Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth | |
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![]() 6th-century mosaic of Jesus at Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna. Though depictions of Jesus are culturally important, no undisputed record of what Jesus looked like is known to exist. | |
Born | c. 5 BC/BCE[1] |
Died | c. 30 AD/CE (aged 33-35)[3][4] Calvary, Judea, Roman Empire (According to the New Testament, he rose on the third day after his death.) |
Cause of death | Crucifixion |
Resting place | Traditionally and temporarily, a garden tomb in Jerusalem[5] |
Nationality | Roman Empire |
Parent(s) | Father: (Christian view) God; (Islamic view) Virginal conception Mother: Mary Adoptive father: Joseph |
Jesus of Nazareth (c. 5 BC/BCE – c. 30 AD/CE),[3] also known as Jesus Christ or simply Jesus, is the central figure of Christianity, which views him as the Messiah foretold in the Old Testament. Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God (in the concept of the Trinity, he is God [as] the Son), who came to provide humankind with salvation and reconciliation with God by his death for their sins.[6][7] Note however that not all groups that identify with Christianity are Trinitarian, and not all Nicene-based groups believe that he is the Son of God and God incarnate who was raised from the dead. Although Jesus' teachings were first addressed to the Jewish people, Judaism gives Jesus no distinctive status and categorically rejects claims of Jesus as the messiah.
The principal sources of information regarding Jesus' life and teachings are the four canonical gospels, especially the Synoptic Gospels,[8][9] though some scholars believe texts such as the Gospel of Thomas are also relevant.[10]
Critical Biblical scholars and historians believe that the New Testament is useful for reconstructing Jesus' life.[11][12][13] Most agree that Jesus was a Jew who was regarded as a teacher and healer, that he was baptized by John the Baptist, and was crucified in Jerusalem on the orders of the Roman Prefect of Judaea, Pontius Pilate, on the charge of sedition against the Roman Empire.[14]
Academic debate continues regarding the chronology, the central message of Jesus' preaching, his social class, cultural environment, and religious orientation.[10] Critical scholars have offered competing descriptions of Jesus as a self-described messiah, as the leader of an apocalyptic movement, as an itinerant sage, as a charismatic healer, and as the founder of an independent religious movement. Most contemporary scholars of the historical Jesus consider him to have been an independent, charismatic founder of a Jewish restoration movement, anticipating an imminent apocalypse.[15] Other prominent scholars, however, contend that Jesus' "Kingdom of God" meant radical personal and social transformation instead of a future apocalypse.[15]
Christians traditionally believe that Jesus was born of a virgin,[6]: 529–532 performed miracles,[6]: 358–359 founded the Church, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven,[6]: 616–620 from which he will return.[6]: 1091–1109 While the doctrine of the Trinity is accepted by most Christians, a few groups reject the doctrine of the Trinity, wholly or partly, as non-scriptural.[16] Most Christian scholars today present Jesus as the awaited Messiah and as God,[17] arguing that he fulfilled many Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament.[18]
Judaism rejects assertions that Jesus was the awaited Messiah, arguing that he did not fulfill the Messianic prophecies in the Tanakh.[19] In Islam, Jesus (Arabic: عيسى, commonly transliterated as Isa) is considered one of God's important prophets,[20][21] a bringer of scripture, the product of a virgin birth, and a worker of miracles. It also teaches that Jesus ascended bodily to heaven without experiencing death at the crucifixion.[22] Islam and the Baha'i Faith use the title "Messiah" for Jesus,[23][24] but do not teach that he was divine.
Etymology
"Jesus" (Template:Pron-en) is a transliteration, occurring in a number of languages and based on the Latin Iesus, of the Greek Ἰησοῦς (Iēsoûs), itself a Hellenisation of the Hebrew יְהוֹשֻׁעַ (Yĕhōšuă‘, Joshua) or Hebrew-Aramaic יֵשׁוּעַ (Yēšûă‘), meaning "Yahweh delivers (or rescues)".[25][26][27] "Christ" (Template:Pron-en) is a title derived from the Greek Χριστός (Christós), meaning the "Anointed One", a translation of the Hebrew מָשִׁיחַ (Messiah).[28][29]: 274–275
A "Messiah," in this context, is a king anointed at God's direction or with God's approval, and Christians identify Jesus as the one foretold by Hebrew prophets. The common name in today's Israel is Yeshu יֵשׁוּ, which is interpreted by some religious Jews as the acronym for Yimakh sh'mo u'shem zikhro יִּמַח שְׁמוֹ וּשֵם זִכְרוֹ (meaning "be his name and memory erased"), an expression used to describe deceased enemies.[30][31][32][33]
Chronology
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5b/Mignard_vierge_raisins.jpg/200px-Mignard_vierge_raisins.jpg)
Possible year of birth
Scholars generally conclude that Jesus was born sometime between 7-2 BC/BCE and died sometime between 26-36 AD/CE.[34][35]
There is no contemporary historical evidence demonstrating the date of Jesus' birth. The common Gregorian calendar method for numbering years, in which the current year is 2024, is based on an early medieval attempt to count the years from a point of reference — namely, Jesus' birth — which Dionysius Exiguus placed, either mistakenly or intentionally, sometime between 2 BC/BCE and 1 AD/CE.[36] The Gospel of Matthew states Jesus' birth occurred during the reign of Herod the Great, who died in 4 BC/BCE,[37] but also with the intimation that Jesus may have been as much as two years old when Herod ordered the Massacre of the Innocents, and therefore that he may have been even older at the time of Herod's death. The Gospel of Luke similarly points to Jesus' birth as having occurred during the reign of Herod the Great (i.e., sometime between 37 and 4 BC/BCE), but the author of Luke also describes the birth as taking place during the first census of the Roman provinces of Syria and Iudaea, which is generally believed to have occurred in 6 AD/CE.[38] Most scholars generally assume a date of birth between 6 and 4 BC/BCE.[39] The historical incompatibility of Luke's chronology for the birth of Jesus, as well as the silence of the Pauline Epistles and the Gospels of Mark and John with respect to the nativity, have been suggested as evidence that the birth traditions contained in Matthew and Luke are historically unverifiable or even possibly fictitious.[citation needed]
Christmas or Christmas Day is a holiday observed mostly on December 25 to commemorate the birth of Jesus. The earliest evidence of celebration of Jesus' birth on December 25 is found in the year 354 in Rome. It was only later that the December 25 celebration was adopted in the East, with the exception of Armenia, where his birth is celebrated on January 6.[40] Indeed, there is no month of the year to which respectable authorities have not assigned his birth.[40]
Ministry
Jesus' ministry, which according to the Gospel of Luke began when Jesus was "about 30 years of age",Lk. 3:23 followed that of John the Baptist,[41] whose ministry is said to have begun "in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar",Lk. 3:1–2 which would be about 28 or 29 AD/CE.[42] According to the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus' ministry lasted approximately one year, whereas the Gospel of John implies that his ministry may have lasted approximately three years.[43] Thus, the earliest generally accepted date for the crucifixion is 29 AD/CE (i.e., the 15th year of Tiberius' reign plus one year for Jesus' ministry), and the latest is 36 AD/CE (i.e., the final year of Pontius Pilate's prefecture).
Possible year of death
According to each of the four canonical New Testament gospels, the death of Jesus occurred during the prefecture of Pontius Pilate, the Roman prefect who governed Judaea from 26 to 36 AD/CE. No known historical records written contemporaneously with this period record Jesus' execution under Pilate, however, which, when taken in tandem with the supernatural claims made in the gospels, has led scholars to question the historicity of the Gospel portrayals of Jesus' death (see Historicity of Jesus). However, the late first century Jewish historian Josephus,[44] writing in The Antiquities of the Jews (c. 93 AD/CE), and the early second century Roman historian Tacitus,[45] writing in The Annals (c. 116 AD/CE), also state that Pilate ordered the execution of Jesus, though each writer incorrectly gives him the title of "procurator" instead of prefect.[46] The authenticity of these two passages, however, is disputed by scholars (see Josephus on Jesus and Tacitus on Christ). Even if authentic, scholars and historians disagree over whether these passages demonstrate that Josephus and Tacitus were recording what they knew to be verifiable historical events, or if they were merely recording what had, by the end of the first century, become popular Christian legends that the authors mistakenly assumed were historical facts.[47]
Writing in the late second century, the early church father Irenaeus records in his Against Heresies (c. 180 AD/CE) that he believed Jesus lived to be approximately 50 years of age.[48] According to Irenaeus, the author of the Gospel of John implies that Jesus was close to the age of 50 when the Jews ridiculed him as being too young to have achieved sufficient learning of the Jewish law:
- The Jews then said to him, "You are not yet fifty years old, and you have seen Abraham?" (John 8:57)
Irenaeus argued that had the intention of the Jews been to mock Jesus' youth, they would have accused him of being "not yet forty years old" had he, as Christian tradition held, been only in his early thirties at the time of his ministry, as this accusation would carry even greater condemnation for his youth. Similarly, the Roman Catholic priest and theologian Alfred Loisy argued that the author of the Gospel of John implied that Jesus was in his mid-to-late forties during his ministry.[49] According to Loisy, the author of John's use of allegory to describe Jesus' body as Herod's Temple, which according to Jesus' Jewish opponents, required 46 years to build,John 2:19–21 was meant as a symbolic comment on Jesus' age at the time of his ministry. If accurate, such arguments would place the death of Jesus during the reign of the Roman Emperor Claudius (41-54 CE). The Roman historian Suetonius records in his Lives of the Twelve Caesars (121 CE) that Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome for "making constant disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus", which scholars have interpreted as further evidence of an early tradition that held that Jesus lived to be approximately 50 years of age.[50]
Regardless of the year of Jesus' death, most Christians commemorate the crucifixion on Good Friday and celebrate the resurrection on Easter Sunday.
Life and teachings as told in the Gospels
Events in the |
Life of Jesus according to the canonical gospels |
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The four canonical gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, are the main sources for the biography of Jesus' life; nevertheless, these Gospels were written with the intention of glorifying Jesus and are not strictly biographical in nature.[51] For example, the Gospels primarily characterize Jesus as the Messiah: he performs miracles and is often described as having a very close relationship to the Jewish God — the phrase "Son of God" is attributed to Jesus at least once in each Gospel.Lk. 1:35Mt. 16:16Mk. 1:1Jn. 3:18 The Gospels (especially Matthew) present Jesus' birth, life, death and resurrection as fulfillment of prophecies found in the Hebrew Bible (e.g., the virgin birth, the flight into Egypt, Immanuel from Isaiah 7:14, and the suffering servant).[52] However, critical scholars find historical information about Jesus' life and ministry in the synoptic gospels, while interpreting the miraculous and theological content in light of what is known of Jewish beliefs at the time.[53]
Similarities and differences among the Gospels
Three of the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, are known as the synoptic Gospels because they display a high degree of similarity in content, narrative arrangement, language, and sentence and paragraph structures. These Gospels are also considered to share the same point of view.[54] The fourth canonical Gospel, John, differs greatly from these three, as do the Apocryphal gospels.
According to the two-source hypothesis, Mark was a source for Matthew and Luke, both of whom also independently used a now lost sayings source called the Q Gospel. Mark defined the sequence of events from Jesus' baptism to the empty tomb and included parables of the Kingdom of God.[55]
Character of Jesus
Each gospel portrays Jesus' life and its meaning with different emphasis.[56][57] The gospel of John is not a biography of Jesus but a theological presentation of him as the divine Logos.[58] One modern scholar writes that to combine these four stories into one story is tantamount to creating a fifth story, one different from each original.[57] Numerous scholars see the gospels as blending together to give a comprehensive picture of Jesus teaching and ministry.
Logos
The Gospel of John opens with a hymn identifying Jesus as the divine Logos, or Word, that formed the universe.Jn. 1:1–51:9–14[59] The author describes the Logos in relation to God and the created order, declares that he "became flesh", and identifies him as Jesus Christ.Jn. 1:17 According to the Fourth Gospel, Jesus Christ is God active in creation, in revelation (Light), and in redemption (Life).[60] Jesus' earthly life was the Logos incarnate.Jn. 1:14[59]
Genealogy and family
Of the four gospels, only Matthew and Luke give accounts of Jesus' genealogy.[61][62] The accounts in the two gospels are substantially different.[63] Several explanations have been suggested and it has been traditional to assume that Luke's genealogy traces through Mary and Matthew's through Joseph since at least 1490.[64] Some contemporary scholars generally view the genealogies as theological constructs.[65] More specifically, some have suggested that the author of Matthew wants to underscore the birth of a Messianic child of royal lineage. (Solomon is included in the list); whereas, in this interpretation, Luke's genealogy is priestly (e.g., it mentions Levi). Mary is mentioned in passing in the genealogy given by Matthew, but not in Luke's, while Matthew gives Jacob as Joseph's father and Luke says Joseph was the son of Heli. Both accounts, when read at face value, trace Jesus' line though his human father Joseph back to King David and from there to Abraham. These lists are identical between Abraham and David (except for one), but they differ almost completely between David and Joseph (having only Zerubbabel and Shealtiel in common).
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 words sometimes translated as "brothers" and "sisters".[66][67][68] Luke also mentions that Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist, was a "cousin" or "relative" of Mary,Lk. 1:36 which would make John a distant cousin of Jesus.
Nativity and early life
While there are documents outside of the New Testament which are more or less contemporary with the Historical Jesus, many shed no light on the more biographical aspects of his life.[51] The main sources of Jesus himself that are available to modern scholars are the gospels.[69]
According to Matthew and Luke, Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea to Mary, a virgin, by a miracle of the Holy Spirit.
In Luke, the angel Gabriel visits Mary to tell her that she was chosen to bear the Son of God.Lk. 1:26–38 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.Lk. 2:1–5 After Jesus' birth, the couple was forced to use a manger in place of a crib because of a shortage of accommodation.Lk. 2:1–7 An angel announced Jesus' birth to shepherds who left their flocks to see the newborn child and who subsequently publicized what they had witnessed throughout the area (see The First Noël).Lk. 2:8–18
In Matthew, the "Wise Men" or "Magi" bring gifts to the young Jesus after following a star which they believe was a sign that the King of the Jews had been born.Mt. 2:1–12 King Herod hears of Jesus' birth from the Wise Men and tries to kill him by massacring all the male children in Bethlehem under the age of two (the "massacre of the innocents").[70]Mt. 2:16–17 The family flees to Egypt and remains there until Herod's death, whereupon they settle in Nazareth to avoid living under the authority of Herod's son and successor Archelaus.Mt. 2:19–23
Jesus' childhood home is identified as the town of Nazareth in Galilee.Mt. 2:23 Except for Matthew's "flight into Egypt", 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.[71] However, infancy gospels began to appear around the beginning of the second century.[72] According to Luke, Jesus was "about thirty years of age" when he was baptized.Lk. 3:23 In Mark, Jesus is called a tekton, usually understood to mean carpenter. Matthew says he was the son of a tekton.Mk. 6:3Mt. 13:55[29]: 170 However, the Greek word used in the Gospels means "builder", which could refer to a stonemason or some other type of artisan.[73]
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. After Jesus was baptized and rose from the water, Mark states Jesus "saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, 'You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.'".Mk. 1:10–11
Mark starts his narration with Jesus' baptism, specifying that it is a token of repentance and for forgiveness of sins.[56] Matthew omits this reference, emphasizing Jesus' superiority to John.[56][74] 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".Mt. 3:15 In Matthew, God's public dedication informs the reader that Jesus has become God's anointed ("Christ").[56]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fa/Ary_Scheffer_-_The_Temptation_of_Christ_%281854%29.jpg/170px-Ary_Scheffer_-_The_Temptation_of_Christ_%281854%29.jpg)
Following his baptism, Jesus was led into the desert by God where he fasted for forty days and forty nights.Mt. 4:1–2 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.[75]
The Gospel of John does not describe Jesus' baptism,[9][76] or the subsequent Temptation, but it does attest that Jesus is the very one about whom John had been preaching — the Son of God. The Baptist twice declares Jesus to be the "Lamb of God", a term found nowhere else in the Gospels. John also emphasizes Jesus' superiority over John.[56] In John, Jesus leads a program of baptism in Judea, and his disciples baptize more people than John.Jn. 3:22–234:1–3
Ministry
In the synoptics as well as in John, Jesus has a ministry of teaching and miracles, at least part of which is in Galilee.[77] In the synoptics, Jesus speaks in parables and aphorisms, exorcises demons, champions the poor and oppressed, and teaches mainly about the Kingdom of God.[11] In John, Jesus speaks in long discourses, with himself as the theme of his teaching.[11]
Jesus' purpose
Jesus said of his purpose, "I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly."Jn. 10:10
In the book of Matthew, Jesus says, "I desire mercy, not sacrifice. For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." Mt. 9:13 Mark says that Jesus came to "give his life as a ransom for many";Mk. 10:45 Luke, that Jesus was sent to "preach the good news of the Kingdom of God";Lk. 4:43 and John, that Jesus came so that "those who believed in him would have eternal life".Jn. 3:16
Duration and location
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c7/First_century_Iudaea_province.gif/200px-First_century_Iudaea_province.gif)
John describes three different Passover feasts over the course of Jesus' ministry, implying that Jesus preached for at least "two years plus a month or two".[78] The Synoptic Gospels suggest a span of only one year.[79][80] In the synoptics, Jesus' ministry takes place mainly in Galilee, until he travels to Jerusalem, where he cleanses the Temple and is executed.[81] In John, his ministry in and around Jerusalem is more prominently described, cleansing the temple at his ministry's beginning.[81]
Disciples
In the synoptic Gospels, Jesus calls some Jewish men to be his Twelve Apostles. None of them seems to have been a peasant (an agricultural worker). At least four are described as fishermen and another as a tax collector. Three of them are presented as being chosen to accompany Jesus on certain special occasions, such as the transfiguration of Jesus, the raising of the daughter of Jairus, and the Agony in the Garden. Jesus speaks of the demands of discipleship, telling a rich man to sell his possessions and give the money to the poor. He states that his message divides family members against each other.[82]
In Mark, the disciples are strangely obtuse, failing to understand Jesus' deeds and parables.[83] In Matthew, Jesus directs the apostles' mission only to those of the house of Israel,Mt. 15:2410:1–6 Luke places a special emphasis on the women who followed Jesus, such as Mary Magdalene.[84]
Teachings and preachings
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/96/Bloch-SermonOnTheMount.jpg/220px-Bloch-SermonOnTheMount.jpg)
illustration by Carl Heinrich Bloch, 19th c.
In the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus speaks primarily about the Kingdom of God (or heaven).[79] In Matthew and Luke, he speaks further about morality and prayer. In John, he speaks at length about himself and his divine role.[79]
At the height of his ministry, Jesus is said to have attracted huge crowds numbering in the thousands, primarily in the areas of Galilee and Perea (in modern-day Israel and Jordan respectively).[85]
Some of Jesus' most famous teachings come from the Sermon on the Mount, which contains the Beatitudes and the Lord's Prayer. It is one of five collections of teachings in Matthew.[70]
In the Synoptics, Jesus often employs parables, such as the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke) and the Parable of the Sower (all Synoptics).
His moral teachings in Matthew and Luke encourage unconditional self-sacrificing God-like love for God and for all people.[86] 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.[87]
In the Synoptics, Jesus relays an apocalyptic vision of the end of days. He preaches that the end of the current world will come unexpectedly, and that he will return to judge the world, especially according to how they treated the vulnerable. He calls on his followers to be ever alert and faithful. In Mark, the Kingdom of God is a divine government that will appear by force within the lifetimes of his followers.[83] Matthew describes false Messiahs, disasters, tribulations, and signs in the heavens that will portend Jesus' return, which is also described as unexpected.[70]
Outreach to outsiders
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2d/JesuswithChildren.jpg/180px-JesuswithChildren.jpg)
Table fellowship is central to Jesus' ministry in the Gospels.[13] He and his disciples eat with sinners (who neglect purity rules)[81] and tax collectors (imperial publicani, despised as extortionists). The apostle Matthew is a tax collector. When the Pharisees object to Jesus eating with sinners and tax collectors, Jesus replies that it is the sick who need a physician, not the healthy.Mt. 9:9–13[81] Jesus also defends his disciples against charges that they do not follow purity laws when eating. The Pharisees accused Jesus himself of being a drunk and a glutton.[81] Jesus' miracles and teachings often involve food and feasting.[13] He instructs his missionaries to eat with the people that they preach to and heal.[13] In the Synoptics, Jesus institutes a new covenant with a ritual meal before he is crucified.
Jesus' outreach to outsiders includes the Samaritans, who followed a different form of the Israelite religion, as reflected in his preaching to the Samaritans of SycharJn. 4:1–42 and in the Parable of the Good Samaritan.Lk. 10:25–37
At various times, Jesus makes a point of welcoming sinners, children, women, the poor, Samaritans, and foreigners.
Transfiguration and Jesus' divine role
In the synoptic gospels, Jesus leads three select disciples: Peter, John, and James to the top of a mountain.[83] While there, he is transfigured before them, his face shining like the sun and his clothes brilliant white; Elijah and Moses appear adjacent to him. A bright cloud overshadows them, and a voice from the sky says, "This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased".[88] The Transfiguration is a turning point in Jesus ministry.[89] Just before it and thereafter, Jesus warns that he is to suffer, die and rise again.[89]
In Mark, Jesus' identity as the Messiah is obscured (see Messianic secret).[90] Mark states that "this generation" will be given no sign, while Matthew and Luke say they will be given no sign but the sign of Jonah.[91] In John, and not in the synoptics, Jesus is outspoken about his divine identity and mission.[77] Here he punctuates his ministry with several miraculous signs of his authority.
In John, Jesus declares that belief in the Son brings eternal life, that the Father has committed powers of judgment and forgiveness to the Son, and that he is the bread of life, the light of the world, the door of the sheep, the good shepherd, the resurrection and the life, the way, the truth, and the life, and the real vine.[59] Here Jesus uses the phrase "I am" in talking of himselfJn. 8:58 in ways that designate God in the Hebrew Bible,Ex. 3:14 a statement taken by some writers as claiming identity with God.[92]
Arrest, trial, and death
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In Jerusalem
According to the Synoptics, 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!"[93] Following his triumphal entry,[94] Jesus created a disturbance at Herod's Temple by overturning the tables of the moneychangers who set up shop there, and claiming that they had made the Temple a "den of robbers".Mk. 11:17 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 would 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."Lk. 22:7–20 Following the supper, Jesus and his disciples went to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane.
In Mark and Matthew, Jesus is anguished in the face of his fate.[89][95] He prays and accepts God's will, but his chosen disciples repeatedly fall asleep on the watch.[89][95] In Luke, Jesus prays briefly at the Mount of Olives, and his disciples fall asleep out of grief.[96]
In John, Jesus has already cleansed the temple a few years before and has been preaching in Jerusalem. He raises Lazarus on the Sabbath, the act that finally gets Jewish leaders to plan his death.[59] At the Last Supper, Jesus washes the disciples' feet and there is no new covenant of bread and wine.[59] Jesus gives the farewell discourses, discussing the persecution of his followers, the coming of the Holy Spirit, and more.[59] He says a long final prayer with his disciples before heading to a garden where he knows Judas will show up.[97]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ec/Ecce_homo_by_Antonio_Ciseri_%282%29.jpg/170px-Ecce_homo_by_Antonio_Ciseri_%282%29.jpg)
Betrayal and arrest
While in the Garden, Jesus is arrested by temple guards on the orders of the Sanhedrin and the high priest, Caiaphas.[98] The arrest takes place clandestinely at night to avoid a riot, as Jesus is popular with the people at large.Mk. 14:2 Judas Iscariot, one of his apostles, betrays Jesus by identifying him to the guards with a kiss.Mt. 26:49–50 Simon Peter, another one of Jesus' apostles, uses a sword to attack one of Jesus' captors, cutting off his ear, which, according to Luke, Jesus immediately heals miraculously.[99] Jesus rebukes the apostle, stating "all they that take the sword shall perish by the sword".Mt. 26:52 After his arrest, Jesus' apostles go into hiding; Judas, distraught by his betrayal of Jesus, commits suicide shortly after.Mt. 27:5
Trials before the Sanhedrin and Pilate
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Jesus affirms that he is the Messiah before the Sanhedrin,Mk. 14:53–65. The Jewish leaders turn him over to Pilate for execution, but Pilate is reluctant to execute Jesus.[83] In an attempt to spare Jesus' life, Pilate offers the mob a chance to free him, but they choose Barabbas instead, so that the responsibility for Jesus' execution falls on the mob of Jews that the Pharisees have incited, rather than on the Romans,[83] as expressed in the Gospel of Matthew by the Jewish crowd's proclamation, “[h]is blood be upon us and on our children.”Mt. 27:24–25 Matthew adds the details that Pilate's wife, tormented by a dream, urges Pilate not to have anything to do with Jesus, and Pilate washes his hands of responsibility.Mt. 27:11–26[70] Luke adds the detail that Pilate sends Jesus to Herod Antipas, who has authority over Galileans, but that Herod, like Pilate, finds him guilty of nothing treasonous.[84]Luke 23:6–16 In John, Jesus makes no claim to be the Son of God or the Messiah to the Sanhedrin or to Pilate, even though this gospel proclaims Jesus' divinity from the beginning.[59]
Death
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In Mark, Jesus is stripped, flogged, mocked, and crowned with thorns.[83] He is crucified between two thieves, and his cross states that he is being executed for aspiring to be the king of the Jews.[83] He begins to recite Psalm 22, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me."[83] He utters a loud cry and dies.[83] According to all four Gospels, Jesus died before late afternoon at Calvary, which was also called Golgotha. In Luke, Jesus faces his crucifixion stolidly.[57] He asks God to forgive those who are crucifying him, possibly the Romans and possibly the Jews.[84] One of the thieves states that Jesus has done nothing wrong and asks Jesus to remember him in the Kingdom, and Jesus replies that the thief will be with him in Paradise.[84] The Synoptic Gospels tell of the darkening of the sky from twelve until three that afternoon; Matthew also mentions an earthquake,Mt. 27:51 "At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split." Mathew also says many dead saints were resurrected and went into the city to appear before other people.Mt. 27:52–53 John omits the phenomena accompanying Jesus' death.[59] The tearing of the temple parokhet, upon the death of Jesus, is referenced by Matthew, Mark and Luke.[100]
Resurrection and ascension
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The Gospels state that Jesus rose from the dead on Sunday.[101] All the Gospels portray Jesus' empty tomb. In Matthew, an angel appears near the tomb of Jesus and announces his resurrection to Mary Magdalene and "another Mary" who had arrived to anoint the body.Mt. 28:1–10 Jewish elders bribe the soldiers who had guarded the tomb to spread the rumor that Jesus' disciples took his body.[102] In Luke, there are two angelsLk. 24:4 and in Mark the angel appears as a youth dressed in white.Mk. 16:5 The "longer ending" to Mark, which is known as the Markan Appendix and which did not form part of the original manuscripts,[102][103] states that on the morning of his resurrection, Jesus first appeared to Mary Magdalene.Mk. 16:9 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.Jn. 20:11–18
The Gospels all record appearances by Jesus, including an appearance to the eleven apostles.[104] In Mark, Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene, to two disciples in the country, and to the eleven, at which point Jesus commissions them to announce the gospel, baptize, and work miracles.[102] In Matthew, Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene and to the eleven on a mountain, at which point he commissions them to enlist followers, baptize, and teach what Jesus taught.[102] Although his own mission and his disciples' missions had been to the Jews,Mt. 15:24 here he sends the eleven to the whole world (see Great Commission). In Luke, he appears to two disciples in the country and to the eleven.[102] He proves to them that he has a body, opens their minds to understand the scripture about the Messiah, and directs them to wait in Jerusalem until they are invested with power.[102] In John, Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene and to the eleven. He demonstrates his physical reality to doubting Thomas.[56][102] Later he appears to seven disciples who are fishing, and finally talks with Peter, foretelling Peter's death[102] and assigning him the principal role as shepherd of the new community.[102][105]
In Mark and Luke, Jesus ascends to the heavens;Mk. 16:19Lk. 24:5 after these appearances. In Luke, Jesus ascends on Easter Sunday evening when he is with his disciples.[102] In Mark, Jesus' Ascension to heaven, where he sits at God's right hand, is said to have taken place but not described as a visible event.[102] John implies that Jesus will return to his FatherJn. 20:17 but doesn't describe an Ascension.[102]
Names and titles in the New Testament
Jesus lived in Galilee for most of his life and spoke Aramaic and possibly Hebrew and some Greek.[106] The name "Jesus" comes from an alternate spelling of the Latin (Iēsus) which in turn comes from the Greek name Iesous (Ιησους). In the Septuagint, Ιησους is used as the Greek version of the Hebrew name Yehoshua (יהושוע, "God delivers" from Yeho — Yahweh [is] shua` — deliverance/rescue) in the Biblical book of the same name, usually Romanized as Joshua. Some scholars believe that one of these was likely the name that Jesus was known by during his lifetime by his peers.[107] Thus, the name has been translated into English as "Joshua".[108]
Christ (which started as a title, and has often been used as a name for Jesus) is an Anglicization of the Greek term χριστός, christos. In the Septuagint, this term is used as the translation of the Hebrew: מָשִׁיחַ, Modern: Mašíaḥ, Tiberian: Māšîªḥ, "Anointed One" in reference to priests,[109] and kings[110] and King Cyrus.Isaiah 45:1 In Isaiah and Jeremiah the word began to be applied to a future ideal king. The New Testament has some 500 uses of the word χριστός applied to Jesus, used either generically or in an absolute sense, namely as the Anointed One (the Messiah, the Christ). The Gospel of Mark has as its central point of its narrative Peter's confession of Jesus as the Messiah.Mk. 8:29
1 Corinthians 15:3 indicates that the strong belief that Jesus was the Messiah predates the letters of Paul the Apostle. These letters also show that the Messiah title was already beginning to be used as a name.[111]
Some 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.[112] Géza Vermes has argued that "Son of man" was not a title but rather the polite way in which people referred to themselves, i.e. a pronominal phrase.[112]
Many New Testament scholars state that Jesus claimed to be God through his frequent use of "I am" (e.g. Before Abraham was, I am),Jn. 8:58 his act of forgiving sins which gave Jews an impression of blasphemy,Lk. 5:20–21 and his statement that "I and the Father are one."Jn. 10:30[113] However, a number of New Testament scholars argue that Jesus himself made no claims to being God.[114] Most Christians identified Jesus as divine from a very early period, although holding a variety of views as to what exactly this implied.[115]
Other names and titles
"Son of David" is found elsewhere in Jewish tradition to refer to the heir to the throne.[112] "Son of God" was often used to designate a person as especially righteous.[112]
"Emmanuel" or "Immanuel" derives from the Hebrew name Immanu-El, which translates as "God (is) with us" and is based on a Messianic interpretation of a verse in the Hebrew Bible,Isaiah 7:14, "They shall call his name Immanuel."
Historical views
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Biblical scholars have used the historical method to develop probable reconstructions of Jesus' life.[116][117][118] Over the past two hundred years, these scholars have constructed a Jesus very different from the common image[vague] found in the gospels.[119][need quotation to verify] Scholars of the "historical Jesus" distinguish their concept from the "Jesus Christ" of Christianity.[11] Other scholars hold that the figure presented in the gospels is the real Jesus and that his life and influence only make sense if the gospel stories are accurate.[120][121][122]
The principal sources of information regarding Jesus' life and teachings are the four Gospels. The Gospels are not ideal sources historical research because the authors wrote decades after Jesus lived, were not eyewitnesses, were not neutral reporters, and based their work on some of the same sources.[123] A great majority of biblical scholars accept the historical existence of Jesus.[124][125][126][127][128]
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.[129] Since the end of the 18th century, scholars have examined the gospels and tried to formulate historical biographies of Jesus.[116] 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.[129]
Constructing a historical view
Historians of Christianity 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 Biblical 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 AD/CE, and that the other gospels were written between 70 and 100 AD/CE.[130] The historical outlook on Jesus relies on critical analysis of the Bible, especially the gospels. Many Biblical scholars have sought to reconstruct Jesus' life in terms of the political, cultural, and religious crises and movements in late Second Temple Judaism and in Roman-occupied Palestine, including differences between Galilee and Judea, and between different sects such as the Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes and Zealots,[131][132] and in terms of conflicts among Jews in the context of Roman occupation.
Descriptions
Historians of Christianity generally describe Jesus as a healer who preached the restoration of God's kingdom[133][134][135][136][137][138][139] and agree he was baptized by John the Baptist and crucified by the Romans.
Baptism by John the Baptist
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.[140][141][142] Historians are nearly unanimous in accepting Jesus' baptism as a historical event.[140]
Teaching
Jewish focus - Jesus taught among fellow Jews.[143] Geza Vermes concludes that Jesus' message was exclusively for the Jews,[143] while Gerd Theissen asserts that Jesus' message included themes related to the Gentiles being welcomed into the coming Kingdom.[144]
Arrival of the Kingdom - Jesus taught about the Kingdom of God. He said that the age of the Kingdom had in some sense arrived, starting with the activity of John the Baptist.[143] He consistently presented himself as Messiah/Christ - i.e. God's anointed king.
Apocalyptic vision - Most scholars hold that the movement Jesus led was apocalyptic, expecting God to intervene imminently to restore Israel. John the Baptist's movement was apocalyptic, and Jesus began his public career as one of his students.[145] Scholars commonly surmise that Jesus' eschatology was apocalyptic, like John's.[146]
Parables - Jesus taught in pithy parables and with striking images.[147] His teaching was marked by hyperbole and unusual twists of phrase.[143] Jesus likened the Kingdom of Heaven to small and lowly things, such as yeast or a mustard seed,[147] that have great effects. Significantly, he never described the Kingdom in military terms.[143] He used his sayings to elicit responses from the audience, engaging them in discussion.[13]
The family of God - Jesus repeatedly set himself at odds with traditional family duties in order to emphasize that the true family of a believer was God's family, forming a community of believers as children of God.[143]
God as a loving father - Jesus placed a special emphasis on God as one's heavenly father.[143][147] This teaching contrasts with the more common practice of depicting God as a king or lord.[143]
Virtue of being childlike - Jesus was remarkable in stating that one must become like a child to enter the Kingdom of God.[143]
Importance of faith and prayer - Jesus identified faith or trust in God as a primary spiritual virtue.[143] Associated with this main theme, Jesus taught that one should rely on prayer and expect prayer to be effective.[143]
Healing and exorcism - Jesus taught that his healings and exorcisms indicated that a new eschatological age had arrived or was arriving.[143]
Crucifixion
Jewish and Roman authorities in Jerusalem were wary of Galilean patriots, many of whom advocated or launched violent resistance to Roman rule.[12] The gospels demonstrate that Jesus, a charismatic leader regarded as a potential troublemaker, was executed on political charges.[12] Jesus' criticism of the Temple, disturbance he caused there, and refusal to renounce claims of kingship convinced the Jewish high priest to allow Jesus to be transferred into Roman custody.[148][149]
The Gospels report that Jesus foretold his own Passion, but the actions of the disciples suggest that it came as a surprise to them.[143] Historically, it's more probable that Jesus did not foretell his own crucifixion.[143]
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 Judea. Early Christians shared several beliefs of the Pharisees, such as resurrection, retribution in the next world, angels, human freedom, and Divine Providence.[150] After the fall of the Temple, the Pharisee outlook was established in Rabbinic Judaism. Some scholars speculate that Jesus was himself a Pharisee.[151] 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.Mk. 10:1–12[152] Jesus also commented on the House of Hillel's teachings (Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 31a) concerning the greatest commandmentMk. 12:28–34 and the Golden Rule.Mt. 7:12 Historians do not know whether there were Pharisees in Galilee during Jesus' life, or what they would have been like.[81]
Sadducees 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. After Jesus caused a disturbance at the Temple, it was to have been the Sadducees who had him arrested and turned over to the Romans for execution. After the fall of Jerusalem, they disappeared from history.[153]
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.[154] 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."[155]
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 AD/CE.[156] 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.[156] The notion that Jesus himself was a Zealot does not do justice to the earliest Synoptic material describing him.[157]
Christian scripture as historical texts
Historians of Christianity examine scripture for clues about the historical Jesus. They sort out sayings and events that are more likely to be genuine and use those to construct their portraits of Jesus. The Gospel tradition has certainly preserved several authentic fragments of Jesus' teaching.[citation needed]
The New Testament was at least substantially complete by 100 AD/CE, making its books, especially the synoptic gospels, historically relevant.[158] The Gospel tradition certainly preserves several fragments of Jesus' teaching.[159] The Gospel of Mark is believed to have been written c. 70 AD/CE.[160][161][162] Matthew is placed at being sometime after this date and Luke is thought to have been written between 70 and 100 AD/CE.[163][164]
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. After the original oral stories were written down in Greek, they were transcribed, and later translated into other languages. Contemporary textual critic Bart D. Ehrman cites numerous places where he maintains that the gospels, and other New Testament books, were apparently altered by Christian scribes.[57]
Critical scholars consider scriptural accounts more likely when they are attested in multiple texts, plausible in Jesus' historical environment, and potentially embarrassing to the author's Christian community. The "criterion of embarrassment" holds that stories about events with aspects embarrassing to Christians (such as the denial of Jesus by Peter, or the fleeing of Jesus' followers after his arrest) would likely not have been included if those accounts were fictional.[165] Sayings attributed to Jesus are deemed more likely to reflect his character when they are distinctive, vivid, paradoxical, surprising, and contrary to social and religious expectations, such as "Blessed are the poor".[166] Short, memorable parables and aphorisms capable of being transmitted orally are also thought more likely to be authentic.[166]
The earliest extant texts which refer to Jesus are Paul's letters (mid-1st century), which affirm Jesus' crucifixion. Some scholars hold that the Gospel of Thomas, a collection of 114 sayings of Jesus, predates the four orthodox gospels, and was composed around mid-first century.[167][168]
Mythical view
Although the historicity of Jesus is accepted by almost all Biblical scholars and classical historians,[169][170][171][172][173] a few scholars have questioned the existence of Jesus as an actual historical figure. Among the proponents of non-historicity was 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 based on a suggested lack of eyewitnesses, a lack of direct archaeological evidence, the failure of certain ancient works to mention Jesus, and similarities early Christianity shared with then-contemporary religion and mythology.[174]
More recently, arguments for non-historicity have been discussed by authors such as George Albert Wells and Robert M. Price, Earl Doherty, Timothy Freke, and Peter Gandy.
Classicist Michael Grant stated that standard historical criteria prevent one from rejecting the existence of an historical Jesus.[175] The New Testament scholar, James Dunn describes the mythical Jesus theory as a 'thoroughly dead thesis'.[176][177][178]
Religious perspectives
By and large, the Jews of Jesus' day rejected his claim to be the Messiah, as do Jews today. For their part, Christian Church Fathers, Ecumenical Councils, Reformers, and others have written extensively about Jesus over the centuries. Christian sects and schisms have often been defined or characterized by competing descriptions of Jesus. Meanwhile, Gnostics, Mandaeans, Manichaeans, Muslims, Baha'is, and others have found prominent places for Jesus in their own religious accounts.
Christian views
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Though Christian views of Jesus vary, it is 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.[179] Almost all Chistian groups regard Jesus as the "Savior and Redeemer", as the Messiah (Greek: Christos; English: Christ) prophesied in the Old Testament,[180] 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,[181] which had entered human history through the sin of Adam.[182] Christians profess that Jesus suffered death by crucifixion,[183] and rose bodily from the dead in the definitive miracle that foreshadows the resurrection of humanity at the end of time,[184] when Christ will come again to judge the living and the dead,[185] resulting in either entrance into heaven or damnation.[186]
Christians profess Jesus to be the only Son of God, the Lord,[187] and the eternal Word (which is a translation of the Greek Logos),[188] who became man in the incarnation,[189] so that those who believe in him might have eternal life.[190] 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.[191]
Current religious groups that do not accept the doctrine of the Trinity include The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), Jehovah's Witnesses, Oneness Pentecostals, Sabbatarian Churches of God and the Christadelphians. (See also Nontrinitarianism)
Islamic views
Mainstream Islam considers Jesus 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").[192][193] Jesus is seen in Islam as a precursor to Muhammad, and is believed by Muslims to have foretold the latter's coming.[192][194] 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, and was given the ability to perform miracles. However, Islam rejects historians assertions that Jesus was crucified by the Romans, instead claiming that he had been raised alive up to heaven. Islamic traditions narrate that he will 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.[192]
Ahmadiyya views
The Ahmadiyya Movement considers Jesus a mortal man who died a natural death. According to the early 20th century writings of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (the founder of the Ahmadiyya movement) [195], Jesus survived his ordeal on the cross, and after his apparent death and resurrection, he fled Palestine and migrated eastwards to further teach the gospels. Jesus eventually died a natural death of old age in India – Kashmir - and is believed to be buried at Roza Bal.[196]
Although the view of Jesus having migrated to India has also been researched in the publications of independent historians with no affiliation to the movement,[197] the Ahmadiyya Movement are the only religious organization to adopt these views as a characteristic of their faith. The general notion of Jesus in India is older than the foundation of the movement,[198] and is discussed at length by Grönbold[199] and Klatt.[200]
The movement also interprets the second coming of Christ prophesied in various religious texts would be that of a person "similar to Jesus" (mathīl-i ʿIsā). Thus, Ahmadi's consider that the founder of the movement and his prophetical character and teachings were representative of Jesus and subsequently a fulfillment of this prophecy.
Judaism's view
Judaism rejects the idea of Jesus being God, or a person of a Trinity, or a mediator to God.[citation needed] Judaism also holds that Jesus is not the Messiah, arguing that he had not 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 did not 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 Jesus did.[201]
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".
Even Jesus the Nazarene who imagined that he would be Messiah and was killed by the court, was already prophesied by Daniel. So that it was said, "And the members of the outlaws of your nation would be carried to make a (prophetic) vision stand. And they stumbled."Dan. 11:14 Because, is there a greater stumbling-block than this one? So that all of the prophets spoke that the Messiah redeems Israel, and saves them, and gathers their banished ones, and strengthens their commandments. And this one caused (nations) to destroy Israel by sword, and to scatter their remnant, and to humiliate them, and to exchange the Torah, and to make the majority of the world err to serve a divinity besides God. However, the thoughts of the Creator of the world — there is no force in a human to attain them because our ways are not God's ways, and our thoughts not God's thoughts. And all these things of Jesus the Nazarene, and of (Muhammad) the Ishmaelite who stood after him — there is no (purpose) but to straighten out the way for the King Messiah, and to restore all the world to serve God together. So that it is said, "Because then I will turn toward the nations (giving them) a clear lip, to call all of them in the name of God and to serve God (shoulder to shoulder as) one shoulder."Zeph. 3:9 Look how all the world already becomes full of the things of the Messiah, and the things of the Torah, and the things of the commandments! And these things spread among the far islands and among the many nations uncircumcised of heart.[202]
According to Conservative Judaism, Jews who believe Jesus is the Messiah have "crossed the line out of the Jewish community".[203] 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".[204]
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.[205]
God is one and has manifested himself to humanity through several historic Messengers. Bahá'ís refer to this concept as Progressive Revelation, which means that God's will is revealed to mankind progressively as mankind matures and is better able to comprehend the purpose of God in creating humanity. In this view, God's word is revealed through a series of messengers: Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, Bahá'u'lláh (the founder of the Bahá'í Faith) among them. In the Book of Certitude, Bahá'u'lláh claims that these messengers have a two natures: divine and human. Examining their divine nature, they are more or less the same being. However, when examining their human nature, they are individual, with distinct personality. For example, when Jesus says "I and my Father are one",John 10:30 Bahá'ís take this quite literally, but specifically with respect to his nature as a Manifestation. When Jesus conversely stated "...And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me",John 5:36–37 Bahá'ís see this as a simple reference to the individuality of Jesus. This divine nature, according to Bahá'u'lláh, means that any Manifestation of God can be said to be the return of a previous Manifestation, though Bahá'ís also believe that some Manifestations with specific missions return with a "new name".Rev. 3:12 and a different, or expanded purpose. Bahá'ís believe that Bahá'u'lláh is, in both respects, the return of Jesus.
Buddhist views
Buddhists' views of Jesus differ. Some Buddhists, including Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama[206] regard Jesus as a bodhisattva who dedicated his life to the welfare of human beings. The 14th century Zen master Gasan Jōseki indicated that the sayings of Jesus in the Gospels were written by an enlightened man.[207]
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,[208] and likewise rejects Abraham, Moses, and Muhammad.
Manichaeism accepted Jesus as a prophet, along with Gautama Buddha and Zoroaster.[209]
The New Age movement entertains a wide variety of views on Jesus. The creators of A Course In Miracles claim 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 had previous incarnations.
Many writers emphasize Jesus' moral teachings. Garry Wills argues that Jesus' ethics are distinct from those usually taught by Christianity.[210] 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.[211] 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 did not believe in Jesus' divinity or any of the other supernatural aspects of the Bible.
Legacy and influence
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Through the Christian faith, Jesus has had a direct impact on Western culture and an indirect impact on many other cultures. Today many followers of other religions also know about Jesus, and his teachings, such as the "Golden Rule" influence them. For scholars, Jesus is a leading figure of the past. Most people's deeper interest in the life and teachings of Jesus springs not from historical study, but from faith in the present Jesus as the Son of God and Savior of the world.[212]
Jesus' legacy firstly takes the form of writings such as the New Testament and non-canonical gospels, as well as oral traditions in the Syrian Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox Churches. Some believe it takes further material expression in the form of relics. Through these, Jesus has left a much wider and sometimes conflicting or ambiguous legacy, influencing religion, ethics, social justice and human rights movements such as abolitionism and liberation theology, politics in such forms as the Holy Roman Empire and the Moral Majority, art and music, the preservation of literacy in medieval Europe, as well as anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism, the Crusades, heresies, the Inquisition, witch-hunts, the Wars of Religion, and colonialism.[citation needed]
See also
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Notes
- ^ Sanders supports c. 4 BC/BCE. Vermes supports c. 6/5 BC/BCE. Finegan supports c. 3/2 BC/BCE. Sanders refers to the general consensus, Vermes a common 'early' date, Finegan defends comprehensively the date according to early Christian traditions.
- ^ "Our conclusion must be that Jesus came from Nazareth." Theissen, Gerd; and Merz, Annette. The historical Jesus: A comprehensive guide. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. 1998. Tr from German (1996 edition). p. 165. ISBN 978-0-8006-3123-9
- ^ a b Sanders (1993).p.11, p 249.
- ^ Vermes, Geza. The authentic gospel of Jesus. London, Penguin Books. 2004.
- ^ Eusebius, (trans. Cameron, Averil; Hall, Stuart G.). Life of Constantine. Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York : Oxford University Press, 1999. ISBN 978-0-19-814917-0
- ^ a b c d e Grudem, Wayne (1994). Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine. Grand Rapids: Zondervan. ISBN 0-310-28670-0. : 568–603
- ^ Theologian and bishop Lesslie Newbigin says "the whole of Christian teaching would fall to the ground if it were the case that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus were not events in real history but stories told to illustrate truths which are valid apart from these happenings." Newbigin, J. E. L. (1989). "The Gospel In a Pluralist Society". London: SPCK. p. 66.
- ^ "The Gospel of John is quite different from the other three gospels, and it is primarily in the latter that we must seek information about Jesus." Sanders (1993), p. 57.
- ^ a b
Funk, Robert W.; Seminar, Jesus (1998). Introduction. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco. pp. 1–40. ISBN 978-0-06-062978-6.
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ignored (help) - ^ a b c d Funk, Robert W.; Hoover, Roy W.; Jesus Seminar (1993). Introduction. New York: Maxwell Macmillan. pp. 1–30. ISBN 978-0-02-541949-0.
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Harris, Stephen L. (1985). Understanding the Bible : a reader's introduction. Palo Alto: Mayfield. pp. 255–260. ISBN 978-0-87484-696-6.
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Crossan, John Dominic (1998). The essential Jesus : original sayings and earliest images. Edison, NJ: Castle Books. ISBN 978-0-7858-0901-2.
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Brown, Raymond E. (1994). The Death of the Messiah: from Gethsemane to the Grave: A Commentary on the Passion Narratives in the Four Gospels. New York: Doubleday, Anchor Bible Reference Library. p. 964. ISBN 978-0-385-19397-9.
Carson, D. A.; et al. pp. 50–56.
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(help) Grant, Michael. pp. 34–35, 78, 166, 200.{{cite book}}
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(help) Paula Fredriksen (1999). Alfred A. Knopf. pp. 6–7, 105–110, 232–234, 266.{{cite book}}
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(help) Meier, John P. . pp. 1:68, 146, 199, 278, 386, 2:726.{{cite book}}
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(help) Sanders, E.P. (1993). pp. 12–13.{{cite book}}
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(help) Vermes, Géza (1973). Jesus the Jew. Philadelphia: Fortress Press. p. 37. Maier, Paul L. (1991). Kregel. pp. 1, 99, 121, 171.{{cite book}}
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(help) Wright, N. T. (1998). HarperCollins. pp. 32, 83, 100–102, 222.{{cite book}}
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ignored (help) - ^ a b Theissen, Gerd and Annette Merz. The historical Jesus: a comprehensive guide. Fortress Press. 1998. translated from German (1996 edition). Chapter 1. Quest of the historical Jesus. p. 1-16
- ^ Friedmann, Robert (1953). "Antitrinitarianism". Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved June 8, 2008.
- ^ For instance Brown, Raymond E. (1979). The Birth of the Messiah. Garden City, NY: Image Books. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-385-05405-8.
- ^ Strobel, Lee (2007). The Case for the Real Jesus. p. 200.
- ^ Norman, Asher (2007). Twenty-six reasons why Jews don't believe in Jesus. Feldheim Publishers. pp. 16–18, 89–96. ISBN 0977193705. Retrieved 5 July 2010.
- ^ Houlden, James L. (2005). Jesus: The Complete Guide. London: Continuum. ISBN 978-0-8264-8011-8.
- ^ Prof. Dr. Şaban Ali Düzgün (2004). "Uncovering Islam: Questions and Answers about Islamic Beliefs and Teachings". Ankara: The Presidency of Religious Affairs Publishing.
- ^ "Compendium of Muslim Texts".
- ^ http://www.religionfacts.com/bahai/comparison_chart.htm
- ^ http://www.contenderministries.org/bahai/beliefs.php
- ^ Brown Driver Brigges Hebrew and English Lexicon; Hendrickson Publishers 1996 ISBN 1-56563-206-0.
- ^ Fausset's Bible Dictionary
- ^ The catholic Encyclopedia
- ^ Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. .
- ^ a b Vine, W.E. (1940). Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words. Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Company. ISBN None.
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value: invalid character (help) - ^ "Ariel Cohen Alvero – Jesus and The Promised Land". Dr. Zvi Sadan. Retrieved Aug. 16, 2010.
{{cite web}}
: Check date values in:|accessdate=
(help) - ^ Kai Kjaer-Hansen, An Introduction to The Use Of The Names: Joshua, Jeshua, Jesus, Lausanne Consultation on Jewish Evangelism, 1992
- ^ George Howard, Hebrew Gospel of Matthew, Mercer University Press, 1995
- ^ John J. Parsons, Zola's Introduction to Hebrew, Zola Levitt Ministries Inc., 2002
- ^ Some of the historians and Biblical scholars who place the birth and death of Jesus within this range include D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris. An Introduction to the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992, 54, 56
- ^ Michael Grant, Jesus: An Historian's Review of the Gospels, Scribner's, 1977, p. 71; John P. Meier, A Marginal Jew, Doubleday, 1991–, vol. 1:214; Sanders (1993), pp. 10–11; and Ben Witherington III, "Primary Sources," Christian History 17 (1998) No. 3:12–20.
- ^ Blackburn, Bonnie; Holford-Strevens, Leofranc. The Oxford companion to the Year: An exploration of calendar customs and time-reckoning. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
- ^ Edwin D. Freed, Stories of Jesus' Birth, (Continuum International, 2004), page 119.
- ^ Géza Vermes, The Nativity: History and Legend, London, Penguin, 2006, page 22.
- ^ James D. G. Dunn, Jesus Remembered, Eerdmans Publishing (2003), page 324.
- ^ a b Catholic Encyclopedia, Christmas
- ^ Luke states that John's ministry began in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Iturea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas.
- ^ Hoehner, Harold W. (1978). Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ. Zondervan. pp. 29–37. ISBN 0310262119.
- ^ Carol A. Newsom, Sharon H. Ringe, The Women's Bible Commentary, (Westminster John Knox Press, 1998) page 381. Google Book Search preview
- ^ Theissen 1998, pp. 64–72
- ^ Theissen 1998, pp. 81-83
- ^ Green, Joel B. (1997). The Gospel of Luke : new international commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. p. 168. ISBN 0802823157.
- ^ Price, Robert M. The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man: How Reliable is the Gospel Tradition?. New York: Prometheus, 2003.
- ^ Irenaeus. Against Heresies, Book 2, Chapter 22, Section 6.
- ^ Loisy, Alfred F. The Gospel and the Church. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1912. Page 33.
- ^ Suetonius. The Lives of the Twelve Caesars: Claudius, Chapter 25.
- ^ a b "The Historical Figure of Jesus," Sanders, E.P., Penguin Books: London, 1995, p., 3.
- ^ ""What the Old Testament Prophesied About the Messiah"". Retrieved October 11, 2007.
- ^ Sanders 1993 132-143
- ^ "synoptic". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
- ^ Carlson, Stephen C. "The Two Source Hypothesis." Aug. 20, 2009. <http://www.mindspring.com/~scarlson/synopt/2sh/index.htm>
- ^ a b c d e f Harris, Stephen L., Understanding the Bible. Palo Alto: Mayfield. 1985.
- ^ a b c d Ehrman, Bart D. Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why. HarperCollins, 2005. ISBN 978-0-06-073817-4 Cite error: The named reference "MisJ" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ Durant, Will. Caesar and Christ. New York: Simon and Schuster. 1972
- ^ a b c d e f g h Harris, Stephen L., Understanding the Bible. Palo Alto: Mayfield. 1985. "John" pp. 302–310 Cite error: The named reference "Harris John" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ Stagg, Frank (1962). New Testament Theology. Broadman Press. p. 78. ISBN 978-0805416138.
- ^ Mt. 1:1–17
- ^ Lk. 3:23–38
- ^ Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke I–IX. Anchor Bible. Garden City: Doubleday, 1981, pp. 499–500; I. Howard Marshall, The Gospel of Luke (The New International Greek Testament Commentary). Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1978, p. 158;
- ^ Ben Witherington, "Birth of Jesus" in Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels. Ed. Joel B. Green, Scot McKnight, I. Howard Marshall, page 65
- ^ Bienert, Wolfgang E. (2003). "The Relatives of Jesus". In Wilhelm Schneemelcher, Robert McLachlan Wilson (ed.). [9780664227210 New Testament Apocrypha: Gospels and Related Writings]. Westminster John Knox Press. p. 487.
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value (help) - ^ Matthew 13:55–56, Mark 6:3 and Galatians 1:19
- ^ 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, brethren, or cousin in this context (see Perpetual virginity of Mary).
- ^ The members of the church also addressed each other as "Brethren".Jewish Encyclopedia
- ^ "Sanders, p. 3."
- ^ a b c d Harris, Stephen L., Understanding the Bible. Palo Alto: Mayfield. 1985. "Matthew" pp. 272–285
- ^ For Egypt: Matthew 2:13–23; For Tyre and sometimes Sidon:Matthew 15:21–28 and Mark 7:24–30 Only Luke tells that Jesus was found teaching in the temple by his parents after being lost. The Finding in the Temple is the sole event between Jesus' infancy and baptism mentioned in any of the canonical Gospels.Lk. 2:41–52
- ^ "Lost Scriptures: Books that Did Not Make it Into the New Testament," Ehrman, Bart D., Oxford University Press: New York, 2003, p. 58.
- ^ "An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon." The Seventh Edition of Liddell and Scott's Greek-English Lexicon. Clarendon Press: Oxford, p. 797.
- ^ Early Christian accounts reflect some perplexity at Jesus being baptized, especially by a subordinate figure. See "Baptism of Christ". Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford dictionary of the Christian church. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005
- ^ Matthew 4:1–11, Mark 1:12–13, Luke 4:1–13
- ^ "John, Gospel of." Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford dictionary of the Christian church. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005
- ^ a b "John, Gospel of St." Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford dictionary of the Christian church. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005
- ^ Meier 1991 vol. 1:405
- ^ a b c Introduction. Funk, Robert W., Roy W. Hoover, and the Jesus Seminar. The five gospels. HarperSanFrancisco. 1993.
- ^ "The Thompson Chain-Reference Study Bible", published December 1999, B.B. Kirkbride Bible Co., Inc.; William Adler & Paul Tuffin, "The Chronography of George Synkellos: A Byzantine Chronicle of Universal History from the Creation", Oxford University Press (2002), p. 466
- ^ a b c d e f Funk, Robert W. and the Jesus Seminar. The acts of Jesus: the search for the authentic deeds of Jesus. HarperSanFrancisco. 1998.
- ^ Luke 14:26, Matthew 10:37. Luke contains a harsher version than the saying in Matthew, as does Thomas. Funk, Robert W., Roy W. Hoover, and the Jesus Seminar. The five gospels. HarperSanFrancisco. 1993. p. 353
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Harris, Stephen L., Understanding the Bible. Palo Alto: Mayfield. 1985. "Mark" pp. 285–296
- ^ a b c d Harris, Stephen L., Understanding the Bible. Palo Alto: Mayfield. 1985. "Luke" pp. 297–301
- ^ In John, Jesus' ministry takes place in and around Jerusalem.
- ^ 1 Corinthians 13:1–8, 1 John 4:8, Luke 10:26–28, and Matthew 22:37–40
- ^ Sermon on the Mount;Mt. 5–7 Prodigal Son;Lk. 15:11–32 Parable of the Sower;Mt. 13:1–9 AgapeMt. 22:34–40
- ^ Matthew 17:1–6, Mark 9:1–8, Luke 9:28–36
- ^ a b c d Funk, Robert W. and the Jesus Seminar. The acts of Jesus: the search for the authentic deeds of Jesus. HarperSanFrancisco. 1998. "Mark" pp. 51–161
- ^ "Messianic Secret", Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford dictionary of the Christian church. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005
- ^ Funk, Robert W., Roy W. Hoover, and the Jesus Seminar. The five gospels. HarperSanFrancisco. 1993. pages 72–73.
- ^ "Jesus was claiming for himself the title "I AM" by which God designates himself... he was claiming to be God."—Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, page 546, Zondervan.
- ^ The crowd was quoting Psalms 118:26; found in John 12:13–16.
- ^ John puts the cleansing of the temple at the start of Jesus' ministry.
- ^ a b Funk, Robert W. and the Jesus Seminar. The acts of Jesus: the search for the authentic deeds of Jesus. HarperSanFrancisco. 1998. "Matthew" pp. 129–270
- ^ Funk, Robert W. and the Jesus Seminar. The acts of Jesus: the search for the authentic deeds of Jesus. HarperSanFrancisco. 1998. "Luke" pp. 267–364
- ^ Funk, Robert W. and the Jesus Seminar. The acts of Jesus: the search for the authentic deeds of Jesus. HarperSanFrancisco. 1998. "John" pp. 365–440
- ^ Luke 22:47–52, Matthew 26:47–56
- ^ The apostle is identified as Simon Peter in John 18:10; the healing of the ear is found in Luke 22:51.
- ^ Mt. 27:51; Mark 15:38; Luke 23:45
- ^ Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:9; Luke 24:1; John 20:1
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Funk, Robert W. and the Jesus Seminar. The acts of Jesus: the search for the authentic deeds of Jesus. HarperSanFrancisco. 1998. "Empty Tomb, Appearances & Ascension" pp. 449–495. Cite error: The named reference "ActJTomb" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ May, Herbert G. and Bruce M. Metzger. The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha. 1977.
- ^ Jesus' appearances in Mark were not part of the original text. See Funk, Robert W. and the Jesus Seminar. The acts of Jesus: the search for the authentic deeds of Jesus. HarperSanFrancisco. 1998. "Empty Tomb, Appearances & Ascension" pp. 449–495.
- ^ Funk, Robert W. and the Jesus Seminar. The acts of Jesus: the search for the authentic deeds of Jesus. HarperSanFrancisco. 1998. p. 491
- ^ Joel B. Green, Scot McKnight, I. Howard Marshall, Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels (InterVarsity Press, 1992), page 442
- ^ Durant, Will. Caesar and Christ. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1944. p. 558; John P. Meier, A Marginal Jew. New York: Doubleday, 1991 vol. 1:205–7;
- ^ "Origin of the Name of Jesus Christ". Catholic Encyclopedia. Retrieved April 14, 2007.
- ^ e.g. Leviticus 4:3–5
- ^ e.g., King David 2 Samuel 23:1
- ^ Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford University Press 2005 ISBN 978-0-19-280290-3), article Messiah
- ^ a b c d Vermes (1981).
- ^ Martin Hengel, The Son of God: The Origin of Christology and the History of Jewish-Hellenistic Religion (Wipf & Stock Publishers 2007); Robert M. Bowman, Jr., Ed Komoszewski, Putting Jesus in His Place: The Case for the Deity of Christ (Kregel 2007); Jacob Neusner, Rabbi talks with Jesus (Image 1994); Joseph Ratzinger, Jesus of Nazareth, (Ignatius Press 2008); Fernando Ocariz, Luis Mateo Seco, Alfonso Riestra, Mystery of Jesus Christ, (Four Courts Press 1994); Gerald O'Collins S.J., Christology: A Biblical, Historical, and Systematic Study of Jesus Christ (Oxford University Press 1995)
- ^ "A further point of broad agreement among New Testament scholars is…that the historical Jesus did not make the claim to deity that later Christian thought was to make for him: he did not understand himself to be God, or God the Son, incarnate."—John Hick, The Metaphor of God Incarnate: Christology in a Pluralistic Age, Westminster John Knox Press, page 27; Michael Ramsey, Jesus and the Living Past (Oxford University Press, 1980), page 39: 'Jesus did not claim deity for himself'; C. F. D. Moule, The Origin of Christology: 'Any case for a "high" Christology that depended on the authenticity of the alleged claims of Jesus about himself, especially in the Fourth Gospel, would indeed be precarious'; James Dunn, Christology in the Making, (SCM Press 1980), page 254: 'We cannot claim that Jesus believed himself to be the incarnate Son of God' and 'There is no question in my mind that the doctrine of incarnation comes to clear expression within the NT…John 1:14 ranks as a classic formulation of the Christian belief in Jesus as incarnate God.' Page xiii; Brian Hebblethwaite, The Incarnation (Cambridge University Press, 1987), page 74: 'it is no longer possible to defend the divinity of Jesus by reference to the claims of Jesus'; John A. T. Robinson, Honest to God, Westminster Press (1963), p. 47: 'It is, indeed, an open question whether Jesus ever claimed to be the Son of God, let alone God.'; Larry Hurtado, Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity, page 5, describes the view that Jesus made 'both his Messiahship and his divinity clear to his disciples during his ministry' as 'naive and ahistorical'.
- ^ Larry Hurtado, Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity, (Eerdmans, 2005), page 650.
- ^ a b Schaeffer, Francis (1968). The God Who is There. Downers Grove, Il.: InterVarsity Press. pp. 72–73. ISBN 0-8308-1947-9.
- ^ D. G.Dunn, Jesus Remembered, Volume 1 of Christianity in the Making, Eerdmans Publishing, 2003 pp. 125 - 127
- ^ William Edward Arnal, Whose historical Jesus? Volume 7, Studies in Christianity and Judaism, Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press, 1997
- ^ Borg, Marcus J. in Borg, Marcus J. and N. T. Wright. The Meaning of Jesus: Two visions. New York: HarperCollins. 2007.
- ^ "Pope's Book: A Lifetime of Learning". Newsweek. 21 May 2007. Retrieved January 14, 2009.
- ^ Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth. Doubleday, 2007. ISBN 978-0-385-52341-7
- ^ Chesterton, G. K. The everlasting man. 1925, Part II, chapter II, also says that "the merely human Christ is a made-up figure, a piece of artificial selection".
- ^ Ehrman, Bart D.. Jesus, Interrupted, HarperCollins, 2009. ISBN 0061173932
- ^ "The nonhistoricity thesis has always been controversial, and it has consistently failed to convince scholars of many disciplines and religious creeds. ... Biblical scholars and classical historians now regard it as effectively refuted."—Van Voorst, Robert E. Jesus Outside the New Testament: An Introduction to the Ancient Evidence (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2000), p. 16.
- ^ "The denial of Jesus' historicity has never convinced any large number of people, in or out of technical circles, nor did it in the first part of the century." Walter P. Weaver, The Historical Jesus in the Twentieth Century, 1900–1950, (Continuum International, 1999), page 71.
- ^ "about once every generation someone reruns the thesis that Jesus never existed and that the Jesus tradition is a wholesale invention", J. G. Dunn, Jesus Remembered, (Eerdmans, 2003), page 142.
- ^ "There is almost Universal agreement that Jesus lived." Bernard L. Ramm, An Evangelical Christology: Ecumenic and Historic, (Regent College Publishing, 1993), page 19.
- ^ "some judgements are so probable as to be certain; for example, Jesus really existed", Marcus Borg, 'A Vision of the Christian Life', in Marcus J. Borg and N T Wright, The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions, (HarperCollins, 1999), page 236.
- ^ a b Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005—article "Historical Jesus, Quest of the"
- ^ Meier (1991), pp. 43–4
- ^ For a comparison of the Jesus movement to the Zealots, see S. G. F. Brandon, Jesus and the Zealots: a study of the political factor in primitive Christianity, Manchester University Press (1967) ISBN 0-684-31010-4
- ^ For a general comparison of Jesus' teachings to other schools of first century Judaism, see John P. Meier, Companions and Competitors (A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus, Volume 3) Anchor Bible, 2001. ISBN 0–385–46993–4.
- ^ Shaye J.D. Cohen, From the Maccabees to the Mishnah, Westminster Press, 1987, pp. 78, 93, 105, 108
- ^ Crossan, The Historical Jesus', pp. xi—xiii
- ^ Michael Grant, pp. 34–35, 78, 166, 200
- ^ Paula Fredriksen, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews, Alfred B. Knopf, 1999, pp. 6–7, 105–110, 232–234, 266
- ^ ohn P. Meier, vol. 1:68, 146, 199, 278, 386, 2:726
- ^ E.P. Sanders (1993), pp. 12–13
- ^ Géza Vermes, Jesus the Jew (Philadelphia: Fortress Press 1973), p. 37.;
- ^ a b Sanders, E.P. Jesus and Judaism. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1987
- ^ Vermes, Géza. Jesus the Jew: A Historian's Reading of the Gospels. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1981
- ^ Fredriksen, Paula. From Jesus to Christ. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Vermes, Geza. The authentic gospel of Jesus. London, Penguin Books. 2004. Chapter 10: Towards the authentic gospel. p. 370-397.
- ^ Theissen, Gerd and Annette Merz. The historical Jesus: a comprehensive guide. Fortress Press. 1998. translated from German (1996 edition)
- ^ Crossan, John Dominic. The essential Jesus. Edison: Castle Books. 1998. p. 146
- ^ See Schwietzer, Albert The Quest of the Historical Jesus: A Critical Study of its Progress from Reimarus to Wrede, pp. 370–371, 402. Scribner (1968), ISBN 0-02-089240-3; Ehrman, Bart Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium, Oxford University Press USA, 1999. ISBN 019–512474-X. Crossan, however, makes a distinction between John's apocalyptic ministry and Jesus' ethical ministry. See Crossan, John Dominic, The Birth of Christianity: Discovering What Happened in the Years Immediately After the Execution of Jesus, pp. 305–344. Harper Collins, 1998. ISBN 0-06-061659-8
- ^ a b c Funk, Robert W., Roy W. Hoover, and the Jesus Seminar. The five gospels. HarperSanFrancisco. 1993. Cite error: The named reference "5G" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ Theissen, Gerd and Annette Merz. The historical Jesus: a comprehensive guide. Fortress Press. 1998. translated from German (1996 edition). Retrospect: a short life of Jesus. p. 569-572-.
- ^ Haim Cohn, The Trial and Death of Jesus, Ktav Publishing House, 1977:129,133-134.
- ^ "Pharisees", Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford dictionary of the Christian church. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005
- ^ Based on a comparison of the Gospels with the Talmud and other Jewish literature. Maccoby, Hyam Jesus the Pharisee, Scm Press, 2003. ISBN 0-334-02914-7; Falk, Harvey Jesus the Pharisee: A New Look at the Jewishness of Jesus, Wipf & Stock Publishers (2003). ISBN 1-59244-313-3.
- ^ Neusner, Jacob (2000). A Rabbi Talks With Jesus. Montreal; Ithaca: McGill-Queen's University Press. ISBN 978-0-7735-2046-2. Rabbi Neusner contends that Jesus' teachings were closer to the House of Shammai than the House of Hillel.
- ^ "Sadducees". Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford dictionary of the Christian church. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005
- ^ Based on a comparison of the Gospels with the Dead Sea Scrolls, especially the Teacher of Righteousness and Pierced Messiah. Eisenman, Robert James the Brother of Jesus: The Key to Unlocking the Secrets of Early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls, Penguin (Non-Classics), 1998. ISBN 0-14-025773-X; Stegemann, Hartmut The Library of Qumran: On the Essenes, Qumran, John the Baptist, and Jesus. Grand Rapids MI, 1998. See also Broshi, Magen, "What Jesus Learned from the Essenes", Biblical Archaeology Review, 30:1, pg. 32–37, 64. Magen notes similarities between Jesus' teachings on the virtue of poverty and divorce, and Essene teachings as related in Josephus' The Jewish Wars and in the Damascus Document of the Dead Sea Scrolls, respectively. See also Akers, Keith The Lost Religion of Jesus. Lantern, 2000. ISBN 1-930051-26-3
- ^ Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, p. 14
- ^ a b "Zealots". Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005
- ^ "Jesus Christ". Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005
- ^ "The New Testament was complete, or substantially complete, about AD 100, the majority of the writings being in existence twenty to forty years before this...the situation is encouraging from the historian's point of view, for the first three Gospels were written at a time when many were alive who could remember the things that Jesus said and did... At any rate, the time elapsing between the evangelic events and the writing of most of the New Testament books was, from the standpoint of historical research, satisfactorily short." Bruce, F. F.: The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?, pp. 12–14, InterVarsity Press, USA, 1997.
- ^ "There is no reason to doubt that we have in the Gospel tradition several authentic fragments of His [Jesus Christ's] teaching (albeit in Greek translation)." "Jesus Christ". Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford dictionary of the Christian church. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005
- ^ Peter, Kirby (2001–2007). "Early Christian Writings: Gospel of Mark". Retrieved January 15, 2008.
- ^ Achtemeier, Paul J. (1991–). "The Gospel of Mark". The Anchor Bible Dictonary. Vol. 4. New York, New York: Doubleday. p. 545. ISBN 0385193629.
{{cite encyclopedia}}
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requires|url=
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(help)CS1 maint: year (link) - ^ Meier, John P. (1991). A Marginal Jew. New York, New York: Doubleday. pp. v.2 955–6. ISBN 0385469934.
- ^ A. Harnack, The Date of Acts and the Synoptic Gospels (1911), p. 90; J. A. T. Robinson, Redating the New Testament, pp. 86–92; I. H. Marshall, Luke, p. 35; A. J. Mattill Jr., ‘The Date and Purpose of Luke-Acts: Rackham reconsidered, in Catholic Biblical Quarterly 40 (1978), pp. 335–350.
- ^ "Matthew, Gospel acc. to St." Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford dictionary of the Christian church. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005
- ^ Meier, John P., A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus, Doubleday: 1991. vol 1: pp. 168–171.
- ^ a b Funk, Robert W., Roy W. Hoover, and the Jesus Seminar. The five gospels. HarperSanFrancisco. 1993. Introduction, pp. 1–38
- ^ Kenneth Keulman, Critical Moments in Religious History, Mercer University Press, p. 56
- ^ Andrew F. Gregory, Christopher Mark Tuckett, The Reception of the New Testament in the Apostolic Fathers, Oxford University Press, p. 178
- ^ Powell, Mark Allan (1998). Jesus as a figure in history: how modern historians view the man from Galilee. Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox Press. p. 168. ISBN 978-0-664-25703-3.
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(help) - ^ Weaver, Walter P. (1999). The historical Jesus in the twentieth century. Harrisburg, Pa.: Trinity Press International. p. 71. ISBN 978-1-56338-280-2.
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(help) - ^ Voorst, Robert E., Van (2000). Jesus outside the New Testament: an introduction to the ancient evidence. Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans. p. 16. ISBN 978-0-8028-4368-5.
{{cite book}}
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(help) - ^ The Guardian. London. January 20, 2009 http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/james-g-dunn. Retrieved May 6, 2010.
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(help) - ^ http://www.britac.ac.uk/fellowship/elections/2006/dunn_j.cfm
- ^ Durant 1944:553–7
- ^ "…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 have not succeeded in disposing of the much stronger, indeed very abundant, evidence to the contrary." M. Grant, Jesus: An Historian's Review, pp. 199–200. 1977
- ^ http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/rh/death-of-jesus_dunn.pdf
- ^ J. G. D. Dunn, The Christ and the Spirit, Volume I: Christology, (Eerdmans / T & T Clark, 1998), page 191. see also Bruce, FF (1982). New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? InterVarsity Press, ISBN 0-87784-691-X
- ^ Herzog II, WR (2005). Prophet and Teacher. WJK, ISBN 0-664-22528-4
- ^ This section draws on a number of sources to determine the doctrines of these groups, especially the early Creeds, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, certain theological works, and various Confessions drafted during the Reformation including the Thirty Nine Articles of the Church of England, works contained in the Book of Concord, and others.
- ^ Catechism of the Catholic Church §436–40; Thirty Nine Articles of the Church of England, article 2; Irenaeus Adversus Haereses in Patrologia Graeca ed. J. P. Migne (Paris, 1857–1866) 7/1, 93; Luke 2:1; Matthew 16:16
- ^ Catechism of the Catholic Church §606–618; Council of Trent (1547) in Denzinger-Schönmetzer, Enchiridion Symbolorum, definitionum et declarationum de rebus fidei et morum (1965) §1529;John 14:2–3
- ^ Thirty Nine Articles of the Church of England, article 9; Augsburg Confession, article 2; Second Helvetic Confession, chapter 8; Romans 5:12–21; 1 Corinthians 15:21–22.
- ^ Apostles' Creed; Nicene Creed;Luther's Small Catechism commentary on Apostles' Creed; Second Helvetic Confession, chapter 9
- ^ Catechism of the Catholic Church §638–655; Byzantine Liturgy, Troparion of Easter; Thirty Nine Articles of the Church of England, article 4 and 17; Augsburg Confession, article 3; Second Helvetic Confession, chapter 9.
- ^ Apostles' Creed; Nicene Creed; Catechism of the Catholic Church §668–675, 678–679; Luther's Small Catechism commentary on Apostles' Creed; Matthew 25:32–46
- ^ Catechism of the Catholic Church §1021–1022
- ^ Apostles' Creed; Nicene Creed; Catechism of the Catholic Church §441–451; Augsburg Confession, article 3; Luther's Small Catechism, commentary on Apostles' Creed; Matthew 16:16–17; 1 Corinthians 2:8
- ^ Augsburg Confession, article 3; John 1:1
- ^ Apostles' Creed; Nicene Creed; Catechism of the Catholic Church §461–463;Thirty Nine Articles of the Church of England, article 2; Luther's Small Catechism commentary on Apostles' Creed; John 1:14, 16; Hebrews 10:5–7
- ^ Catechism of the Catholic Church §456–460; Gregory of Nyssa, Orat. catech. 15 in Patrologia Graeca ed. J. P. Migne (Paris, 1857–1866) 45, 48B; St. Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses 3.19.1 in ibid. 7/1, 939; St. Athanasius, De inc., 54.3 in ibid. 25, 192B. St. Thomas Aquinas, Opusc. in ibid. 57: 1–4; Galatians 4:4–5
- ^ Apostles' Creed; Nicene Creed; Catechism of the Catholic Church §484–489, 494–507; Luther's Small Catechism commentary on Apostles' Creed
- ^ a b c "Isa", Encyclopedia of Islam
- ^ Fasching, deChant (2001) p. 241
- ^ The Oxford Dictionary of Islam, p. 158
- ^ in India
- ^ Rice, Edward (1978). Eastern Definitions: A Short Encyclopedia of Religions of the Orient. New York. p. 7. ISBN 038508563X..
- ^ http://reluctant-messenger.com/issa.htm The Life of Saint Issa, Nicolas Notovitch
- ^ Schäfer, Peter; Cohen, Mark R. (1998). Toward the Millennium: Messianic Expectations from the Bible to Waco. Leiden/Princeton: Brill/Princeton UP. p. 306. ISBN 90-04-11037-2..
- ^ Günter Grönbold, Jesus In Indien, München: Kösel 1985, ISBN 3-466-20270-1.
- ^ Norbert Klatt, Lebte Jesus in Indien?, Göttingen: Wallstein 1988.
- ^ Simmons, Shraga, "Why Jews Do not Believe in Jesus", Retrieved April 15, 2007; "Why Jews Do not Believe in Jesus", Ohr Samayach — Ask the Rabbi, Retrieved April 15, 2007; "Why do not Jews believe that Jesus was the Messiah?", AskMoses.com, Retrieved April 15, 2007
- ^ Hilchot Malachim (laws concerning kings) (Hebrew)", MechonMamre.org, Retrieved April 15, 2007
- ^ Waxman, Jonathan (2006). "Messianic Jews Are Not Jews". United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. Retrieved January 15, 2008.
Judaism has held that the Mashiach will come and usher in a new era; not that he will proclaim his arrival, die and wait centuries to finish his task. To continue to assert that Jesus was the Mashiach goes against the belief that the Mashiach will transform the world when he does come, not merely hint at a future transformation at some undefined time to come... Judaism rejects the claim that a new covenant was created with Jesus and asserts instead that the chain of Tradition reaching back to Moshe continues to make valid claims on our lives, and serve as more than mere window dressing.
- ^ Contemporary American Reform Responsa, #68, "Question 18.3.4: Reform's Position On...What is unacceptable practice?", faqs.org. Retrieved April 15, 2007.
- ^ Stockman, Robert (1992). "Jesus Christ in the Baha'i Writings". Bahá'í Studies Review (1). OCLC 30061083.
- ^ Beverley, James A., Hollywood's Idol, Christianity Today, "Jesus Christ also lived previous lives", he said. "So, you see, he reached a high state, either as a Bodhisattva, or an enlightened person, through Buddhist practice or something like that", Retrieved April 20, 2007
- ^ 101 Zen Stories; #16
- ^ "Mandaean Scriptures and Fragments: The Haran Gawaitha". Retrieved April 20, 2007.
- ^ Bevan, A. A. (1930). "Manichaeism". Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, Volume VIII Ed. James Hastings. London
- ^ Wills, Garry, What Jesus Meant (2006) ISBN 0-670-03496-7
- ^ Crossan, The Historical Jesus'; Robert Funk, The Five Gospels: What did Jesus really say? The search for the authentic words of Jesus, Harper San Francisco (1997), ISBN 0-06-063040-X; Robert Funk, The Acts of Jesus: What Did Jesus Really Do?, The Jesus Seminar, Harper San Francisco (1998), ISBN 0–06–062978–9; The Jesus Seminar, The Gospel of Jesus: According to the Jesus Seminar, Robert Walter Funk (Editor), Polebridge Press (1999), ISBN 0-944344-74-7
- ^ Jesus outside the New Testament by Robert E. Van Voorst, page 1
References
- Allison, Dale. Jesus of Nazareth: Millenarian Prophet. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1999. ISBN 0-8006-3144-7
- Brown, Raymond E. An Introduction to the New Testament. New York: Doubleday, 1997. ISBN 0-385-24767-2
- Cohen, Shaye J.D.. From the Maccabees to the Mishnah. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1987. ISBN 978-0-664-21911-6
- Cohen, Shaye J.D. The Beginnings of Jewishness: Boundaries, Varieties, Uncertainties. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001. ISBN 0-520-22693-3
- Crossan, John Dominic.
- The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant. New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1993. ISBN 0-06-061629-6
- Who Killed Jesus?: exposing the roots of anti-semitism in the Gospel story of the death of Jesus. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1995. ISBN 978-0-06-061671-7
- Davenport, Guy; and Urrutia, Benjamin (trans.) The Logia of Yeshua: The sayings of Jesus. Washington, DC: Counterpoint, 1996. ISBN 978-1-887178-70-9
- De La Potterie, Ignace. The hour of Jesus: The passion and the resurrection of Jesus according to John. New York: Alba House, 1989. ISBN 978-0-8189-0575-9
- Durant, Will. Caesar and Christ. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1944. ISBN 0-671-11500-6
- Ehrman, Bart. The Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-19-514183-0
- Ehrman, Bart. The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-19-515462-2
- Fredriksen, Paula. Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews: A Jewish Life and the Emergence of Christianity. New York: Vintage, 2000. ISBN 0-679-76746-0
- Fredriksen, Paula. From Jesus to Christ: The origins of the New Testament images of Christ. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000. ISBN 978-0-300-08457-3
- Finegan, Jack. Handbook of Biblical Chronology, revised ed. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1998. ISBN 1-56563-143-9
- Fuller, Reginald H., The Foundations of New Testament Christology. New York: Scribners, 1965. ISBN 0-227-17075-X
- Meier, John P., A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus, New York: Anchor Doubleday,
- V. 1, The Roots of the Problem and the Person, 1991. ISBN 0-385-26425-9
- V. 2, Mentor, Message, and Miracles, 1994. ISBN 0-385-46992-6
- V. 3, Companions and Competitors, 2001. ISBN 0-385-46993-4
- O'Collins, Gerald. Interpreting Jesus. "Introducing Catholic theology". London: G. Chapman; Ramsey, NJ: Paulist Press, 1983. ISBN 978-0-8091-2572-2
- Pelikan, Jaroslav. Jesus Through the Centuries: His Place in the History of Culture. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-300-07987-7
- Robinson, John A. T. Redating the New Testament. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2001 (original 1977). ISBN 1-57910-527-0.
- Sanders, E.P. The Historical Figure of Jesus. London: Allen Lane Penguin Press, 1993. ISBN 978-0-7139-9059-1
- Sanders, E.P. Jesus and Judaism. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1987. ISBN 0-8006-2061-5
- Theissen, Gerd; Merz, Annette (1998). The historical Jesus : a comprehensive guide. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. ISBN 0800631226.
- Vermes, Géza. Jesus in his Jewish Context. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2003. ISBN 0-8006-3623-6
- Vermes, Géza. Jesus the Jew: A Historian's Reading of the Gospels. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1981. ISBN 0-8006-1443-7
- Vermes, Géza. The Religion of Jesus the Jew. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1993. ISBN 0-8006-2797-0
- Wilson, A.N. Jesus. London: Pimlico, 2003. ISBN 0-7126-0697-1
- Wright, N.T. Jesus and the Victory of God. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1997. ISBN 0-8006-2682-6
- Wright, N.T. The Resurrection of the Son of God: Christian Origins and the Question of God. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2003. ISBN 0-8006-2679-6
External links
- Complete Sayings of Jesus Christ In Parallel Latin & English
- "Jesus Christ." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 12 Nov. 2009
- From Jesus to Christ: The First Christians — Frontline documentary about Jesus' life and the early Church.
- The Jewish Roman World of Jesus
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