Jesus

Several terms redirect here. For other uses, see Jesus (disambiguation), Christ (disambiguation), Jesus Christ (disambiguation), and Jesus of Nazareth (disambiguation).

Jesus
Bornc. 6 to 4 BC[a]
Herodian kingdom, Roman Empire[5]
DiedAD 30 or 33 (aged 33 or 38)
Jerusalem, Judaea, Roman Empire
Cause of deathCrucifixion[b]
Known for
Parents

Jesus[d] (c. 6 to 4 BC – AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ,[e] Jesus of Nazareth, and many other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader.[10] He is the central figure of Christianity, the world's largest religion. Most Christian denominations believe Jesus to be the incarnation of God the Son and the 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.[f] Accounts of Jesus's life are contained in the Gospels, especially the four canonical Gospels in the New Testament. Academic research has yielded various views on the historical reliability of the Gospels and how closely they reflect the historical Jesus.[18][g][21][22]

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".[23] Jesus often debated with fellow Jews on how to best follow God, engaged in healings, taught in parables, and gathered followers, among whom twelve were appointed as his chosen apostles. He was arrested in Jerusalem and tried by the Jewish authorities,[24] turned 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.[25] It is hypothesized that accounts of his teachings and life were initially conserved by oral transmission, which was the source of the written Gospels.[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.[h] The birth of Jesus is celebrated annually, generally on 25 December,[i] 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 2024 (or 2024 CE)—is based on the approximate birthdate of Jesus.[27]

In Islam, Jesus[j] 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.[k] Jesus is also revered in the Baháʼí Faith, Druze Faith and Rastafari. In contrast, 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.

  1. ^ Meier 1991, p. 407.
  2. ^ Rahner 2004, p. 732.
  3. ^ Sanders 1993, pp. 10–11.
  4. ^ Finegan 1998, p. 319
  5. ^ Brown 1977, p. 513.
  6. ^ Dunn 2003, p. 339.
  7. ^ Ehrman 1999, p. 101.
  8. ^ Crossan & Watts 1999, p. 96.
  9. ^ Eddy & Boyd 2007, p. 173.
  10. ^ Vermes 1981, pp. 20, 26, 27, 29.
  11. ^ Ehrman 2011, p. 285.
  12. ^ Burridge, Richard A.; Gould, Graham (2004). Jesus Now and Then. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 34. ISBN 978-0-8028-0977-3.
  13. ^ 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.
  14. ^ 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.
  15. ^ Grant, Michael (1977). Jesus: An Historian's Review of the Gospels. Scribner's. p. 200. ISBN 978-0-684-14889-2.
  16. ^ Van Voorst 2000, p. 16.
  17. ^ Baden, Candida Moss (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.
  18. ^ Powell 1998, pp. 168–73.
  19. ^ 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
  20. ^ Sanders 1993, p. 57.
  21. ^ Komoszewski, J. Ed; Bock, Darrell, eds. (2019). Jesus, Skepticism & The Problem of History: Criteria and Context in the Study of Christian Origins. Zondervan Academic. pp. 22–23. ISBN 9780310534761. ...a considerable number of specific facts about Jesus are so well supported historically as to be widely acknowledged by most scholars, whether Christian (of any stripe) or not:...(lists 18 points)...Nevertheless, what can be known about Jesus with a high degree of confidence, apart from theological or ideological agendas, is perhaps surprisingly robust.
  22. ^ Craig Evans, "Life-of-Jesus Research and the Eclipse of Mythology", Theological Studies 54 (1993) pp. 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."
  23. ^ Orr, James, ed. (1939). "International Standard Bible Encyclopedia Online". Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. Archived from the original on 17 August 2016. Retrieved 30 July 2016.
  24. ^ Sanders 1993, p. 11.
  25. ^ Sanders 1993, pp. 11, 14.
  26. ^ Dunn, James D. G. (2013). The Oral Gospel Tradition. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. pp. 290–291.
  27. ^ "anno Domini". Merriam Webster Online Dictionary. Merriam-Webster. 2003. Archived from the original on 22 December 2007. Retrieved 3 November 2016. Etymology: Medieval Latin, in the year of our Lord.


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).