The Bible (from Greek ''ta biblia'' "the books") is the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books (Biblical canon), their contents and their order vary among denominations. Mainstream Judaism divides the Tanakh into 24 books, while a minority stream of Judaism, the Samaritans, accepts only five. The 24 texts of the Hebrew Bible are divided into 39 books in Christian Old Testaments, and complete Christian Bibles range from the 66 books of the Protestant canon to the 81 books in the Ethiopian Orthodox Bible, to the 84 books of the Eastern Orthodox Bible.

The Jewish Bible, or ''Tanakh'', is divided into three parts: (1) the five books of the ''Torah'' ("teaching" or "law"), comprising the origins of the Israelite nation, its laws and its covenant with the God of Israel; (2) the ''Nevi'im'' ("prophets"), containing the historic account of ancient Israel and Judah plus works of prophecy; and (3) the ''Ketuvim'' ("writings"): poetic and philosophical works such as the Psalms and the Book of Job.

The Christian Bible is divided into two parts. The first is called the Old Testament, containing the (minimum) 39 books of Hebrew Scripture, and the second portion is called the New Testament, containing a set of 27 books. The first four books of the New Testament form the Canonical gospels which recount the life of Christ and are central to the Christian faith. Christian Bibles include the books of the Hebrew Bible, but arranged in a different order: Jewish Scripture ends with the people of Israel restored to Jerusalem and the temple, whereas the Christian arrangement ends with the book of the prophet Malachi. The oldest surviving Christian Bibles are Greek manuscripts from the 4th century; the oldest complete Jewish Bible is a Greek translation, also dating to the 4th century. The oldest complete manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible (the Masoretic text) date from the Middle Ages.

During the three centuries following the establishment of Christianity in the 1st century, Church Fathers compiled Gospel accounts and letters of apostles into a Christian Bible which became known as the New Testament. The Old and New Testaments together are commonly referred to as "The Holy Bible" (). The canonical composition of the Old Testament is under dispute between Christian groups: Protestants hold only the books of the Hebrew Bible to be canonical; Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox additionally consider the deuterocanonical books, a group of Jewish books, to be canonical. The New Testament is composed of the Gospels ("good news"), the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles (letters), and the Book of Revelation.

Etymology

The English word ''Bible'' is from the Latin ''biblia'', from the same word in Medieval Latin and Late Latin and ultimately from Greek ''ta biblia'' "the books" (singular ''biblion'').

Middle Latin ''biblia'' is short for ''biblia sacra'' "holy book", while ''biblia'' in Greek and Late Latin is neuter plural (gen. ''bibliorum''). It gradually came to be regarded as a feminine singular noun (''biblia,'' gen. ''bibliae'') in medieval Latin, and so the word was loaned as a singular into the vernaculars of Western Europe. Latin ''biblia sacra'' "holy books" translates Greek ''ta biblia ta hagia'', "the holy books".

The word itself had the literal meaning of "paper" or "scroll" and came to be used as the ordinary word for "book". It is the diminutive of ''bublos'', "Egyptian papyrus", possibly so called from the name of the Phoenician port Byblos (also known as Gebal) from whence Egyptian papyrus was exported to Greece. The Greek ''ta biblia'' (lit. "little papyrus books") was "an expression Hellenistic Jews used to describe their sacred books (the Septuagint). Christian use of the term can be traced to ca. AD 223.

Jewish canon

Development of the Jewish canon

Tanakh (Hebrew: ) reflects the threefold division of the Hebrew Scriptures, Torah ("Teaching"), Nevi'im ("Prophets") and Ketuvim ("Writings"). The Hebrew Bible probably was canonized in three stages: 1) the Law - canonized after the Exile, 2) the Prophets - by the time of the Syrian persecution of the Jews, 3) and the Writings - shortly after 70 CE (the fall of Jerusalem). About that time, early Christian writings began to be accepted by Christians as "scripture". These events, taken together, may have caused the Jews to close their "canon". They listed their own recognized Scriptures, and excluded both Christian and Jewish writings considered by them to be "apocryphal". In this canon the thirty-nine books found in the Old Testament of today's Protestant Bibles were grouped together as twenty-two books, equaling the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet. This canon of Jewish scripture is attested to by Philo, Josephus, and the Talmud.

Torah

The Torah, or "Instruction", is also known as the "Five Books" of Moses, thus Chumash from Hebrew meaning "fivesome", and Pentateuch from Greek meaning "five scroll-cases". The Hebrew book titles come from some of the first words in the respective texts.

The Torah comprises the following five books: # Genesis, Ge—Bereshith (בראשית) # Exodus, Ex—Shemot (שמות) # Leviticus, Le—Vayikra (ויקרא) # Numbers, Nu—Bamidbar (במדבר) # Deuteronomy, Dt—Devarim (דברים)

The Torah focuses on three moments in the changing relationship between God and the Jewish people. The first eleven chapters of Genesis provide accounts of the creation (or ordering) of the world and the history of God's early relationship with humanity. The remaining thirty-nine chapters of Genesis provide an account of God's covenant with the Hebrew patriarchs—Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (also called Israel)—and Jacob's children—the "Children of Israel"—especially Joseph. It tells of how God commanded Abraham to leave his family and home in the city of Ur, eventually to settle in the land of Canaan, and how the Children of Israel later moved to Egypt. The remaining four books of the Torah tell the story of Moses, who lived hundreds of years after the patriarchs. He leads the Children of Israel from their liberation from slavery in Ancient Egypt, to the renewal of their covenant with God at Mount Sinai and their wanderings in the desert until a new generation was ready to enter the land of Canaan. The Torah ends with the death of Moses.

The Torah contains the commandments of God, revealed at Mount Sinai (although there is some debate amongst Jewish scholars as to whether these were all written down at one time, or over a period of time during the 40 years of the wanderings in the desert). These commandments provide the basis for Halakha (Jewish religious law). Tradition states that there are 613 Mitzvot or 613 commandments. There is some dispute as to how to divide these up (mainly between the rabbis Ramban and Rambam).

The Torah is divided into fifty-four portions which in the Jewish liturgy are read on successive Sabbaths, from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Deuteronomy. The cycle ends and recommences at the end of Sukkot, which is called Simchat Torah.

Nevi'im

The Nevi'im, or "Prophets", tell the story of the rise of the Hebrew monarchy, its division into two kingdoms, and the prophets who, in God's name, warned the kings and the Children of Israel about the punishment of God. It ends with the conquest of the Kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians followed by the conquest of the Kingdom of Judah by the Babylonians and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. Portions of the prophetic books are read by Jews on the Sabbath (Shabbat). The Book of Jonah is read on Yom Kippur.

According to Jewish tradition, the Nevi'im are divided into eight books. Contemporary translations subdivide these into twenty-one books.

The Nevi'im comprise the following eight books:

#

Joshua, Js—Yehoshua (יהושע) # Judges, Jg—Shoftim (שופטים) # Samuel, includes First and Second 1Sa–2Sa—Sh'muel (שמואל) # Kings, includes First and Second, 1Ki–2Ki—Melakhim (מלכים) # Isaiah, Is—Yeshayahu (ישעיהו) # Jeremiah, Je—Yirmiyahu (ירמיהו) # Ezekiel, Ez—Yekhezkel (יחזקאל) # Twelve, includes all Minor Prophets—Tre Asar (תרי עשר) #* A. Hosea, Ho—Hoshea (הושע) #* B. Joel, Jl—Yoel (יואל) #* C. Amos, Am—Amos (עמוס) #* D. Obadiah, Ob—Ovadyah (עבדיה) #* E. Jonah, Jh—Yonah (יונה) #* F. Micah, Mi—Mikhah (מיכה) #* G. Nahum, Na—Nahum (נחום) #* H. Habakkuk, Hb—Havakuk (חבקוק) #* I. Zephaniah, Zp—Tsefanya (צפניה) #* J. Haggai, Hg—Khagay (חגי) #* K. Zechariah, Zc—Zekharyah (זכריה) #* L. Malachi, Ml—Malakhi (מלאכי)

Ketuvim

The Ketuvim, or "Writings" or "Scriptures," may have been written or compiled during or after the Babylonian Exile. Many of the psalms in the book of Psalms are attributed to David; King Solomon is believed to have written Song of Songs in his youth, Proverbs at the prime of his life, and Ecclesiastes at old age; and the prophet Jeremiah is thought to have written Lamentations. The Book of Ruth is the only biblical book that centers entirely on a non-Jew. The book of Ruth tells the story of a Moabitess who married a Jew and continued to follow the ways of the Jews after her husband's death; according to the Bible, she was the great-grandmother of King David. Five of the books, called "The Five Scrolls" (Megilot), are read on Jewish holidays: Song of Songs on Passover; the Book of Ruth on Shavuot; Lamentations on the Ninth of Av; Ecclesiastes on Sukkot; and the Book of Esther on Purim. Collectively, the Ketuvim contain lyrical poetry, philosophical reflections on life, and the stories of the prophets and other Jewish leaders during the Babylonian exile. It ends with the Persian decree allowing Jews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple.

The Ketuvim comprise the following eleven books, divided, in many modern translations, into twelve through the division of Ezra and Nehemiah:

#

Psalms, Ps—Tehillim (תהלים) # Proverbs, Pr—Mishlei (משלי) # Job, Jb—Iyyov (איוב) # Song of Songs, So—Shir ha-Shirim (שיר השירים) # Ruth, Ru—Rut (רות) # Lamentations, La—Eikhah (איכה), also called Kinot (קינות) # Ecclesiastes, Ec—Kohelet (קהלת) # Esther, Es—Ester (אסתר) # Daniel, Dn—Daniel (דניאל) # Ezra, Ea, includes Nehemiah, Ne—Ezra (עזרא), includes Nehemiah (נחמיה) # Chronicles, includes First and Second, 1Ch–2Ch—Divrei ha-Yamim (דברי הימים), also called Divrei (דברי)

Hebrew Bible translations and editions

The Tanakh was mainly written in Biblical Hebrew, with some portions (notably in Daniel and Ezra) in Biblical Aramaic.

The Oral Torah

According to some Jews during the Hellenistic period, such as the Sadducees, only a minimal oral tradition of interpreting the words of the Torah existed, which did not include extended biblical interpretation. According to the Pharisees, however, God revealed both a Written Torah and an Oral Torah to Moses, the Oral Torah consisting of both stories and legal traditions. In Rabbinic Judaism, the Oral Torah is essential for understanding the Written Torah literally (as it includes neither vowels nor punctuation) and exegetically. The Oral Torah has different facets, principally Halacha (laws), the Aggadah (stories), and the Kabbalah (esoteric knowledge). Major portions of the Oral Law have been committed to writing, notably the Mishnah; the Tosefta; Midrash, such as Midrash Rabbah, the Sifre, the Sifra, and the Mechilta; and both the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds as well. It may have even influenced early Jewish Christianity.

Orthodox Judaism continues to accept the Oral Torah in its totality. Masorti and Conservative Judaism state that the Oral Tradition is to some degree divinely inspired, but disregard its legal elements in varying degrees. Reform Judaism also gives some credence to the Talmud containing the legal elements of the Oral Torah, but, as with the written Torah, asserts that both were inspired by, but not dictated by, God. Reconstructionist Judaism denies any connection of the Torah, Written or Oral, with God.

The article ''Jewish commentaries on the Bible'' discusses the Jewish understanding of the Bible, including Bible commentaries from the ancient Targums to classical Rabbinic literature, the midrash literature, the classical medieval commentators, and modern day Jewish Bible commentaries.

Septuagint

The Septuagint was a Greek translation of the Jewish scriptures. The Septuagint included books and additions not found in the Hebrew Bible. Modern Jewish Bibles follow the Masoretic Text rather than the Septuagint. The Septuagint splits certain books in two, so that the book of Kings, for example, became First Kings and Second Kings. Christian Bibles maintain these divisions. The Septuagint was adopted as the Christian Old Testament.

Christian canons

The Christian Bible consists of the Hebrew scriptures of Judaism, which are known as the Old Testament; and later writings recording the lives and teachings of Jesus and his followers, known as the New Testament. "Testament" is a translation of the Greek διαθηκη (''diatheke''), also often translated "covenant." It is a legal term denoting a formal and legally binding declaration of benefits to be given by one party to another (e.g., "last will and testament" in secular use). Here it does not connote mutuality; rather, it is a unilateral covenant offered by God to individuals.

Groups within Christianity include differing books as part of one or both of these "Testaments" of their sacred writings—most prominent among which are the biblical apocrypha or deuterocanonical books.

Significant versions of the English Christian Bible include the Douay-Rheims, the RSV, the KJV, and the NIV. For a complete list, see List of English Bible translations.

In Judaism, the term ''Christian Bible'' is commonly used to identify only those books like the New Testament which have been added by Christians to the Masoretic Text, and excludes any reference to an ''Old Testament''.

Old Testament

The Old Testament consists of a collection of writings believed to have been composed at various times from the twelfth to the 2nd century BC. The books were written in classical Hebrew, except for brief portions ( and , , ) which are in the Aramaic language, a sister language which became the ''lingua franca'' of the Semitic world. Much of the material, including many genealogies, poems and narratives, is thought to have been handed down by word of mouth for many generations. Very few manuscripts are said to have survived the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.

The Old Testament is accepted by Christians as scripture. Broadly speaking, it contains the same material as the Hebrew Bible. However, the order of the books is not entirely the same as that found in Hebrew manuscripts and in the ancient versions and varies from Judaism in interpretation and emphasis (see for example Isaiah 7:14). Christian denominations disagree about the incorporation of a small number of books into their canons of the Old Testament. A few groups consider particular translations to be divinely inspired, notably the Greek Septuagint, the Aramaic Peshitta, and the English King James Version.

Apocryphal or deuterocanonical books

The Septuagint (Greek translation, from Alexandria in Egypt under the Ptolemies) was generally abandoned in favour of the Masoretic text as the basis for translations of the Old Testament into Western languages from St. Jerome's Bible (the Vulgate) to the present day. In Eastern Christianity, translations based on the Septuagint still prevail. Some modern Western translations make use of the Septuagint to clarify passages in the Masoretic text, where the Septuagint may preserve a variant reading of the Hebrew text. They also sometimes adopt variants that appear in other texts e.g. those discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls.

A number of books which are part of the Peshitta or Greek Septuagint but are not found in the Hebrew (Rabbinic) Bible are often referred to as deuterocanonical books by Roman Catholics referring to a later secondary (i.e. deutero) canon. Most Protestants term these books as apocrypha. Evangelicals and those of the Modern Protestant traditions do not accept the deuterocanonical books as canonical, although Protestant Bibles included them in Apocrypha sections until around the 1820s. However, the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches include these books as part of their Old Testament.

The Roman Catholic Church recognizes:

Tobit

Judith

1 Maccabees

2 Maccabees

Wisdom

Sirach (or Ecclesiasticus)

Baruch

The Letter of Jeremiah (Baruch Chapter 6)

Greek Additions to Esther

The Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Holy Children

Susanna

Bel and the Dragon

In addition to those, the Greek and Russian Orthodox Churches recognize the following:

3 Maccabees

1 Esdras

Prayer of Manasseh

Psalm 151

Some other Eastern Orthodox Churches include:

2 Esdras i.e., Latin Esdras in the Russian and Georgian Bibles

There is also 4 Maccabees which is only accepted as canonical in the Georgian Church, but was included by St. Jerome in an appendix to the Vulgate, and is an appendix to the Greek Orthodox Bible, and it therefore sometimes included in collections of the Apocrypha.

The Anglican Churches uses some of the Apocryphal books liturgically. Therefore, editions of the Bible intended for use in the Anglican Church include the Deuterocanonical books accepted by the Catholic Church, plus 1 Esdras, 2 Esdras and the Prayer of Manasseh, which were in the Vulgate appendix.

Role in Christian theology

The Old Testament has always been central to the life of the Christian church. Bible scholar N.T. Wright says Jesus himself was profoundly shaped by the scriptures. He adds that the earliest Christians also searched those same scriptures in their effort to understand the earthly life of Jesus. They regarded the ancient Israelites' scriptures as having reached a climactic fulfillment in Jesus himself, generating the "new covenant" prophesied by Jeremiah.

New Testament

The New Testament is a collection of 27 books, of 4 different genres of Christian literature (Gospels, one account of the Acts of the Apostles, Epistles and an Apocalypse). Jesus is its central figure. The New Testament presupposes the inspiration of the Old (2 Timothy 3:16). Nearly all Christians recognize the New Testament (as stated below) as canonical scripture. These books can be grouped into:

The Gospels

Synoptic Gospels

* Gospel According to Matthew, Mt

* Gospel According to Mark, Mk

* Gospel According to Luke, Lk

Gospel According to John, Jn

Acts of the Apostles, Ac (continues Luke)

Pauline Epistles

Epistle to the Romans, Ro

First Epistle to the Corinthians, 1Co

Second Epistle to the Corinthians, 2Co

Epistle to the Galatians, Ga

Epistle to the Ephesians, Ep

Epistle to the Philippians, Ph

Epistle to the Colossians, Co

First Epistle to the Thessalonians, 1Th

Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, 2Th

Pastoral Epistles

* First Epistle to Timothy, 1Ti

* Second Epistle to Timothy, 2Ti

* Epistle to Titus, Ti

Epistle to Philemon, Pm

Epistle to the Hebrews, He

General Epistles, also called Jewish Epistles

Epistle of James, Jm

First Epistle of Peter, 1Pe

Second Epistle of Peter, 2Pe

First Epistle of John, 1Jn

Second Epistle of John, 2Jn

Third Epistle of John, 3Jn

Epistle of Jude, Jd

Revelation, or the Apocalypse Re

The order of these books varies according to Church tradition. The New Testament books are ordered differently in the Catholic/Protestant tradition, the Slavonic tradition, the Syriac tradition and the Ethiopian tradition.

Original language

The books of the New Testament were written in Koine Greek, the language of the earliest extant manuscripts, even though some authors often included translations from Hebrew and Aramaic texts.

Historic editions

When ancient scribes copied earlier books, they wrote notes on the margins of the page (''marginal glosses'') to correct their text—especially if a scribe accidentally omitted a word or line—and to comment about the text. When later scribes were copying the copy, they were sometimes uncertain if a note was intended to be included as part of the text. See textual criticism. Over time, different regions evolved different versions, each with its own assemblage of omissions and additions.

The ''autographs'', the Greek manuscripts written by the original authors, have not survived. Scholars surmise the original Greek text from the versions that do survive. The three main textual traditions of the Greek New Testament are sometimes called the Alexandrian text-type (generally minimalist), the Byzantine text-type (generally maximalist), and the Western text-type (occasionally wild). Together they comprise most of the ancient manuscripts.

Development of Christian Canons

The Old Testament canon entered into Christian use in the Greek Septuagint translations and original books, and their differing lists of texts. In addition to the Septuagint, Christianity subsequently added various writings that would become the New Testament. Somewhat different lists of accepted works continued to develop in antiquity. In the 4th century a series of synods produced a list of texts equal to the 39, 46(51) ,54, or 57 book canon of the Old Testament and to the 27-book canon of the New Testament that would be subsequently used to today, most notably the Synod of Hippo in AD 393. Also ''c''. 400, Jerome produced a definitive Latin edition of the Bible (see Vulgate), the canon of which, at the insistence of the Pope, was in accord with the earlier Synods. With the benefit of hindsight it can be said that this process effectively set the New Testament canon, although there are examples of other canonical lists in use after this time. A definitive list did not come from an Ecumenical Council until the Council of Trent (1545–63).

During the Protestant Reformation, certain reformers proposed different canonical lists to those currently in use. Though not without debate, see Antilegomena, the list of New Testament books would come to remain the same; however, the Old Testament texts present in the Septuagint but not included in the Jewish canon fell out of favor. In time they would come to be removed from most Protestant canons. Hence, in a Catholic context, these texts are referred to as deuterocanonical books, whereas in a Protestant context they are referred to as the Apocrypha, the label applied to all texts excluded from the biblical canon but which were in the Septuagint. It should also be noted that Catholics and Protestants both describe certain other books, such as the Acts of Peter, as apocryphal.

Thus, the Protestant Old Testament of today has a 39-book canon—the number of books (though not the content) varies from the Tanakh because of a different method of division—while the Roman Catholic Church recognizes 46 books(51 books with some books combined into 46 books) as the canonical Old Testament. The Orthodox Churches recognise 3 Maccabees, 1 Esdras, Prayer of Manasseh and Psalm 151 in addition to the Catholic canon. Some include 2 Esdras. The Anglican Church also recognises a longer canon. The term "Hebrew Scriptures" is often used as being synonymous with the Protestant Old Testament, since the surviving scriptures in Hebrew include only those books, while Catholics and Orthodox include additional texts that have not survived in Hebrew. Both Catholics and Protestants have the same 27-book New Testament Canon.

The New Testament writers assumed the inspiration of the Old Testament, probably earliest stated in , "all Scripture is inspired of God".

Ethiopian Orthodox canon

The Canon of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is wider than for most other Christian groups. The Ethiopian Old Testament Canon includes the books found in the Septuagint accepted by other Orthodox Christians, in addition to Enoch and Jubilees which are ancient Jewish books that only survived in Ge'ez but are quoted in the New Testament (citation required), also Greek Ezra First and the Apocalypse of Ezra, 3 books of Meqabyan, and Psalm 151 at the end of the Psalter. The three books of Meqabyan are not to be confused with the books of Maccabees. The order of the other books is somewhat different from other groups', as well. The Old Testament follows the Septuagint order for the Minor Prophets rather than the Jewish order.

Belief in divine inspiration

Some Christians adhere to a doctrine of biblical literalism, i.e. they regard both the New and Old Testament as the inerrant Word of God, spoken by God and written down in its perfect form by humans. Others hold the perspective of Biblical infallibility: that the Bible is free from error in spiritual but not scientific matters. "Bible scholars claim that discussions about the Bible must be put into its context within church history and then into the context of contemporary culture."

Belief in sacred texts is attested to in Jewish antiquity, and this belief can also be seen in the earliest of Christian writings. Various texts of the Bible mention Divine agency in relation to prophetic writings, the most explicit being: "All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness."

In their book ''A General Introduction to the Bible'', Norman Geisler and William Nix wrote: "The process of inspiration is a mystery of the providence of God, but the result of this process is a verbal, plenary, inerrant, and authoritative record." Most evangelical biblical scholars associate inspiration with only the original text; for example some American Protestants adhere to the 1978 Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy which asserted that inspiration applied only to the autographic text of Scripture. A minority even within adherents of biblical literalism extend the claim of inerrancy to a particular translation, e.g. the King-James-Only Movement.

Bible versions and translations

Bible versions are discussed below, while Bible translations can be found on a separate page.

The original texts of the Tanakh were in Hebrew, although some portions were in Aramaic. In addition to the authoritative Masoretic Text, Jews still refer to the Septuagint, the translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, and the Targum Onkelos, an Aramaic version of the Bible. There are several different ancient versions of the Tanakh in Hebrew, mostly differing by spelling, and the traditional Jewish version is based on the version known as Aleppo Codex. Even in this version by itself, there are words which are traditionally read differently from written (sometimes one word is written and another is read), because the oral tradition is considered more fundamental than the written one, and presumably mistakes had been made in copying the text over the generations.

The primary biblical text for early Christians was the Septuagint or (LXX). In addition, they translated the Hebrew Bible into several other languages. Translations were made into Syriac, Coptic, Ge'ez and Latin, among other languages. The Latin translations were historically the most important for the Church in the West, while the Greek-speaking East continued to use the Septuagint translations of the Old Testament and had no need to translate the New Testament.

The earliest Latin translation was the Old Latin text, or Vetus Latina, which, from internal evidence, seems to have been made by several authors over a period of time. It was based on the Septuagint, and thus included books not in the Hebrew Bible.

Pope Damasus I assembled the first list of books of the Bible at the Council of Rome in AD 382. He commissioned Saint Jerome to produce a reliable and consistent text by translating the original Greek and Hebrew texts into Latin. This translation became known as the Latin Vulgate Bible and in 1546 at the Council of Trent was declared by the Church to be the only authentic and official Bible in the Latin Rite.

Especially since the Protestant Reformation, Bible translations for many languages have been made. The Bible has seen a notably large number of English language translations.

+ Bible translations, worldwide	Number !! Statistic
6,900	Approximate number of languages spoken in the world today
1,300	Number of translations into new languages currently in progress
1,185	Number of languages with a translation of the New Testament
451	Number of languages with a translation of the Bible (Protestant Canon)

The Bible continues to be translated to new languages, largely by Christian organisations such as Wycliffe Bible Translators, New Tribes Mission and the Bible society.

Biblical criticism

Biblical criticism refers to the investigation of the Bible as a text, and addresses questions such as authorship, dates of composition, and authorial intention. It is not the same as criticism of the Bible, which is an assertion against the Bible being a source of information or ethical guidance, or observations that the Bible may have translation errors.

Higher criticism

In the 17th century Thomas Hobbes collected the current evidence to conclude outright that Moses could not have written the bulk of the Torah. Shortly afterwards the philosopher Baruch Spinoza published a unified critical analysis, arguing that the problematic passages were not isolated cases that could be explained away one by one, but pervasive throughout the five books, concluding that it was "clearer than the sun at noon that the Pentateuch was not written by Moses . . ." Despite determined opposition from Christians, both Catholic and Protestant, the views of Hobbes and Spinoza gained increasing acceptance amongst scholars.

Archaeological and historical research

Biblical archaeology is the archaeology that relates to, and sheds light upon, the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament. It is used to help determine the lifestyle and practices of people living in biblical times.

There are a wide range of interpretations of the existing Biblical archaeology. One broad division includes Biblical maximalism that generally take the view that most of the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible is essentially based on history although presented through the religious viewpoint of its time. It is considered the opposite of biblical minimalism which considers the Bible a purely post-exilic (5th century BC and later) composition. In any case, even accepting Biblical minimalism, the Bible is a historical document containing first-hand information on the Hellenistic and Roman eras, and there is universal scholarly consensus that the events of the Babylonian captivity of the 6th century onward have a basis in history.

On the other hand, the historicity of the biblical account of the history of ancient Israel and Judah of the 10th to 7th centuries BC is disputed in scholarship. The biblical account of the 8th to 7th centuries is widely, but not universally, accepted as historical, while the verdict on the earliest period of the United Monarchy (10th century BC) and the historicity of David is far from clear. For this reason, archaeological evidence providing information on this period, such as the Tel Dan Stele, can potentially be decisive.

Finally, the biblical account of events of the Exodus from Egypt in the Torah, and the migration to the Promised Land and the period of Judges are not considered historical in scholarship.

Regarding the New Testament, the setting being the Roman Empire period in the 1st century, the historical context is well established. There has nevertheless been some debate on the historicity of Jesus, but the mainstream opinion is clearly that Jesus was one of several known historical itinerant preachers in 1st-century Roman Judea, teaching in the context of the religious upheavals and sectarianism of Second Temple Judaism.

See also

Religious text

Biblical studies

Biblical software

Code of Hammurabi

List of major biblical figures

Biblical topics

Alcohol in the Bible

Circumcision in the Bible

Crime and punishment in the Bible

Ethics in the Bible

Murder in the Bible

Slavery in the Bible

Women in the Bible

Summary of Christian eschatological differences

Endnotes

References and further reading

Anderson, Bernhard W. ''Understanding the Old Testament''. ISBN 0-13-948399-3.

Asimov, Isaac. ''Asimov's Guide to the Bible''. New York, NY: Avenel Books, 1981. ISBN 0-517-34582-X.

Berlin, Adele, Marc Zvi Brettler and Michael Fishbane. ''The Jewish Study Bible''. Oxford University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-19-529751-2.

Dever, William G. ''Who Were the Early Israelites and Where Did They Come from?'' Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2003. ISBN 0-8028-0975-8.

Ehrman, Bart D. ''Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why'' New York, NY: HarperSanFrancisco, 2005. ISBN 0-06-073817-0.

Geisler, Norman (editor). ''Inerrancy''. Sponsored by the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy. Zondervan Publishing House, 1980, ISBN 0-310-39281-0.

Head, Tom. ''The Absolute Beginner's Guide to the Bible''. Indianapolis, IN: Que Publishing, 2005. ISBN 0-7897-3419-2

Hoffman, Joel M. ''In the Beginning''. New York University Press, 2004. ISBN 0-8147-3690-4

Lienhard, Joseph T. ''The Bible, The Church, and Authority''. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1995.

Lindsell, Harold. ''The Battle for the Bible''. Zondervan Publishing House, 1978. ISBN 0-310-27681-0

Masalha, Nur, ''The Bible and Zionism: Invented Traditions, Archaeology and Post-Colonialism in Palestine-Israel''. London, Zed Books, 2007.

McDonald, Lee M. and Sanders, James A., eds. ''The Canon Debate''. Hendrickson Publishers (January 1, 2002). 662p. ISBN 1565635175 ISBN 978-1565635173

Miller, John W. ''The Origins of the Bible: Rethinking Canon History'' Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1994. ISBN 0-8091-3522-1.

Riches, John. ''The Bible: A Very Short Introduction'', Oxford University Press, 2000. ISBN 0-19-285343-0

Siku. ''The Manga Bible: From Genesis to Revelation''. Galilee Trade (January 15, 2008). 224p. ISBN 0385524315 ISBN 978-0385524315

Taylor, Hawley O. "Mathematics and Prophecy." ''Modern Science and Christian Faith''. Wheaton: Van Kampen, 1948, pp. 175–83.

''Wycliffe Bible Encyclopedia'', s.vv. "Book of Ezekiel," p. 580 and "prophecy," p. 1410. Chicago: Moody Bible Press, 1986.

Category:Greek loanwords Category:Judeo-Christian topics

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Coordinates	56°09′″N40°25′″N
name	Penn & Teller
birth name	Penn JilletteRaymond Joseph Teller
birth date	Penn Jillette (March 5, 1955) Teller (February 14, 1948)
residence	Las Vegas
othernames	Asparagus Valley Cultural Society
homepage	pennandteller.com
known for	MagicComedy }}

Penn & Teller (Penn Jillette and Teller) are Las Vegas headliners whose act is an amalgam of illusion and comedy. Penn Jillette is a raconteur; Teller generally uses mime while performing, although his voice can occasionally be heard throughout their performance. They specialize in gory tricks, exposing frauds, and performing clever pranks, and have become associated with Las Vegas, atheism, scientific skepticism, and libertarianism.

Careers

On 19 August 1975, Penn & Teller did their first show together at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. Penn and Teller were introduced to one another by Weir Chrisimer. From the late 1970s through 1981, the three made up an act called "Asparagus Valley Cultural Society" which played in San Francisco at the Phoenix Theater. This act was sillier and less "edgy" than today's Penn & Teller act. Chrisimer helped to develop some bits that continued, most notably Teller's "Shadows" trick, which involves a single red rose.

By 1985, Penn & Teller were receiving rave reviews for their Off Broadway show and Emmy award-winning PBS special, ''Penn & Teller Go Public''. In 1987, they began the first of two successful Broadway runs. Through the late 1980s and early 1990s, the duo made numerous television appearances on ''Late Night with David Letterman'' and ''Saturday Night Live'', as well as ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'', ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'', ''Today'', and many others.

Penn & Teller had national tours throughout the 1990s, gaining critical praise. They have also made television guest appearances on ''Babylon 5'' (as the comedy team ''Rebo and Zooty''), ''The Drew Carey Show'', a few episodes of ''Hollywood Squares'' from 1998 until 2004, ABC's ''Muppets Tonight'', FOX's ''The Bernie Mac Show'', an episode of the game show ''Fear Factor'' on NBC, NBC's ''The West Wing'', in a two-part episode of the final season of ABC's ''Home Improvement'' in 1998, four episodes during season 1 of ''Sabrina, the Teenage Witch'' in 1996, NBC's ''Las Vegas'', and FOX's ''The Simpsons'' episodes Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder and The Great Simpsina and ''Futurama'' film ''Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder'' in 2009. They also appeared as Three-card Monte scam artists in the music video for "It's Tricky" by Run-DMC in 1987, and were thrown out of a Las Vegas hotel room in the music video for "Waking Up in Vegas" by Katy Perry in 2009.

Their Showtime Network television show ''Bullshit!'' takes a skeptical look at psychics, religion, the pseudoscientific, conspiracy theories, and the paranormal. It has also featured critical segments on gun control, astrology, Feng Shui, environmental issues, PETA, weight loss, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the war on drugs.

On ''Bullshit!'', the duo describe their social and political views as libertarian.

They have also described themselves as teetotalers. Their book, ''Penn & Teller's How to Play in Traffic'', explains that they avoid absolutely all alcohol and other drugs, including caffeine, though they do appear to smoke cigarettes in some videos. Penn has said that he has never even tasted alcohol, and that his tolerance for certain drugs is so low that his doctor only had to administer a minute amount of anesthetic relative to what one would expect necessary for a man of his size to undergo surgery.

The pair have written several books about magic, including ''Penn & Teller's Cruel Tricks For Dear Friends'', ''Penn & Teller's How to Play with Your Food'', and ''Penn & Teller's How to Play in Traffic''. Since 2001, Penn & Teller have performed six nights a week (or as Penn puts it on ''Bullshit!'': "Every night of the week . . . except Fridays!") in Las Vegas at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino.

Penn Jillette hosted a weekday one-hour talk show on Infinity Broadcasting's Free FM radio network from January 3, 2006 to March 2, 2007 with cohost Michael Goudeau. He also hosted the game show ''Identity'', which debuted on December 18, 2006 on NBC.

Penn & Teller have also shown support for the Brights movement and are now listed on the movement's homepage under the Enthusiastic Brights section. According to an article in Wired magazine, their license plates are customized so they read, "Atheist" and "Godless", and when Penn signs autographs, he often writes down, "there is no God" with his signature.

Off-stage relationship

Penn Jillette has told interviewer Larry King that a big part of the duo's success and longevity is due to their never having been close friends. They enjoy working together immensely, but have little in common besides magic. As a result of their drastically different lifestyles and interests, they rarely socialize or interact when not working. Jillette believes that their partnership succeeds precisely because they give each other a great deal of space off-stage.

Tricks

Their tricks include Teller hanging upside-down over a cushion of spikes in a straitjacket, Teller submerged in a huge container of water, Teller being run over by an 18-wheel tractor-trailer, Teller swinging going through Penn's hands. Many of their effects rely heavily on shock appeal and violence, although presented in a humorous manner.

Sometimes, the pair will claim to reveal a secret of how a magic trick is done, but those tricks are usually invented by the duo for the sole purpose of exposing them, and therefore designed with more spectacular and weird methods than would have been necessary had it just been a "proper" magic trick. For example, in the "reveal" of one trick, while Teller waits for his cue, he reads magazines and eats a snack. Another example is their rendition of the cups and balls, using transparent cups.

Penn and Teller perform their own adaptation of the famous bullet catch illusion. Each simultaneously fires a gun at the other, through small panes of glass, and then "catches" the other's bullet in his mouth. They also have an assortment of card tricks in their repertoire, virtually all of them involving the force of the Three of Clubs on an unsuspecting audience member as this card is easy for viewers to identify on television cameras.

The duo will sometimes perform tricks that discuss the intellectual underpinnings of magic. One of their acts, titled "Magician vs. Juggler", features Teller performing card tricks while Penn juggles and delivers a monologue on the difference between the two: jugglers start as socially aware children who go outside and learn juggling with other children; magicians are misfits who stay in the house and teach themselves magic tricks out of spite.

In one of their most politically charged tricks, they make a U.S. flag seem to disappear by wrapping it in a copy of the United States Bill of Rights, and apparently setting the flag on fire, so that "the flag is gone but the Bill of Rights remains." The act may also feature the "Chinese bill of rights", presented as a transparent piece of acetate. They normally end the routine by restoring the unscathed flag to its starting place on the flagpole; however, on a TV guest appearance on ''The West Wing'' this final part was omitted.

One of their more recent tricks involves a powered nail gun with a quantity of missing nails from the series of nails in its magazine. Penn begins by firing several apparently real nails into a board in front of him. He then proceeds to fire the nailgun into the palm of his hand several times, while suffering no injuries. His pattern builds as he oscillates between firing blanks into his hand and firing nails into the board. While performing he states that the trick is merely memorization, and explains that the fact that he does not flinch when he could be firing a nail into his hand should be a sign that the trick is not actually dangerous. A later revision to the trick replaced the false claims of memorization with a more open explanation, allowing the audience to enjoy the rhythm of the nail gun without fear of a serious mishap.

A trick introduced in 2010 is a modern version of the bag escape, replacing the traditional sack with a black trash bag apparently filled with helium. Teller is placed in the bag which is then pumped full of helium and sealed by an audience member. For the escape, the audience are blinded by a bright light for a second and when they are able to see again, Teller has escaped from the bag and Penn is holding it, still full of helium, above his head, before releasing it to float to the ceiling. The duo had hoped to put the trick in their mini-tour in London; however, it was first shown to the public in their Las Vegas show on 18 August 2010. In June 2011, Penn and Teller performed this trick for the first time in the United Kingdom on their show ''Fool Us''.

Filmography

Film

! Year	! Film	! Role	! Notes
	''Penn & Teller Get Killed''	Themselves
	''Penn & Teller's Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends''	Themselves
		Themselves	Penn also co-directed the film

Television

! Year(s)	! Title	! Role	! Notes
1985	''Penn & Teller Go Public''	Themselves	On KCET Los Angeles
1985 - 1986	''Saturday Night Live''	Themselves	7 Episodes
1993	''FETCH! with Ruff Ruffman''	Themselves	They taught one of the show's contestants, Rubye, to perform magic tricks.
1994	''The Unpleasant World of Penn & Teller''	Themselves
1995	''Phobophilia''	Themselves
1995	''The Drew Carey Show''	Archibald Fenn & Geller	2 Episodes: "Drew Meets Lawyers" (1995) and "See Drew Run" (1997)
1995 - 2008	''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno''	Themselves	4 Episodes: 14 November 1995, 27 November 1998, 13 May 2004, & 25 November 2008
1996 & 1997	''Sabrina, the Teenage Witch''	Drell & Skippy	4 Episodes: "Pilot" (1996), "Terrible Things" (1996), "Jenny's Non-Dream" (1997), & "First Kiss" (1997)
1997	''Muppets Tonight''	Themselves	Episode: "The Gary Cahuenga Episode"
1997 - 2003	''Late Night with Conan O'Brien''	Themselves	3 Episodes: 16 October 1997, 7 June 2000, & 23 January 2003
1998	''Babylon 5''	Rebo & Zooty	Episode: "Day of the Dead"
1998 - 1999	''Penn & Teller's Sin City Spectacular''	Themselves	24 Episodes
1998 - 2000	''The Daily Show with Jon Stewart''	Themselves	2 Episodes: 13 August 1998 & 5 June 2000
1998 - 2004	''Hollywood Squares''	Themselves	60 Episodes
1999	''Home Improvement''	Themselves	2 Episodes: "Knee Deep"
1999 & 2011	''The Simpsons''	Themselves	2 Episodes: "Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder" (1999) and "The Great Simpsina" (2011)
2002	''Grand Illusions: The Story of Magic''	Themselves	Discovery Channel documentary: Penn & Teller present 200 years of the history of stage magic
2002	''Fear Factor''	Themselves	Episode: "Celebrity Fear Factor 3"
2003		Themselves	Episode: "Luck Be a Lady"
2003	''Penn & Teller's Magic and Mystery Tour''	Themselves	3 Part mini-series
2003	''The Bernie Mac Show''	Themselves	Episode: "Magic Jordan"
2003 - 2010		Themselves	85 Episodes
2004	''The West Wing''	Themselves	Episode: "In The Room"
2004 - 2010	''Last Call with Carson Daly''	Themselves	6 Episodes: 13 July 2004, 16 November 2005, 5 April 2007, 16 June 2008, 5 April 2010, & 5 May 2010
2007 & 2008	''Late Show with David Letterman''	Themselves	2 Episodes: #15.32 & #15.113
2009	''Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder''	Themselves
2009	The Great American Road Trip	Themselves	Guests
2011	''Penn & Teller: Fool Us''	Themselves	7 Episodes (ongoing), ITV1 (UK)
2011	''Penn & Teller: Tell a Lie''	Themselves	Starts Fall of 2011

Books

''Penn & Teller's How to Play in Traffic'' (1997, ISBN 1-57297-293-9)

''Penn & Teller's How to Play with Your Food'' (1992, ISBN 0-679-74311-1)

''Penn & Teller's Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends'' (1989, ISBN 0-394-75351-8)

''Sock '' 2004, ISBN 0-312-32805-2 (Penn Jillette sole author)

''How to Cheat Your Friends at Poker: The Wisdom of Dickie Richard'' 2006, ISBN 0-312-34905-X (Penn Jillette and Mickey D. Lynn)

''When I'm Dead All This Will Be Yours: Joe Teller—A Portrait By His Kid'' 2000, ISBN 0-922-23322-5 (Teller sole author)

Other Media

Music

''The horse you rode in on by Pigface'' (Penn Jillette only)

''Penn & Teller Present: Music To Look At Boxes By'' (With Mike "Jonesy" Jones)

''Never Mind the Sex Pistols, by Bongos Bass & Bob'' (Penn Jillette with Dean J Seal and Bob "Running" Elk)

''Tattoo of Blood by the Captain Howdy'' (Penn Jillette with Mark Kramer)

''Money Feeds My Music Machine, by the Captain Howdy'' (Penn Jillette with Mark Kramer)

''It's Tricky video, by RunDmc" Penn and Teller shown throughout the video and at the end appear to take over the persona of RunDMC

Jillette also toured with the Residents during the Mole Show, and hosted Ralph Records' 10th Anniversary Radio Special (1982). There is some mild controversy and confusion surrounding this. While the premise of 10th Anniversary Radio Special revolved around Jillette having never heard of the label or any of the bands on it (the Residents included), he was credited as a collaborator on the 1981 album Mark of the Mole, and he can be heard giving news bulletins in the first track. This has led some to speculate that Jillette may have been a Resident at one point.

Penn and Teller also appear in the video of Katy Perry's single, ''Waking up in Vegas'' in which they are kicked out of their hotel room by Perry and her boyfriend. They later kick Perry out again.

Theater

In 2008 Teller co-directed a production of ''Macbeth'' in Red Bank, New Jersey and Washington, DC.

Video games

''Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors'' 1995 - Absolute Entertainment for Sega CD & 3DO, Unreleased.

''Sabrina, the Teenage Witch: Spellbound'' 1998 - Simon & Schuster for PC - Voices for Drell & Skippy

References

External links

Penn's "Hydro-therapeutic stimulator" (aka Jill-jet) patent

A man, a ball, a hoop, a bench (and an alleged thread)… TELLER!

Category:Living people Category:Magician of the year Award winner Category:Celebrity duos Category:American magicians Category:Comedy duos Category:Duos Category:1955 births

de:Penn & Teller es:Penn y Teller fr:Penn & Teller id:Penn & Teller it:Penn & Teller lt:Penas ir Teleris nl:Penn & Teller pl:Penn & Teller pt:Penn & Teller fi:Penn & Teller sv:Penn & Teller ta:பென் அண்டு டெல்லர்

Coordinates	56°09′″N40°25′″N
Name	Jesus
Birth date	7-2 BC/BCE
Language	Aramaic, Koine Greek, (perhaps some Hebrew)
Birth place	Bethlehem, Judaea, Roman Empire (traditional);Nazareth, Galilee (modern critical scholarship)
Death place	Calvary, Judaea, Roman Empire (according to the New Testament, he rose on the third day after his death.)
Death date	30–36 AD/CE
Death cause	Crucifixion
Resting place	Traditionally and temporarily, a garden tomb in Jerusalem
Ethnicity	Jewish
Nationality	Israelite
Religion	Judaism
Home town	Nazareth, Galilee, Roman Empire
Parents	Father: God (Christian view)virginal conception (Islamic view)Mother: Saint MaryAdoptive father: Saint Joseph }}

Jesus of Nazareth, (7–2 BC/BCE – 30–36 AD/CE), commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, 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 are the four canonical gospels, and most biblical scholars find them useful for reconstructing Jesus' life and teachings. Some scholars believe apocryphal texts such as the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of 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 a future apocalypse. Other prominent scholars, however, contend that Jesus' "Kingdom of God" meant radical personal and social transformation instead of a future apocalypse.

Christians traditionally believe that Jesus was born of a virgin, performed miracles, founded the Church, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven, from which he will return. The majority of Christians worship Jesus as the incarnation of God the Son, and "the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity". A few Christian groups, however, reject Trinitarianism, wholly or partly, believing it to be non-scriptural. Most Christian scholars today present Jesus as the awaited Messiah promised in the Old Testament and as God, arguing that he fulfilled many Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament.

Judaism rejects assertions that Jesus was the awaited Messiah, arguing that he did not fulfill the Messianic prophecies in the Tanakh. In Islam, Jesus ( or , commonly transliterated as or , respectively) 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 Bahá'í Faith use the title "Messiah" for Jesus, but do not teach that he was God incarnate.

Etymology of name

“Jesus” () is a transliteration, occurring in a number of languages and based on the Latin ''Iesus'', of the Greek (''''), itself a Hellenisation of the Hebrew (''Yĕhōšuă‘'', Joshua) or Hebrew-Aramaic (''Yēšûă‘'').meaning "Yahweh delivers (or rescues)".

The etymology of the name Jesus is generally explained by Christians as "God's salvation" usually expressed as "Yahweh saves", "Yahweh is salvation" and at times as "Jehovah is salvation". The name Jesus appears to have been in use in Judaea at the time of the birth of Jesus. And Philo's reference (''Mutatione Nominum'' item 121) indicates that the etymology of Joshua was known outside Judaea at the time.

In the New Testament, in Luke 1:26-33 the angel Gabriel tells Mary to name her child Jesus, and in Matthew 1:21 an angel tells Joseph to name the child Jesus. The statement in Matthew 1:21 "you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins" associates salvific attributes to the name Jesus in Christian theology.

"Christ" () is derived from the Greek (''Khristós'') meaning "the anointed one", a translation of the Hebrew מָשִׁיחַ (''''), usually transliterated into English as ''Messiah''. In the Septuagint version of the Hebrew Bible (written well over a century before the time of Jesus), the word Christ was used to translate into Greek the Hebrew word . In Matthew 16:16, Apostle Peter's profession: "You are the Christ" identifies Jesus as the Messiah. In post-biblical usage Christ became a name, one part of the name "Jesus Christ", but originally it was a title (the Messiah) and not a name.

Chronology

Although a few scholars have questioned the existence of Jesus as an actual historical figure, most scholars involved with historical Jesus research believe his existence can be established using documentary and other evidence. As discussed in the sections immediately below, the estimation of the year of death of Jesus places his lifespan around the beginning of the first century AD/CE, in the geographic region of Roman Judaea. The New Testament also refers to the Sea of Galilee which is about 75 miles north of Jerusalem.

Roman involvement in Judaea began around 63 BC/BCE and by 6 AD/CE Judaea had become a Roman province. From 26-37 AD/CE Pontius Pilate was the governor of Roman Judaea. In this time period, although Roman Judaea was strategically positioned between Asia and Africa, it was not viewed as a critically important province by the Romans. The Romans were highly tolerant of other religions and allowed the local populations such as the Jews to practice their own faiths.

Possible year of birth

Two independent approaches have been used to estimate the year of the birth of Jesus, one by analyzing the Nativity accounts in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew along with other historical data, the other by working backwards from the estimation of the start of the ministry of Jesus, as also discussed in the section below.

In their Nativity accounts, both the Gospels of Luke and Matthew associate the birth of Jesus with the reign of Herod the Great, who is generally believed to have died around 4 BC/BCE. Matthew 2:1 states that: "Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king" and Luke 1:5 mentions the reign of Herod shortly before the birth of Jesus. Matthew also suggests that Jesus may have been as much as two years old at the time of the visit of the Magi and hence even older at the time of Herod's death. 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. Most scholars generally assume a date of birth between 6 and 4 BC/BCE. Other scholars assume that Jesus was born sometime between 7–2 BC/BCE.

The year of birth of Jesus has also been estimated in a manner that is independent of the Nativity accounts, by using information in the Gospel of John to work backwards from the statement in Luke 3:23 that Jesus was "about 30 years of age" at the start of his ministry. As discussed in the section below, by combining information from John 2:13 and John 2:20 with the writings of Josephus, it has been estimated that around 27-29 AD/CE, Jesus was "about thirty years of age". Some scholars thus estimate the year 28 AD/CE to be roughly the 32nd birthday of Jesus and the birth year of Jesus to be around 6-4 BC/BCE.

However, the common Gregorian calendar method for numbering years, in which the current year is , is based on the decision of a monk Dionysius in the six century, to count the years from a point of reference (namely, Jesus’ birth) which he placed sometime between 2 BC/BCE and 1 AD/CE. Although Christian feasts related to the Nativity have had specific dates (e.g. December 25 for Christmas) there is no historical evidence for the exact day or month of the birth of Jesus.

Possible dates of ministry

There have been different approaches to estimating the date of the start of the ministry of Jesus. One approach, based on combining information from the Gospel of Luke with historical data about Emperor Tiberius yields a date around 28-29 AD/CE, while a second independent approach based on statements in the Gospel of John along with historical information from Josephus about the Temple in Jerusalem leads to a date around 27-29 AD/CE.

The estimation of the date based on the Gospel of Luke relies on the statement in Luke 3:1-2 that the ministry of John the Baptist which preceded that of Jesus began "in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar". Given that Tiberius began his reign in 14 AD/CE, this yields a date about 28-29 AD/CE.

The estimation of the date based on the Gospel of John uses the statements in John 2:13 that Jesus went to the Temple in Jerusalem around the start of his ministry and in John 2:20 that "Forty and six years was this temple in building" at that time. According to Josephus (Ant 15.380) the temple reconstruction was started by Herod the Great in the 15th-18th year of his reign at about the time that Augustus arrived in Syria (Ant 15.354). Temple expansion and reconstruction was ongoing, and it was in constant reconstruction until it was destroyed in 70 AD/CE by the Romans. Given that it took 46 years of construction, the Temple visit in the Gospel of John has been estimated at around 27-29 AD/CE.

Luke 3:23 states that at the start of his ministry Jesus was "about 30 years of age", but the other Gospels do not mention a specific age. However, in John 8:57 the Jews exclaimed to Jesus: "Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?" suggesting that he was much less than 50 years old during his ministry. The length of the ministry is subject to debate, based on the fact that the Synoptic Gospels mention only one passover during Jesus' ministry, often interpreted as implying that the ministry lasted approximately one year, whereas the Gospel of John records multiple passovers, implying that his ministry may have lasted at least three years.

Possible year and place of death

A number of approaches have been used to estimate the year of the death of Jesus, including information from the Canonical Gospels, the chronology of the life of Paul the Apostle in the New Testament correlated with historical events, as well as different astronomical models, as discussed below.

All four canonical Gospels report that Jesus was crucified in Calvary during the prefecture of Pontius Pilate, the Roman prefect who governed Judaea from 26 to 36 AD/CE. The late 1st century Jewish historian Josephus, writing in ''Antiquities of the Jews'' (''c.'' 93 AD/CE), and the early 2nd century Roman historian Tacitus, writing in ''The Annals'' (''c.'' 116 AD/CE), also state that Pilate ordered the execution of Jesus, though each writer gives him the title of "procurator" instead of prefect.

The estimation of the date of the conversion of Paul places the death of Jesus before this conversion, which is estimated at around 33-36 AD/CE. (Also see the estimation of the start of Jesus' ministry as a few years before this date above). The estimation of the year of Paul's conversion relies on a series of calculations working backwards from the well established date of his trial before Gallio in Achaea Greece (Acts 18:12-17) around 51-52 AD/CE, the meeting of Priscilla and Aquila which were expelled from Rome about 49 AD/CE and the 14-year period before returning to Jerusalem in Galatians 2:1. The remaining period is generally accounted for by Paul's missions (at times with Barnabas) such as those in Acts 11:25-26 and 2 Corinthians 11:23-33, resulting in the 33-36 AD/CE estimate.

For centuries, astronomers and scientists have used diverse computational methods to estimate the date of crucifixion, Isaac Newton being one of the first cases. Newton's method relied on the relative visibility of the crescent of the new moon and he suggested the date as Friday, April 23, 34 AD/CE. In 1990 astronomer Bradley E. Schaefer computed the date as Friday, April 3, 33 AD/CE. In 1991, John Pratt stated that Newton's method was sound, but included a minor error at the end. Pratt suggested the year 33 AD/CE as the answer. Using the completely different approach of a lunar eclipse model, Humphreys and Waddington arrived at the conclusion that Friday, April 3, 33 AD/CE was the date of the crucifixion.

Life and teachings in the New Testament

Although the four canonical gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, are the main sources for the biography of Jesus’ life, other parts of the New Testament, such as the Pauline Epistles which were likely written decades before them, also include references to key episodes in his life such as the Last Supper, as in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26. The Acts of the Apostles (10:37-38 and 19:4) refers to the early ministry of Jesus and its anticipation by John the Baptist. And Acts 1:1-11 says more about the Ascension episode (also mentioned in 1 Timothy 3:16) than the canonical gospels.

The four gospel accounts

Three of the four canonical gospels, namely Matthew, Mark, and Luke, are known as the ''Synoptic Gospels'', from the Greek σύν (syn "together") and ὄψις (opsis "view"). These three gospels display a high degree of similarity in content, narrative arrangement, language and paragraph structures. The presentation in the fourth canonical Gospel, i.e. the John, differs from these three in that it has more of a thematic nature rather than a narrative format. And scholars generally agree that it is impossible to find any direct literary relationship between the synoptic gospels and the Gospel of John.

However, in general, the authors of the New Testament showed little interest in an absolute chronology of Jesus or in synchronizing the episodes of his life with the secular history of the age. The gospels were primarily written as theological documents in the context of early Christianity with the chronological timelines as a secondary consideration. One manifestation of the gospels being theological documents rather than historical chronicles is that they devote about one third of their text to just seven days, namely the last week of the life of Jesus in Jerusalem.

Although the gospels do not provide enough details to satisfy the demands of modern historians regarding exact dates, it is possible to draw from them a general picture of the life story of Jesus. However, as stated in John 21:25 the gospels do not claim to provide an exhaustive list of the events in the life of Jesus.

Gospel sources, similarities and differences

Scholars have debated the sources for the gospels for millenia, and have proposed various hypotheses of how the synoptic gospels were written and how they influenced each other, going back to the Augustinian hypothesis in the 5th century. In the 20th and 21st centuries hypotheses such as the two-source, four-source, Farrer or the Markan priority hypothesis have been debated. Each hypothesis assumes a specific order in which the gospels were written, or that other as yet unknown and hypothetical documents such as the Q source or the M source influenced various gospels in various ways. Each hypotheses has had support among some scholars, while problems with and weaknesses in it have been pointed out by opponents.

Since the 2nd century attempts have been made to ''harmonize'' the gospel accounts into a single narrative; Tatian's Diatesseron perhaps being the first harmony and other works such as Augustine' book ''Harmony of the Gospels'' followed. A number of different approaches to gospel harmony have been proposed in the 20th century, but no single and unique harmony can be constructed. While some scholars argue that combining the four gospel stories into one story is tantamount to creating a fifth story different from each original, others see the gospels as blending together to give an overall and comprehensive picture of Jesus' teaching and ministry. Although there are differences in specific temporal sequences, and in the parables and miracles listed in each gospel, the flow of the key events such as Baptism, Transfiguration and Crucifixion and interactions with people such as the Apostles are shared among the gospel narratives.

Key elements and the five major milestones

The five major milestones in the gospel narrative of the life of Jesus are his Baptism, Transfiguration, Crucifixion, Resurrection and Ascension. These are usually bracketed by two other episodes: his Nativity at the beginning and the sending of the Paraclete at the end. The gospel accounts of the teachings of Jesus are often presented in terms of specific categories involving his "works and words", e.g. his ministry, parables and miracles.

The gospels include a number discourses by Jesus on specific occasions, e.g. the Sermon on the Mount or the Farewell Discourse, and also include over 30 parables, spread throughout the narrative, often with themes that relate to the sermons. Parables represent a major component of the teachings of Jesus in the gospels, forming approximately one third of his recorded teachings, and John 14:10 positions them as the revelations of God the Father. The gospel episodes that include descriptions of the miracle of Jesus also often include teachings, providing an intertwining of his "words and works" in the gospels.

Genealogy and Nativity

The accounts of the genealogy and Nativity of Jesus in the New Testament appear only in the Gospel of Luke and the Gospel of Matthew. While there are documents outside of the New Testament which are more or less contemporary with Jesus and the gospels, many shed no light on the more biographical aspects of his life and these two gospel accounts remain the main sources of information on the genealogy and Nativity.

Genealogy

Matthew begins his gospel in 1:1 with the genealogy of Jesus, and presents it before the account of the birth of Jesus, while Luke discusses the genealogy in chapter 3, after the Baptism of Jesus in Luke 3:22 when the voice from Heaven addresses Jesus and identifies him as the Son of God. At that point Luke traces Jesus' ancestry through Adam to God.

While Luke traces the genealogy upwards towards Adam and God, Matthew traces it downwards towards Jesus. Both gospels state that Jesus was begotten not by Joseph, but by God. Both accounts trace 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. Matthew gives Jacob as Joseph’s father and Luke says Joseph was the son of Heli. Attempts at explaining the differences between the genealogies have varied in nature, e.g. that Luke traces the genealogy through Mary while Matthew traces it through Joseph; or that Jacob and Heli were both fathers of Joseph, one being the legal father, after the death of Joseph's actual father — but there is no scholarly agreement on a resolution for the differences.

Nativity

The Nativity is a prominent element in the Gospel of Luke, comprises over 10% of Luke's text, and is three times the length of the Nativity text in Matthew. Luke's Nativity account takes place mostly before the birth of Jesus and centers on Mary, while Matthew's story takes place mostly after the birth of Jesus and centers on Joseph. According to Luke and Matthew, 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.

Luke is the only Gospel to provide an account of the birth of John the Baptist, and he uses it to draw parallels between the births of John and Jesus. Luke relates the two births in the visitation of Mary to Elizabeth. He further connects the two births by noting that Mary and Elizabeth are cousins. In Luke 1:31-38 Mary learns from the angel Gabriel that she will conceive and bear a child called Jesus through the action of the Holy Spirit. When Mary is due to give birth, she and Joseph travel from Nazareth to Joseph's ancestral home in Bethlehem to register in the census of Quirinius. In Luke 2:1-7. Mary gives birth to Jesus and, having found no place in the inn, places the newborn in a manger. An angel visits the shepherds and sends them to adore the child in Luke 2:22. After presenting Jesus at the Temple, Joseph and Mary return home to Nazareth.

The Nativity appears in chapters 1 and 2 of the Gospel of Matthew, where, following the bethrothal of Joseph and Mary, Joseph is troubled in Matthew 1:19-20 because Mary is pregnant, but in the first of Joseph's three dreams an angel assures him not be afraid to take Mary as his wife, because her child was conceived by the Holy Spirit. In Matthew 1:1-12, 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). Before the massacre, Joseph is warned by an angel in his dream and the family flees to Egypt and remains there until Herod's death, after which they leave Egypt and settle in Nazareth to avoid living under the authority of Herod's son and successor Archelaus.

Early life and profession

In the Gospels of Luke and Matthew, Jesus’ childhood home is identified as the town of Nazareth in Galilee. Joseph, husband of Mary, appears in descriptions of Jesus’ childhood and no mention is made of him thereafter. The New Testament books of Matthew, Mark, and Galatians mention Jesus’ brothers and sisters, but the Greek word ''adelphos'' in these verses, has also be translated as brother or kinsman.

Luke 2:41–52 includes an incident in the childhood of Jesus, where he 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.

In Mark 6:3 Jesus is called a ''tekton'' (τέκτων in Greek), usually understood to mean carpenter. Matthew 13:55 says he was the son of a ''tekton''. ''Tekton'' has been traditionally translated into English as "carpenter", but it is a rather general word (from the same root that leads to "technical" and "technology") that could cover makers of objects in various materials, even builders.

Beyond the New Testament accounts, the specific association of the profession of Jesus with woodworking is a constant in the traditions of the 1st and 2nd centuries and Justin Martyr (d. ca. 165) wrote that Jesus made yokes and ploughs.

Baptism and temptation

In the gospels, the accounts of the Baptism of Jesus are always preceded by information about John the Baptist and his ministry. In these accounts, John was preaching for penance and repentance for the remission of sins and encouraged the giving of alms to the poor (as in Luke 3:11) as he baptized people in the area of the River Jordan around Perea about the time of the commencement of the ministry of Jesus. The Gospel of John (1:28) specifies "Bethany beyond the Jordan", i.e. Bethabara in Perea, when it initially refers to it and later John 3:23 refers to further baptisms in Ænon "because there was much water there".

The four gospels are not the only references to John's ministry around the River Jordan. In Acts 10:37-38, Apostle Peter refers to how the ministry of Jesus followed "the baptism which John preached". In the Antiquities of the Jews (18.5.2) first century historian Flavius Josephus also wrote about John the Baptist and his eventual death in Perea.

In the gospels, John had been foretelling (as in Luke 3:16) of the arrival of a someone "mightier than I". Apostle Paul also refers to this anticipation by John in Acts 19:4. In Matthew 3:14, upon meeting Jesus, the Baptist states: "I need to be baptized by you." However, Jesus persuades John to baptize him nonetheless. In the baptismal scene, after Jesus emerges from the water, the sky opens and a voice from Heaven states: "This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased". The Holy Spirit then descends upon Jesus as a dove in Matthew 3:13-17, Mark 1:9-11, Luke 3:21-23. In John 1:29-33 rather than a direct narrative, the Baptist bears witness to the episode. This is one of two cases in the gospels where a voice from Heaven calls Jesus "Son", the other being in the Transfiguration of Jesus episode.

After the baptism, the Synoptic gospels proceed to describe the Temptation of Jesus, but John 1:35-37 narrates the first encounter between Jesus and two of his future disciples, who were then disciples of John the Baptist. In this narrative, the next day the Baptist sees Jesus again and calls him the Lamb of God and the "two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus". One of the disciples is named Andrew, but the other remains unnamed, and Raymond E. Brown raises the question of his being the author of the Gospel of John himself. In the Gospel of John, the disciples follow Jesus thereafter, and bring other disciples to him, and Acts 18:24-19:6 portrays the disciples of John as eventually merging with the followers of Jesus.

The Temptation of Jesus is narrated in the three Synoptic gospels after his baptism. In these accounts, as in Matthew 4:1-11 and Luke 4:1-13, Jesus goes to the desert for forty days to fast. While there, Satan appears to him and tempts him in various ways, e.g. asking Jesus to show signs that he is the Son of God by turning stone to bread, or offering Jesus worldly rewards in exchange for worship. Jesus rejects every temptation and when Satan leaves, angels appear and minister to Jesus.

Ministry

Luke 3:23 states that Jesus was "about 30 years of age" at the start of his ministry. The date of the start of his ministry has been estimated at around 27-29 AD/CE, based on independent approaches which combine separate gospel accounts with other historical data. The end of his ministry is estimated to be in the range 30-36 AD/CE.

The three Synoptic gospels refer to just one passover during his ministry, while the Gospel of John refers to three passovers, suggesting a period of about three years. However, the Synoptic gospels do not require a ministry that lasted only one year, and scholars such as Köstenberger state that the Gospel of John simply provides a more detailed account.

The gospel accounts place the beginning of Jesus' ministry in the countryside of Judaea, near the River Jordan. Jesus' ministry begins with his Baptism by John the Baptist (Matthew 3, Luke 3), and ends with the Last Supper with his disciples (Matthew 26, Luke 22) in Jerusalem. The gospels present John the Baptist's ministry as the pre-cursor to that of Jesus and the Baptism as marking the beginning of Jesus' ministry, after which Jesus travels, preaches and performs miracles.

The ''Early Galilean ministry'' begins when Jesus goes back to Galilee from the Judaean desert after rebuffing the temptation of Satan. In this early period Jesus preaches around Galilee and in Matthew 4:18-20 his first disciples encounter him, begin to travel with him and eventually form the core of the early Church. This period includes the Sermon on the Mount, one of the major discourses of Jesus.

The ''Major Galilean ministry'' which begins in Matthew 8 refers to activities up to the death of John the Baptist. It includes the Calming the storm and a number of other miracles and parables, as well as the Mission Discourse in which Jesus instructs the twelve apostles who are named in Matthew 10:2-3 to carry no belongings as they travel from city to city and preach.

The ''Final Galilean ministry'' includes the Feeding the 5000 and Walking on water episodes, both in Matthew 14. The end of this period (as Matthew 16 and Mark 8 end) marks a turning point is the ministry of Jesus with the dual episodes of Confession of Peter and the Transfiguration - which begins his ''Later Judaean ministry'' as he starts his final journey to Jerusalem through Judaea.

As Jesus travels towards Jerusalem, in the ''Later Perean ministry'', about one third the way down from the Sea of Galilee along the Jordan, he returns to the area where he was baptized, and in John 10:40-42 "many people believed in him beyond the Jordan", saying "all things whatsoever John spake of this man were true". This period of ministry includes the Discourse on the Church in which Jesus anticipates a future community of followers, and explains the role of his apostles in leading it. At the end of this period, the Gospel of John includes the Raising of Lazarus episode.

The ''Final ministry in Jerusalem'' is sometimes called the ''Passion Week'' and begins with the Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. In that week Jesus drives the money changers from the Temple, and Judas bargains to betray him. This period includes the Olivet Discourse and the Second Coming Prophecy and culminates in the Last Supper, at the end of which Jesus prepares his disciples for his departure in the Farewell discourse. The accounts of the ministry of Jesus generally end with the Last Supper. However, some authors also consider the period between the Resurrection and the Ascension part of the ministry of Jesus.

Teachings and preachings

In the New Testament the teachings of Jesus are presented in terms of his "words and works". The words of Jesus include a number of sermons, as well as parables that appear throughout the narrative of the Synoptic Gospels (the gospel of John includes no parables). The works include the miracles and other acts performed during his ministry. Although the Canonical Gospels are the major source of the teachings of Jesus, the Pauline Epistles, which were likely written decades before the gospels, provide some of the earliest written accounts of the teachings of Jesus.

The New Testament does not present the teachings of Jesus as merely his own preachings, but equates the words of Jesus with divine revelation, with John the Baptist stating in John 3:34: "he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God" and Jesus stating in John 7:16: "My teaching is not mine, but his that sent me" and again re-asserting that in John 14:10: "the words that I say unto you I speak not from myself: but the Father abiding in me doeth his works." In Matthew 11:27 Jesus claims divine knowledge, stating: "No one knows the Son except the Father and no one knows the Father except the Son", asserting the mutual knowledge he has with the Father.

The gospels include a number discourses by Jesus on specific occasions, such as the Farewell discourse delivered after the Last Supper, the night before his crucifixion. Although some of the teachings of Jesus are reported as taking place within the formal atmosphere of a synagogue (e.g. in Matthew 4:23) many of the discourses are more like conversations than formal lectures.

The Gospel of Matthew has a structured set of sermons, often grouped as the Five Discourses of Matthew which present many of the key teachings of Jesus. Each of the five discourses has some parallel passages in the Gospel of Mark or the Gospel of Luke. The five discourses in Matthew begin with the Sermon on the Mount, which encapsulates many of the moral teaching of Jesus and which is one of the best known and most quoted elements of the New Testament. The Sermon on the Mount includes the ''Beatitudes'' which describe the character of the people of the Kingdom of God, expressed as "blessings". The Beatitudes focus on love and humility rather than force and exaction and echo the key ideals of Jesus' teachings on spirituality and compassion. The other discourses in Matthew include the ''Missionary Discourse'' in Matthew 10 and the ''Discourse on the Church'' in Matthew 18, providing instructions to the disciples and laying the foundation of the codes of conduct for the anticipated community of followers.

Parables represent a major component of the teachings of Jesus in the gospels, the approximately thirty parables forming about one third of his recorded teachings. The parables may appear within longer sermons, as well as other places within the narrative. Jesus' parables are seemingly simple and memorable stories, often with imagery, and each conveys a teaching which usually relates the physical world to the spiritual world.

The gospel episodes that include descriptions of the miracle of Jesus also often include teachings, providing an intertwining of his "words and works" in the gospels. Many of the miracles in the gospels teach the importance of faith, for instance in Cleansing ten lepers and Daughter of Jairus the beneficiaries are told that they were healed due to their faith.

Proclamation as Christ and Transfiguration

At about the middle of each of the three Synoptic Gospels, two related episodes mark a turning point in the narrative: the Confession of Peter and the Transfiguration of Jesus. These episodes begin in Caesarea Philippi just north of the Sea of Galilee at the beginning of the final journey to Jerusalem which ends in the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus. These episodes mark the beginnings of the gradual disclosure of the identity of Jesus to his disciples; and his prediction of his own suffering and death.

Peter's Confession begins as a dialogue between Jesus and his disciples in Matthew 16:13, Mark 8:27 and Luke 9:18. Jesus asks his disciples: ''But who do you say that I am?'' Simon Peter answers him: ''You are the Christ, the Son of the living God''. In Matthew 16:17 Jesus blesses Peter for his answer, and states: "flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven." In blessing Peter, Jesus not only accepts the titles ''Christ'' and ''Son of God'' which Peter attributes to him, but declares the proclamation a divine revelation by stating that his Father in Heaven had revealed it to Peter. In this assertion, by endorsing both titles as divine revelation, Jesus unequivocally declares himself to be both Christ and the Son of God.

The account of the Transfiguration of Jesus appears in Matthew 17:1-9, Mark 9:2-8, Luke 9:28-36. Jesus takes Peter and two other apostles with him and goes up to a mountain, which is not named. Once on the mountain, Matthew (17:2) states that Jesus "was transfigured before them; his face shining as the sun, and his garments became white as the light." At that point the prophets Elijah and Moses appear and Jesus begins to talk to them. Luke is specific in describing Jesus in a state of glory, with Luke 9:32 referring to "they saw his glory". A bright cloud appears around them, and a voice from the cloud states: "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him".

The Transfiguration not only supports the identity of Jesus as the Son of God (as in his Baptism), but the statement "listen to him", identifies him as the messenger and mouth-piece of God. The significance is enhanced by the presence of Elijah and Moses, for it indicates to the apostles that Jesus is the voice of God, and instead of Elijah or Moses, he should be listened to, by virtue of his filial relationship with God. 2 Peter 1:16-18, echoes the same message: at the Transfiguration God assigns to Jesus a special "honor and glory" and it is the turning point at which God exalts Jesus above all other powers in creation.

At the end of both episodes, as in some other pericopes in the New Testament such as miracles, Jesus tells his disciples not to repeat to others, what they had seen - the command at times interpreted in the context of the theory of the Messianic Secret. At the end of the Transfiguration episode, Jesus commands the disciples to silence about it "until the Son of man be risen from the dead", relating the Transfiguration to the Resurrection episode.

Betrayal, arrest, trial, and death

In Jerusalem

In the four Canonical Gospels, Jesus' Triumphal entry into Jerusalem takes place a few days before the last Last Supper, marking the beginning of the Passion narrative. While at Bethany Jesus sent two disciples to retrieve a donkey that had been tied up but never ridden and rode it into Jerusalem, with Mark and John stating Sunday, Matthew Monday, and Luke not specifying the day. As Jesus rode into Jerusalem the people there lay down their cloaks in front of him, and also lay down small branches of trees and sang part of Psalms 118: 25-26.

In the three Synoptic Gospels, entry into Jerusalem is followed by the Cleansing of the Temple episode, in which Jesus expels the money changers from the Temple, accusing them of turning the Temple to a den of thieves through their commercial activities. This is the only account of Jesus using physical force in any of the Gospels. John 2:13-16 includes a similar narrative much earlier, and scholars debate if these refer to the same episode. The synoptics include a number of well known parables and sermons such as the Widow's mite and the Second Coming Prophecy during the week that follows.

In that week, the synoptics also narrate conflicts between Jesus and the elders of the Jews, in episodes such as the Authority of Jesus Questioned and the Woes of the Pharisees in which Jesus criticizes their hypocrisy. Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve apostles approaches the Jewish elders and performs the "Bargain of Judas" in which he accepts to betray Jesus and hand him over to the elders. Matthew specifies the price as thirty silver coins.

Last Supper

In the New Testament, the Last Supper is the final meal that Jesus shares with his twelve apostles in Jerusalem before his crucifixion. The Last Supper is mentioned in all four Canonical Gospels, and Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians (11:23-26), which was likely written before the Gospels, also refers to it.

In all four gospels, during the meal, Jesus predicts that one of his Apostles will betray him. Jesus is described as reiterating, despite each Apostle's assertion that he would not betray Jesus, that the betrayer would be one of those who were present. In Matthew 26:23-25 and John 13:26-27 Judas is specifically singled out as the traitor.

In Matthew 26:26-29, Mark 14:22-25, Luke 22:19-20 Jesus takes bread, breaks it and gives it to the disciples, saying: "This is my body which is given for you". In 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 Apostle Paul provides the theological underpinnings for the use of the Eucharist, stating: "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me." Although the Gospel of John does not include a description of the bread and wine ritual during the Last Supper, most scholars agree that John 6:58-59 (the Bread of Life Discourse) has a Eucharistic nature and resonates with the "words of institution" used in the Synoptic Gospels and the Pauline writings on the Last Supper.

In all four Gospels Jesus predicts that Peter will deny knowledge of him, stating that Peter will disown him three times before the rooster crows the next morning. The synoptics mention that after the arrest of Jesus Peter denied knowing him three times, but after the third denial, heard the rooster crow and recalled the prediction as Jesus turned to look at him. Peter then began to cry bitterly.

The Gospel of John provides the only account of Jesus washing his disciples' feet before the meal. John's Gospel also includes a long sermon by Jesus, preparing his disciples (now without Judas) for his departure. Chapters 14-17 of the Gospel of John are known as the ''Farewell discourse'' given by Jesus, and are a rich source of Christological content.

Agony in the Garden, betrayal and arrest

In Matthew 26:36-46, Mark 14:32-42, Luke 22:39-46 and John 18:1, immediately after the Last Supper, Jesus takes a walk to pray, Matthew and Mark identifying this place of prayer as Garden of Gethsemane.

Jesus is accompanied by Peter, John and James the Greater, whom he asks to "remain here and keep watch with me." He moves "a stone's throw away" from them, where he feels overwhelming sadness and says "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass me by. Nevertheless, let it be as you, not I, would have it." Only the Gospel of Luke mentions the details of the sweat of blood of Jesus and the visitation of the angel who comforts Jesus as he accepts the will of the Father. Returning to the disciples after prayer, he finds them asleep and in Matthew 26:40 he asks Peter: "So, could you men not keep watch with me for an hour?"

While in the Garden, Judas appears, accompanied by a crowd that includes the Jewish priests and elders and people with weapons. Judas gives Jesus a kiss to identify him to the crowd who then arrests Jesus. One of Jesus' disciples tries to stop them and uses a sword to cut off the ear of one of the men in the crowd. Luke states that Jesus miraculously healed the wound and John and Matthew state that Jesus criticized the violent act, insisting that his disciples should not resist his arrest. In Matthew 26:52 Jesus makes the well known statement: ''all who live by the sword, shall die by the sword''.

Prior to the arrest, in Matthew 26:31 Jesus tells the disciples: "All ye shall be offended in me this night" and in 32 that: "But after I am raised up, I will go before you into Galilee." After his arrest, Jesus' disciples go into hiding. In Matthew 27:3-5 Judas, distraught by his betrayal of Jesus, attempts to return the thirty pieces of silver he had received for betraying Jesus, then hangs himself.

Trials by the Sanhedrin, Herod and Pilate

In the narrative of the four Canonical Gospels after the betrayal and arrest of Jesus, he is taken to the Sanhedrin, a Jewish judicial body. Jesus is tried by the Sanhedrin, mocked and beaten and is condemned for making claims of being the Son of God. He is then taken to Pontius Pilate and the Jewish elders ask Pilate to judge and condemn Jesus — accusing him of claiming to be the King of the Jews. After questioning, with few replies provided by Jesus, Pilate publicly declares that he finds Jesus innocent, but the crowd insists on punishment. Pilate then orders Jesus' crucifixion. Although the Gospel accounts vary with respect to various details, they agree on the general character and overall structure of the trials of Jesus.

In, Matthew 26:57, Mark 14:53 and Luke 22:54 Jesus was taken to the high priest's house where he was mocked and beaten that night. The next day, early in the morning, the chief priests and scribes gathered together and lead Jesus away into their council. In John 18:12-14, however, Jesus is first taken to Annas, the father-in-law of Caiaphas, and then to Caiaphas. In all four Gospel accounts the trial of Jesus is interleaved with the ''Denial of Peter'' narrative, where Apostle Peter who has followed Jesus denies knowing him three times, at which point the rooster crows as predicted by Jesus during the Last Supper.

In the Gospel accounts Jesus speaks very little, mounts no defense and gives very infrequent and indirect answers to the questions of the priests, prompting an officer to slap him. In Matthew 26:62 the lack of response from Jesus prompts the high priest to ask him: "Answerest thou nothing?" Mark 14:55-59 states that the chief priests had arranged false witness against Jesus, but the witnesses did not agree together. In Mark 14:61 the high priest then asked Jesus: "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? And Jesus said, I am" at which point the high priest tore his own robe in anger and accused Jesus of blasphemy. In 22:70 when asked: "Are you then the Son of God?" Jesus answers: "You say that I am" affirming the title Son of God. At that point the priests say: "What further need have we of witness? for we ourselves have heard from his own mouth" and decide to condemn Jesus.

Taking Jesus to Pilate's Court, the Jewish elders ask Pontius Pilate to judge and condemn Jesus — accusing him of claiming to be the King of the Jews. In Luke 23:7-15 (the only Gospel account of this episode), Pilate realizes that Jesus is a Galilean, and is thus under the jurisdiction of Herod Antipas. Pilate sends Jesus to Herod to be tried. However, Jesus says almost nothing in response to Herod's questions, or the continuing accusations of the chief priests and the scribes. Herod and his soldiers mock Jesus, put a gorgeous robe on him, as the King of the Jews, and sent him back to Pilate. Pilate then calls together the Jewish elders, and says that he has "found no fault in this man."

The use of the term king is central in the discussion between Jesus and Pilate. In John 18:36 Jesus states: "My kingdom is not of this world", but does not directly deny being the King of the Jews. And when in John 19:12 Pilate seeks to release Jesus, the priests object and say: "Every one that makes himself a king speaks against Caesar... We have no king but Caesar." Pilate then writes "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews" as a sign (abbreviated as INRI in depictions) to be affixed to the cross of Jesus.

In Matthew 27:19 Pilate's wife, tormented by a dream, urges Pilate not to have anything to do with Jesus, and Pilate publicly washes his hands of responsibility, yet orders the crucifixion in response to the demands of the crowd. The trial by Pilate is followed by the flagellation episode, the soldiers mock Jesus as the King of Jews by putting a purple robe (that signifies royal status) on him, place a Crown of Thorns on his head, and beat and mistreat him in Matthew 27:29-30, Mark 15:17-19 and John 19:2-3. Jesus is then sent to Calvary for crucifixion.

Crucifixion and burial

Jesus' crucifixion is described in all four Canonical gospels, and is attested to by other sources of that age (e.g. Josephus and Tacitus), and is regarded as an historical event.

After the trials, Jesus made his way to Calvary (the path is traditionally called via Dolorosa) and the three Synoptic Gospels indicate that he was assisted by Simon of Cyrene, the Romans compelling him to do so. In Luke 23:27-28 Jesus tells the women in multitude of people following him not to cry for him but for themselves and their children. Once at Calvary (Golgotha), Jesus was offered wine mixed with gall to drink — usually offered as a form of painkiller. Matthew's and Mark's Gospels state that he refused this.

The soldiers then crucified Jesus and cast lots for his clothes. Above Jesus' head on the cross was the inscription King of the Jews, and the soldiers and those passing by mocked him about the title. Jesus was crucified between two convicted thieves, one of whom rebuked Jesus, while the other defended him. Each gospel has its own account of Jesus' last words, comprising the seven last sayings on the cross. In John 19:26-27 Jesus entrusts his mother to the disciple he loved and in Luke 23:34 he states: "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do", usually interpreted as his forgiveness of the Roman soldiers and the others involved.

In the three Synoptic Gospels, various supernatural events accompany the crucifixion, including darkness of the sky, an earthquake, and (in Matthew) the resurrection of saints. The tearing of the temple veil, upon the death of Jesus, is referenced in the synoptic. The Roman soldiers did not break Jesus' legs, as they did to the other two men crucified (breaking the legs hastened the crucifixion process), as Jesus was dead already. One of the soldiers pierced the side of Jesus with a lance and water flowed out. In Mark 13:59, impressed by the events the Roman centurion calls Jesus the Son of God.

Following Jesus' death, Joseph of Arimathea asked the permission of Pilate to remove the body. The body was removed from the cross, was wrapped in a clean cloth and buried in a new rock-hewn tomb, with the assistance of Nicodemus. In Matthew 27:62-66 the Jews go to Pilate the day after the crucifixion and ask for guards for the tomb and also seal the tomb with a stone as well as the guard, to be sure the body remains there.

Resurrection and ascension

thumb|upright|left|[[Resurrection of Jesus|Resurrection by Noel Coypel, 1700, using a hovering depiction of Jesus.]]The New Testament accounts of the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, state that the first day of the week after the crucifixion (typically interpreted as a Sunday), his followers encounter him risen from the dead, after his tomb is discovered to be empty. The resurrected Jesus appears to them that day and a number of times thereafter, delivers sermons and commissions them, before ascending to Heaven. Two of the Canonical gospels (Luke and Mark) include a brief mention of the Ascension, but the main references to it are elsewhere in the New Testament.

In the four Canonical Gospels, when the tomb of Jesus is discovered empty, in Matthew 28:5, Mark 16:5, Luke 24:4 and John 20:12 his resurrection is announced and explained to the followers who arrive there early in the morning by either one or two beings (either men or angels) dressed in bright robes who appear in or near the tomb. The gospel accounts vary as to who arrived at the tomb first, but they are women and are instructed by the risen Jesus to inform the other disciples. All four accounts include Mary Magdalene and three include Mary the mother of Jesus. The accounts of Mark 16:9, John 20:15 indicate that Jesus appeared to the Magdalene first, and Luke 16:9 states that she was among the Myrrhbearers who informed the disciples about the resurrection. In Matthew 28:11-15, to explain the empty tomb, the Jewish elders bribe the soldiers who had guarded the tomb to spread the rumor that Jesus' disciples took his body.

After the discovery of the empty tomb, the Gospels indicate that Jesus made a series of appearances to the disciples. These include the well known Doubting Thomas episode, where Thomas did not believe the resurrection until he was invited to put his finger into the holes made by the wounds in Jesus' hands and side; and the Road to Emmaus appearance where Jesus meets two disciples. The catch of 153 fish appearance includes a miracle at the Sea of Galilee, and thereafter Jesus encourages Apostle Peter to serve his followers.

The final post-resurrection appearance in the Gospel accounts is when Jesus ascends to Heaven where he remains with God the Father and the Holy Spirit. The Canonical Gospels include only brief mentions of the Ascension of Jesus, Luke 24:51 states that Jesus "was carried up into heaven". The ascension account is further elaborated in Acts 1:1-11 and mentioned 1 Timothy 3:16. In Acts 1:1-9, forty days after the resurrection, as the disciples look on, "he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight." 1 Peter 3:22 describes Jesus as being on "the right hand of God, having gone into heaven".

The Acts of the Apostles also contain "post-ascension" appearances by Jesus. These include the vision by Stephen just before his death in Acts 7:55, and the road to Damascus episode in which Apostle Paul is converted to Christianity. The instruction given to Ananias in Damascus in Acts 9:10-18 to heal Paul is the last reported conversation with Jesus in the Bible until the Book of Revelation was written.

Title attributions

The New Testament attributes a wide range of titles to Jesus by the authors of the Gospels, by Jesus himself, a voice from Heaven (often assumed to be God) during the Baptism and Transfiguration, as well as various groups of people such as the disciples, and even demons throughout the narrative. The emphasis on the titles used in each of the four canonical Gospels gives a different emphasis to the portrayal of Jesus in that Gospel.

Two of the key titles used for Jesus in the New Testament are Christ and Son of God. The opening words in Mark 1:1 attribute both Christ and Son of God as titles, reaffirming the second title again in Mark 1:11. The Gospel of Matthew also begins in 1:1 with the Christ title and reaffirms it in Matthew 1:16. Beyond the declarations by the Gospel writers, titles are attributed in the narrative. The statement by Apostle Peter in Matthew 16:16 ("you are the Christ, the Son of the living God") is a key turning point in the Gospel narrative, where Jesus is proclaimed as both Christ and Son of God by his followers and he accepts both titles. The immediate declaration by Jesus that the titles were revealed to Peter by "my Father who is in Heaven" not only endorses both titles as divine revelation but includes a separate assertion of sonship by Jesus within the same statement.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus refers to himself as the Son of God far more frequently than in the Synoptic Gospels. In a number of other episodes Jesus claims sonship by referring to the Father, e.g. in Luke 2:49 when he is found in the temple a young Jesus calls the temple "my Father's house", just as he does later in John 2:16 in the Cleansing of the Temple episode. However, scholars still debate if Jesus specifically accepted divinity in these statements. In John 11:27 Martha tells Jesus "you are the Christ, the Son of God", signifying that both titles were later used (yet considered distinct) in the narrative. While the Gospel of John frequently uses the Son of God title, the Gospel of Luke emphasizes Jesus as a prophet.

One of the most frequent titles for Jesus in the New Testament is the Greek word ''Kyrios'' (κύριος) which may mean God, Lord or master and is used to refers to him over 700 times. In everyday Aramaic, ''Mari'' was a very respectful form of polite address, well above "Teacher" and similar to Rabbi. In Greek this has at times been translated as Kyrios. The Rabbi title is used in several New Testament episodes to refer to Jesus, but more often in the Gospel of John than elsewhere and does not appear in the Gospel of Luke at all. Although Jesus accepts this title in the narrative, in Matthew 23:1-8 he rejected the title of Rabbi for his disciples, saying: "But be not ye called Rabbi".

Many New Testament scholars state that Jesus claimed to be God through his frequent use of "I am" (''Ego eimi'' in Greek and ''Qui est'' in Latin). This term is used by Jesus in the Gospel of John on several occasions to refer to himself, seven times with specific titles. It is used in the Gospel of John both with or without a predicate. The seven uses with a predicate that have resulted in titles for Jesus are: ''Bread of Life'', ''Light of the World'', ''the Door'', ''the Good Shepherd'', ''the Resurrection of Life'', ''the Way, the Truth and the Life'', ''the Vine''. It is also used without a predicate, which is very unusual in Greek and Christologists usually interpret it as God's own self-declaration. In John 8:24 Jesus states: "unless you believe that I am you will die in your sins" and in John 8:59 the crowd attempts to stone Jesus in response to his statement that "Before Abraham was, I am". However, some scholars state that Jesus never made a direct claim to divinity.

The Gospel of John opens by identifying Jesus as the divine Logos in John 1:1-18. The Greek term Logos () is often translated as "the Word" in English. The identification of Jesus as the Logos which became Incarnate appears only at the beginning of the Gospel of John and the term Logos is used only in two other Johannine passages: 1 John 1:1 and Revelation 19:13. John's Logos statements build on each other: the statement that the Logos existed "at the beginning" asserts that as Logos Jesus was an eternal being like God; that the Logos was "with God" asserts the distinction of Jesus from God; and Logos "was God" states the unity of Jesus with God.

Some authors 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, e.g. “Son of David” is found elsewhere in Jewish tradition to refer to the heir to the throne.

Historical views

Existence of Jesus

The Christian gospels were written primarily as theological documents rather than historical chronicles. However, the question of the existence of Jesus as a historical figure should be distinguished from discussions about the historicity of specific episodes in the gospels, the chronology they present, or theological issues regarding his divinity. A number of historical non-Christian documents, such as Jewish and Greco-Roman sources, have been used in historical analyses of the existence of Jesus. Most critical historians agree that Jesus existed and regard events such as his baptism and his crucifixion as historical.

Robert E. Van Voorst states that the non-historicity of the existence of Jesus has always been controversial, and has consistently failed to convince scholars of many disciplines, and that classical historians, as well as biblical scholars now regard it as effectively refuted. Walter P. Weaver, among others, states that the denial of Jesus’ existence has never convinced any large number of people, in or out of technical circles.

Separate non-Christian sources used to establish the historical existence of Jesus include the works of first century Roman historians Flavius Josephus and Tacitus. Josephus scholar Louis H. Feldman has stated that few have doubted the genuineness of Josephus' reference. Bart D. Ehrman states that the existence of Jesus and his crucifixion by the Romans is attested to by a wide range of sources, including Josephus and Tacitus.

A very small number of modern scholars argue that Jesus never existed, but that view is a distinct minority, and a somewhat recent argument. Karl Rahner has observed that "in antiquity, even the most bitter enemies of Christianity never expressed doubts about the existence of Jesus." The ''Cambridge companion to Jesus'' states that the "farfetched theories that Jesus' existence was a Christian invention are highly implausible."

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.

Biblical scholars have used the historical method to develop plausible reconstructions of Jesus' life. Since the 19th century, these scholars have constructed a Jesus different in ways from the image found in the gospels. Scholars of the “historical Jesus” distinguish their concept from the “Jesus Christ” of Christianity.

The principal sources of information regarding Jesus’ life and teachings are the three Synoptic Gospels. Scholars conclude the authors of the gospels wrote a few decades after Jesus’ crucifixion (between 65 – 100 AD/CE), in some cases using sources (the author of Luke-Acts references this explicitly). Historians of Christianity generally describe Jesus as a healer who preached the restoration of God's kingdom.

The English title of Albert Schweitzer’s 1906 book, ''The Quest of the Historical Jesus,'' is a label for the post-Enlightenment effort to describe Jesus using critical historical methods. Since the end of the 18th century, scholars have examined the gospels and tried to formulate historical biographies of Jesus. Contemporary efforts benefit from a better understanding of 1st-century Judaism, renewed Roman Catholic biblical scholarship, broad acceptance of critical historical methods, sociological insights, and literary analysis of Jesus' sayings. 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 Judaea, 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.

Languages and background

Jesus grew up in Galilee and much of his ministry took place there. The languages spoken in Galilee and Judea during the first century AD/CE include Aramaic, Hebrew and Greek, with Aramaic being the predominant language. Most scholars agree that during the early part of first century AD/CE Aramaic was the mother tongue of virtually all women in Galilee and Judae. Most scholars support the theory that Jesus spoke Aramaic and that he may have also spoken Hebrew and Greek.

Major milestones and activities

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. Historians are nearly unanimous in accepting Jesus' baptism as a historical event.

Teaching

Jewish focus – Jesus taught among fellow Jews. Geza Vermes concludes that Jesus' message was exclusively for the Jews, while Gerd Theissen asserts that Jesus' message included themes related to the Gentiles being welcomed into the coming Kingdom.

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.

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. 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. Jesus likened the Kingdom of Heaven to small and lowly things, such as yeast or a mustard seed, that have great effects. Significantly, he never described the Kingdom in military terms. He used his sayings to elicit responses from the audience, engaging them in discussion.

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.

God as a loving father – Jesus placed a special emphasis on God as one's heavenly father. This teaching contrasts with the more common practice of depicting God as a king or lord.

Virtue of being childlike – Jesus was remarkable in stating that one must become like a child to enter the Kingdom of God.

Importance of faith and prayer – Jesus identified faith or trust in God as a primary spiritual virtue. Associated with this main theme, Jesus taught that one should rely on prayer and expect prayer to be effective.

Healing and exorcism – Jesus taught that his healings and exorcisms indicated that a new eschatological age had arrived or was arriving.

Crucifixion

Jewish and Roman authorities in Jerusalem were wary of Galilean patriots, many of whom advocated or launched violent resistance to Roman rule. The gospels demonstrate that Jesus, a charismatic leader regarded as a potential troublemaker, was executed on political charges. Jesus' criticism of the Temple, the disturbance he caused there, and his refusal to renounce claims of kingship convinced the Jewish high priest to allow Jesus to be transferred into Roman custody.

The Gospels report that Jesus foretold his own Passion, but, according to Geza Vermes, the confused and fearful actions of the disciples suggest that it came as a surprise to them.

Jewish religious movements in Jesus' day

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 Judaea. 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.

Sadducees were 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.

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. The notion that Jesus himself was a Zealot does not do justice to the earliest Synoptic material describing him.

Higher criticism and Christian scripture

Contemporary historians of Christianity use the historical-critical method (or higher criticism) to 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. They use standard historical methods to discern who wrote each book, where and when they were written, what sources the authors used, what the authors' agendas were.

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.

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. 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.

The earliest extant texts which refer to Jesus are Paul's letters (mid-1st century), which affirm Jesus' crucifixion. Keulman and Gregory hold that the Gospel of Thomas, a collection of 114 sayings of Jesus, predates the four orthodox gospels, and believe it may have been composed around mid-1st century.

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.

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’.

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

Though Christian views of Jesus vary, it is possible to describe a general majority Christian view by examining the similarities between specific Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and many Protestant doctrines found in their catechetical or confessional texts. Almost all Christian groups regard Jesus as the "Savior and Redeemer", as the Messiah (Greek: ''Christos''; English: Christ) prophesied in the Old Testament, who, through his life, death, and resurrection, restored humanity's communion with God in the blood of the New Covenant. His death on a cross is understood as the redemptive sacrifice: the source of humanity's salvation and the atonement for sin, which had entered human history through the sin of Adam. Christians profess that Jesus suffered death by crucifixion, and rose bodily from the dead in the definitive miracle that foreshadows the resurrection of humanity at the end of time, when Christ will come again to judge the living and the dead, resulting in either entrance into heaven or damnation.

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. Christians believe that Christ is the true head of the one holy universal and apostolic church.

Orthodox Christians believe that the Godhead is triune, a "Trinity", and that Jesus, as the second person of the Trinity, is fully God. As the 6th-century Athanasian Creed says, the Trinity is "one God" and "three persons... and yet they are not three Gods, but one God." Some unorthodox Christian groups do not accept the doctrine of the Trinity, including The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), Unitarianism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Oneness Pentecostals, Sabbatarian Churches of God and the Christadelphians. (See also Nontrinitarianism.)

Christians consider the Gospel and other New Testament accounts of Jesus to be divinely inspired. Christian writers, such as Benedict XVI, proclaim the Jesus of the Gospels, discounting the historical reconstruction of Jesus as entirely inadequate.

Jewish views

Judaism, including Orthodox Judaism, Hareidi Judaism, Reform Judaism, Karaite Judaism, Conservative Judaism, and Reconstructionist Judaism, rejects the idea of Jesus being God, or a person of a Trinity, or a mediator to God. 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.

The Talmud includes stories which some consider accounts of Jesus in the Talmud, although there is a spectrum from scholars, such as Maier (1978), who considers that only the accounts with the name ''Yeshu'' refer to the Christian Jesus, and that these are late redactions, to scholars such as Klausner (1925), who suggested that accounts related to Jesus in the Talmud may contain traces of the historical Jesus. However the majority of contemporary historians disregard this material as providing information on the historical Jesus. Many contemporary Talmud scholars view these as comments on the relationship between Judaism and Christians or other sectarians, rather than comments on the historical Jesus.

The ''Mishneh Torah'', an authoritative work of Jewish law, provides the last established consensus view of the Jewish community, 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".

Islamic views

In Islam, Jesus (Arabic: عيسى; `Īsā) is considered to be a Messenger of God and the Messiah who was sent to guide the Children of Israel with the Gospel. Jesus is seen in Islam as a precursor to Muhammad, and is believed by Muslims to have foretold the latter's coming. Jesus is mentioned more times in the Qur'an, by name, than Muhammad. According to the Qur'an, believed by Muslims to be God's final revelation, Jesus was born to Mary as the result of virginal conception, and was given the ability to perform miracles. Islamic traditions narrate that he will return to earth near the day of judgement to restore justice and defeat the Antichrist.

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), 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.

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.

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.

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.

Buddhist views

Buddhists' views of Jesus differ. Some Buddhists, including Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama 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.

Hindu views

In a letter to his daughter Indira Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru wrote, "All over Central Asia, in Kashmir and Ladakh and Tibet and even farther north, there is a strong belief that Jesus or Isa travelled about there."

During the "lost years" not mentioned in the New Testament, Jesus reportedly studied in Nalanda and further in Tibet.

Other views

Mandaeanism, a very small Mideastern, Gnostic sect that reveres John the Baptist as God's greatest prophet, regards Jesus as a false prophet of the false Jewish god of the Old Testament, Adonai, and likewise rejects Abraham, Moses, and Muhammad.

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.

See also

General topics

* Christian mythology

* INRI (stands for "Jesus the Nazarene, the King of the Jews")

Views on Jesus

* Jesusism

* Jews for Jesus

* Pauline Christianity

* Rejection of Jesus

* Historicity of Jesus

* Lost years of Jesus

New Testament Jesus

* King of Kings

* Life of Jesus in the New Testament

* Race of Jesus

Jesus and history

* Apostolic succession

* Christian apologetics

Related lists

* List of books about Jesus

* List of founders of religious traditions

* List of messiah claimants

* List of people claimed to be Jesus

* List of people who have been considered deities

Notes

References

The Bible

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

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'' — documentary about Jesus' life and the early Church.

The Jewish Roman World of Jesus

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:Roman era Jews Category:Savior gods Category:Self-declared messiahs Category:Rabbis of the Land of Israel

ace:Isa af:Jesus van Nasaret als:Jesus Christus am:ኢየሱስ ang:Iesus ab:Иесуа Қьырста ar:يسوع an:Chesús de Nazaret arc:ܝܫܘܥ ast:Xesús az:İsa bm:Yesu Krista bn:যিশু zh-min-nan:Iâ-so͘ ba:Ғайса be:Ісус Хрыстос be-x-old:Ісус Хрыстос bcl:Hesukristo bi:Jisas Kraes bo:ཡེ་ཤུ། bs:Isus br:Jezuz Nazaret bg:Исус Христос bxr:Иисус Христос ca:Jesús de Natzaret cv:Иисус Христос ceb:Jesus cs:Ježíš Kristus cbk-zam:Jesus ny:Yesu Kristu tum:Yesu Khristu co:Gesù Cristu cy:Iesu da:Jesus pdc:Yeesus Grischdus de:Jesus von Nazaret dv:އީސާގެފާނު nv:Doodaatsaahii (Jíísas) dsb:Jezus Kristus et:Jeesus el:Ιησούς Χριστός eml:Gesü es:Jesús de Nazaret eo:Jesuo Kristo ext:Jesucristu eu:Jesus Nazaretekoa ee:Yesu fa:عیسی hif:Jesus fo:Jesus fr:Jésus de Nazareth fy:Jezus Kristus fur:Jesus ga:Íosa Críost gd:Ìosa Chrìosd gl:Xesús de Nazareth gan:耶穌 got:𐌹𐌴𐍃𐌿𐍃 𐍇𐍂𐌹𐍃𐍄𐌿𐍃/Iesus Xristus hak:Yâ-sû ko:예수 ha:Isa Almasihu hy:Հիսուս hi:ईसा मसीह hsb:Jězus hr:Isus ig:Jisọs Kraịst ilo:Jesus id:Yesus ia:Jesus Christo iu:ᐱᐅᓕᑦᓯᔨ/piulitsiji os:Йесо Чырысти xh:UYesu Kristu is:Jesús it:Gesù he:ישו jv:Yesus Kristus kl:Jiisusi-Kristus kn:ಯೇಸು ಕ್ರಿಸ್ತ ka:იესო ქრისტე kk:Иса Мәсіх kw:Yesu Krist rw:Yezu Kirisitu rn:Yezu Kirisitu sw:Yesu kv:Исус Кристос kg:Yesu ht:Jezi ku:Îsa lad:Yeshu lbe:Эса идавс lo:ພະເຍຊູ la:Iesus lv:Jēzus Kristus lb:Jesus vun Nazaret lt:Jėzus Kristus lij:Gesû Cristo li:Zjezus Christus jbo:iesus lg:Jesu Kristo lmo:Gesü de Nazaret hu:Jézus mk:Исус Христос mg:Jesoa ml:യേശു mt:Ġesù mi:Ihu Karaiti mr:येशू ख्रिस्त arz:يسوع ms:Yesus Kristus cdo:Ià-sŭ mwl:Jasus mn:Есүс Христ my:ခရစ်တော်၊ ယေရှု nah:Yeshua Christós na:Jesu Kristo fj:Jisu Karisito nl:Jezus (traditioneel-christelijk) nds-nl:Jezus Christus ja:イエス・キリスト nap:Gèsù pih:Jesus no:Jesus Kristus nn:Jesus nrm:Jésus-Chrît oc:Jèsus mhr:Исус Христос uz:Iso Masih pa:ਈਸਾ ਮਸੀਹ pnb:یسوع pap:Hesus ps:عیسی pms:Gesù ëd Nàsaret tpi:Jisas nds:Jesus Christus pl:Jezus Chrystus pt:Jesus ty:Iesu Mesia ksh:Jesus Christus ro:Isus din Nazaret rm:Jesus da Nazaret qu:Jesus rue:Ісус Хрістос ru:Иисус Христос sah:Исус sm:Iesu Keriso sc:Gesùs sco:Jesus Christ sq:Jezusi scn:Gesù Cristu si:ජේසුස් තුමා simple:Jesus ss:Bukhristu sk:Ježiš Kristus cu:Їисъ Хрїстъ sl:Jezus Kristus szl:Jezus Kristus so:Ciise srn:Jesus Christus sr:Исус sh:Isus fi:Jeesus sv:Jesus tl:Hesus ta:இயேசு கிறித்து kab:Ɛisa tt:Ğaysa te:యేసు th:พระเยซู tg:Исо to:Sīsū Kalaisi tr:İsa tk:Isa Pygamber tw:Yesu Kristo uk:Ісус Христос ur:عیسیٰ علیہ السلام ug:ئەيسا مەسىھ za:Yesu vec:Jesu vi:Giê-su fiu-vro:Jeesus vls:Jezus van Nazareth war:Hesus wo:Yéesu-kristaa wuu:耶稣 yi:יעזוס yo:Jésù zh-yue:耶穌 bat-smg:Jiezos Krėstos zh:耶稣

Coordinates	56°09′″N40°25′″N
name	Yu Dafu
birth date	December 07, 1896
birth place	Fuyang, Zhejiang, China
death date	September 17, 1945
occupation	Short Story writer and Poet
website	}}

Yu Dafu () (December 7, 1896—September 17, 1945). Born in Fuyang, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, was a modern Chinese short story writer and poet.

Early years

Yu Dafu's father died at when he was only three, leaving the family poverty-stricken and destitute. He received a number of scholarships through the Chinese government and went on to receive a traditional Chinese education in Hangzhou. Chronologically he studied in Jiangxing-Fu Middle School (before he came to Hangzhou), Hangzhou-Fu Middle School, Yuying Academy (育英学堂, formerly of Zhejiang University).

In 1912, he entered Hangchow University (later its major part merged into Zhejiang University) preparatory through examination. He was there only for a short period before he was expelled for participation in a student strike.

He then moved to Japan, where he studied economics at the Tokyo Imperial University between 1913 and 1922, where he met other Chinese intellectuals (namely, Guo Moruo, Zhang Ziping and Tian Han). Together, in 1921 they founded the ''Chuangzao she'' 創造社 ("Creation Society"), which promoted vernacular and modern literature. One of his earlier works ''Chenlun'' 沉淪, also his most famous, published in Japan in 1921. The work had gained immense popularity in China, shocking the world of Chinese literature with its frank dealing with sex, as well as grievances directed at the incompetence of Chinese government at the time.

In 1922, he returned to China as a literary celebrity and worked as the editor of ''Creation Quarterly'', editing journals and writing short stories. In 1923, after an attack of tuberculosis, Yu Dafu directed his attention to the welfare of the masses.

In 1927, he worked as an editor of the ''Hongshui'' literary magazine. He later came in conflict with the Communist Party of China and fled back to Japan.

Second Sino-Japanese war

After the start of the Second Sino-Japanese war, he returned to China and worked as a writer of anti-Japanese propaganda in Hangzhou, and later in Zhejiang. From 1938 to 1942, he worked as a literary editor for the newspaper Sin Chew Jit Poh in Singapore.

In 1942 when the Imperial Japanese Army invaded Singapore, he was forced to flee to Sumatra. Known under a different identity, he settled there among other overseas Chinese and began a brewery business with the help of the locals. Later he was forced to help the Japanese military police as an interpreter when it was discovered that he was one of the few "locals" in the area who could speak Japanese.

In 1945, he was arrested by the Kempeitai when his true identity was finally discovered. It is believed that he was executed by the Japanese shortly after the surrender of Japan.

Works

''Chenlun'' 沉淪 "''Sinking''" (1921)

''Riji jiuzhong'' 日記九種 “''Nine Diaries''” (1927)

''Guoqu'' 過去 “''The Past''" (1927)

his first novel?? (1928) (moderately successful)

his second novel?? (1932)

''Chuben'' 出奔 "''Flight''" (1935)

His most popular work, breaking all Chinese sales records, was ''Jih-chi chiu-chung'' "''Nine Diaries''", which detailed his affair with the writer Wang Ying-hsin. The most critically acclaimed work is ''Kuo-ch'u'' or "''The Past''", written in 1927.

References

Encyclopædia Britannica 2005 Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, article- "Yü Ta-fu"

External links

Category:1896 births Category:1945 deaths Category:Chinese expatriates in Japan Category:Hangzhou High School alumni Category:People from Hangzhou Category:Republic of China poets Category:University of Tokyo alumni Category:Zhejiang University alumni

de:Yu Dafu es:Yu Dafu fr:Yu Dafu it:Yu Dafu no:Yu Dafu zh:郁達夫

Coordinates	56°09′″N40°25′″N
Name	Ravi Zacharias
Birth place	Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Nationality	Indian, Canadian and American
Residence	Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Occupation	Christian apologist, Founder and Chairman of the Board of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries
Religion	Christian
Website	http://www.rzim.org
Signature	}}

Region	Western Philosophy
Era	21st-century philosophy
Color	#B0C4DE
Name	Ravi Zacharias
Birth place	Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
School tradition	Christian philosophy
Main interests	Philosophy of religion, Christian Apologetics, Worldview
Notable ideas	Four Criteria for a Coherent Worldview
Influences	Norman Geisler, C.S. Lewis, John Polkinghorne, Don Cupitt, Malcolm Muggeridge, Francis Schaeffer
Influenced	}}

Frederick Antony Ravi Kumar Zacharias (born 1946) is an Indian-born, Canadian-American evangelical Christian apologist. Zacharias is the author of numerous Christian books, including Gold Medallion Book Award winner ''Can Man Live Without God?'' and bestsellers ''Light in the Shadow of Jihad'' and ''The Grand Weaver''. He is the founder and chairman of the board of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, host of the radio programs ''Let My People Think'' and ''Just Thinking'', and visiting professor at Wycliffe Hall of Oxford, where he teaches apologetics and evangelism. Zacharias studied as a visiting scholar at Cambridge University and held the chair in Evangelism and Contemporary Thought at Alliance Theological Seminary from 1981 to 1984. Commentator Chuck Colson referred to Zacharias as "the great apologist of our time."

Biography

Early life

Zacharias was born in Madras, India. Zacharias descended from a line of Hindu priests (of the Nambudiri Brahmin caste). Missionaries spoke to one of his ancestors about Christianity and thereafter the family was converted and the family name was changed from Nambudiri to Zacharias. Zacharias grew up in a nominal Anglican household, and he himself was an atheist until the age of 17, when he unsuccessfully tried to commit suicide by swallowing poison. While in the hospital, a local Christian worker brought him a Bible and instructed his mother to read to him out of John 14. Zacharias says that it was John 14:19 that touched him and caused him to commit his life to Christ.

He immigrated with his family to Canada in 1966, earning his undergraduate degree from Ontario Bible College in 1972 (now Tyndale University College & Seminary) and his M. Div. from Trinity International University. In May 1972 Zacharias married Margaret ("Margie") Reynolds, whom he met at his church's youth group. They have three children, Sarah, Naomi and Nathan. He was later ordained by the Christian and Missionary Alliance and commissioned as an international evangelist. He founded Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in 1984 to pursue his calling as a "classical evangelist in the arena of the intellectually resistant."

Ministry

Zacharias was invited to spend the summer of 1971 in Vietnam, where he evangelized to the American soldiers, as well as to POWs and Viet Cong. After graduating from Ontario Bible College, he began an itinerant ministry with the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Canada. In 1974 the C&MA; sent him to Cambodia, where he preached only a short time before its fall to the Khmer Rouge. In 1977, after graduating from Trinity, Zacharias was commissioned to preach worldwide.

In 1983, Zacharias was invited to speak in Amsterdam at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association's annual evangelists' conference. It was here that he first noticed a lack of ministry in the area of Christian apologetics. After Amsterdam, Zacharias spent the summer evangelizing in India, where he continued to see the need for apologetics ministry, both to lead people to Christ and to train Christian leaders. In August 1984 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries was founded in Toronto, Canada. Today its headquarters is located in Atlanta, Georgia, and has offices in Canada, England, India, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.

In 1989, shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Zacharias was invited to speak in Moscow. While there he spoke to students at the Lenin Military Academy as well as political leaders at the Center for Geopolitical Strategy. This was the first of many evangelism opportunities towards the political world. Future events included an invitation to Bogota, Colombia in 1993, where he spoke to the judiciary committee on the importance of having a solid moral foundation.

Zacharias took a sabbatical in 1990 and spent part of that year as a visiting scholar at Cambridge University. There he heard lectures by men such as Stephen Hawking and studied under professors such as John Polkinghorne and Don Cupitt. He also wrote his first book, ''A Shattered Visage: The Real Face of Atheism.'' In 1993 Zacharias was invited to speak at his first Veritas Forum at Harvard University, and later that year was one of the keynote speakers at Urbana. Zacharias continues to be a frequent guest at these forums, both giving lectures and answering students in question and answer sessions at academic institutions such as the University of Georgia, the University of Michigan, and Penn State.

Zacharias attracted media attention when in 2004 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) opened its signature pulpit at the Salt Lake Tabernacle to him for a series of messages. Zacharias delivered a sermon on "Who Is the Truth? Defending Jesus Christ as The Way, The Truth and The Life" to some 7,000 lay-persons and scholars from both LDS and Protestant camps in an initiatory move towards open dialog between the camps.

Some evangelicals criticized Zacharias' decision not to use this opportunity to directly address the "deep and foundational" differences between the historic Christian faith and that of the LDS church. He responded by asserting that Christians should not immediately condemn Mormonism's theological differences but "graciously build one step at a time in communicating our faith with clarity and conviction". He said this is just as effective as showing someone the faults of their faith. The speaking engagement was nearly sabotaged by a claim by event organizer Greg Johnson, president of Standing Together, that Zacharias had nothing to do with editing the book ''The Kingdom of the Cults'' and had only loaned his name to the latest edition. Johnson later apologized for his comment.

Zacharias is a frequent keynote lecturer within the evangelical community at events such as the Future of Truth conference in 2004, the National Religious Broadcasters' Convention and Exposition in 2005, the National Conference on Christian Apologetics in 2006. On successive nights in October 2007, he addressed first the students and faculty of Virginia Tech, then the community of Blacksburg, Virginia, on the topic of evil and suffering in the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre. Zacharias has represented the evangelical community at occasions such as the National Day of Prayer in Washington, DC, the Annual Prayer Breakfast at the United Nations, and the African Union Prayer Breakfast in Maputo, Mozambique, and was named honorary chairman of the 2008 National Day of Prayer task force.

Zacharias was interviewed in Focus on the Family's Truth Project. In November 2009, Zacharias signed an ecumenical statement known as the ''Manhattan Declaration'' calling on Evangelicals, Catholics and Orthodox to engage in civil disobedience with regard to laws which the declaration claims would force them to accept abortion, same-sex marriage or other matters that go against their religious consciences.

Philosophy

Zacharias states that a coherent worldview must be able to satisfactorily answer four questions: that of origin, meaning of life, morality and destiny. He says that while every major religion makes exclusive claims about truth, the Christian faith is unique in its ability to answer all four of these questions. He routinely speaks on the coherency of the Christian worldview, saying that Christianity is capable of withstanding the toughest philosophical attacks. Zacharias believes that the apologist must argue from three levels: the theoretical, to line up the logic of the argument; the arts, to illustrate; and "kitchen table talk", to conclude and apply.

Zacharias's style of apologetic focuses predominantly on Christianity's answers to life's great existential questions, with logical and scientifically inclined defense of God. In some discussion Zacharias appropriates to scientific matters, he answers the question of human origin. He has voiced skepticism over what he believes to be inadequate empirical evidence in the fossil records for an honest endorsement of the theory of evolution. He believes that evolution is incompatible with the second law of thermodynamics, saying that the two are inconsistent and irreconcilable. This view is rejected by the scientific community.

Works

''A Shattered Visage: The Real Face of Atheism'' (1994, 2004) ISBN 0801065119

''Can Man Live Without God?'' (1994, 1996) ISBN 0849939437

''Deliver Us From Evil'' (1996, 1998) ISBN 084993950X

''Cries of the Heart'' (1998, 2002) ISBN 0849943876

''The Merchant and the Thief'' (1999) (Children’s) ISBN 0781432960

''The Broken Promise'' (2000) (Children's) ISBN 0781434513

''Jesus Among Other Gods'' (2000, 2002) ISBN 0849943272

''Jesus Among Other Gods (Youth Edition)'' (2000) ISBN 0849942179

''The Lotus and the Cross: Jesus Talks with Buddha'' (2001) ISBN 157673854X

''Sense and Sensuality: Jesus Talks with Oscar Wilde'' (2002) ISBN 1590520149

''Light in the Shadow of Jihad: The Struggle For Truth'' (2002) ISBN 1576739899

''Recapture the Wonder'' (2003) ISBN 1591452767

''Is Your Church Ready?: Motivating Leaders to Live an Apologetic Life'' (2003) (Editor, with Norman Geisler) ISBN 0310250617

''Who Made God? And Answers to Over 100 Other Tough Questions of Faith'' (2003) (General Editor, with Norman Geisler) ISBN 0310247101

''The Kingdom of the Cults'' (2003) (Editor) ISBN 0764228218

''I, Isaac Take Thee, Rebekah: Moving From Romance to Lasting Love'' (2004) ISBN 0849908221

''The Prince and the Prophet: Jesus Talks With Mohammed'' (Copyright 2004, to be released posthumously) ISBN 1590523199

''The Lamb and the Führer: Jesus Talks with Hitler'' (2005) ISBN 1590523946

''Walking From East to West: God in the Shadows'' (With R.S.B. Sawyer) (2006) ISBN 0310259150

''The Grand Weaver: How God Shapes Us Through the Events of Our Lives'' (2007) ISBN 0310269520

''Beyond Opinion: Living the Faith We Defend'' (2008) ISBN 0849919681

''The End of Reason: A Response to the New Atheists'' (2008) ISBN 0310282519

''Is There Not a Cause'' (2008) (National Day of Prayer Feature Book)

''New Birth or Rebirth: Jesus Talks with Krishna'' (2008) ISBN 1590527259

''There is a Plan'' (2009) (excerpts from ''The Grand Weaver'') ISBN 0310318491

''Has Christianity Failed You?'' (2010) ISBN 0310269555

''The Lotus and the Cross: Jesus Talks with Buddha'' (2010) ISBN 1601423187

''Why Jesus? Rediscovering His Truth in an Age of Mass Marketed Spirituality'' (2012) ISBN 9780892963195

References

External links

Ravi Zacharias International Ministries

Ravi Zacharias Radio Broadcasts Just Thinking and Let My People Think

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de:Ravi Zacharias es:Ravi Zacharias pt:Ravi Zacharias simple:Ravi Zacharias vi:Ravi Zacharias