Everything about Jesus Of Nazareth totally explained
Jesus of Nazareth (7–2
BC/
BCE to 26–36
AD/
CE),
also known as
Jesus Christ, is the central figure of
Christianity, revered by most
Christians as the
incarnation of God, and is also an important figure in several other
religions.
The name "Jesus" is an
Anglicization of the
Greek Ίησους, itself a
Hellenization of the
Hebrew (
Yehoshua) or Hebrew-
Aramaic (
Yeshua), meaning "
YHWH rescues". "
Christ" is a title derived from the Greek Χριστός, meaning the "Anointed One," which corresponds to the Hebrew-derived "
Messiah".
The main sources of information regarding Jesus' life and teachings are the
gospels. Most scholars in the fields of
history and
biblical studies agree that Jesus was a
Galilean Jew, was regarded as a teacher and
healer, was
baptized by
John the Baptist, and was
crucified in
Jerusalem on orders of
Roman Governor Pontius Pilate, on the charge of
sedition against the
Roman Empire.
Most critical scholars believe that ancient texts on Jesus' life are at least partially accurate.
Christian views of Jesus (see also
Christology) center on the belief that Jesus is
divine, is the
Messiah whose coming was
prophesied in the Old Testament, and that he was
resurrected after his crucifixion. Christians predominantly believe that Jesus is the "
Son of God" (generally meaning that he's
God the Son, the second person in the
Trinity), who came to provide
salvation and
reconciliation with
God. Other Christian beliefs include Jesus'
virgin birth, performance of
miracles,
ascension into
Heaven, and future
Second Coming. While the doctrine of the Trinity is widely accepted by Christians, a small minority instead hold various
nontrinitarian beliefs concerning the divinity of Jesus.
In
Islam, Jesus (commonly transliterated as
Isa) is considered one of
God's important
prophets, a bringer of scripture, a worker of miracles, and the
Messiah.
Muslims, however, believe Jesus wasn't divine and not
crucified, but
ascended bodily to heaven.
Chronology
Scholars don't know the exact year or date of Jesus' birth or death. The
Gospel of Matthew and the
Gospel of Luke place Jesus' birth under the reign of
Herod the Great, who died in 4 BC/BCE, although the Gospel of Luke also describes the birth as taking place during the
first census of the Roman provinces of
Syria and
Iudaea in 6 AD/CE. Scholars generally assume a date of birth between 6 and 4 BC/BCE. Jesus' ministry followed that of John the Baptist.
The Gospels name Pontius Pilate as the Roman prefect that had Jesus crucified, and Pilate was prefect of Judea between 26 and 36 AD/CE.
The common Western standard for numbering years, in which the current year is, is based on an early medieval attempt to count the years from Jesus' birth.
While
Christmas, in honor of Jesus' birth, is celebrated on
December 25, there's no indication that this was his actual birthday. Jesus was executed after
Passover, a Jewish holiday occurring in northern spring. Some Christians commemorate Jesus' crucification on
Good Friday and celebrate his resurrection on
Easter Sunday.
Life and teachings, as told in the Gospels
The
Bible's four
canonical gospels are the main sources for the traditional
Christian biography of Jesus' life. Scholars, although considering the gospel accounts to be
historically useful, differ widely as to their reliability. Each gospel portrays Jesus' life and its meaning differently. To combine these four stories into one story is tantamount to creating a fifth story, one different from each original. The gospel of John isn't a biography of Jesus but a theological presentation of him as the divine Logos.
The Gospels (especially Matthew) present Jesus' birth, life, death, and resurrection as fulfillments of
prophecies found in the Hebrew Bible. See, for example, the
virgin birth, the
flight into Egypt, Immanuel, and the
suffering servant.
Genealogy and family
Of the four gospels, only Matthew and Luke give accounts of Jesus' genealogy. The accounts in the two gospels are substantially different, and various theories have been proposed to explain the discrepancies. Both accounts, however, trace his line back to
King David and from there to
Abraham. These lists are identical between Abraham and David, but they differ between David and Joseph. Matthew starts with
Solomon and proceeds through the kings of
Judah to the last king,
Jeconiah. After Jeconiah, the line of kings terminated when
Babylon conquered Judah. Thus, Matthew shows that Jesus is the legal heir to the throne of
Israel. Luke's genealogy is longer than Matthew's; it goes back to
Adam and provides more names between David and Jesus.
Joseph, husband of
Mary, appears in descriptions of Jesus' childhood. No mention, however, is made of Joseph during the ministry of Jesus.
The New Testament books of Matthew, Mark, and Galatians tell of Jesus' relatives, including what may have been brothers and sisters. The Greek word
adelphos in these verses, often translated as
brother, can refer to any familial relation, and most Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians translate the word as
kinsman or
cousin in this context (see
Perpetual virginity of Mary). Luke also mentions that
Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist, was a "cousin" or "relative" of Mary, which would make John a distant cousin of Jesus.
Nativity and early life
According to Matthew and Luke, Jesus was born in
Bethlehem of
Judea to Mary, a virgin, by a miracle of the
Holy Spirit. The Gospel of Luke gives an account of the
angel Gabriel visiting Mary to tell her that she was chosen to bear the
Son of God . According to Luke, an order of
Caesar Augustus had forced Mary and Joseph to leave their homes in
Nazareth and come to the home of Joseph's ancestors, the house of
David, for the
Census of Quirinius.
After Jesus' birth, the couple was forced to use a
manger in place of a crib because of a shortage of accommodation . According to Luke, an angel announced Jesus' birth to shepherds who left their flocks to see the newborn child and who subsequently publicized what they'd witnessed throughout the area (see
The First Noël). Matthew tells of the "
Wise Men" or "
Magi" who brought gifts to the infant Jesus after following a star which they believed was a sign that the
King of the Jews had been born .
Jesus' childhood home is identified as the town of
Nazareth in
Galilee. Except for a
journey to Egypt by his family in his infancy to escape Herod's
Massacre of the Innocents and a short trip to
Tyre and
Sidon (in what is now Lebanon), the Gospels place all other events in Jesus' life in
ancient Israel. According to Matthew, the family remained in Egypt until Herod's death, whereupon they returned to Nazareth to avoid living under the authority of Herod's son and successor
Archelaus .
Only Luke tells that Jesus was found teaching in the temple by his parents after being lost. The
Finding in the Temple is the only event between Jesus' infancy and baptism mentioned in any of the canonical Gospels. According to Luke, Jesus was "about thirty years of age" when he was baptized . In Mark, Jesus is called a carpenter. Matthew says he was a carpenter's son, however, the Greek word used in the Gospel is "tekton" meaning "builder," which suggests he could have been an artisan of some type as well. It is also assumed that Jesus may have spent some or all of his first 30 years practicing his craft with his father ().
Baptism and Temptation
All three
synoptic Gospels describe the
Baptism of Jesus by
John the Baptist, an event which Biblical scholars describe as the beginning of Jesus' public ministry. According to these accounts, Jesus came to the
Jordan River where John the Baptist had been preaching and baptizing people in the crowd. Matthew describes John as initially hesitant to comply with Jesus' request for John to baptize him, stating that it was Jesus who should baptize him. Jesus persisted, "It is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness" . After Jesus was baptized and rose from the water, Mark states Jesus "saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove. Then a voice came from heaven saying: 'You are My beloved Son, in whom I'm well pleased'" . The Gospel of John doesn't describe the baptism, but it does attest that Jesus is the very one about whom John the Baptist had been preaching — the Son of God.
Following his baptism, Jesus was led into the desert by God where he
fasted for forty days and forty nights . During this time, the
devil appeared to him and tempted Jesus three times. Each time, Jesus refused temptation with a quotation of
scripture from the
Book of Deuteronomy. The devil departed and angels came and brought nourishment to Jesus ( ).
Ministry
Kingdom of God." Over the course of his ministry, Jesus is said to have
performed various miracles, including healings,
exorcisms,
walking on water,
turning water into wine, and raising several people, such as
Lazarus, from the dead ( and ).
The Gospel of John describes three different
passover feasts over the course of Jesus' ministry. This implies that Jesus preached for a period of at least "two years plus a month or two", although some interpretations of the
Synoptic Gospels suggest a span of only one year. The focus of his ministry was toward his closest adherents, the
Twelve Apostles, though many of his followers were considered
disciples. The Twelve Apostles and others closest to Jesus were all Jews as shown by Jesus' statements that his mission is directed only to those of the house of Israel () and by the fact that only after the death of Jesus did the apostles agree with Paul that the teaching of the gospel could be extended to uncircumcised Gentiles ( ). Jesus led an
apocalyptic following. He preached that the
end of the current world would come unexpectedly, and that he'd return to judge the world, especially according to
how they treated the vulnerable; for this reason, he called on his followers to be ever alert and faithful. Jesus also taught that repentance was necessary to escape
hell, and promised to give those who believe in him eternal life .
At the height of his ministry, Jesus attracted huge crowds numbering in the thousands, primarily in the areas of
Galilee and Perea (in modern-day
Israel and
Jordan respectively). Some of Jesus' most famous teachings come from the
Sermon on the Mount, which contained the
Beatitudes and the
Lord's Prayer. Jesus often employed
parables, such as the
Parable of the Prodigal Son and the
Parable of the Sower. His teachings encouraged unconditional self-sacrificing
God-like love for God and for all people. During his sermons, he preached about service and humility, the forgiveness of sin, faith,
turning the other cheek,
love for one's enemies as well as friends, and the need to follow the spirit of
the law in addition to the letter.
Jesus often met with society's outcasts, such as the
publicani (Imperial tax collectors who were despised for extorting money), including the apostle
Matthew; when the
Pharisees objected to Jesus' meeting with sinners rather than the righteous, Jesus replied that it was the sick who need a physician, not the healthy . According to Luke and John, Jesus also made efforts to extend his ministry to the
Samaritans, who followed
a different form of the Israelite religion. This is reflected in his preaching to the Samaritans of
Sychar, resulting in their conversion .
According to the synoptic gospels, Jesus led three of
his apostles —
Peter,
John, and
James — to the top of a mountain to pray. While there, he was
transfigured before them, his face shining like the sun and his clothes brilliant white;
Elijah and
Moses appeared adjacent to him. A bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the sky said, "This is my beloved son, with whom I'm well pleased." The gospels also state that toward the end of his ministry, Jesus began to warn his disciples of his future death and resurrection .
Arrest, trial, and death
In the account given by the synoptic gospels, Jesus came with his followers to Jerusalem during the Passover festival where a large crowd came to meet him, shouting, "
Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the King of Israel!" Following his
triumphal entry, Jesus created a disturbance at
Herod's Temple by
overturning the tables of the moneychangers who set up shop there, and claiming that they'd made the Temple a "den of robbers." . Later that week, Jesus celebrated the
Passover meal with his disciples — an event subsequently known as the
Last Supper — in which he prophesied that he'd be betrayed by one of his disciples, and would then be executed. In this ritual he took bread and wine in hand, saying: "this is my body which is given for you" and "this cup which is poured out for you is the New Covenant in my blood," and instructed them to "do this in
remembrance of me" . Following the supper, Jesus and his disciples went to pray in the
Garden of Gethsemane.
While in the Garden, Jesus was
arrested by temple guards on the orders of the
Sanhedrin and the high priest,
Caiaphas (). The arrest took place clandestinely at night to avoid a riot, as Jesus was popular with the people at large .
Judas Iscariot, one of his apostles, betrayed Jesus by identifying him to the guards with
a kiss. Simon Peter, another one of Jesus' apostles, used a sword to attack one of Jesus' captors, cutting off his ear, which, according to Luke, Jesus immediately healed miraculously. Jesus rebuked the apostle, stating "all they that take the sword shall perish by the sword" . After his arrest, Jesus' apostles went into hiding.
During the
Sanhedrin Trial of Jesus, the high priests and elders asked Jesus, "Are you the
Son of God?" When he replied, "You are right in saying I am," they condemned Jesus for
blasphemy . The high priests then turned him over to the Roman
procurator Pontius Pilate, based on an accusation of
sedition for forbidding the payment of taxes
Luke 23:1-2
and claiming to be King of the Jews. When Jesus came before Pilate, Pilate asked him, "Are you the king of the Jews?" to which he replied, "It is as you say." According to the Gospels, Pilate personally felt that Jesus wasn't guilty of any crime against the Romans, and since there was a custom at Passover for the Roman governor to free a prisoner (a custom not recorded outside the Gospels), Pilate offered the crowd a choice between Jesus of Nazareth and an insurrectionist named
Barabbas. The crowd chose to have Barabbas freed and Jesus crucified. Pilate washed his hands to indicate that he was innocent of the injustice of the decision .
According to all four Gospels, Jesus died before late afternoon at
Calvary, which was also called Golgotha. The wealthy Judean
Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the
Sanhedrin according to Mark and Luke, received Pilate's permission to take possession of Jesus' body, placing it in a tomb. According to John, Joseph was aided by
Nicodemus, who joined him to help bury Jesus, and who appears in other parts of John's gospel . The three Synoptic Gospels tell of the
darkening of the sky from twelve until three that afternoon; Matthew also mentions an
earthquake .
Resurrection and Ascension
According to the Gospels, Jesus
rose from the dead on the third day after his
crucifixion. The Gospel of Matthew states that an angel appeared near the tomb of Jesus and announced his resurrection to
Mary Magdelene and "another Mary" who had arrived to
anoint the body . According to Luke there were two angels, and according to Mark there was a youth dressed in white . The "
longer ending" to Mark states that on the morning of his resurrection, Jesus first appeared to Mary Magdalene . John states that when Mary looked into the tomb, two angels asked her why she was crying; and as she turned round she initially failed to recognize Jesus until he spoke her name .
The
Acts of the Apostles state that Jesus appeared to various people in various places over the next forty days. Hours after his resurrection, he appeared to two travelers on the road to
Emmaus . To his assembled disciples he showed himself on the evening after his resurrection . Although his own ministry had been specifically to Jews, Jesus is said to have sent his apostles to the Gentiles with the
Great Commission and
ascended to heaven while a cloud concealed him from their sight. According to Acts,
Paul of Tarsus had a vision of Jesus during his
Road to Damascus experience. Jesus promised to
come again to fulfill the remainder of
Messianic prophecy.
Historical views
Scholars have used the
historical method to develop probable reconstructions of Jesus' life. Over the past two hundred years, the image of Jesus among historical scholars has come to be very different than the common image of Jesus that was based on the gospels. Some scholars draw a distinction between Jesus as reconstructed through historical methods and Jesus as understood through a theological point of view, while other scholars hold that a
theological Jesus represents a historical figure. The main sources of information regarding Jesus' life and teachings are the gospels, especially the synoptic gospels:
Mark,
Matthew, and
Luke. Biblical scholars and historians overwhelmingly accept the historical existence of Jesus.
The English title of Albert Schweitzer's 1906 book, "The Quest of the Historical Jesus," is a label for the post-Enlightenment effort to describe Jesus using critical historical methods. Since the end of the 18th century, scholars have examined the gospels and tried to formulate historical biographies of Jesus. Contemporary efforts benefit from a better understanding of 1st-century Judaism, renewed Roman Catholic biblical scholarship, broad acceptance of critical historical methods, sociological insights, and literary analysis of Jesus' sayings.
Constructing a historical view
Historians analyze the gospels to try to discern the historical man on whom these stories are based. They compare what the gospels say to historical events relevant to the times and places where the gospels were written. They try to answer historical questions about Jesus, such as why he was crucified.
Most scholars agree the Gospel of Mark was written about the time of the destruction of
the Jewish Temple by the Romans under
Titus in the year 70, and that the other gospels were written between 70–100. The historical outlook on Jesus relies on
critical analysis of the Bible, especially the gospels. Many scholars have sought to reconstruct Jesus' life in terms of contemporaneous political, cultural, and religious currents in Israel, including differences between Galilee and Judea, and between different sects such the
Pharisees,
Sadducees,
Essenes and
Zealots, and in terms of conflicts among Jews in the context of Roman occupation.
Peter Kirby's
Historical Jesus Theories gives an overview of the conflicting answers that recent writers have given to these questions. The variety and contradictory character of these answers indicate that what follows here isn't to be taken as representing a consensus among scholars.
Descriptions
Historians generally describe Jesus as a healer who preached the restoration of God's kingdom. Most historians agree he was baptized by John the Baptist, and was crucified by the Romans.
John the Baptist led a large apocalyptic movement. He demanded repentance and baptism. Jesus was baptized and later began his ministry. After John was executed, some of his followers apparently took Jesus as their new leader. Historians are nearly unanimous in accepting Jesus' baptism as a historical event.
According to Robert Funk, Jesus taught in pithy parables and with striking images. He likened the Kingdom of Heaven to small and lowly things, such as yeast or a mustard seed, that have great effects. Historians often see Jesus' theological pronouncements in the gospels as coming from the Christian tradition but not from Jesus' himself.
Jesus placed a special emphasis on God as one's heavenly father.
Names and titles
Galilee for most of his life and he probably spoke
Aramaic and
Hebrew. The name "Jesus" is an
English transliteration of the
Latin (
Iēsus) which in turn comes from the
Greek name Iesous (
Ιησους). The name has also been translated into English as "
Joshua". Further examination of the
Septuagint finds that the Greek, in turn, is a transliteration of the Hebrew/
Aramaic Yeshua (
Yeshua — he'll save) a contraction of Hebrew name
Yehoshua (
Yeho —
Yahweh [is]
shua` — deliverance/rescue, usually Romanized as
Joshua). Scholars believe that one of these was likely the name that Jesus was known by during his lifetime by his peers.
Christ (which is a title and not a part of his name) is an Anglicization of the Greek term for
Messiah (
χριστός, from the verb
χρίω "to anoint"), and literally means "anointed one." Historians have debated what this title might have meant at the time Jesus lived; some historians have suggested that other titles applied to Jesus in the New Testament had meanings in the first century quite different from those meanings ascribed today.
The titles "Divine", "
Son of God", "God", "God from God", "Lord", "Redeemer", "Liberator", and "Saviour of the World" were each applied to the Roman emperors.
John Dominic Crossan considers that the application of them to Jesus by the early Christians would have been regarded as denying them to the emperor(s). "They were taking the identity of the Roman emperor and giving it to a Jewish peasant. Either that was a peculiar joke and a very low lampoon, or it was what the Romans called
majestas and we call high treason."
The title
Son of God has often been taken as a claim to divinity. Likewise, Jesus claimed the title "I AM" in which designates God in the Hebrew Bible, especially in . Some New Testament scholars, however, argue that Jesus himself made no claims to being God. Most Christians identified Jesus as divine from a very early period, although holding a variety of views as to what exactly this implied.
Religious groups
Scholars refer to the religious background of the early 1st century to better reconstruct Jesus' life. Some scholars identify him with one or another group.
Pharisees were a powerful force in 1st-century Judaism. After the fall of the Temple, the Pharisee outlook was established in Rabbinic Judaism. Some scholars speculate that Jesus was himself a
Pharisee. In Jesus' day, the two main schools of thought among the Pharisees were the
House of Hillel, which had been founded by the eminent
Tanna,
Hillel the Elder, and the
House of Shammai. Jesus' assertion of hypocrisy may have been directed against the stricter members of the House of Shammai, although he also agreed with their teachings on divorce . Jesus also commented on the House of Hillel's teachings (
Babylonian Talmud,
Shabbat 31a) concerning the
greatest commandment and the
Golden Rule .
The Sadducee sect was particularly powerful in Jerusalem. They accepted the written Law only, rejecting the traditional interpretations accepted by the Pharisees, such as belief in retribution in an afterlife, resurrection of the body, angels, and spirits. They appear to have opposed Jesus' ministry, perhaps because they feared trouble from the Roman power, and in any case because they opposed his doctrines. After the fall of Jerusalem, they disappeared from history.
Essenes were apocalyptic ascetics, one of the three (or four) major Jewish schools of the time, though they were not mentioned in the
New Testament. Some scholars theorize that Jesus was an
Essene, or close to them. Among these scholars is Pope Benedict XVI, who supposes in his book on Jesus that "it appears that not only John the Baptist, but possibly Jesus and his family as well, were close to the Qumran community."
Still other scholars hypothesize that Jesus led a new
apocalyptic sect, possibly related to
John the Baptist, who became
early Christian after the
Great Commission spread his teachings to the
Gentiles. This is distinct from an earlier commission Jesus gave to the
twelve Apostles, limited to "the lost sheep of the house of Israel" and specifically excluding the Gentiles or
Samaritans .
The Gospels record that Jesus was a
Nazarene, a term commonly taken to refer to his place of birth, but sometimes as a religious affiliation.
The Zealots were a revolutionary party opposed to Roman rule, one of those parties that, according to
Josephus inspired the fanatical stand in Jerusalem that led to its destruction in the year 70. Luke identifies Simon, a disciple, as a "zealot," which might mean a member of the Zealot party (which would therefore have been already in existence in the lifetime of Jesus) or a zealous person.
Gospels as historical texts
The New Testament, especially the synoptic gospels, were written soon after Jesus' life, making them relevant to historical analysis. Modern scholars use various methods for sorting out the historical Jesus who inspired the gospels from the Jesus of faith that the gospel authors wrote about.
After the original oral stories were written down in Greek, they were transcribed, and later translated into other languages. This isn't unique to the
Bible — other documents of antiquity have been scrutinized for gaps between the date of an event and the date it was written. Having been written, the New Testament sources encountered insignificant changes, according to scholars such as the late
Sir Frederic Kenyon (1863 - 1952).
Contemporary textual critic
Bart D. Ehrman cites numerous places where the gospels, and other New Testament books, were apparently altered by Christian scribes. The scribes, largely amateurs, worked to make the gospels more similar and to remove verses that could be taken to support unorthodox beliefs common in early Christianity. Biblical scholars hold that the works describing Jesus were initially communicated by
oral tradition, and were not committed to writing until several decades after Jesus' crucifixion. The earliest
extant texts which refer to Jesus are
Paul's letters, which are usually dated from the mid-1st century. Paul wrote that he only saw Jesus in visions, but that they were divine
revelations and hence authoritative . The earliest extant texts describing Jesus in any detail were the four
Gospels.
Mythical view
Bruno Bauer in the 19th century. Non-historicity was somewhat influential in biblical studies during the early 20th century.
(The views of scholars who entirely rejected Jesus' historicity then were summarized in the chapter on Jesus in
Will Durant's
Caesar and Christ (in 1944); they were based on a suggested lack of eyewitness, a lack of direct archaeological evidence, the failure of certain ancient works to mention Jesus, and similarities early Christianity shares with then-contemporary religion and mythology.)
Michael Grant stated (in 1977) that the view is derived from a lack of application of historical methods:
…if we apply to the New Testament, as we should, the same sort of criteria as we should apply to other ancient writings containing historical material, we can no more reject Jesus' existence than we can reject the existence of a mass of pagan personages whose reality as historical figures is never questioned. ... To sum up, modern critical methods fail to support the Christ myth theory. It has 'again and again been answered and annihilated by first rank scholars.' In recent years, 'no serious scholar has ventured to postulate the non historicity of Jesus' or at any rate very few, and they've not succeeded in disposing of the much stronger, indeed very abundant, evidence to the contrary.
More recently, arguments for non-historicity have been discussed by authors such as
George Albert Wells and
Robert M. Price. Additionally,
The Jesus Puzzle and
The Jesus Mysteries are examples of popular works promoting the non-history hypothesis. Nevertheless, non-historicity is still regarded as effectively refuted by almost all Biblical scholars and historians.
Religious perspectives
Christian views Christian views of Jesus vary, it's possible to describe a general majority Christian view by examining the similarities between specific Western Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and many Protestant doctrines found in their
catechetical or
confessional texts. This view, given below as the Principal view, doesn't encompass all groups which describe themselves as Christian, with other views immediately following.
Majority view
Christians profess that Jesus is the Messiah (Greek:
Christos; English: Christ) prophesied in the Old Testament, who, through his life, death, and resurrection, restored humanity's communion with God in the blood of the
New Covenant. His death on a cross is understood as the redemptive sacrifice: the source of humanity's salvation and the atonement for
sin which had
entered human history through the
sin of Adam.
They profess Jesus to be the only
Son of God, the Lord, and the eternal
Word (which is a translation of the
Greek Logos), who became man in the
incarnation, so that those who believe in him might have eternal life. They further hold that he was born of the
Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit in an event described as the miraculous
virgin birth or Incarnation. In his life Jesus proclaimed the "good news" (Middle English:
gospel; Greek:
euangelion) that the coming
Kingdom of Heaven was at hand, and established the
Christian Church, which is the seed of the kingdom, into which Jesus calls the poor in spirit. Jesus' actions at the
Last Supper, where he instituted the
Eucharist, are understood as central to communion with God and remembrance of Jesus' sacrifice.
The
satisfaction view of
atonement for sin, first articulated by
Anselm of Canterbury, is that humanity owes God a debt of honor. This debt creates essentially an imbalance in the moral universe; it couldn't be satisfied by God's simply ignoring it. In this view, the only possible way of repaying the debt was for a being of infinite greatness, acting as a man on behalf of men, to repay the debt of honor owed to God. Therefore, when Jesus died, he paid a debt to God, his father.
Thomas Aquinas consider atonement and articulated that rather than seeing the debt as one of honor, he sees the debt as a moral injustice to be righted. Aquinas concludes that punishment is a morally good response to sin, "Christ bore a satisfactory punishment, not for His, but for our sins," and substitution for another's sin is entirely possible.
Christians also profess that Jesus suffered death by
crucifixion, and rose bodily from the dead in the definitive miracle that foreshadows the
resurrection of humanity at the end of time, when Christ will come again to
judge the living and the dead, resulting in either entrance into heaven or damnation. The
resurrection is perhaps the most controversial aspect of the life of Jesus. Christianity hinges on this point of Christology, both as a response to a particular history and as a confessional response. Christians believe that Jesus' resurrection brings reconciliation with God (II Corinthians 5:18), the destruction of death (I Corinthians 15:26), and
forgiveness of sins for followers of Jesus.
In the beginning of the second century, the Roman official and writer,
Pliny the Younger (63 - ca. 113), stated that Christians were "singing responsively a hymn to Christ as to god" (
carmenque Christo quasi deo dicere secum invicem). Between 325 and 681, Christians theologically articulated and refined their view of the nature of Jesus by a series of seven
ecumenical councils (see
Christology). These councils described Jesus as one of the three divine
hypostases or persons of the
Holy Trinity: the Son is defined as constituting, together with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, the single
substance of the One God (see
Communicatio idiomatum). Furthermore, Jesus is defined to be one person with a fully human and a fully divine
nature, a doctrine known as the
Hypostatic union.
The Gospels of Matthew and Luke suggest the
virgin birth of Jesus. Barth speaks of the virgin birth as the divine sign "which accompanies and indicates the mystery of the incarnation of the Son." Donald MacLeod gives several Christological implications of a virgin birth: it highlights salvation as a
supernatural act of God rather than an act of human initiative, avoids
adoptionism (which is virtually required if a normal birth), and reinforces the sinlessness of Christ, especially as it relates to Christ being outside the sin of Adam (
original sin).
Jesus Christ, the Mediator of humankind, fulfills the
three offices of Prophet, Priest, and King.
Eusebius of the early church worked out this threefold classification, which
John Calvin developed and
John Wesley discussed.
Alternative views
Current religious groups that don't accept the doctrine of the Trinity include the
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons),
Jehovah's Witnesses and the
Christadelphians.
Latter-day Saints theology maintains that
Heavenly Father,
Jesus Christ, and the
Holy Ghost are three separate and distinct beings, though all eternal and equally divine, who together constitute the
Godhead. Though described as "one God" each play different roles: the Holy Ghost is a spirit without a physical body, the Father and Son possess distinct and perfected bodies of flesh and bone. The
Book of Mormon records that the resurrected Jesus visited and taught some of the inhabitants of the early Americas after he appeared to his apostles in Jerusalem. Mormons also believe that an
apostasy occurred after the deaths of Christ's apostles. They believe that Christ and Heavenly Father appeared to
Joseph Smith in 1820 as part of a series of heavenly visits to restore the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. They believe Jesus (not the Father) is the same as
Jehovah or
Yahweh of the
Old Testament, acting under the direction of the Father.
See Jesus in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Based on a claimed divine revelation of Smith, they state that Jesus was born on April 06.
Jehovah's Witnesses believe Jesus to be God's (or Jehovah's) son, rather than being God himself. Jehovah's Witnesses believe he was the same divine created being as
Michael the Archangel, and that God made him a perfect human by transferring his life to the womb of Mary. During the time Jesus was on earth he was simply a man, not a god-man. They also believe that he's "the word" of John 1:1. This is understood to mean that he's God's spokesman, likely the one speaking in God's name to Adam, and to the Israelites in the wilderness. In line with this, they point out that the Bible presents him as the only way humans can approach God. They include words like 'in Jesus name' in every prayer. They view the term "Son of God" as an indication of Jesus' importance to the creator and his status as God's "only-begotten (unique) Son," the "firstborn of all creation," the one "of whom, and through whom, and to whom, are all things." They believe that Jesus died on a single-piece torture stake, not a cross. They believe that he's currently ruling in heaven as king of God's heavenly Kingdom, and will soon extend his rule to earth for a reign of peace. They also believe he's now immortal and can never die again.
The
Unity Church considers Jesus the master teacher and "way show-er," citing Jesus' frequent calls to emulate him rather than worship him, and the ability of others to be like him, such as in John 10:34 and John 14:12. Jesus isn't worshiped as God, but regarded as someone who had achieved a complete connection with God the Father.
Christadelphians believe that Jesus is literally God's son, hence the Biblical title
son of God, not
God the Son. They believe that Jesus was in God's plan right from the beginning of creation, but that he came into existence at his birth. Quoting Biblical passages such as, they maintain that Jesus was fully human, and that Jesus' total humanity was vital in saving people from their sins. This, Christadelphians believe, wouldn't have been possible had Jesus actually been God. They believe that Jesus is now in heaven, at God's right hand, waiting to return to the Earth to establish God's kingdom here forever.
Others believe that the one God, who revealed himself in the Old Testament as Jehovah, came to earth, taking on the human form of Jesus Christ. They believe Jesus is Jehovah, is the Holy Spirit, and is the one Person who is God. Examples of such churches today are
Oneness Pentecostals and the
New Church.
Other early views
Various
early Christian groups and theologians held differing views of Jesus.
The
Ebionites, an early
Jewish Christian community, believed that Jesus was the last of the
prophets and the
Messiah. They believed that Jesus was the natural-born son of Mary and Joseph, and thus they rejected the Virgin Birth. The Ebionites were
adoptionists, believing that Jesus wasn't divine, but became the
son of God at his baptism. They rejected the
Epistles of Paul, believing that Jesus kept the
Mosaic Law perfectly and wanted his followers to do the same. However, they felt that Jesus' crucifixion was the ultimate sacrifice, and thus
animal sacrifices were no longer necessary. Therefore, some Ebionites were
vegetarian and considered both Jesus and
John the Baptist to have been vegetarians.
In
Gnosticism, Jesus is said to have brought the secret knowledge (
gnosis) of the spiritual world necessary for salvation. Their secret teachings were paths to gnosis, and not gnosis itself. While some Gnostics were
docetics, other Gnostics believed that Jesus was a human who became possessed by the spirit of Christ during his baptism. Many Gnostics believed that Christ was an
Aeon sent by
a higher deity than the evil
demiurge who created the material world. Some Gnostics believed that Christ had a
syzygy named
Sophia. The Gnostics tended to
interpret the books that were included in the New Testament as
allegory, and some Gnostics interpreted Jesus himself as an allegory. The Gnostics also used a number of
other texts that didn't become part of the New Testament canon.
Marcionites were 2nd century
Gentile followers of the Christian theologian
Marcion of Sinope. They believed that Jesus rejected the
Jewish Scriptures, or at least the parts that were incompatible with his teachings. Seeing a stark contrast between the vengeful God of the
Old Testament and the loving God of Jesus, Marcionites, like some Gnostics, came to the conclusion that the Jewish God was the evil creator of the world and Jesus was the savior from the material world. They also believed Jesus wasn't human, but instead a completely divine spiritual being whose material body, and thus his crucifixion and death, were
divine illusions. Marcionism was declared a
heresy by proto-orthodox Christianity.
Sabellius in the 3rd century taught that the Trinity represented not three persons but a single person in three "modes." Jerome reported that the
Montanists of his day shared this view.
Islamic views
Majority view
Islam holds Jesus (
`Īsā) to have been a messenger of God who had been sent to guide the
Children of Israel (
banī isrā'īl) with a new scripture, the
Injīl (gospel). According to the
Qur'an, believed by Muslims to be God's final revelation, Jesus was born to Mary (Arabic: Maryam) as the result of
virginal conception, a miraculous event which occurred by the decree of
God (Arabic:
Allah). To aid him in his quest, Jesus was given the ability to perform
miracles. These included speaking from the cradle, curing the blind and the
lepers, as well as raising the dead; all by the permission of God. Furthermore, Jesus was helped by a band of disciples (the
ḥawāriyūn). Islam states that Jesus wasn't killed nor
crucified by the Jews, but that he'd been raised alive up to
heaven. Islamic traditions narrate that he'll return to earth near the
day of judgement to restore justice and defeat
al-Masīḥ ad-Dajjāl (
lit. "the false messiah", also known as the
Antichrist) and the enemies of Islam. As a just ruler, Jesus will then die.
Like all
prophets in Islam, Jesus is considered to have been a
Muslim, as he preached for people to adopt the straight path in submission to God's will. Islam rejects that Jesus was God or the
son of God, stating that he was an ordinary man who, like other prophets, had been divinely chosen to spread God's message. Islamic texts forbid the association of partners with God (
shirk), emphasizing the notion of God's
divine oneness (
tawhīd). As such, Jesus is referred to in the Qur'an frequently as the "son of Mary" ("
Ibn Maryam"). Numerous titles are given to Jesus in the Qur'an, such as
mubārak (blessed) and
`abd-Allāh (servant of God). Another title is
al-Masīḥ ("the
messiah; the anointed one" for example by means of blessings), although it doesn't correspond with the meaning accrued in Christian belief. Jesus is seen in Islam as a precursor to
Muhammad, and is believed by Muslims to have foretold the latter's coming. They believe that he revived, appeared to his disciples in the flesh, and fled eastward to
Kashmir, where he died of old age under the name
Yuz Asaf (
"Leader of the Healed"). They believe his tomb is located in
Srinagar,
Kashmir. This view has also been taken up by some western authors and historians.
Ahmadis believe that the prophecy concerning Jesus' second coming indicated a spiritual return, and that it was fulfilled in the person of
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, identified as the
Imam Mahdi (Promised
Messiah).
Judaism's view
Judaism holds the idea of Jesus being God, or part of a Trinity, or a mediator to God, to be heresy. Judaism also holds that Jesus isn't the
Messiah, arguing that he hadn't fulfilled the
Messianic prophecies in the
Tanakh nor embodied the personal qualifications of the Messiah. According to Jewish tradition, there were no more prophets after
Malachi, who lived centuries before Jesus and delivered his prophesies about 420 BC/BCE. Judaism states that Jesus didn't fulfill the requirements set by the
Torah to prove that he was a prophet. Even if Jesus had produced such a sign that Judaism recognized, Judaism states that no prophet or dreamer can contradict the laws already stated in the Torah, which Judaism states Jesus did.
The
Mishneh Torah (an authoritative work of
Jewish law) states in
Hilkhot Melakhim 11:10–12 that Jesus is a "stumbling block" who makes "the majority of the world err to serve a divinity besides God". According to
Conservative Judaism, Jews who believe Jesus is the Messiah have "crossed the line out of the Jewish community".
Reform Judaism, the modern progressive movement, states "For us in the Jewish community anyone who claims that Jesus is their savior is no longer a Jew and is an
apostate."
Bahá'í views
The
Bahá'í Faith, founded in 19th-century Persia, considers Jesus, along with
Muhammad, the
Buddha,
Krishna, and
Zoroaster, and other messengers of the great religions of the world to be
Manifestations of God (or
prophets), with both human and divine stations. In their divine station Bahá'ís view them in essential unity with each other and with God, and in their human station they view them as distinct individuals. Bahá'ís accept Jesus as the Messiah foretold in the Jewish Scriptures.
Dharmic religion views
Hindu beliefs about Jesus vary. The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) considers Jesus to be the beloved son of Krishna who came down to Earth to preach God Consciousness.
Contemporary Sant Mat movements regard Jesus as a
Satguru.
Ramakrishna believed that Jesus was an
Incarnation of God.
Swami Vivekananda has praised Jesus and cited him as a source of strength and the epitome of perfection.
Paramahansa Yogananda taught that Jesus was the reincarnation of
Elisha and a student of
John the Baptist, the reincarnation of
Elijah.
Mahatma Gandhi considered Jesus one of his main teachers and inspirations for
nonviolent resistance, saying "I like your Christ, I don't like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."
Buddhists' views of Jesus differ, since Jesus isn't mentioned in any Buddhist text. Some
Buddhists, including
Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama regard Jesus as a
bodhisattva who dedicated his life to the welfare of human beings.
Other views
Mandaeanism, a very small Mideastern, Gnostic sect that reveres John the Baptist as God's greatest prophet, regards Jesus as a false prophet of the false Jewish god of the Old Testament,
Adonai, and likewise rejects
Abraham,
Moses, and
Muhammad.
The
New Age movement entertains a wide variety of views on Jesus. Some New Age practitioners (such as the creators of
A Course In Miracles) claim to go so far as to trance-
channel his spirit. However, the New Age movement generally teaches that
Christhood is something that all may attain.
Theosophists, from whom many New Age teachings originated (a Theosophist named
Alice A. Bailey invented the term
New Age), refer to Jesus of Nazareth as the
Master Jesus and believe he'd previous
incarnations and is presently one of the
Masters of the Ancient Wisdom (
deities responsible for governing the planet Earth).
Many writers emphasize Jesus' moral teachings.
Garry Wills argues that Jesus' ethics are distinct from those usually taught by Christianity. The
Jesus Seminar portrays Jesus as an itinerant preacher who taught peace and love, rights for women and respect for children, and who spoke out against the hypocrisy of religious leaders and the rich.
Thomas Jefferson, one of the
Founding Fathers of the United States and a
deist, created the
Jefferson Bible entitled "The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth" that included only Jesus' ethical teachings because he didn't believe in Jesus' divinity or any of the other supernatural aspects of the
Bible.
Philosopher and atheist
Bertrand Russell saw Jesus' teachings and values as surpassed by other philosophers; Russell writes 'I can't myself feel that either in the matter of wisdom or in the matter of virtue Christ stands quite as high as some other people known to History. I think I should put
Buddha and
Socrates above Him in those respects.'
Friedrich Nietzsche saw Socrates and Jesus as foundational to Western culture and criticized them both. He considered Jesus' concern for the weak to be a reversal of noble morality and accused Christianity of spreading the concept of equal rights for all, which he opposed.
Legacy
According to most Christian interpretations of the
Bible, the theme of Jesus' teachings was that of
repentance,
unconditional love,
forgiveness of
sin,
grace, and the coming of the
Kingdom of God. Starting as a small Jewish sect, it developed into a religion clearly distinct from
Judaism several decades after Jesus death. Christianity spread throughout the
Roman Empire under a version known as
Nicene Christianity and became the
state religion under
Theodosius I. Over the centuries, it spread to most of
Europe, and around the world.
Jesus has been
drawn, painted, sculpted and
portrayed on stage and in films in many different ways, both serious and
humorous. The figure of Jesus features prominently in art and literature. A number of popular novels, such as
The Da Vinci Code, have also portrayed various ideas about Jesus, and a number of films, such as
The Passion of the Christ, have portrayed his life, death, and resurrection. Many of the sayings attributed to Jesus have become part of the culture of
Western civilization. There are many items purported to be
relics of Jesus, of which the most famous are the
Shroud of Turin and the
Sudarium of Oviedo.
Other legacies include a view of God as more lovingly parental, merciful, and more forgiving, and the growth of a belief in a blissful
afterlife and in the
resurrection of the dead. His teaching promoted the value of those who had commonly been regarded as inferior: women, the poor, ethnic outsiders, children, prostitutes, the sick, prisoners, etc. For over a thousand years, countless hospitals, orphanages, and schools have been founded explicitly in Jesus' name. Jesus and his message have been interpreted, explained and understood by many people. Jesus has been explained notably by
Paul of Tarsus, the
Church Fathers, including
Augustine of Hippo,
Martin Luther, and more recently by
C. S. Lewis and
Pope John Paul II.
Thomas Jefferson considered Jesus' teaching to be "the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man."
For some Jews, the legacy of Jesus has been a history of
Christian antisemitism, although in the wake of
the Holocaust many Christian groups have gone to considerable lengths to reconcile with Jews and to promote interfaith dialog and mutual respect. For others, Christianity has often been linked to European
colonialism. Conversely, some have argued that through
Bartolomé de las Casas' defense of the indigenous inhabitants of Spain's New World empire, one of the legacies of Jesus has been the notion of universal
human rights.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Jesus Of Nazareth'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://jesus.totallyexplained.com">Jesus Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
