Jesus Christ
Image of Jesus Christ from Agia Sophia, Istanbul (12th century)
Jesus of Nazareth (or Jesus Christ, see alternate names below) (born: c. 6 BC- c. 6; died: c. 27 - c. 36) was a Jewish religious teacher and healer; who was crucified during the early years of the Roman Empire.
According to those religions conventionally designated as "Christian", Jesus is the messiah and Son of God; who brought salvation to humanity through his death and resurrection. Jesus is also regarded as an ascetic prophet, by many Muslims; as a false Messiah, by Judaism and Mandaeanism; as a manifestation of God, by the Baha'i; as an avatar by some Hindus ; and, as a guru by many New Ageists.
The primary source of historical knowledge about Jesus is contained within the Christian Gospels which the majority of historians believe to have been written originally within living memory of Jesus. Therefore, most scholars accept the Gospels as evidence for the historical existence of Jesus; and, excepting certain miraculous claims, for the basic narrative of his life and death. There is however a minority of historians who disagree viewing Jesus as purely a mythical figure.
Most discussions about Jesus, including this one, involve a conflict between contrasting, and in some ways incompatible, views of the world and of how humans acquire knowledge (this subject is discussed in the disciplines epistemology and metaphysics).
Christians believe that humans can have direct personal knowledge of God and of Jesus and that this is confirmed through scripture, which is a form of divine revelation. Some Christians believe that Scripture must be interpreted in the light of Tradition, while others believe that individuals can interpret it for themselves.
For some Christians, belief in Jesus is a matter of faith: they need no further confirmation of the existence of God and His son. Other Christians feel they have knowledge of God based on the empirical existence of the Gospels and/or Bible as accurate historical documents, the tradition that Christians have passed on from generation to generation, and through their direct consequent religious experiences.
Furthermore, there are different accounts of Jesus within Islam, Judaism, and Mandaeanism, see later in this article.
Historians accept that the accounts of the life of Jesus in the Gospels provide a reasonable basis of evidence, by the standards of ancient history, for the historical existence of Jesus and the basic narrative of his life and death. However, they feel that the details of his life and work remain unknown. A minority of historians considers him a wholly mythical figure.
There is a paucity of accepted contemporaneous sources and of direct empirical evidence. Therefore, it is difficult for representatives of the different religious and secular traditions of knowledge and faith to reach agreement on a "biography" of Jesus.This article therefore offers the differing views and beliefs.
This section provides a historical view of Jesus, based on empirical evidence that is considered satisfactory by the majority of historians.
Jesus is derived from the Latin Iesus, which in turn comes from the Greek Iesous (Ιησους). The Greek form is a transliteration of the Aramaic name Yeshua (ישוע), a short form of Hebrew Yehoshua (יהושע), which means the Lord is salvation, literally Yahweh/Jehovah saves. The English form of Yehoshua is Joshua. (Other common English transliterations from the Aramaic Yeshua (ישוע) include Jeshua and Yahshua.)
Christ is a title, and comes, via Latin, from the Greek Christos (Χριστος), which means anointed. The Greek form is a literal translation of Messiah from Hebrew mashiyakh (משיח) or Aramaic m'shikha (משיחא), words which typically signified "king" -- a man, chosen by God or descended from a man chosed by God, to serve as a civil and military authority. In Arabic, Jesus is known as the prophet Isa al Masih, from the aforementioned Aramaic for Jesus the Messiah.
Jesus spoke Aramaic as it was the common language of Galilee and Judea; thus, during his life, he was probably known as Yeshua.
Most historians do not dispute the existence of a person named Jesus; evidence for Jesus' existence two thousand years ago are by historical standards actually fairly strong. Jesus is obviously mentioned extensively within the Bible, but is also considered a historical figure within the traditions of Judaism, Islam, Mandeanism and alternative Christian traditions like Gnosticism. Jesus also gets a passing mention within historical accounts of the period, though the reliability of these accounts are disputed.
Moreover, historians generally agree that at least some of the source documents on which the Gospels are based were written within living memory of Jesus's lifetime. Historians therefore accept that the accounts of the life of Jesus in the Gospels, excepting certain miraculous claims and the details that surround them, provide a reasonable basis of evidence by the standards of ancient history, for the basic narrative of Jesus' life and death.Introduction
The historical Jesus of Nazareth
The name Jesus Christ
Sources about Jesus Christ
Main article: Sources about Jesus Christ
|
of important years from empirical sources. (see also detailed timeline)
|
The exact month or day or even the year of Jesus's birth cannot be exactly ascertained. Due to a mistaken calculation based on the Roman Calendar by Dionysius Exiguus in 525, it was long held that Jesus was born in the year A.D. 1.
Accounts in the Bible are problematic, because we have two different accounts. Matthew states that Jesus was born while Herod the Great was still alive and that Herod ordered the slaughter of infants two years old and younger (Matt. 2:16), and based on the date of Herod's death in 4 BC (contra Dionysius Exiguus), many chronologists conclude that the year 6 BC is the most likely year of Jesus's birth. Consequently, Jesus would have been about four to six years old in the year A.D. 1. On the other hand, Luke's account places Jesus's birth during a census conducted under the governorship of Quirinius, who, according to Josephus, conducted a census in A.D. 6. In order to reconcile the two Gospel accounts, some have suggested that Josephus was mistaken or that Quirinius had a separate period of rule under Herod. In any case, the actual date of his birth remains historically unverifiable.
In the 6th century, Dionysius Exiguus proposed to make the birth of Jesus the basis of the calendar but he miscalculated the death of Herod. Years reckoned in this way are labelled "A.D.", which stands for Anno Domini, meaning "in the year of the Lord" in Latin. Since many non-Christians have come to use this calendar, an alternative notation "C.E." is sometimes used. It is presently uncertain what the original meaning of this abbreviation was, although today it is taken to mean either the Common Era or the Christian Era: many references cite both.
Based on inferences from gospel accounts, Jesus was executed by crucifixion on a Friday, and on the 14th day of the Jewish month of Nisan under the administration of Pontius Pilate. Pontius Pilate held his position from 26-36 and the only years in which Nisan 14 fell on a Friday are 27, 33, and 36 and possibly in 30 depending on when the new moon would have been visible in Jerusalem. Scholars have defended all of the dates.
Jesus was brought up in Nazareth a small town in Galilee. Jesus' mother was Mary, who married Joseph, but he was only Jesus' foster father. We can say nothing with certainty about Jesus's childhood or young adulthood. Certain events are mentioned in the various gospels, but there is no common agreement. The gospels also differ on the question of whether he had brothers and sisters, though he did at least have cousins.
Jesus began his public ministry some time after he was baptized by John the Baptist, who inspired the Mandaeanism. Jesus began preaching, teaching, and healing. There is no firm evidence for when his ministry started or how long it lasted. The detailed nature of Jesus' spiritual teaching cannot be agreed because accounts are fragmentary and because he made extensive use of paradox, metaphor and parable; it is unclear how literally he wished to be taken and precisely what he meant.
Jesus did preach the immanent end of the current era of history, in some sense a literal end of the world as people of his time knew it; in this sense he was an apocalyptic preacher bringing a message about the immanent end of the world the Jews knew.
Like the Pharisee, Jesus opposed stringent interpretations of Jewish law, and preached a more flexible understanding of the law. His teachings show an inclination to following a teleological approach, in which the spirit of the law is more important than the letter of the law. However, the New Testament records him as having many disagreements with the Pharisees, as he consistently takes differing views from the standard Pharisee practice of the day.
However, the interpretations of the law by the Sadducces were in most cases much stricter than Pharisee interpretations of the law, yet the New Testament records no sign of Jesus having much disagreement with their views.
Some modern historians thus believe that Jesus may have been a liberal Pharisee in some respects, or as an Essene with whom he shared many views; and that later Christian transcribers cast him as an enemy of the Pharisees, because they became the dominant sect within Judaism, when Christians and Jews came into conflict. This view is supported in Acts of the Apostles, because Jesus' apostles were generally attacked by Sadduccees but were sometimes protected by Pharisee's liberal interpretations of Jewish law.
Jesus increasingly gained followers as his fame grew, though within his lifetime Jesus' core following remained no more than a small religious sect. Jesus had by the time of his death taught a number of his disciples or apostles to preach his teachings and perform faith healing to both Jews and Gentiles alike.
In his role as a social reformer Jesus threatened the status quo. He was unpopular with many Jewish religious authorities, not least because he criticised them; but also because some of Jesus' followers held the controversial and inflammatory view that he was the Messiah. It is not clear from analysis of the Gospel texts that Jesus made this claim about himself, but he did not deny it.
Jesus came with his followers to Jerusalem during the Passover festival. He was involved in some form of public disturbance at the Temple in Jerusalem. At some point later, he was betrayed to the Jewish religious authorities of the city by one of his apostles Judas Iscariot.
The High Priest of the city was appointed by Rome and the current holder of the post was Joseph Caiphas. The Romans ruled the city through the High Priest, so often the Jewish authorities of the city had to arrest people on the orders of the Romans. Jesus' disciples went into hiding after he was arrested.
Jesus was crucified by the Romans on the orders of Pontius Pilate the Roman Governor of Judea in Jerusalem. The Gospels state that he did this at the behest of the Jewish religious leaders, but it may have been simply that Pilate considered Jesus' ability to incite public disorder to be a threat to Roman order. Pilate was known as a harsh ruler who ordered many executions during his reign.
Joseph of Arimathea, a rich disciple of Jesus, arranged with Pilate for the body to be taken away by Jesus' mother, Mary, and other women, notably a female follower of Jesus, Mary Magdalene.
Some historians have disputed the actual existence of Jesus, and have claimed his historical existence was an invention. There are other debates about whether Jesus had any brothers or sisters, or if he was married and had children.
There are many items that are purported to be authentic relics of the Gospel account. The most famous alleged relic of Jesus is the Shroud of Turin. The carbon dating of the item had been disputed. In 2002, an ossuary with the inscription Ya`aqov bar Yosef akhui di Yeshua was found. People at first thought it was real, but the item was proven to be false.
Christianity is centered on the belief that Jesus is the savior of man. According to Christians, Jesus was born in Bethlehem to Mary. He preached the new covenant across Judea, which angered traditional Jews and disturbed the Romans has he was a threat to public order. One of his twelve apostles, Judas, betrayed him. Judas would later commit suicide in remorse for what he did. Jesus was nailed to the cross and killed by the Romans. However, he rose from the dead three days later to prove his divine origin.
Jesus Christ is deemed a false prophet in most sects of Judaism, and religious Jews are still looking for the Messiah to arrive. Christianity had started as a sect of Judaism, but developed into its own religion.
Muslims believe that while Jesus, or Isa in Arabic, wasn't the savior of mankind, that he was sent down by Allah as a prophet. Mohammed was the final prophet to mankind in Islam.
The Mandaeanists also see Jesus Christ as a false prophet. Some Hindus believe that Jesus is an avatar. Other types of new-age beliefs see him as a guru. There is also speculation concerning whether Jesus was married.
Jesus Christ has been featured in many films and media, sometimes as a serious portrayal, and other times as satire.
Jesus' life and teaching
The historicity of Jesus
Main article: Historicity of Jesus ChristAlleged relics of Jesus
Main article: Alleged relics of Jesus ChristThe Christian account of Jesus
Main articles: Jesus Christ as the Messiah and MessiahJewish perspective on Jesus
Main articles: Judaism and Christianity and Jewish MessiahIslamic perspectives on Jesus
Main article: IsaOther perspectives on Jesus
Main article: Other prespectives on JesusFictional portrayals of Jesus Christ
Main article: Fictional portrayals of Jesus ChristFurther reading
External links
General
Historicity of Jesus
Historical context
