Jesus Of Nazareth Theme 1977
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The Story of Jesus.
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| Name | Jesus of Nazareth |
|---|---|
| Alt | Half-length portrait of younger man with shoulder-length hair and beard, with right hand raised over what appears to be a red flame. The upper background is gold. Around his head is a golden halo containing an equal-armed cross with three arms visible; the arms are decorated with ovals and squares. |
| Caption | 20th-century stained glass work of Jesus at St. John the Baptist's Church in Ashfield, Australia. |
| Language | Aramaic (perhaps some Hebrew, Koine Greek) |
| Birth date | c. 5 BC/BCE |
| Birth place | Bethlehem, Judea, Roman Empire (traditional); Nazareth, Galilee (modern critical scholarship) |
| Death place | Calvary, Judea, Roman Empire (according to the New Testament, he rose on the third day after his death.) |
| Death date | c. 30 AD/CE (aged 33-35) |
| Death cause | Crucifixion |
| Resting place | Traditionally and temporarily, a garden tomb in Jerusalem |
| Ethnicity | Jewish |
| Nationality | Israelite |
| Home town | Nazareth, Galilee, Roman Empire |
| Parents | Father: (Christian view) God through virginal conception; (Islamic view) virginal conception; |
Jesus of Nazareth (c. 5 BC/BCE – c. 30 AD/CE), also referred to as Jesus Christ or simply Jesus, is the central figure of Christianity. Most Christian denominations venerate him as God the Son incarnated and believe that he rose from the dead after being crucified.
The principal sources of information regarding Jesus' life and teachings are the four canonical gospels. Most critical scholars believe that other parts of the New Testament are also useful for reconstructing Jesus' life; some scholars believe apocryphal texts such as the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel according to the Hebrews are also relevant.
Most critical historians 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. Critical Biblical scholars and historians 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.
Christians traditionally believe that Jesus was born of a virgin, arguing that he fulfilled many Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. The majority of Christians worship Jesus as the incarnation of God the Son, one of three divine persons of a Trinity. A few Christian groups, however, reject Trinitarianism, wholly or partly, believing it to be non-scriptural.
Judaism rejects assertions that Jesus was the awaited Messiah, arguing that he did not fulfill the Messianic prophecies in the Tanakh. In Islam, Jesus (, commonly transliterated as ) is considered one of God's important prophets, a bringer of scripture, and the product of a virgin birth; but did not experience a crucifixion. Islam and the Baha'i Faith use the title "Messiah" for Jesus, but do not teach that he was God incarnate.
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.
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 comes from Clement of Alexandria, who describes Egyptian Christians as celebrating it on May 20, although other early sources have Christians celebrating the event in March, April, or January. According to Epiphaneus, Christians in the East had largely settled on January 6 by the 4th century. The wide-spread affiliation of Christmas with the Roman festival of Sol Invictus is disputable: there is no evidence that the feast of Sol Invictus was affixed by Aurelian to December 25. The celebration of Sol Invictus feast on December 25 is not mentioned until the calendar of 354 and, subsequently, in 362 by Julian the Apostate in his Oration to King Helios. However, there is no month of the year to which respectable authorities have not assigned Jesus' birth.
Most Christians commemorate the crucifixion on Good Friday and celebrate the resurrection on Easter Sunday.
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.
Some contemporary scholars generally view the genealogies as theological constructs. 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". Luke also mentions that Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist, was a "cousin" or "relative" of Mary, which would make John a distant cousin of Jesus.
Of the four Gospels, the Nativity (birth) is mentioned only in the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke. According to these accounts, Jesus was born to Joseph and Mary, his betrothed, in Bethlehem. Both support the doctrine of the Virgin Birth in which Jesus was miraculously conceived in his mother's womb by the Holy Spirit, when his mother was still a virgin.
In Luke, the angel Gabriel visits Mary to tell her that she was chosen to bear the Son of God. An order of Caesar Augustus had forced Mary and Joseph to leave their homes in Nazareth and travel to Bethlehem, the home of Joseph's ancestors, the house of David, for the Census of Quirinius. After Jesus' birth, the couple was forced to use a manger in place of a crib because of a shortage of accommodation. 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).
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. 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"). 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.
Jesus' childhood home is identified as the town of Nazareth in Galilee. 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. However, infancy gospels began to appear around the beginning of the 2nd century.
In Mark, Jesus is called a tekton, usually understood to mean carpenter. Matthew says he was the son of a tekton.
Mark starts his narration with Jesus' baptism, specifying that it is a token of repentance and for forgiveness of sins. 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". In Matthew, God's public dedication informs the reader that Jesus has become God's anointed ("Christ").
The Gospel of John does not describe Jesus' baptism, or the subsequent Temptation, but it does attest that Jesus is the very one about whom John the Baptist 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 the Baptist. In the synoptics, Jesus speaks in parables and aphorisms, exorcises demons, champions the poor and oppressed, and teaches mainly about the Kingdom of God. In John, Jesus speaks in long discourses, with himself as the theme of his teaching. The Synoptic Gospels suggest a span of only one year. In the synoptics, Jesus' ministry takes place mainly in Galilee, until he travels to Jerusalem, where he cleanses the Temple and is executed. In John, his ministry in and around Jerusalem is more prominently described, cleansing the temple at his ministry's beginning.
In Mark, the disciples are strangely obtuse, failing to understand Jesus' deeds and parables. In Matthew, Jesus directs the apostles' mission only to those of the house of Israel, Luke places a special emphasis on the women who followed Jesus, such as Mary Magdalene.
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. 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.
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. The Transfiguration is a turning point in Jesus ministry.
In Mark, Jesus' identity as the Messiah is obscured (see Messianic secret). 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. In John, and not in the synoptics, Jesus is outspoken about his divine identity and mission. Here Jesus uses the phrase "I am" in talking of himself in ways that designate God in the Hebrew Bible, a statement taken by some writers as claiming identity with God.
In Mark and Matthew, Jesus is anguished in the face of his fate. He prays and accepts God's will, but his chosen disciples repeatedly fall asleep on the watch.
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.
(Behold the Man!) Pontius Pilate presents a scourged Jesus of Nazareth to onlookers. Illustration by Antonio Ciseri, 19th c.]]
The Gospels all record appearances by Jesus, including an appearance to the eleven apostles. 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.
In Mark and Luke, Jesus ascends to the heavens; after these appearances. In Luke, Jesus ascends on Easter Sunday evening when he is with his disciples. The name "Jesus" comes from an alternate spelling of the Latin (Iēsus) which in turn comes from the Greek name Iesous (). In the Septuagint, is used as the Greek version of the Hebrew name Yehoshua (, "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. Thus, the name has been translated into English as "Joshua".
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 , "Anointed One" in reference to priests, and kings and King Cyrus. 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.
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.
Some have suggested that other titles applied to Jesus in the New Testament had meanings in the 1st century quite different from those meanings ascribed today. 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. However, a number of New Testament scholars argue that Jesus himself made no claims to being God. Most Christians identified Jesus as divine from a very early period, although holding a variety of views as to what exactly this implied.
The principal sources of information regarding Jesus' life and teachings are the four gospels. Scholars conclude the authors of the gospels wrote a few decades after Jesus' crucifixion (between 60-100AD), in some cases using sources (the author of Luke-Acts references this explicitly). A great majority of biblical scholars accept the historical existence of Jesus.
The English title of Albert Schweitzer's 1906 book, The Quest of the Historical Jesus, is a label for the post-Enlightenment effort to describe Jesus using critical historical methods. Since the end of the 18th century, scholars have examined the gospels and tried to formulate historical biographies of Jesus. 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 2nd 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, and in terms of conflicts among Jews in the context of Roman occupation.
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. Scholars commonly surmise that Jesus' eschatology was apocalyptic, like John's.
Parables – Jesus taught in pithy parables and with striking images. His teaching was marked by hyperbole and unusual twists of phrase. that have great effects. Significantly, he never described the Kingdom in military terms. Associated with this main theme, Jesus taught that one should rely on prayer and expect prayer to be effective.
The Gospels report that Jesus foretold his own Passion, but the actions of the disciples suggest that it came as a surprise to them.
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. After the fall of the Temple, the Pharisee outlook was established in Rabbinic Judaism. Some scholars speculate that Jesus was himself a Pharisee. In Jesus' day, the two main schools of thought among the Pharisees were the House of Hillel, which had been founded by the eminent Tanna, Hillel the Elder, and the House of Shammai. Jesus' assertion of hypocrisy may have been directed against the stricter members of the House of Shammai, although he also agreed with their teachings on divorce. Jesus also commented on the House of Hillel's teachings (Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 31a) concerning the greatest commandment and the Golden Rule. Historians do not know whether there were Pharisees in Galilee during Jesus' life, or what they would have been like.
Essenes were apocalyptic ascetics, one of the three (or four) major Jewish schools of the time, though they were not mentioned in the New Testament. Some scholars theorize that Jesus was an Essene, or close to them. Among these scholars is Pope Benedict XVI, who supposes in his book on Jesus that "it appears that not only John the Baptist, but possibly Jesus and his family as well, were close to the Qumran community."
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. 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.
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. The books of the New Testament had mostly been written by 100 AD/CE, making them, at least the synoptic gospels, historically relevant. The Gospel tradition certainly preserves several fragments of Jesus' teaching. The Gospel of Mark is believed to have been written c. 70 AD/CE. Matthew is placed at being sometime after this date and Luke is thought to have been written between 70 and 100 AD/CE. According to the majority viewpoint, the gospels were written not by the evangelists identified by tradition but by non-eyewitnesses who worked with second-hand sources and who modified their accounts to suit their religious agendas. 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". Short, memorable parables and aphorisms capable of being transmitted orally are also thought more likely to be authentic.
A minority of prominent scholars, such as J. A. T. Robinson, have maintained that the writers of the gospels of Matthew, Mark and John were either apostles and eyewitness to Jesus' ministry and death, or were close to those who had been. 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.
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 a historical Jesus. Professor of Divinity James Dunn describes the mythical Jesus theory as a 'thoroughly dead thesis'.
Christians profess Jesus to be the only Son of God, the Lord, and the eternal Word (which is a translation of the Greek Logos), who became man in the incarnation, so that those who believe in him might have eternal life. They further hold that he was born of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit in an event described as the miraculous virgin birth or incarnation.
A nearly universal belief within Christianity is that the Godhead is triune ("Trinity"). As the ancient Athanasian Creed is worded, the Trinity is "one God" and "three persons... and yet they are not three Gods, but one God." The doctrine of the Trinity has been rejected by many non-Christians throughout its history. They teach that Jesus is a separate and distinct being from God the Father and the Holy Spirit, and that Biblical references to the Father and the Son being one do not indicate a unity of being. While most of these groups refer to themselves as Christian, they are not generally accepted by Mainline Protestants and more conservative denominations because of the extra-biblical and unorthodox teachings of these groups. Some religious groups that do not accept the doctrine of the Trinity include The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), Unitarianism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Oneness Pentecostals, Sabbatarian Churches of God and the Christadelphians. (See also Nontrinitarianism)
Benedict XVI, in his book, Jesus of Nazareth, readily and gratefully acknowledges that, thanks to historical-critical scholarship, we know much more, today, about the different literary genres of the Bible; about the ways in which a Gospel writer's intent affected his portrait of Jesus; about the theological struggles within early Christianity that shaped a particular Christian community's memory of its Lord. The difficulty, according to Benedict XVI, is that, "amidst all the knowledge gained in the biblical dissecting room, the Jesus of the Gospels has tended to disappear, to be replaced by a given scholar's reconstruction from the bits and pieces left on the dissecting room floor." And that makes what Benedict calls "intimate friendship with Jesus" much more difficult, not just for scholars, but for everyone.
Judaism, including Orthodox Judaism, Hareidi Judaism, Reform Judaism, and Conservative Judaism, holds the view 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.
The Babylonian Talmud and Toledot Yeshu include stories of Yeshu . This name is etymologically unconnected to the Hebrew or Aramaic words for Joshua, and many religious Jews read it as the acronym for Yimakh sh'mo u'shem zikhro (meaning "be his name and memory erased"), an expression used to describe deceased enemies. Historians agree that these narratives do not refer to a historical Jesus. Historians disagree as to whether these stories represent a Jewish comment on and reaction against the Christian Jesus, or refer to someone unconnected to Jesus.
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". 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." 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.}}
According to Conservative Judaism, Jews who believe Jesus is the Messiah have "crossed the line out of the Jewish community". Reform Judaism, the modern progressive movement, states "For us in the Jewish community anyone who claims that Jesus is their savior is no longer a Jew and is an apostate".
According to Geza Vermes, the historical Jesus was a Jew in good standing. Modern Jews, he says, would find the historical Jesus an appealing figure, one quite different from the Christ of the Gospels.
Mainstream Islam considers Jesus an ordinary man who, like other prophets, had been divinely chosen to spread God's message. Jesus is seen in Islam as a precursor to Muhammad, and is believed by Muslims to have foretold the latter's coming. 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.
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, 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, and is discussed at length by Grönbold and Klatt.
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.
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", 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", 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". and a different, or expanded purpose. Bahá'ís believe that Bahá'u'lláh is, in both respects, the return of Jesus.
Manichaeism accepted Jesus as a prophet, along with Gautama Buddha and Zoroaster.
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. The Jesus Seminar portrays Jesus as an itinerant preacher who taught peace and love, rights for women and respect for children, and who spoke out against the hypocrisy of religious leaders and the rich. Thomas Jefferson, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States and a deist, created the Jefferson Bible entitled "The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth" that included only Jesus' ethical teachings because he did not believe in Jesus' divinity or any of the other supernatural aspects of the Bible.
* New Testament Jesus
* General topics
* Fuller, Reginald H., The Foundations of New Testament Christology. New York: Scribners, 1965. ISBN 0-227-17075-X
Category:0s BC births Category:1st-century deaths Category:1st-century executions Category:Apocalypticists Category:Carpenters Category:Christian mythology Category:Christian religious leaders Category:Creator gods Category:Deified people Category:Founders of religions Category:God in Christianity Category:Islamic mythology Category:Jewish Messiah claimants Category:Life-death-rebirth gods Category:Messianism Category:New Testament people Category:People executed by crucifixion Category:People executed by the Roman Empire Category:People from Bethlehem Category:People from Nazareth Category:Prophets in Christianity Category:Prophets of Islam Category:Rabbis of the Land of Israel Category:Roman era Jews Category:Savior gods Category:Self-declared messiahs
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![Christmas[2] or Christmas Day[3][4] is an annual holiday celebrated on December 25 that commemorates the birth of Jesus of Nazareth.[5][6] The date of commemoration is not known to be Jesus' actual birthday, and may have initially been chosen to correspond with either a historical Roman festival[7] or the winter solstice.[8] Christmas is central to the Christmas and holiday season, and in Christianity marks the beginning of the larger season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days.](http://web.archive.org./web/20110212055347im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/09/d5/3c0a49e352c899178cd7a1e74289_grande.jpg "Christmas[2] or Christmas Day[3][4] is an annual holiday celebrated on December 25 that commemorates the birth of Jesus of Nazareth.[5][6] The date of commemoration is not known to be Jesus' actual birthday, and may have initially been chosen to correspond with either a historical Roman festival[7] or the winter solstice.[8] Christmas is central to the Christmas and holiday season, and in Christianity marks the beginning of the larger season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days.")
![Christmas[2] or Christmas Day[3][4] is an annual holiday celebrated on December 25 that commemorates the birth of Jesus of Nazareth.[5][6] The date of commemoration is not known to be Jesus' actual birthday, and may have initially been chosen to correspond with either a historical Roman festival[7] or the winter solstice.[8] Christmas is central to the Christmas and holiday season, and in Christianity marks the beginning of the larger season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days.](http://web.archive.org./web/20110212055347im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/09/d5/3c0a49e352c899178cd7a1e74289_thumb.jpg "Christmas[2] or Christmas Day[3][4] is an annual holiday celebrated on December 25 that commemorates the birth of Jesus of Nazareth.[5][6] The date of commemoration is not known to be Jesus' actual birthday, and may have initially been chosen to correspond with either a historical Roman festival[7] or the winter solstice.[8] Christmas is central to the Christmas and holiday season, and in Christianity marks the beginning of the larger season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days.")
