrative sources (especially Acts) depict a Jerusalem leadership cluster associated with Peter, John, and James and describe debates about Torah practice and Gentile inclusion (e.g., Acts 15). Because Acts is a later literary account, historians differ on how directly it reflects earlier decision-making, but it is often used—alongside Paul’s letters—to discuss the movement’s internal organization and disputes.[101] Josephus reports the execution of James by stoning under the high priest Ananus and identifies him as a “brother of Jesus who was called Christ,” a passage frequently cited in discussions of the Jerusalem community’s leadership, though its implications for Jesus himself and for earliest community history are limited by Josephus’s aims and the transmission history of the text.[104][105]Doctrinal Developments and Pauline Influence
The earliest Jesus-following groups associated with Jerusalem are reconstructed primarily from later literary sources (Paul’s letters, Acts, and later Christian tradition) rather than from contemporaneous administrative records. Many scholars associate these circles—linked in the sources to figures such as Cephas (Peter) and James—with continued participation in Jewish practice alongside proclamation of Jesus as messiah and as having been raised by God; however, the degree of continuity, the range of practices, and the internal diversity of these groups remain matters of inference and scholarly debate.[133][134] Because early instruction was transmitted largely through oral teaching and communal practice, many aspects of doctrine and organization can be described only probabilistically from the surviving texts.[133] In Paul’s letters, he presents himself as having previously opposed the movement and as having experienced a revelatory encounter that redirected his activity, especially toward non-Jews. Historians commonly treat this as primary evidence for Paul’s own self-understanding and rhetoric, while noting that it is not an independently corroborated biography and that reconstructing precise dates depends on converting Paul’s relative statements into an absolute chronology.[133] Proposals for placing Paul’s call/conversion in the early-to-mid 30s CE are therefore typically presented as reconstructed ranges rather than fixed dates.[133] Acts offers a narrative of expanding Gentile congregations and portrays disputes over circumcision and dietary practice, culminating in a Jerusalem meeting often labeled the “Jerusalem council.” This episode is frequently compared with Paul’s account in Galatians 2, and many scholars propose a relationship between the two descriptions while differing on the degree of overlap and on how (or whether) they can be harmonized, given Acts’ later composition and its theological and literary aims.[135] Accordingly, modern discussions often separate (a) what Paul explicitly states in letters, (b) what Acts narrates, and (c) later interpretive syntheses that attempt to integrate both.[135]
Historical and Cultural Influence
Demographics and Global Spread
Jesus is the central figure of Christianity, commonly described as the world’s largest religious tradition by number of adherents (about 2.3 billion Christians in 2020, per Pew Research Center).[138] Historians describe Christianity’s global spread as arising through multiple, changing mechanisms—including migration, evangelization, state patronage, and (in some contexts) colonial and imperial expansion—so demographic growth is treated as historically contingent and uneven rather than attributable to a single cause.[138][147] In the Americas, scholarship also emphasizes that Christianization was sometimes entangled with coercive colonial policies and with campaigns against Indigenous religions that included the suppression of traditional cultural media (e.g., ritual objects and recorded histories), alongside instances of syncretism and Indigenous adaptation.[147]Chronology and Calendar
In chronological practice, the widely used Gregorian calendar (promulgated in 1582) employs an era system (BC/AD; also rendered BCE/CE) that developed within Christian chronology; the “Anno Domini” framework is associated with the sixth-century scholar Dionysius Exiguus and reflects an estimate of the Incarnation rather than a verifiable birth date.[139][140] Historians typically link the calendar’s later global diffusion to administrative, commercial, and international standardization processes in the early modern and modern periods, in which Christian and European institutions were often influential.[139][147]Institutions, Charity, Education, and Abuse
Historians note that Christian institutions and patrons played significant roles in the development of charitable and educational infrastructures in late antiquity and medieval Europe (including forms of hospital and university organization), though these developments varied substantially by region and period.[141][142] At the same time, scholarship and major public inquiries document that some Christian institutions have also been sites of coercion and harm, including institutional failures in responding to child sexual abuse and patterns of concealment or inadequate accountability in certain settings.[151][152][153]Social and Political Movements
Across many societies shaped by Christian traditions, interpretations of Jesus’ teachings (including themes such as love of neighbor, forgiveness, and care for the vulnerable) have been cited in debates in ethics, social thought, and, alongside other traditions, in some legal and political ideals.[143] Christian organizations and rhetoric have also been prominent within particular reform movements (including strands of abolitionism and the U.S. civil rights movement).[145] Conversely, historians emphasize that Christian texts and theological frameworks were repeatedly mobilized to justify slavery (for example through appeals to biblical precedent and inherited hierarchies), even as other Christians developed abolitionist arguments from different interpretive and moral premises.[144][148] Historians of Christianity and sexuality likewise note that appeals to Christian scripture, moral theology, and pastoral authority have been used in many periods to stigmatize and police same-sex relationships and gender nonconformity, including through support for punitive laws and social exclusion, while other Christians have advanced inclusionary interpretations and opposed such discrimination.[156][157]War, Empire, and Political Legitimation
Christian symbols and doctrines have at times been used to legitimate political violence and domination, including crusading ideologies in medieval Europe and religious rationales that accompanied some colonial and imperial projects.[146][147] Scholars also emphasize counter-traditions within Christianity (e.g., various pacifist and anti-imperial theologies), and they treat the relationship between Christian institutions and state power as variable across polities and periods rather than uniform.[146][147]Arts, Censorship, and Iconoclasm
Jesus’ life and reception have served as recurring subjects in visual art, literature, music, and architecture across many centuries and cultural settings.[143] Historians also document episodes in which Christian authorities or movements suppressed, censored, or destroyed images and artworks in the name of theological principle or religious reform—most notably Byzantine iconoclasm (8th–9th centuries) and various waves of Reformation-era iconoclasm in parts of Europe.[154][155] Comparable dynamics are discussed for some colonial settings: for example, post-conquest missionary campaigns in Mesoamerica and the Andes sometimes involved the deliberate destruction of Indigenous images and recorded traditions deemed “idolatrous,” including documented burnings of Maya books and other cultural objects, as well as “extirpation of idolatry” programs that targeted ritual material culture.[156] In addition to physical iconoclasm, some Christian institutions developed formal mechanisms of textual and artistic censorship (e.g., early modern Catholic prohibitions on certain books), reflecting ongoing disputes over religious authority, public morality, and control of knowledge.[156]Views in Major Religious Traditions
Christian Perspectives: Divinity and Salvation
Jewish Critiques: Non-Messianic Status
Jewish tradition outlines specific criteria for the Messiah (Moshiach) from the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), codified by scholars like Maimonides. These require paternal descent from King David, universal Torah observance, gathering Jewish exiles to Israel, rebuilding the Third Temple in Jerusalem, and establishing global peace where "nation shall not lift up sword against nation" (Isaiah 2:4).[115][116] The Messiah is a human king who achieves this through political and military leadership, not divine atonement.[117]
Islamic Portrayal: Prophet and Messiah
In Islamic theology, Jesus—known as Isa ibn Maryam (Jesus, son of Mary)—ranks among Allah's major prophets, sent to the Children of Israel to confirm the Torah and deliver the Injil (Gospel) as guidance and mercy.[120] The Quran presents him as a human servant of God, rejecting divinity or sonship to Allah, as stated in Surah An-Nisa 4:171: "The Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, was but a messenger of Allah and His word which He directed to Mary and a soul [created at a command] from Him."[120] This view upholds tawhid (God's oneness), with Jesus's miracles—such as forming birds from clay, healing the blind and lepers, and raising the dead—serving as divine signs "by permission of Allah" (Surah Al-Imran 3:49; Surah Al-Ma'idah 5:110), akin to those of prior prophets like Moses.[120] The Quran applies the title Al-Masih (the Messiah) to Jesus eleven times, signifying the anointed one promised to Israel, but reinterprets it as prophetic confirmation rather than redemptive atonement in Jewish or Christian terms.[121] His virgin birth to Maryam features in Surah Maryam and Surah Al-Imran, where he speaks from the cradle: "Indeed, I am the servant of Allah. He has given me the Scripture and made me a prophet."[120] Yet the Quran denies his crucifixion, asserting in Surah An-Nisa 4:157-158 that the Jews neither killed nor crucified him—"it was made to appear so"—before Allah raised him bodily.[120] In eschatology, Jesus will return as a sign of the Hour (Quran 43:61), descending to slay the Dajjal (false messiah), shatter the cross, end jizya, and establish Islam's supremacy, often alongside the Mahdi.[122] Hadith, including Sahih Muslim, describe him praying behind the Mahdi, ruling by Sharia, and dying naturally after a period, thereby correcting scriptural distortions and affirming Muhammad's final prophethood.[123] These Quranic and traditional elements position Jesus as a key figure in end-times restoration, aligned with Islamic orthodoxy.[124]Druze Views
Baháʼí Views
The Baháʼí Faith, founded in 19th-century Persia by Bahá'u'lláh, regards Jesus as a Manifestation of God—a human messenger reflecting divine attributes like the "Word" and "Spirit of God"—whose 1st-century mission laid Christianity's foundations of love, forgiveness, and moral renewal for a tribal society. Baháʼís affirm his virgin birth, miracles, crucifixion under Pontius Pilate in AD 30 or 33, and spiritual resurrection as his soul's enduring influence, not physical revival, while rejecting literal views conflicting with reason and progressive revelation. Jesus forms one link in a chain of Manifestations with Moses, Muhammad, and Bahá'u'lláh, each tailoring eternal truths to their time without unique finality; titles like "Son of God" signify metaphysical closeness, not exclusive incarnation. This affirms Jesus' ethics as valid until later dispensations circa AD 1844, critiquing Christianity's sole salvific claims.[126][127]Manichaean Views
Physical Appearance and Cultural Depictions
Ethnicity, Language, and Estimated Physical Traits
Jesus is widely treated in historical Jesus research and much New Testament scholarship as a first-century Galilean Jew living under Roman rule, although reconstructions differ in detail and in how strongly particular claims are stated.[130] The New Testament traditions present varying emphases about his origins: all four Gospels associate him with Nazareth (as a place of upbringing and/or identification), while Matthew and Luke also locate his birth in Bethlehem within their infancy narratives.[130] Matthew and Luke further provide genealogies that link Jesus to David and the tribe of Judah; many scholars interpret these genealogies primarily as theological-literary claims expressing messianic and Davidic associations rather than as independently verifiable family records, though views differ on how much historical residue they may preserve.[130] Non-Christian evidence does not provide direct biographical information about Jesus’ family, but it is often cited for limited contextual anchoring of early Jesus movements. In particular, Josephus’ Antiquities includes a reference to “James, the brother of Jesus who was called Christ,” a passage that is frequently (though not universally) judged substantially authentic in Josephan studies.[131] Debates about the longer Testimonium Flavianum passage are typically treated separately.[131] On language, a common inference in NT scholarship is that Jesus’ ordinary spoken language was Aramaic, given its broad attestation as an everyday language among many Jews in Roman-period Palestine, while Hebrew functioned prominently in scriptural, liturgical, and learned settings.[132] Whether and how Jesus engaged Hebrew texts is inferred largely from Gospel narratives describing synagogue teaching and scriptural citation; these scenes are interpreted differently across scholarly approaches, and they support at most a cautious claim of some level of engagement with Jewish textual traditions rather than a precise measure of literacy.[132] The extent of Jesus’ Greek competence remains disputed: some scholars argue for at least limited spoken Greek given the wider linguistic ecology of the eastern Roman provinces and nearby urban centers, whereas others caution that fluency—especially for a rural Galilean teacher—should not be assumed from the available evidence.[133] No contemporary physical descriptions of Jesus survive. As a result, discussion of his appearance relies on probabilistic inference from archaeology, comparative anthropology, and what is known of Roman-period Judea and Galilee. Some scholars argue that Jesus likely shared broadly local Eastern Mediterranean features (e.g., dark hair and eyes and a complexion typical of regional populations), while emphasizing that such generalizations cannot identify an individual’s precise traits.[134] Estimates of stature and build derive from skeletal samples of adult males from the region and period; these can suggest rough ranges for population averages but cannot establish Jesus’ specific height, facial structure, or hairstyle.[134] Forensic reconstructions based on contemporaneous skulls can illustrate one plausible appearance for a first-century man from the area, but they are not evidence for Jesus’ particular face and should not be presented as such.[134] Later artistic depictions (including Byzantine and subsequent European traditions) are therefore usually discussed as reflecting the theological and cultural aesthetics of their production contexts rather than direct historical memory.[134]Artistic Representations Across Eras
Associated Relics and Their Authenticity Debates
Numerous relics purportedly linked to Jesus include the Shroud of Turin, True Cross fragments, Crown of Thorns, Veil of Veronica, Sudarium of Oviedo, and holy nails. Authenticity debates center on historical emergence, provenance and chain-of-custody, and scientific testing where applicable.[145]Shroud of Turin
Earliest attestation
The Shroud's earliest attestation is in AD 1354 in Lirey, France, aligning with medieval relic traditions and lacking prior mentions.[146]Provenance issues
Provenance shows no continuous chain to the 1st century, with inconsistencies in Jewish burial practices and nail wound placements compared to medieval art.[146]Scientific testing
Radiometric and material analyses. In 1988, accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon measurements performed by laboratories in Arizona, Oxford, and Zurich were reported as mutually consistent and, after calibration, yielded a medieval date range (AD 1260–1390 at 95% confidence) for the tested linen sample. The published report interpreted this result as dating the sampled material itself.[147] Subsequent authors have argued that the 1988 sample may not be fully representative of the whole cloth (e.g., due to localized repair, heterogeneous contaminants, or uneven pretreatment), and have presented statistical analyses suggesting spatial or inter-subsample heterogeneity within the tested area; these critiques remain debated and depend on assumptions about sampling, conservation history, and chemical removal efficacy.[148] A separate 2022 study applied a wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS) approach to estimate cellulose degradation in a small thread taken near the 1988 sampling region and reported an age compatible with the 1st century CE under the authors’ calibration model. Because this WAXS dating protocol is relatively recent and sensitive to environmental and conservation conditions, multiple reviews emphasize that independent replication, broader inter-laboratory calibration on comparably preserved linens, and clearer uncertainty modeling are needed before it can be treated as a robust alternative chronology.[149] Stains and image characteristics. Some peer-reviewed chemical and spectroscopic investigations associated with the 1978 Shroud of Turin Research Project (STURP) reported results consistent with the presence of blood-related compounds in selected reddish stains and argued against conventional pigment-based painting as an explanation for the body image, while also noting that the physical and chemical mechanism of image formation was not established. Claims that the stains can be typed reliably as ABO group AB have been widely circulated, but recent methodological critiques note that the reported AB determinations rely on limited and variably documented testing and face substantial challenges when applied to ancient, potentially contaminated substrates; accordingly, the evidentiary status of a specific ABO type is disputed.[150] Reviews of the broader technical literature commonly conclude that certain macroscopic features (e.g., superficial coloration, tonal mapping properties reported by some analysts) are unusual, but “non-replicability” depends on which specific image attributes are required simultaneously and on the comparability of experimental constraints.Scholarly assessment
Expert consensus favors medieval origin via artistic techniques.[146]True Cross Fragments
