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Name of podcast: Why am I a Christian?

-I choose this name as it is the question I will being asking at the end of the podcast, and throughout the podcast I will be giving evidence to use when answering this question

Introduce the religion: Christianity is a faith that believes in one God, and that God 2000 years ago sent down his one and only son to die on the cross for all the sins of his believers. So that his followers will be able to get into heaven and spend eternity with God.

Bring up the sub-topics that will be discussed:

-interview

-personal experience

-research (onlooker perspective)

-conclusion (What is it like being a teenage Christian today?)

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"It is becoming extremely difficult to be both a Christian and a pastor because, at least in the West, we are now Christian and re-paganizing."

"Christianity is the only movement on earth that, first of all, teaches that you can not access God by your good works or actions."

"Jesus lives, dies, and physically rises from the dead, not spiritually but physically, three days later. He says if you believe in him and ask for forgiveness, you will rise from the dead."

“He is the only incarnation of God in history.”

"Salvation is not earned; it is a gift, which differentiates Christianity from other religions. The gospel says, 'For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.'" (John 3:16)

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The Bible is the main Christian piece of scripture. It is known as the word of God, the gospel or the holy book. It is a collection of scared written by prophets, priests, religious historians and eye witness. The Bible tells the story of the start to the end of time and the fall of humanity. It also speaks about the saviour of the world; Jesus Christ and his life and the resurrection. The Bible shows love and how following Jesus can lead us to Heaven and God. The Bible gives insight into God and his relationship with his creation. The Bible, speaks about the Ten Commandments which are the laws of Christianity that they live by. Lastly, the bible proves that Jesus truly lived, truly died and came back to life because it was written by eyewitnesses.

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What Is the Holy Bible? | Come unto Christ

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The Bible is a collection of sacred books written by several authors. Ancient prophets and historians recorded the relationship between God and His people for over 4,000 years. Their inspired words are what we know as the Holy Bible today.

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Key figures:

Mary: She was the mother of Jesus, and she is known as the first Christian. She is highly favoured above all women due to her faith which lead to God choosing her to be the mother of the Son of God.

John the Baptist: He was a preacher and prophet. Throughout his life he baptized many people (including Jesus) but he was also a ully devoted follower of Jesus Christ and His kingdom. Jesus and John were not only cousins but also very close friends. John unashamedly shared the good news of Jesus Christ across nations. He was a man filled with faith and a role model to many Christians.

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Who was John the Baptist in the Bible? | GotQuestions.org

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Who was John the Baptist in the Bible? How is understanding the life of John the Baptist valuable to our spiritual growth?

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Christmas: It is a holiday that celebrates the birth of the fulfillment of the Jewish faith and the Son of God; Jesus Christ. The story that is taught in church is about the birth of Jesus and how he was conceived by the Holy Spirit and put into a virgin named Mary. The tradition of giving gifts came from Jesus being the ultimate gift for the world. The church normally will celebrate together on Christmas eve through a church service.

Good Friday: The day of Jesus's crucifixion and death

Easter: It is the third day after Good Friday and it is always a Sunday. It is the holiday celebrating Jesus physical rose from the dead. This day is non-negotiable to Christianity because if he did not rise from the dead then Christianity is a lie. The moment started due to Jesus rising from the dead. Unlike other religions were the founders pointed people to their teaching, Jesus pointed people to himself which give authority to his teachings.

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Christmas, Christian festival celebrating the birth of Jesus. The English term Christmas ("mass on Christ's day") is of fairly recent origin. The earlier term Yule may have derived from the Germanic jōl or the Anglo-Saxon geōl, which referred to the feast of the winter solstice. The corresponding terms in other languages- Navidad in Spanish, Natale in Italian, Noël in French-all probably denote nativity. The German word Weihnachten denotes "hallowed night." Since the early 20th century, Christmas has also been a secular family holiday, observed by Christians and non-Christians alike, devoid of Christian elements, and marked by an increasingly elaborate exchange of gifts. In this secular Christmas celebration, a mythical figure named Santa Claus plays the pivotal role.

Origin and development

The early Christian community distinguished between the identification of the date of Jesus' birth and the liturgical celebration of that event. The actual observance of the day of Jesus' birth was long in coming. In particular, during the first two centuries of Christianity there was strong opposition to recognizing birthdays of martyrs or, for that matter, of Jesus. Numerous Church Fathers offered sarcastic comments about the pagan custom of celebrating birthdays when, in fact, saints and martyrs should be honoured on the days of their martyrdom-their true "birthdays," from the church's perspective.

The precise origin of assigning December 25 as the birth date of Jesus is unclear. The New Testament provides no clues in this regard. December 25 was first identified as the date of Jesus' birth by Sextus Julius Africanus in 221 and later became the universally accepted date. One widespread explanation of the origin of this date is that December 25 was the Christianizing of the dies solis invicti nati ("day of the birth of the unconquered sun"), a popular holiday in the Roman Empire that celebrated the winter solstice as a symbol of the resurgence of the sun, the casting away of winter and the heralding of the rebirth of spring and summer. Indeed, after December 25 had become widely accepted as the date of Jesus' birth, Christian writers frequently made the connection between the rebirth of the sun and the birth of the Son. One of the difficulties with this view is that it suggests a nonchalant willingness on the part of the Christian church to appropriate a pagan festival when the early church was so intent on distinguishing itself categorically from pagan beliefs and practices.

A second view suggests that December 25 became the date of Jesus' birth by a priori reasoning that identified the spring equinox as the date of the creation of the world and the fourth day of creation, when the light was created, as the day of Jesus' conception (i.e., March 25). December 25, nine months later, then became the date of Jesus' birth. For a long time the celebration of Jesus' birth was observed in conjunction with his baptism, celebrated January 6.

Christmas began to be widely celebrated with a specific liturgy in the 9th century but did not attain the liturgical importance of either Good Friday or Easter, the other two major Christian holidays. Roman Catholic churches celebrate the first Christmas mass at midnight, and Protestant churches have increasingly held Christmas candlelight services late on the evening of December 24. A special service of "lessons and carols" intertwines Christmas carols with Scripture readings narrating salvation history from the Fall in the Garden of Eden to the coming of Christ. The service, inaugurated by E.W. Benson and adopted at the University of Cambridge, has become widely popular.

Contemporary customs in the West

None of the contemporary Christmas customs have their origin in theological or liturgical affirmations, and most are of fairly recent date. The Renaissance humanist Sebastian Brant recorded, in Das Narrenschiff (1494; The Ship of Fools), the custom of placing branches of fir trees in houses. Even though there is some uncertainty about the precise date and origin of the tradition of the Christmas tree, it appears that fir trees decorated with apples were first known in Strasbourg in 1605. The first use of candles on such trees is recorded by a Silesian duchess in 1611. The Advent wreath-made of fir branches, with four candles denoting the four Sundays of the Advent season-is of even more recent origin, especially in North America. The custom, which began in the 19th century but had roots in the 16th, originally involved a fir wreath with 24 candles (the 24 days before Christmas, starting December 1), but the awkwardness of having so many candles on the wreath reduced the number to four. An analogous custom is the Advent calendar, which provides 24 openings, one to be opened each day beginning December 1. According to tradition, the calendar was created in the 19th century by a Munich housewife who tired of having to answer endlessly when Christmas would come. The first commercial calendars were printed in Germany in 1851. The intense preparation for Christmas that is part of the commercialization of the holiday has blurred the traditional liturgical distinction between Advent and the Christmas season, as can be seen by the placement of Christmas trees in sanctuaries well before December 25.

Toward the end of the 18th century the practice of giving gifts to family members became well established. Theologically, the feast day reminded Christians of God's gift of Jesus to humankind even as the coming of the Wise Men, or Magi, to Bethlehem suggested that Christmas was somehow related to giving gifts. The practice of giving gifts, which goes back to the 15th century, contributed to the view that Christmas was a secular holiday focused on family and friends. This was one reason why Puritans in Old and New England opposed the celebration of Christmas and in both England and America succeeded in banning its observance.

The tradition of celebrating Christmas as a secular family holiday is splendidly illustrated by a number of English "Christmas" carols such as "Here We Come A-Wassailing" or "Deck the Halls." It can also be seen in the practice of sending Christmas cards, which began in England in the 19th century. Moreover, in countries such as Austria and Germany, the connection between the Christian festival and the family holiday is made by identifying the Christ Child as the giver of gifts to the family. In some European countries, St. Nicholas appears on his feast day (December 6) bringing modest gifts of candy and other gifts to children. In North America the pre-Christmas role of the Christian saint Nicholas was transformed, under the influence of the poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" (or " 'Twas the Night Before Christmas"), into the increasingly central role of Santa Claus as the source of Christmas gifts for the family. While both name and attire-a version of the traditional dress of bishop-of Santa Claus reveal his Christian roots, and his role of querying children about their past behaviour replicates that of St. Nicholas, he is seen as a secular figure. In Australia, where people attend open-air concerts of Christmas carols and have their Christmas dinner on the beach, Santa Claus wears red swimming trunks as well as a white beard.

In most European countries, gifts are exchanged on Christmas Eve, December 24, in keeping with the notion that the baby Jesus was born on the night of the 24th. The morning of December 25, however, has become the time for the exchange of gifts in North America. In 17th- and 18th-century Europe the modest exchange of gifts took place in the early hours of the 25th when the family returned home from the Christmas mass. When the evening of the 24th became the time for the exchange of gifts, the Christmas mass was set into the late afternoon of that day. In North America the centrality of the morning of the 25th of December as the time for the family to open presents has led, with the exception of Catholic and some Lutheran and Episcopal churches, to the virtual end of holding church services on that day, a striking illustration of the way societal customs influence liturgical practices.

Given the importance of Christmas as one of the major Christian feast days, most European countries observe, under Christian influence, December 26 as a second Christmas holiday. This practice recalls the ancient Christian liturgical notion that the celebration of Christmas, as well as that of Easter and of Pentecost, should last the entire week. The weeklong observance, however, was successively reduced to Christmas day and a single additional holiday on December 26.

Contemporary customs in Eastern and Oriental Orthodoxy

Eastern Orthodox churches honour Christmas on December 25. However, for those that continue to use the Julian calendar for their liturgical observances, this date corresponds to January 7 on the Gregorian calendar. The churches of the Oriental Orthodox communion celebrate Christmas variously. For example, in Armenia, the first country to adopt Christianity as its official religion, the church uses its own calendar; the Armenian Apostolic Church honours January 6 as Christmas. In Ethiopia, where Christianity has had a home ever since the 4th century, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church celebrates Christmas on January 7. Most of the churches of the Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East celebrate Christmas on December 25; at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, however, the Syriac Orthodox celebrate Christmas on January 6 with the Armenian Apostolic Church. Congregations of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria follow the date of December 25 on the Julian calendar, which corresponds to Khiak 29 on the ancient Coptic calendar.

Contemporary customs in other areas

With the spread of Christianity beyond Europe and North America, the celebration of Christmas was transferred to societies throughout the non-Western world. In many of these countries, Christians are not the majority population, and, therefore, the religious holiday has not become a cultural holiday. Christmas customs in these societies thus often echo Western traditions because the people were exposed to Christianity as a religion and cultural artifact of the West.

In South and Central America, unique religious and secular traditions mark the Christmas celebration. In Mexico, on days leading up to Christmas, the search of Mary and Joseph for a place to stay is reenacted, and children try to break a piñata filled with toys and candy. Christmas is a great summer festival in Brazil, including picnics, fireworks, and other festivities as well as a solemn procession of priests to the church to celebrate midnight mass.

In some parts of India the evergreen Christmas tree is replaced by the mango tree or the bamboo tree, and houses are decorated with mango leaves and paper stars. Christmas largely remains a Christian holiday and is otherwise not widely observed.

Japan serves as illustration of a different sort. In that predominantly Shintō and Buddhist country, the secular aspects of the holiday-Christmas trees and decorations, even the singing of Christmas songs such as "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" or "White Christmas"-are widely observed instead of the religious aspects.
Hans J. Hillerbrand The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

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Christmas | Origin, Definition, Traditions, History, & Facts

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Christmas, Christian festival celebrating the birth of Jesus. December 25 has become widely accepted as the date of Jesus' birth. Christmas has also become a secular family holiday that is observed by Christians and non-Christians, is marked by the exchange of gifts, and features the mythical figure of Santa Claus.

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Salvation is putting faith (informed trust) in the person and work of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins. Salvation does not come from actions but instead from grace/mercy of God through Christ. Good works are evidence of salvation and relationship, they don't give salvation. The method of salvation can be all summed up in this bible verse:

“Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).

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What Must I Do To Be Saved? This question was asked to one of the followers of Jesus Christ nearly 2000 years ago and is still just as important and relevant of a question for you today.
Have you ever thought about this question?
Do you know the answer to the

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The church is essential to the Christian faith. It is where Christian community comes together to worship and praise God. It is essential part for Christian's to build and surround themselves with other Christian's. The church is where this does happen. Christianity is not for the most part an individual religion it is a mostly communal religion.

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A church is central to the Christian faith, and it is where the community comes together to worship and praise God.

The church is:

the place of worship for all Christians

where the community gathers

where works of charity are carried out

a place of healing

Let us be concerned for one another, to help one another to show love and to do good. Let us not give up the habit of meeting together, as some are doing. Instead, let us encourage one another all the more, since you see that the Day of the Lord is coming nearer. Hebrews 10:24-25

For Christians gathering together as a community for worship is key and based on the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus taught that when people gathered together to worship him, then he would be present. This is one reason why the Catholic faith teaches that Jesus is truly present in the Mass.

For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them. Matthew 18:20

Having a place of worship is important for Christians as it provides the opportunity to feel closer to God, to meet other Christians with the same beliefs and to feel like a part of a community of believers who regularly come together to express their faith.

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Significance of a place of worship - Special places - GCSE Religious Studies Revision - WJEC - BBC Bitesize

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A church is central to the Christian faith, and it is where the community comes together to worship and praise God. The church is: the place of worship for all Christians where the community gathers where works of charity are carried out a place of healing Let us be concerned for one another, to help one another to show love and to do good.

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What is it like being a Christian teenager in today’s Society?

Overwhelming: As many people will and have challenge my faith, especially in academic places like high school and college. I have had to dive deep into my faith and research not because my parent or grandparents believe but because in order to understand my faith I have to have the evidence to back up my faith

Scary: Many people will and have hated me for my beliefs and standing by my religious even thought I am in the magrity. It has and will continue to be a hard process however I have faith that God will help me thorough the hard time.

Impactful: This may be just me but as I wanted to back up my faith with evidence I had to research alot and I still am. But this process of researching and understand and asking questions not only has made my faith in Jesus stronger but it also has made me more a intellectual person. It has forced me to think and to work harding in order to understand this huge concepts. Which has lead me to overall be a smarter person and be able to back up my faith in debates.

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How does the religion engage people in the 21st century?

Salvation is not earned, it is a gift (it does not come from your actions)

A set of guidelines to follow

An answer to a question everyone ponders: "What happens after death?"

Churchs can be more old-fashioned (service-wise) or they can be more modern (service-wise)

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Is the number of adherents to that religion growing or shrinking? Why?

Christianity is in flux at the moment. The moment is unsure if in the future it will increase or decrease and the info reflects that. Different websites will say different things. However, the Pew Research Centre says the world’s Christian population is expected to grow from 2.2 billion in 2010 to 2.9 billion in 2050. Almost one in three people worldwide (31%) are expected to be Christian by 2050.

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Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project

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The world's Christian population is expected to grow from 2.2 billion in 2010 to 2.9 billion in 2050. Nearly one-in-three people worldwide (31%) are expected to be Christian at mid-century, the same share as in 2010.

While the overall share of the world's population that is Christian is expected to remain relatively steady, the regional distribution of Christians is projected to change. Perhaps most notably, the share of the world's Christians living in sub-Saharan Africa is expected to grow - from 24% in 2010 to 38% by 2050 - while the share living in Europe will continue to fall, from 26% in 2010 to about 16% by 2050.

The annual growth rate of the world's population is expected to decline gradually in the coming decades, falling from 1.1% in 2010-2015 to 0.4% in 2045-2050. The annual growth rate of Christians is expected to remain roughly on par with world population growth.

Regional Change

Christianity has spread far from its historical origins and is geographically widespread. As noted in a 2011 Pew Research Center report on global Christianity, it has become a more geographically diverse religion since 1910, becoming less concentrated in Europe and more evenly distributed throughout the Americas, sub-Saharan Africa and the Asia-Pacific region.

As of 2010, about a quarter of the global Christian population was in Europe (26%), a quarter in Latin America and the Caribbean (25%) and a quarter in sub-Saharan Africa (24%). Significant numbers of Christians also live in Asia and the Pacific (13%) and North America (12%). Less than 1% live in the Middle East-North Africa region, where Christianity began.

The regional distribution of Christians is forecast to change considerably by 2050. Europe is no longer projected to have a plurality of the world's Christians; in fact, only about 16% of the world's Christians are expected to be living in Europe as of 2050. In addition, the shares of the global Christian population residing in Latin America and the Caribbean (23%) and North America (10%) are projected to decline modestly.

Meanwhile, sub-Saharan Africa is expected to become the region with the largest number of Christians - by a wide margin. Sub-Saharan Africa's share of the global Christian population is forecast to rise from 24% in 2010 to 38% in 2050.

Europe is the only region where the absolute number of Christians is expected to decline by 2050. Europe's Christian population is projected to fall from 553 million in 2010 to 454 million in 2050. During this period, the share of Europe's population that identifies as Christian also is expected to decline, from 75% to 65%.

In all other regions, the absolute number of Christians is expected to grow in the coming decades. However, the share of the population that is Christian is forecast to decline within all regions except Asia and the Pacific. In sub-Saharan Africa, for example, the size of the Christian population is projected to more than double in the next few decades, growing from about half a billion people in 2010 to more than a billion in 2050. However, the share of sub-Saharan Africa's population that is Christian is expected to drop slightly, from 63% in 2010 to 59% in 2050, because of even more rapid growth among the region's Muslims.

Between 2010 and 2050, the largest Christian population growth, in percentage terms, is projected to occur in sub-Saharan Africa (115%). However, the population growth of Christians in sub-Saharan Africa is expected to be less than in the region overall (131%). By contrast, population growth of Christians in Asia and the Pacific is projected to be higher (33%) than in the region overall (22%).

The Christian population in Europe is expected to decline more between 2010 and 2050 (minus 18%) than the population in Europe overall (minus 6%). During this period, the Christian population in North America is projected to grow by 8%, much less than the region's population as a whole (26%).

Change in Countries With Largest Christian Populations

Christians are expected to keep pace with global population growth largely due to their expected growth in sub-Saharan Africa.

Of the 10 countries with the largest Christian populations in 2010, six are expected to decline as a share of the global population between 2010 and 2050. But three African countries (Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ethiopia), as well as the Philippines, are each expected to account for a larger share of the world's population in the decades ahead.

Four countries had more than 100 million Christians in 2010: the United States (243 million), Brazil (173 million), Mexico (108 million) and Russia (105 million).

Most of the 10 countries with the largest Christian populations in 2010 were majority-Christian countries. In fact, many of these countries had large Christian majorities, including the United States (78% in 2010) and Brazil (89%). One exception is China, where Christians made up only 5% of the population. Also, even though there were a large number of Christians living in Nigeria in 2010 (78 million), they were slightly less than half of Nigeria's population (49%).

About 11% of the world's Christians lived in the United States as of 2010, while about 8% lived in Brazil and 5% in Mexico. All in all, nearly half (48%) of the world's Christians lived in the 10 countries with the largest Christian populations.

By 2050, the list of the 10 countries with the largest Christian populations is anticipated to change considerably. The United States and Brazil are expected to remain atop the list, but Mexico is projected to fall from third to sixth and Russia is expected to drop from fourth to eighth. Germany and China are not expected to appear on the 2050 list.

Nigeria (155 million Christians as of 2050), the Philippines (144 million), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (142 million) and Ethiopia (85 million) each are expected to rise at least one spot on the list. In fact, Nigeria is projected to have the world's third-largest Christian population in 2050, even though Christians are projected to make up only 39% of Nigeria's 2050 population.

Two other nations in sub-Saharan Africa are forecast to join the list: Tanzania, with 94 million Christians in 2050, and Uganda (81 million).

Similar to 2010, nearly half (47%) of the world's 2050 Christian population is expected to be found in these 10 countries. In 2050, no single country is forecast to have more than 10% of the world's Christian population.

Demographic Characteristics of Christians That Will Shape Their Future

Fertility

With a Total Fertility Rate (TFR) of 2.7 children per woman in the 2010-2015 period, Christians worldwide have fertility levels slightly higher than the world's overall population (2.5), and significantly higher than the replacement level of 2.1 children per woman (the number considered necessary to maintain a stable population, all else being equal).

Christian fertility rates are lowest in Europe (1.6), but are at or above the replacement level in all other regions. They are highest in sub-Saharan Africa (4.4), though Christian fertility is lower in sub-Saharan Africa than the region's overall fertility rate (4.8), due in large part to the higher fertility of Muslims in the region.
The countries where Christians have the highest fertility rates in the 2010-2015 period are Zambia (6.3) and Chad (6.2). Christians have the lowest fertility rates in Portugal (1.3), South Korea (1.3), Singapore (1.1), the Republic of Macedonia (1.1) and Bosnia-Herzegovina (1.1).

Indeed, where Christians live alongside large Muslim populations, they often have lower fertility than Muslims, such as in Egypt (1.9 TFR for Christians compared with 2.7 for Muslims) and in India (2.3 vs. 3.2). An exception is Indonesia, the country with the world's largest Muslim population in 2010; Christians there have higher fertility (2.6) than the Muslim majority (2.0).

Age Structure

Globally, Christians were only slightly older (median age of 30) than the overall population (median age of 28) in 2010. Similarly, the age breakdown of the world's total population is not all that different from that of the world's Christian population. For example, 27% of the world's Christians are younger than 15, as are about 27% of the world's people overall.

The age distribution of Christians varies dramatically across regions. The youngest Christians, as of 2010, were in sub-Saharan Africa (median age of 19), while the oldest Christians lived in Europe (median age of 42). However, in most regions, Christians were not considerably younger or older than the general population in 2010. The only exception was the Middle East and North Africa, where Christians were somewhat older (median age of 29) than the overall population of the region (median age of 24).

Religious Switching

In the main projection scenario described in this report, religious switching is factored into population projections for all 70 countries for which sufficient data on recent switching patterns are available. In an alternative scenario, no religious switching is modeled in any country. Comparing results between these two scenarios provides a sense of how much impact religious switching is expected to make on the size of the Christian population in the years to come.

Worldwide, religious switching is projected to have a modest impact on changes in the Christian population. Christians would make up a slightly larger share of the world's inhabitants in 2050 (32% rather than 31%) if religious switching were not taken into account.

In specific regions, religious switching is forecast to have a more substantial impact on Christian populations. In North America, Europe and the Latin America-Caribbean region, Christians are projected to experience net losses because of religious switching, with most of the switching toward no religious affiliation. Consequently, population projections with and without religious switching can differ dramatically.

In North America, for example, about 66% of the region's 2050 population is projected to be Christian when religious switching patterns are taken into account. The expected share of Christians in North America would be as high as 75% if religious switching were not included in the projections. Similarly, the expected percentage of Europe's population that is Christian would be nearly 70% in 2050 if no religious switching were factored in, but it is 65% when religious switching is included in the projections.

Data for religious switching are unavailable for many countries in sub-Saharan Africa as well as the Asia-Pacific and Middle East-North Africa regions; as a result, population projections with and without religious switching are similar in these regions.

Migration

More than 5 million Christians are expected to move from one region to another between 2010 and 2015. Many of them are forecast to move to North America, including more than 2 million from the Latin America-Caribbean region and about 440,000 from the Asia-Pacific region. About 250,000 Christians are expected to move from Asia and the Pacific to the Middle East and North Africa between 2010 and 2015. These migration patterns are projected to continue in the decades ahead. (See the Methodology for more information on how migration flows were estimated.)

The impact of migration on Christian populations can be seen by comparing results from the main projection scenario, which includes expected migration patterns, with an alternative scenario that does not attempt to take migration into account.

Although a large number of Christian migrants are forecast to move to North America in the decades ahead, many migrants belonging to other religions also are expected to arrive; whether or not migration is included in the projection model, Christians are forecast to make up two-thirds of North America's population in 2050. Migration - particularly by members of non-Christian faiths - will have a more noticeable impact in Europe. When migration is included in the projection model, the share of Europe's population expected to be Christian in 2050 is 65%, 2 percentage points lower than in the scenario that does not include any new migration (67%).

In the Middle East and North Africa, the relatively high number of Christian immigrants to Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries is expected to slightly boost the Christian share of the region's population. (For more information on Christian migrants to the GCC countries, see Chapter 3.)

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The world's Christian population is expected to grow from 2.2 billion in 2010 to 2.9 billion in 2050. Nearly one-in-three people worldwide (31%) are

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Populations changes (fasting growing in the south where those population are having more children)

Growing conversion in islamic countries to Christian (Ex. Iran)

Over the last two thousand years when there is mass persecution against the church it tend to grow (in the last 5 years it has been the highest amount formal persecution against Christians, at this moment around 360 million Christians are under direct threat suffer high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith; church building burning, sexually assault, imprisonment an death)

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Open Doors serves persecuted Christians around the world by providing vital support, delivering resources, and providing training.

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Paul the Apostle: He is one of the 13 authors of the bible and is known as one of the most influential leaders of the early church. He spread the gospel to the Gentiles (non-Jews). However, before being an influential Christian leader he was called Saul and he persecuted Christians, but he found Jesus and changed drastically including his name. All his sin was left in the past and his story shows Christians and non-Christians today that no matter what you have done you have a place in Heaven thought Jesus.

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The Apostle Paul was one of the most influential leaders of the early Christian church. He played a crucial role in spreading the gospel to the Gentiles (non-Jews) during the first century, and his missionary journeys took him all throughout the Roman empire.

Paul started more than a dozen churches, and he's traditionally considered the author of 13 books of the Bible -more than any other biblical writer. For this reason, Saint Paul is often considered one of the most influential people in history. He had a greater impact on the world's religious landscape than any other person besides Jesus, and perhaps Muhammad.

But before he was known as a tireless champion of Christianity, Paul was actually known for persecuting Christians. The Book of Acts tells us that Paul was even present at the death of the first Christian martyr-where he "approved the stoning of Stephen" (Acts 8:1).

Over the last two millennia, countless books have been written about Paul and his teachings. In this beginner's guide, we'll explore the basics of what we know-and don't know-about this important biblical figure.

Here's what we're going to cover:

Let's begin! We'll start with the basics.

Who was Paul?

Most of what we know about the Apostle Paul (also known as Saint Paul or Saul of Tarsus) comes from the writings attributed to him and the Book of Acts. However, there are also a couple of writings from the late first and early second centuries that refer to him, including Clement of Rome 's letter to the Corinthians.

A Hebrew of Hebrews

Before becoming a follower of Christ, Paul was a prime example of a "righteous" Jew. He came from a God-fearing family (2 Timothy 1:3), he was a Pharisee like his father (Acts 23:6), and he was educated by a respected rabbi named Gamaliel (Acts 22:3). His Jewish credentials included his heritage, discipline, and zeal.

In Philippians 3, he explains why if anyone ever had reason to believe that they could be saved by their adherence to Judaism, it was him:

" If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless. " -Philippians 3:4-6

He goes on to say that he considers this righteousness "garbage" next to the righteousness that comes from faith in Christ (Philippians 3:8-9).

Paul's identity used to be rooted in his Jewishness, but after his dramatic conversion on the road to Damascus (more on that later) his identity as a Jew became secondary to his identity as a follower of Christ. He spent much of his ministry dismantling the idea that in order to have a saving faith in Jesus, Gentiles must first "become Jewish" by adopting the Mosaic Law. Being a "Hebrew of Hebrews" lent him credibility and expertise when speaking to Jewish audiences, and helped him speak into the Law's inability to make people righteous.

A Roman citizen

Paul was born in Tarsus-a prosperous city in the province of Cilicia-which granted him Roman citizenship. This status gave him special privileges, and in some cases saved him from abuse (Acts 22:25-29).

In Acts 25, Paul was put on trial, and his accusers asked that he stand trial in Jerusalem, where they planned to ambush and kill him (Acts 25:3). Paul leveraged his Roman citizenship to demand Caesar himself hear his case (Acts 25:11), and procurator has no choice but to grant him this right. Unfortunately, the book ends before he gets to Caesar-because Paul's story isn't the point of Acts.

As a Roman citizen, Paul possessed a coveted status. Some, like the centurion in Acts 22:28, had to pay a lot of money to have it. Others served in the Roman military for 25 years to earn it. But Paul was born into this privilege. And instead of lording this status over everyone, he preached about a citizenship which everyone could choose to claim by accepting Jesus as Lord:

" But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. " -Philippians 3:20-21

A persecutor of Christians

As a Pharisee, before his conversion to Christianity, Paul saw Christians (who were predominantly Jewish at the time) as a scourge against Judaism. From Paul's perspective, these people were blaspheming about God and leading his people astray. He believed that Jesus was a mere man, and was therefore rightfully executed for claiming to be God.

And since Jesus' followers kept spreading the idea that Jesus was God, Paul thought Christians were sinners of the worst sort.

So it shouldn't come as a surprise that Paul made his debut in the Bible as an intense persecutor of Christians. (Though he's first mentioned by his Hebrew name, Saul-we'll get to that soon.)

When Stephen was stoned to death for preaching the gospel, "the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul . . . And Saul approved of their killing him" (Acts 7:58-8:1).

Later, Paul asked the high priest for permission to take Christians (known as followers of "the Way") as prisoners:

" Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. " -Acts 9:1-2

Paul's notoriety as a persecutor of Christians made believers uncomfortable around him even after his baptism, and it took a while for them to believe that he'd really changed (Acts 9:26).

A leader in the early Christian church

After putting his faith in Jesus, Paul immediately began preaching publicly (Acts 9:20), and he quickly built a reputation as a formidable teacher (Acts 9:22). Throughout the rest of Acts, Paul is a prominent figure who plays a pivotal role in bringing the gospel to non-Jewish communities.

As we see from Paul's own letters, he was highly respected in the increasingly scattered Christian communities, many of which he started himself. His letters frequently address problems and questions these churches wrote to him about.

An apostle to the Gentiles

While Paul's status as a Pharisee and his intense devotion to the Law might have made him well-suited to preach to the Jews, Paul had a different calling. Before Paul ever preached the gospel, Jesus said, "This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel" (Acts 9:15).

Fun fact: Paul did proclaim the name of Jesus to a Gentile king. In Acts 26, he shared the gospel with King Herod Agrippa II while he was on trial in Caesarea.

Paul's calling as an apostle to the Gentiles was also reinforced by the original apostles. In his letter to the church in Galatians, Paul wanted the Galatians to know that they didn't need to follow the Law of Moses to be saved. The gospel he preached to them was enough, and they just needed to have faith in Jesus. To prove his point, he told the Galatians that Peter (also known as Cephas), James, and John had nothing to add to Paul's rendition of the gospel:

" As for those who were held in high esteem-whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not show favoritism-they added nothing to my message. On the contrary, they recognized that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised. For God, who was at work in Peter as an apostle to the circumcised, was also at work in me as an apostle to the Gentiles. James, Cephas and John, those esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised. " -Galatians 2:6-9

And if Peter, James, and John had nothing to add to what Paul preached, then why would the Galatians listen to someone else who said there was more they needed to do to be saved?

As an apostle to the Gentiles, not only did Paul need to engage the cultures he was trying to reach, but he had to protect these new believers from the weight of obligation that Jewish Christians often tried to impose on them. He was constantly trying to prove that the Gentiles didn't need to adopt Jewish customs like circumcision in order to place their faith in Jesus and receive the Holy Spirit.

A missionary

Paul established numerous churches throughout Europe and Asia Minor, and was typically driven toward regions no one had evangelised to before:

" It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else's foundation " -Romans 15:20

The Book of Acts and Paul's letters specifically record three missionary journeys to various cities throughout Europe and Asia, each lasting for several years. (We'll discuss these more later, or you can read more about them now.)

Everywhere he went, Paul established new Christian communities and helped these fledgling believers develop their own leadership. He corresponded with these churches regularly and visited them as often as he could. Occasionally, they financially supported him so that he could continue his ministry elsewhere (Philippians 4:14-18, 2 Corinthians 11:8-9).

A miracle worker

Before Jesus ascended to heaven, he promised his followers they would receive power through the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8). The Book of Acts records that the apostles performed miracles, and Paul is no exception. He healed people, cast out spirits, and even brought someone back from the dead. (Though to be fair, if Paul hadn't talked him to sleep, the boy wouldn't have fallen out of that window to begin with.)

Here are the miracles associated with Paul:

He made a sorcerer go temporarily blind (Acts 13:11).

He healed a man who had been lame since birth (Acts 14:8-10).

He casted out a spirit that was annoying him (Acts 16:16-18).

He healed people and cast out spirits through items he touched (Acts 19:11-12).

He resurrected a young man named Eutychus (Acts 20:9-12).

He was bit by a venomous snake and nothing happened to him (Acts 28:3-5).

He healed a man with fever and dysentery (Acts 28:8).

To those who saw and heard Paul, these miracles proved his authority from God, just as Jesus' miracles once demonstrated his (Mark 2:10).

Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus

One of the most remarkable aspects of Paul's life is that as a young man, he was well-known for persecuting Christians, but by the end of his life, he'd endured significant persecution as a Christian. The Book of Acts and Paul's own letters provide an account of how this dramatic change happened.

" Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?'
'Who are you, Lord?' Saul asked. 'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,' he replied. 'Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.'
The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything. " -Acts 9:1-9

This famous encounter is referred to as the road to Damascus, the Damascene conversion, and the Damascus Christophany (a vision of Christ distinct from his incarnation). On Paul's way to round up some Christians as prisoners, Jesus stopped him dead in his tracks and crippled him with blindness.

But while Paul now knew the true identity and power of the one he had been persecuting, he had yet to learn Jesus' grace and power to heal. And for that, he would need to meet a follower of Christ.

" In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, 'Ananias!'
'Yes, Lord,' he answered. The Lord told him, 'Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.' 'Lord,' Ananias answered, 'I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.' But the Lord said to Ananias, 'Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.'
Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, 'Brother Saul, the Lord-Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here-has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.' Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength. " -Acts 9:10-19

Paul spent the next few days with the very Christians he had come to capture, and he immediately began preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ-to the confusion of Christians and Jews alike. It would take time for Paul's reputation as a Christian preacher to outgrow his reputation as a persecutor of Christians.

In his own accounts of his conversion, Paul says that Jesus appeared to him (1 Corinthians 15:7-8), and he claims that Jesus revealed the gospel to him (Galatians 1:11-16).

In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul appeals to the authority of eyewitness testimony, pointing out that Jesus appeared to many people including himself. In his letter to the Galatians, he builds the case that the Galatians can trust the gospel he presented them because it came directly from God, and the first apostles supported his message (Galatians 2:6-9).

This encounter on the road to Damascus completely redefined who Paul was, and it changed the purpose of his journey from silencing Christians to speaking out in support of them. Instead of taking away from their number, he added to it. And once Jesus redirected him, Paul continued on this trajectory for the rest of his life.

When did Paul live?

Scholars believe Paul was born sometime between 5 BC and 5 AD, and that he died around 64 or 67 AD. While he was a contemporary of Jesus, they never crossed paths-at least, not before Jesus died.

The first century was a tumultuous time for Christianity. The new religion was vulnerable, and it faced opposition everywhere from the Jews who believed it was blasphemy, and from the Romans who believed it challenged Caesar's authority and created unrest. As a leader in the Jewish community, Paul saw the rapidly spreading Christian community as a threat, and he directly contributed to the persecution early Christians faced.

But after his encounter with Jesus, instead of stamping out Christianity, Paul stoked the flames of the faith wherever he went, at whatever the cost. More than any other person besides Jesus, Paul was the reason Christianity spread so far and so fast.

Did Saul become Paul?

It's a common misconception that Paul "used to be Saul," and that when Jesus called him, he renamed him Paul. You may have heard something like "Saul the persecutor became Paul the persecuted."

But there's no verse that says that. And Paul and Saul are actually two versions of the same name.

Shortly after Saul converts to Christianity, Luke tells us he's also called Paul (Acts 13:9), and for the most part the rest of the Bible refers to him as Paul. But Jesus doesn't refer to him as Paul, and he was still called Saul 11 more times after his conversion.

It's true that in the Old Testament, God occasionally changed people's names (Abram became Abraham in Genesis 17:5, and Jacob became Israel in Genesis 32:28) to represent significant changes in their identity. But that's not what happened here.

The reality is that Saul was a Hebrew name and Paul was a Greek version of the same name. (Similar to how "James" is the Greek form of "Jacob," and "Judas" is the Greek form of "Judah.") As Paul began to evangelize Greek communities (and since most of the New Testament was written in Greek), it makes sense that we see the Greek version of his name most after his conversion.

Paul's ministry to the gentiles

Of all the ways Paul affected Christianity, the biggest was arguably his role in spreading the gospel to non-Jewish communities. He certainly wasn't the only apostle to do so, but he is known as the "apostle to the Gentiles" because that's who Jesus specifically called him to minister to (Acts 9:15), he and the other apostles agreed that was his role (Galatians 2:7), and that was undeniably the focus of his ministry.

When Christianity emerged, it was often thought of as a Jewish sect-it built on Jewish teachings and beliefs, and because most Christians were also Jewish, many still followed Jewish customs and rituals established in the Law of Moses.

But Christianity was radically different from Judaism, and while many early Christians followed the Law, it wasn't a prerequisite for believing in Jesus. The Law of Moses and the old covenant it bound them to had been replaced by Jesus' new covenant, and the law of love (John 13:34-35).

For Paul, the apostles, and the early Christians, the Law (and specifically, circumcision) was one of the greatest theological issues of their day. First-century Jews had grown up believing the Law was central to their identity as God's chosen people, and they struggled to fully grasp that Jesus rendered the Law obsolete (Hebrews 8:13).

The apostles agree with Paul

Paul constantly wrote to Gentile Christians to tell them not to worry about circumcision (as you can imagine, uncircumcised adults were rightfully freaked out by the idea that they'd have to do this), and in Acts 15, the apostles met with Paul and Barnabas to officially settle the matter, because pockets of Jewish Christians were continuing to tell Gentiles to get circumcised.

Peter argued that God hadn't discriminated between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians because he'd given them both the Holy Spirit, and if in the entire history of Judaism no one had been able to keep the Law (except Jesus), then why would they put that burden on the Gentiles (Acts 15:7-11)?

After listening to everyone, the Apostle James concluded:

" It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath. " -Acts 15:19-21

If you'll notice, the apostles didn't decide that Gentiles should follow "the most important" commandments, or the Big Ten, or anything like that. Instead, they essentially instructed Gentiles be culturally sensitive to their Jewish brothers and sisters, because the Law was respected and observed by Jews everywhere.

But despite the apostles' agreement that Gentiles didn't have to adopt Jewish customs to be Christian, Jewish Christians still saw law-observing Christians as superior, and even Peter let himself get pressured into playing favorites.

Paul wasn't going to let that slide.

Paul confronts Peter

After he received a vision (Acts 10:9-16), Peter was one of the first apostles to specifically advocate for sharing the gospel with Gentiles. But as the Gentiles joined the church, Paul noticed that Peter still treated Gentile Christians differently in order to save face with those who still valued the law.

So Paul called him out on it.

" When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.
When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, 'You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?
'We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified. '" -Galatians 2:11-16

Paul goes on to say that "if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!" (Galatians 2:21). And as he explained earlier in his epistle to the Galatians, Peter, James, and John already agreed with him: the Gentiles did not need to follow the Law of Moses, and Jewish Christians were not better or superior than Gentile Christians because they did follow the Law.

Not a fun fact: Even though Paul argued that Christians didn't need to be circumcised in Acts 15, he circumcised Timothy in the very next chapter "because of the Jews who lived in that area" (Acts 16:1-3).

Paul's missionary journeys

Acts records three missionary journeys that took Paul throughout Asia Minor, Cyprus, Greece, Macedonia, and Syria. Some scholars argue there was a fourth missionary journey as well. In each of these, Paul and his companions set out to bring the gospel to Gentiles, and they establish the churches Paul wrote to in his epistles (as well as many others).

In some cases, Paul spent well over a year in the cities he preached to, living with the believers there and modeling a lifestyle of imitating Christ. Over the course of his life, Paul likely traveled well over 10,000 miles to spread the gospel.

Paul's first missionary journey (Acts 13-14)

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Paul's first journey began in Antioch with a calling from the Holy Spirit (Acts 13:2-3). He left the church with Barnabas and a man named John (also called Mark, believed to be the author of the Gospel of Mark), and together they sailed to Cyprus, an island in the Mediterranean.

Here Paul performed his first miracle, perhaps inspired by his own conversion on the road to Damascus: he blinded a sorcerer who opposed their attempts to evangelize a proconsul (Acts 13:10-12).

Then they sailed to Perga in Pamphylia, where John Mark parted ways with Paul and Barnabas (this became a point of tension between Paul and Barnabas later). From there, Paul and Barnabas went to Psidion Antioch, a city in the mountains of Turkey.

In Psidion Antioch, Paul and Barnabas entered a synagogue during the Sabbath, and Paul preached the gospel to Jews and Gentiles alike. They were invited to come speak on the following Sabbath, and when they did, most of the city attended. Many of the Jews in attendance grew angry and tried to stop them, but the Gentiles were receptive to their message.Paul and Barnabas ultimately left Psidion Antioch due to persecution, and traveled to another Turkish city called Iconium. They spent "considerable time there" (Acts 14:3), and the city became increasingly divided: some Jews and Gentiles supported them, and others reviled them. Those who opposed Paul and Barnabas started a plot to stone them, but they caught wind of it and fled to the Lycaonian city of Lystra.

There, Paul performed another miracle: he healed a man who had been lame since birth (Acts 14:8-10). The people who saw this thought Paul and Barnabas were gods, and attempted to make sacrifices to them even as Paul and Barnabas tried to convince them not to.

Some of the people who opposed them in Psidion Antioch and Iconium followed them to Lystra, and they stirred up the crowd against them. They stoned Paul and left him for dead outside the city. Then he got up and went back in. The next day they left for Derbe, another Lycaonian city where they "won a large number of disciples" (Acts 14:21).

From Derbe, Paul and Barnabas looped back through the cities they'd already preached to, encouraging the new believers there and appointing elders for each church.

Paul's second missionary journey (Acts 15:36-18:22)

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After staying in Antioch for awhile, Paul asked Barnabas to go with him to visit the churches they'd established together. Barnabas wanted to bring John Mark again, but Paul didn't think John Mark should come since he'd abandoned them before. So Paul and Barnabas parted ways: Barnabas took John Mark to Cyprus, and Paul took a man named Silas to Syria and Cilicia.

Paul and Silas travelled through Derbe and then Lystra, where they picked up a believer named Timothy (this is the Timothy Paul writes to in 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy). Together they traveled from town to town and told people what the apostles had decided at the Council of Jerusalem where James told Gentile Christians not to worry about circumcision, which was pretty ironic, because Paul had just circumcised Timothy (Acts 16:3).

The Holy Spirit kept Paul and his companions from preaching in the province of Asia, so they went to Phrygia and Galatia (where they planted the church Paul would later write to in Galatians), eventually making their way to Troas.

Fun fact: "Asia" used to refer to a very specific region in part of what we know as Turkey today, but westerners began using the name to describe pretty much anything east of them, until they eventually used it for the whole continent.

Paul had a vision which led the group to Macedonia, and interestingly, here the author of Acts begins to include themself in the story "After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them" (Acts 16:10, emphasis added).

They wound their way through several provinces to arrive in Philippi, the main city in Macedonia. Here they met with a group of women, including a wealthy cloth dealer named Lydia. After they baptized Lydia and her household, she invited them to stay at her house. These were the first members of the church Paul writes to in Philippians.

During their time in Philippi, a spirit that possessed a local slave girl was bothering Paul, so he cast it out of her (Acts 16:18). Normally people are ecstatic when that happens, but the slave girl's owners had been making money off of her because of the spirit, so they were pretty mad. They got everyone riled up against Paul and Silas and managed to convince the local authorities to have them beaten and imprisoned.

While Paul and Silas were in jail, there was an earthquake, and the prison doors opened and everyone's chains came loose, but no one tried to escape. Paul and Silas shared the gospel with the jailer, and once they were freed, they returned to Lydia's house, and then left for Thessalonica.

For three Sabbaths, Paul taught in the synagogues and established the group of believers that he would later write to in 1 Thessalonians and 2 Thessalonians. He gained many followers, but those who opposed him started a riot and threatened his supporters, so the believers sent him on to Berea.

The Berean Jews "received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true" (Acts 17:11). Unfortunately, some of those who opposed Paul and his companions in Thessalonica heard he was in Berea, so they came and started causing trouble. Paul left to Athens. Silas and Timothy stayed behind, but would catch up later.

The Athenians were accustomed to discussing new ideas, and they'd never heard the message Paul preached before, so they were intrigued and debated with him. Some of his listeners became believers, and then he left for Corinth.

Paul stayed in Corinth for a year and a half, preaching in the synagogues and gaining both Jewish and Gentile followers from a range of social statuses, forming the group of believers he would later write to in 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians. He stayed with two named Aquila and Priscilla, who were tentmakers, like him. Silas and Timothy rejoined him here.

The Jews who opposed Paul tried to bring charges against him based on Jewish law, but the Roman proconsul wasn't interested in hearing their case. Paul left with Priscilla and Aquila and journeyed to Ephesus.

In Ephesus, Paul went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews and promised to return if he could. Then he made his way back to Jerusalem and Antioch, where his second journey ended.

Paul's third missionary journey (Acts 18:23-20:38)

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Paul began his third missionary journey by returning to Galatia and Phrygia, where he continued building up the churches he'd established.

From there, Paul traveled back to Ephesus, where he encountered some believers who weren't familiar with the Holy Spirit, because they'd been taught by Apollos, who didn't have a complete grasp of the gospel at the time.

Paul remained in Ephesus for more than two years, and during that time he transitioned from teaching in the synagogue to discussing the gospel in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. Acts records that "all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord" (Acts 19:10).

During this time, Paul did many miracles, and even things he touched were reported to have healed people (Acts 19:12). After a dangerous evil spirit claimed to know Jesus and Paul, people flocked to Paul and his followers and the church grew quickly.

Around this time, Paul decided to head to Jerusalem, so he journeyed through Macedonia and Achaia, and made plans to stop in Rome. Meanwhile, Ephesus was in uproar, because Christianity's explosive growth had stifled businesses that relied on idol worship.

The city was on the brink of rioting, and Paul wanted to return to help his companions, but the city clerk managed to de-escalate the situation without him. (Which was a good thing, because those business owners were pretty mad at Paul, and they probably would've killed him.)

Paul spent three months in Greece, then returned to Macedonia to avoid some people who were plotting against him. In Troas (a city in Macedonia), Paul was teaching in an upper room when a young man fell asleep and tumbled out the window, falling to his death. Paul revived him, then left.

In a rush to reach Jerusalem, Paul bounced from Troas to Assos, Mitylene, Chios, and finally Miletus, where he asked the elders from Ephesus to meet him. After encouraging them, he boarded a ship and returned to Jerusalem, even after numerous Christians warned him not to go there.

Paul's fourth missionary journey (?)

Some argue that Paul made a fourth missionary journey as well, since some of his letters refer to events and visits that may not be accounted for in Acts. This largely depends on whether Paul was imprisoned in Rome once, or twice, which his letters are ambiguous about.Paul suggested he would travel to Spain (Romans 15:24), but he provides no record of this journey in his letters. However, early church fathers claimed Paul did, in fact, travel to Spain.

In his letter to the Corinthians, first-century church father Clement of Rome said Paul "had gone to the extremity of the west," which at the time presumably meant Spain. Fourth-century church father John of Chrysostom said "For after he had been in Rome, he returned to Spain, but whether he came thence again into these parts, we know not." And Cyril of Jerusalem (also from the fourth century) wrote that Paul "carried the earnestness of his preaching as far as Spain."

Still, scholars can't be sure that Paul did make this fourth journey, as the primary sources for his other three journeys (Acts and the epistles) don't give us an explicit account of it.

How many times was Paul shipwrecked?

On many of Paul's journeys, he travelled by boat. As you can imagine, boats weren't nearly as safe in the first century-especially on long voyages. In his second letter to the Corinthians, which was likely written before his final trip to Jerusalem, Paul claims he was shipwrecked three times:

" Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; " -2 Corinthians 11:25

There's no other record of these wrecks in the epistles or in Acts, but Acts 27 does record a fourth shipwreck in far more detail. On Paul's way to trial in Rome, his boat encounters a brutal storm and dangerous waters. The soldiers took drastic measures, but an angel spoke to Paul, and he encouraged and advised them along the way.

Assassination attempts against Paul

During his ministry, Paul made a lot of people mad. On six occasions in Acts, Jews and Gentiles alike made plans to murder him-and one of those times, they stoned him and left him for dead.

Only counting the times the Bible explicitly says they planned to kill him, not just attack or harm him, here they in sequential order.

1. In Damascus

Just after his conversion on the road to Damascus, Paul began preaching in the synagogues. After several days, people began planning to kill him, and they watched the city gates day and night. His followers smuggled him in and out of the city in a basket (Acts 9:23-25).

2. In Jerusalem

When Paul left Damascus, he went to Jerusalem and tried to join the disciples there. He began debating with Hellenistic Jews, and they tried to kill him, so the Christians took him to Caesarea an sent him home to Tarsus (Acts 9:26-30).

3. In Iconium

Paul and Barnabas spent a long time in Iconium, and the city was divided: some people supported them, and others hated them. Jews and Gentiles alike plotted to stone them, and when Paul and Barnabas found out, they fled to Lystra (Acts 14:4-6).

4. In Lystra

After Paul healed a man in Lystra, people thought he and Barnabas were the gods, Zeus and Hermes, and attempted to sacrifice to them. But then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and convinced this crowd to actually stone Paul. They thought they killed him, so they left him outside the city gate. (He was still alive.) Then he and Barnabas left (Acts 14:8-20).

5. In Jerusalem (again)

After Paul insulted the high priest and sparked an intense theological debate between the Sadducees and Pharisees, a group of more than 40 men took a vow not to eat or drink until they killed Paul (Acts 23:12-13).

Their plan was to have a centurion send Paul to the Sanhedrin for questioning, and then kill him on the way. But someone warned the centurion of the plan, and instead, he rounded up nearly 500 soldiers to take Paul to the governor in Caesarea.

6. In Caesarea

Years later, Paul was still being held prisoner, and there was a new proconsul named Porcius Festus was in charge. Paul's accusers requested that Paul be sent back to Jerusalem "for they were preparing an ambush to kill him along the way" (Acts 25:3).

Festus refused, and told them to make their case in Caesarea, where Paul used his privilege as a Roman citizen to make a bold request.

Paul's appeal to Caesar

When Paul was first imprisoned in Caesarea, he made his appeal to Governor Felix, then waited two years in prison with no progress. (Governor Felix strung him along because he wanted the Jews to like him, and he hoped Paul would bribe him.)

Porcius Festus succeeded Felix and after hearing Paul defend himself, he asked Paul if would be willing to stand trial in Jerusalem.

Tired of his case dragging on to appease his Jewish accusers, Paul claimed his right as a Roman to appeal to Caesar:

" I am now standing before Caesar's court, where I ought to be tried. I have not done any wrong to the Jews, as you yourself know very well. If, however, I am guilty of doing anything deserving death, I do not refuse to die. But if the charges brought against me by these Jews are not true, no one has the right to hand me over to them. I appeal to Caesar!"

After Festus had conferred with his council, he declared: "You have appealed to Caesar. To Caesar you will go! " -Acts 25:10-12

Unfortunately, the Book of Acts ends before Paul's trial before Caesar. But before he leaves Caesarea, another ruler-King Herod Agrippa II-hears his case, and tells Festus:

" This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar. " -Acts 26:32

Perhaps Paul hoped appealing to Caesar would finally put an end to his case, but unfortunately, it dragged them out even further.

Or . . . perhaps it was a strategic move on Paul's part to testify about Christ to the leaders of the Roman empire. Having Caesar's court and the Roman justice system as his captive audience might have been Paul's play all along.

Paul's house arrest (Acts 28:14-31)

By appealing to Caesar, Paul forced Festus to send him to Rome to await trial. When he finally arrived, "Paul was allowed to live by himself, with a soldier to guard him" (Acts 28:16). Here, Paul preached freely to the Jews in Rome for two years. Scholars believe this is likely when he wrote his letter to the Philippians, because he references being in chains (Philippians 1:12-13).

The Book of Acts ends with Paul under house arrest, and we don't learn much more about the situation from the epistles, and scholars debate about whether or not Paul was ever released from house arrest. Some argue that his letters speak of his imprisonment in the past tense and make references to things that could have only occurred after his house arrest.

For example, in 2 Timothy (believed to have been written shortly before his death) he appears to reference a recent trip to Troas (2 Timothy 4:13), which would've been impossible if he'd already been imprisoned in Caesarea for more than two years before his house arrest in Rome.

Whether or not Paul made a fourth missionary journey (possibly to Spain) largely depends on if he was imprisoned in Rome once or twice.

How much of the Bible did Paul write?

The Apostle Paul is traditionally considered the author of 13 books of the New Testament. While Moses still holds the title for writing the most words in the Bible (traditionally), Paul wrote the most documents. (Well, unless you count each individual Psalm as a document, in which case David wins.) The books attributed to him include:

These books are actually letters-or epistles-which were written to churches Paul planted and people he presumably encountered on the missionary journeys we see in the Book of Acts. The letters reference many of the events recorded in Acts, which scholars have used to construct more clear timelines of Paul's life and ministry.

But not everyone agrees that Paul wrote all of these letters. Most scholars (critical and conservative) believe that Paul did write seven of them: Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, and Philemon. But the remaining six letters have raised some questions, and scholars debate whether or not they can really be attributed to Paul.

Colossians makes some questionable references which Paul doesn't make anywhere else (he calls Jesus "the image of the invisible God" in Colossians 1:15), and which align more with later Christian theology (like that found in John's gospel), so some have argued it was written by Paul's followers after his death.

Ephesians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus all have very different styles than Paul's other letters. This could mean Paul simply had a different purpose in writing them, or that Paul's writing style changed over the course of his ministry, but the epistles to Timothy and Titus also have very different vocabulary and even theology than we see in other Pauline writings.

Many Christians would be surprised to learn that these academic debates are even happening, because these letters are all signed by Paul. But scholars argue that these epistles are actually pseudepigrapha: writings that claim to be written by someone who was not the actual author.

Some pseudepigrapha is harmless, produced out of convenience, necessity, or accepted practices of the time (such as a student writing on behalf of a teacher, with the approval and authority of the teacher). Others, like many of the Gnostic gospels, were blatant forgeries written to advance a theological position.

At worst, someone wrote these letters and deceitfully signed Paul's name to make them more authoritative. But many scholars believe it's more likely that Paul asked his companions to write them, told them what to write, and signed his name. This would explain differences in style and vocabulary without really losing the letters' authenticity.

Did Paul write the Book of Hebrews?

Almost all scholars today agree that Paul didn't write Hebrews, and the true biblical author remains unknown. However, the early church assumed the letter was written by Paul, and even included it in early collections of his writings. This was contested as early as the second and third centuries, but for more than a millennia the church largely believed Paul wrote it.

Early Christian writers even suggested possible alternative authors. Tertullian (c. 155-240 AD) proposed that it was written by Barnabas. Hippolytus (c. 170-235 AD) believed it was Clement of Rome.

The father of church history, Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 260-339 AD) noted that "some have rejected the Epistle to the Hebrews, saying that it is disputed by the church of Rome, on the ground that it was not written by Paul" ( Church History). But he himself held the view that Paul wrote the letter in Hebrew and simply chose not to sign it, and then Luke translated it to Greek.

Today, it's not really even up for debate. Donald Guthrie wrote in his New Testament Introduction that "most modern writers find more difficulty in imagining how this Epistle was ever attributed to Paul than in disposing of the theory."

We will likely never know who really wrote Hebrews. But we can be pretty confident that it wasn't Paul.
Do you wish you knew the Bible better?
The Beginner's Guide to the Bible gives you an overview of what the Bible is, what it's for, and what it's all about. It explores how each of the Bible's 66 books fit into the big picture, and you'll walk away with enough knowledge to have a thoughtful conversation about the Bible with a pastor, an atheist, or anyone else.

How did Paul die?

The Bible doesn't tell us how Paul died, but numerous early church fathers wrote that he was martyred-specifically, he was beheaded, probably by emperor Nero, which would mean it had to be sometime before 68 AD.

Clement of Rome provided the earliest surviving record of Paul's death in his letter to the Corinthians (known as 1 Clement), where he mentions that Paul and Peter were martyred.

An apocryphal work from the second century known as The Acts of Paul says that Nero had Paul decapitated. And in 200 AD, Tertullian wrote that Paul's death was like John the Baptist's (decapitation). Other early Christian writers support these claims and provide some additional details like where it happened (Rome) and where he was buried (the Ostian Way at Rome).

Paul's remains

In 2002, archaeologists found a large marble sarcophagus near the location Jerome and Caius described. It had " PAULO APOSTOLO MART " (Paul apostle martyr) written on it. No one ever opened the sarcophagus, but using a probe and carbon dating, archaeologists estimated that the remains inside were from the first or second century. The Vatican claims these are in fact the remains of Saint Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles.

Paul: apostle, missionary, writer, martyr

From the moment he became a believer in Christ, Paul's life was transformed. While Jesus didn't give Saul a new name, he did give him a new purpose: one that redefined his life. Instead of persecuting Christians, Paul was called to be persecuted as one of them.

Despite never witnessing Jesus' ministry, Paul arguably contributed more to the growth of the Christian movement than any other apostle. He laid the foundation for missions work that has continued around the world today, and through his life he modeled evangelism, discipleship, perseverance, and suffering-for the Christians who knew him, and for every believer today.

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The Apostle Paul was one of the most influential leaders of the early Christian church. He played a crucial role in spreading the gospel to the Gentiles (non-Jews) during the first century, and his missionary journeys took him all throughout the Roman empire.

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Founder:

Jesus Christ: He lived 2000 years ago, and he is the Son of God. He was also the messiah and he was the filament of the Judaism. Jesus was also prophesied in the Old Testament. He is the son in the trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and was born through a virgin named Mary. Throughout his life he taught, performed miracles, built the Christian church, and lead many to follow him. He is the founder of Christianity as he died by crucifixion (he was the sacrifice to achieve atonement for all sin of his followers) he then rose from the dead 3 days later which began Christianity

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Jesus ( c. - AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many other names and titles, was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the central figure of Christianity, the world's largest religion. Most Christians believe Jesus to be the incarnation of God the Son and the awaited messiah, the Christ that is prophesied in the Hebrew Bible.

Virtually all modern scholars of antiquity agree that Jesus existed historically. Accounts of Jesus' life are contained in the Gospels, especially the four canonical Gospels in the New Testament. Academic research has yielded various views on the historical reliability of the Gospels and how closely they reflect the historical Jesus. As a Galilean Jew, Jesus was circumcised at birth, got baptized by John the Baptist as a young adult, and after 40 days and nights of fasting in the wilderness, began his own ministry. He was often referred to as " rabbi". Jesus often debated with fellow Jews on how to best follow God, engaged in healings, taught in parables, and gathered followers, among them twelve were his primary disciples. He was arrested in Jerusalem and tried by the Jewish authorities, turned over to the Roman government, and crucified on the order of Pontius Pilate, the Roman prefect of Judea. After his death, his followers became convinced that he rose from the dead, and following his ascension, the community they formed eventually became the early Christian Church that expanded as a worldwide movement. Accounts of his teachings and life were initially conserved by oral transmission, which was the source of the written Gospels.

Christian theology includes the beliefs that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, was born of a virgin named Mary, performed miracles, founded the Christian Church, died by crucifixion as a sacrifice to achieve atonement for sin, rose from the dead, and ascended into Heaven, from where he will return. Commonly, Christians believe Jesus enables people to be reconciled to God. The Nicene Creed asserts that Jesus will judge the living and the dead, either before or after their bodily resurrection, an event tied to the Second Coming of Jesus in Christian eschatology. The great majority of Christians worship Jesus as the incarnation of God the Son, the second of three prosopons of the Trinity. The birth of Jesus is celebrated annually on 25 December and 7 January as Christmas. His crucifixion is honored on Good Friday and his resurrection on Easter Sunday. The world's most widely used calendar era-in which the current year is AD 2024 (or 2024 CE)-is based on the approximate birthdate of Jesus.

Jesus is also revered in the Baha'i faith, the Druze faith, and Islam. In Islam, Jesus (often referred to by his Quranic name ʿĪsā) is considered the penultimate prophet of God and the messiah, who will return before the Day of Judgement. Muslims believe Jesus was born of the virgin Mary but was neither God nor a son of God. Most Muslims do not believe that he was killed or crucified but that God raised him into Heaven while he was still alive. In contrast, Judaism rejects the belief that Jesus was the awaited messiah, arguing that he did not fulfill messianic prophecies, was not lawfully anointed and was neither divine nor resurrected.

Counter-clockwise from top-right: Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Latin, and English transcriptions of the name Jesus

Naming conventions

A typical Jew in Jesus' time had only one name, sometimes followed by the phrase "son of [father's name]", or the individual's hometown. Thus, in the New Testament, Jesus is commonly referred to as "Jesus of Nazareth". Jesus' neighbors in Nazareth referred to him as "the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon", "the carpenter's son", or " Joseph's son"; in the Gospel of John, the disciple Philip refers to him as "Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth".

The English name Jesus, from Greek Iēsous, is a rendering of Joshua (Hebrew Yehoshua, later Yeshua), and was not uncommon in Judea at the time of the birth of Jesus. Popular etymology linked the names Yehoshua and Yeshua to the verb meaning "save" and the noun "salvation". The Gospel of Matthew tells of an angel that appeared to Joseph instructing him "to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins".

Jesus Christ

Since the early period of Christianity, Christians have commonly referred to Jesus as "Jesus Christ". The word was a title or office ("the Christ"), not a given name. It derives from the Greek ( Christos), a translation of the Hebrew () meaning " anointed", and is usually transliterated into English as " messiah". In biblical Judaism, sacred oil was used to anoint certain exceptionally holy people and objects as part of their religious investiture.

Christians of the time designated Jesus as "the Christ" because they believed him to be the messiah, whose arrival is prophesied in the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. In postbiblical usage, Christ became viewed as a name-one part of "Jesus Christ". Etymons of the term (meaning a follower of Christ) have been in use since the 1st century.

Life and teachings in the New Testament

Canonical gospels

The four canonical gospels ( Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) are the foremost sources for the life and message of Jesus. But other parts of the New Testament also include references to key episodes in his life, such as the Last Supper in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26. Acts of the Apostles refers to Jesus' early ministry and its anticipation by John the Baptist. Acts 1:1-11 says more about the Ascension of Jesus than the canonical gospels do. In the undisputed Pauline letters, which were written earlier than the Gospels, Jesus' words or instructions are cited several times.

Some early Christian groups had separate descriptions of Jesus' life and teachings that are not in the New Testament. These include the Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Peter, and Gospel of Judas, the Apocryphon of James, and many other apocryphal writings. Most scholars conclude that these were written much later and are less reliable accounts than the canonical gospels.

The canonical gospels are four accounts, each by a different author. The authors of the Gospels are pseudonymous, attributed by tradition to the four evangelists, each with close ties to Jesus: Mark by John Mark, an associate of Peter; Matthew by one of Jesus' disciples; Luke by a companion of Paul mentioned in a few epistles; and John by another of Jesus' disciples, the " beloved disciple".

According to the Marcan priority, the first to be written was the Gospel of Mark (written AD 60-75), followed by the Gospel of Matthew (AD 65-85), the Gospel of Luke (AD 65-95), and the Gospel of John (AD 75-100). Most scholars agree that the authors of Matthew and Luke used Mark as a source for their gospels. Since Matthew and Luke also share some content not found in Mark, many scholars assume that they used another source (commonly called the " Q source") in addition to Mark.

One important aspect of the study of the Gospels is the literary genre under which they fall. Genre "is a key convention guiding both the composition and the interpretation of writings". Whether the gospel authors set out to write novels, myths, histories, or biographies has a tremendous impact on how they ought to be interpreted. Some recent studies suggest that the genre of the Gospels ought to be situated within the realm of ancient biography. Although not without critics, the position that the Gospels are a type of ancient biography is the consensus among scholars today.

Concerning the accuracy of the accounts, viewpoints run the gamut from considering them inerrant descriptions of Jesus' life, to doubting whether they are historically reliable on a number of points, to considering them to provide very little historical information about his life beyond the basics. According to a broad scholarly consensus, the Synoptic Gospels (the first three-Matthew, Mark, and Luke) are the most reliable sources of information about Jesus.

Comparative structure and content

Matthew, Mark, and Luke are known as the Synoptic Gospels, from the Greek σύν ( syn "together") and ὄψις ( opsis "view"), because they are similar in content, narrative arrangement, language and paragraph structure, and one can easily set them next to each other and synoptically compare what is in them. Scholars generally agree that it is impossible to find any direct literary relationship between the Synoptic Gospels and the Gospel of John. While the flow of many events (e.g., Jesus' baptism, transfiguration, crucifixion and interactions with his apostles) are shared among the Synoptic Gospels, incidents such as the transfiguration and Jesus' exorcizing demons do not appear in John, which also differs on other matters, such as the Cleansing of the Temple.

The Synoptics emphasize different aspects of Jesus. In Mark, Jesus is the Son of God whose mighty works demonstrate the presence of God's Kingdom. He is a tireless wonder worker, the servant of both God and man. This short gospel records few of Jesus' words or teachings. The Gospel of Matthew emphasizes that Jesus is the fulfilment of God's will as revealed in the Old Testament, and the Lord of the Church. He is the " Son of David", a "king", and the messiah. Luke presents Jesus as the divine-human savior who shows compassion to the needy. He is the friend of sinners and outcasts, come to seek and save the lost. This gospel includes well-known parables, such as the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son.

The prologue to the Gospel of John identifies Jesus as an incarnation of the divine Word ( Logos). As the Word, Jesus was eternally present with God, active in all creation, and the source of humanity's moral and spiritual nature. Jesus is not only greater than any past human prophet but greater than any prophet could be. He not only speaks God's Word; he is God's Word. In the Gospel of John, Jesus reveals his divine role publicly. Here he is the Bread of Life, the Light of the World, the True Vine and more.

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. As stated in John 21:25, the Gospels do not claim to provide an exhaustive list of the events in Jesus' life. The accounts were primarily written as theological documents in the context of early Christianity, with timelines as a secondary consideration. In this respect, it is noteworthy that the Gospels devote about one third of their text to the last week of Jesus' life in Jerusalem, referred to as the Passion. The Gospels do not provide enough details to satisfy the demands of modern historians regarding exact dates, but it is possible to draw from them a general picture of Jesus' life story.

Genealogy and nativity

Jesus was Jewish, born to Mary, wife of Joseph. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke offer two accounts of his genealogy. Matthew traces Jesus' ancestry to Abraham through David. Luke traces Jesus' ancestry through Adam to God. The lists are identical between Abraham and David but differ radically from that point. Matthew has 27 generations from David to Joseph, whereas Luke has 42, with almost no overlap between the names on the two lists. Various theories have been put forward to explain why the two genealogies are so different.

Matthew and Luke each describe Jesus' birth, especially that Jesus was born to a virgin named Mary in Bethlehem in fulfilment of prophecy. Luke's account emphasizes events before the birth of Jesus and centers on Mary, while Matthew's mostly covers those after the birth and centers on Joseph. Both accounts state that Jesus was born to Joseph and Mary, his betrothed, in Bethlehem, and both support the doctrine of the virgin birth of Jesus, according to which Jesus was miraculously conceived by the Holy Spirit in Mary's womb when she was still a virgin. At the same time, there is evidence, at least in the Lukan Acts of the Apostles, that Jesus was thought to have had, like many figures in antiquity, a dual paternity, since there it is stated he descended from the seed or loins of David. By taking him as his own, Joseph will give him the necessary Davidic descent.

The Circumcision by Giovanni Bellini, c. 1500. The work depicts the circumcision of Jesus.

In Matthew, Joseph is troubled because Mary, his betrothed, is pregnant, but in the first of Joseph's four dreams an angel assures him not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife, because her child was conceived by the Holy Spirit. In Matthew 2:1- 12, wise men or Magi from the East bring gifts to the young Jesus as the King of the Jews. They find him in a house in Bethlehem. Herod the Great hears of Jesus' birth and, wanting him killed, orders the murders of male infants in Bethlehem and its surroundings. But an angel warns Joseph in his second dream, and the family flees to Egypt-later to return and settle in Nazareth.

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 ordered by Caesar Augustus. While there Mary gives birth to Jesus, and as they have found no room in the inn, she places the newborn in a manger. An angel announces the birth to a group of shepherds, who go to Bethlehem to see Jesus, and subsequently spread the news abroad. Luke 2:21 tells how Joseph and Mary have their baby circumcised on the eighth day after birth, and name him Jesus, as Gabriel had commanded Mary. After the presentation of Jesus at the Temple, Joseph, Mary and Jesus return to Nazareth.

Early life, family, and profession

Jesus' childhood home is identified in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew as the town of Nazareth in Galilee, where he lived with his family. Although Joseph appears in descriptions of Jesus' childhood, no mention is made of him thereafter. His other family members-his mother, Mary, his brothers James, Joses (or Joseph), Judas and Simon and his unnamed sisters-are mentioned in the Gospels and other sources. Jesus' maternal grandparents are named Joachim and Anne in the Gospel of James. The Gospel of Luke records that Mary was a relative of Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist. Extra-biblical contemporary sources consider Jesus and John the Baptist to be second cousins through the belief that Elizabeth was the daughter of Sobe, the sister of Anne.

The Gospel of Mark reports that at the beginning of his ministry, Jesus comes into conflict with his neighbors and family. Jesus' mother and brothers come to get him because people are saying that he is crazy. Jesus responds that his followers are his true family. In the Gospel of John, Jesus and his mother attend a wedding at Cana, where he performs his first miracle at her request. Later, she follows him to his crucifixion, and he expresses concern over her well-being.

Jesus is called a τέκτων () in Mark 6:3, a term traditionally understood as carpenter but could also refer to makers of objects in various materials, including builders. The Gospels indicate that Jesus could read, paraphrase, and debate scripture, but this does not necessarily mean that he received formal scribal training.

The Gospel of Luke reports two journeys of Jesus and his parents in Jerusalem during his childhood. They come to the Temple in Jerusalem for the presentation of Jesus as a baby in accordance with Jewish Law, where a man named Simeon prophesies about Jesus and Mary. When Jesus, at the age of twelve, goes missing on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem for Passover, his parents find him in the temple sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking questions, and the people are amazed at his understanding and answers. Mary scolds Jesus for going missing, to which Jesus replies that he must "be in his father's house".

Baptism and temptation

The Baptism of Christ by John the Baptist, by José Ferraz de Almeida Júnior, 1895

The synoptic gospels describe Jesus' baptism in the Jordan River and the temptations he received while spending forty days in the Judaean Desert, as a preparation for his public ministry. The accounts of Jesus' baptism are all preceded by information about John the Baptist. They show John preaching penance and repentance for the remission of sins and encouraging the giving of alms to the poor as he baptizes people in the area of the Jordan River around Perea and foretells the arrival of someone "more powerful" than he.

In the Gospel of Mark, John the Baptist baptizes Jesus, and as he comes out of the water he sees the Holy Spirit descending to him like a dove and a voice comes from heaven declaring him to be God's Son. This is one of two events described in the Gospels where a voice from Heaven calls Jesus "Son", the other being the Transfiguration. The spirit then drives him into the wilderness where he is tempted by Satan. Jesus then begins his ministry in Galilee after John's arrest.

In the Gospel of Matthew, as Jesus comes to him to be baptized, John protests, saying, "I need to be baptized by you." Jesus instructs him to carry on with the baptism "to fulfill all righteousness". Matthew details three temptations that Satan offers Jesus in the wilderness.

In the Gospel of Luke, the Holy Spirit descends as a dove after everyone has been baptized and Jesus is praying. Later John implicitly recognizes Jesus from prison after sending his followers to ask about him. Luke also describes three temptations received by Jesus in the wilderness, before starting his ministry in Galilee.

The Gospel of John leaves out Jesus' baptism and temptation. Here, John the Baptist testifies that he saw the Spirit descend on Jesus. John publicly proclaims Jesus as the sacrificial Lamb of God, and some of John's followers become disciples of Jesus. Before John is imprisoned, Jesus leads his followers to baptize disciples as well, and they baptize more people than John.

Public ministry

The Synoptics depict two distinct geographical settings in Jesus' ministry. The first takes place north of Judea, in Galilee, where Jesus conducts a successful ministry, and the second shows Jesus rejected and killed when he travels to Jerusalem. Often referred to as " rabbi", Jesus preaches his message orally. Notably, Jesus forbids those who recognize him as the messiah to speak of it, including people he heals and demons he exorcises (see Messianic Secret).

John depicts Jesus' ministry as largely taking place in and around Jerusalem, rather than in Galilee; and Jesus' divine identity is openly proclaimed and immediately recognized.

Scholars divide the ministry of Jesus into several stages. The Galilean ministry begins when Jesus returns to Galilee from the Judaean Desert after rebuffing the temptation of Satan. Jesus preaches around Galilee, and in Matthew 4:18-20, his first disciples, who will eventually form the core of the early Church, encounter him and begin to travel with him. This period includes the Sermon on the Mount, one of Jesus' major discourses, as well as the calming of the storm, the feeding of the 5,000, walking on water and a number of other miracles and parables. It ends with the Confession of Peter and the Transfiguration.

As Jesus travels towards Jerusalem, in the Perean ministry, he returns to the area where he was baptized, about a third of the way down from the Sea of Galilee along the Jordan River. The final ministry in Jerusalem begins with Jesus' triumphal entry into the city on Palm Sunday. In the Synoptic Gospels, during that week Jesus drives the money changers from the Second Temple and Judas bargains to betray him. This period culminates in the Last Supper and the Farewell Discourse.

Disciples and followers

Near the beginning of his ministry, Jesus appoints twelve apostles. In Matthew and Mark, despite Jesus only briefly requesting that they join him, Jesus' first four apostles, who were fishermen, are described as immediately consenting, and abandoning their nets and boats to do so. In John, Jesus' first two apostles were disciples of John the Baptist. The Baptist sees Jesus and calls him the Lamb of God; the two hear this and follow Jesus. In addition to the Twelve Apostles, the opening of the passage of the Sermon on the Plain identifies a much larger group of people as disciples. Also, in Luke 10:1-16 Jesus sends 70 or 72 of his followers in pairs to prepare towns for his prospective visit. They are instructed to accept hospitality, heal the sick, and spread the word that the Kingdom of God is coming.

In Mark, the disciples are notably obtuse. They fail to understand Jesus' miracles, his parables, or what "rising from the dead" means. When Jesus is later arrested, they desert him.

Teachings and miracles

In the Synoptics, Jesus teaches extensively, often in parables, about the Kingdom of God (or, in Matthew, the Kingdom of Heaven). The Kingdom is described as both imminent and already present in the ministry of Jesus. Jesus promises inclusion in the Kingdom for those who accept his message. He talks of the " Son of Man", an apocalyptic figure who will come to gather the chosen.

Jesus calls people to repent their sins and to devote themselves completely to God. He tells his followers to adhere to Jewish law, although he is perceived by some to have broken the law himself, for example regarding the Sabbath. When asked what the greatest commandment is, Jesus replies: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind ... And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'" Other ethical teachings of Jesus include loving your enemies, refraining from hatred and lust, turning the other cheek, and forgiving people who have sinned against you.

John's Gospel presents the teachings of Jesus not merely as his own preaching, but as divine revelation. John the Baptist, for example, states in John 3:34: "He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure." In John 7:16 Jesus says, "My teaching is not mine but his who sent me." He asserts the same thing in John 14:10: "Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works."

Approximately 30 parables form about one-third of Jesus' recorded teachings. The parables appear within longer sermons and at other places in the narrative. They often contain symbolism, and usually relate the physical world to the spiritual. Common themes in these tales include the kindness and generosity of God and the perils of transgression. Some of his parables, such as the Prodigal Son, are relatively simple, while others, such as the Growing Seed, are sophisticated, profound and abstruse. When asked by his disciples why he speaks in parables to the people, Jesus replies that the chosen disciples have been given to "know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven", unlike the rest of their people, "For the one who has will be given more and he will have in abundance. But the one who does not have will be deprived even more", going on to say that the majority of their generation have grown "dull hearts" and thus are unable to understand.

Jesus cleansing a leper, medieval mosaic from the Monreale Cathedral, late 12th to mid-13th centuries

In the gospel accounts, Jesus devotes a large portion of his ministry to performing miracles, especially healings. The miracles can be classified into two main categories: healing miracles and nature miracles. The healing miracles include cures for physical ailments, exorcisms, and resurrections of the dead. The nature miracles show Jesus' power over nature, and include turning water into wine, walking on water, and calming a storm, among others. Jesus states that his miracles are from a divine source. When his opponents suddenly accuse him of performing exorcisms by the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons, Jesus counters that he performs them by the "Spirit of God" ( Matthew 12:28) or "finger of God", arguing that all logic suggests that Satan would not let his demons assist the Children of God because it would divide Satan's house and bring his kingdom to desolation; furthermore, he asks his opponents that if he exorcises by Beelzebub, "by whom do your sons cast them out?" In Matthew 12:31-32, he goes on to say that while all manner of sin, "even insults against God" or "insults against the son of man", shall be forgiven, whoever insults goodness (or "The Holy Spirit") shall never be forgiven; they carry the guilt of their sin forever.

In John, Jesus' miracles are described as "signs", performed to prove his mission and divinity. In the Synoptics, when asked by some teachers of the Law and some Pharisees to give miraculous signs to prove his authority, Jesus refuses, saying that no sign shall come to corrupt and evil people except the sign of the prophet Jonah. Also, in the Synoptic Gospels, the crowds regularly respond to Jesus' miracles with awe and press on him to heal their sick. In John's Gospel, Jesus is presented as unpressured by the crowds, who often respond to his miracles with trust and faith. One characteristic shared among all miracles of Jesus in the gospel accounts is that he performed them freely and never requested or accepted any form of payment. The gospel episodes that include descriptions of the miracles of Jesus also often include teachings, and the miracles themselves involve an element of teaching. Many of the miracles teach the importance of faith. In the cleansing of ten lepers and the raising of Jairus's daughter, for instance, the beneficiaries are told that their healing was due to their faith.

Proclamation as Christ and Transfiguration

At about the middle of each of the three Synoptic Gospels are two significant events: the Confession of Peter and the Transfiguration of Jesus. These two events are not mentioned in the Gospel of John.

In his Confession, Peter tells Jesus, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." Jesus affirms that Peter's confession is divinely revealed truth. After the confession, Jesus tells his disciples about his upcoming death and resurrection.

In the Transfiguration, Jesus takes Peter and two other apostles up an unnamed mountain, where "he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white". A bright cloud appears around them, and a voice from the cloud says, "This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him."

Passion Week

The description of the last week of the life of Jesus (often called Passion Week) occupies about one-third of the narrative in the canonical gospels, starting with Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem and ending with his Crucifixion.

Activities in Jerusalem

In the Synoptics, the last week in Jerusalem is the conclusion of the journey through Perea and Judea that Jesus began in Galilee. Jesus rides a young donkey into Jerusalem, reflecting the tale of the Messiah's Donkey, an oracle from the Book of Zechariah in which the Jews' humble king enters Jerusalem this way. People along the way lay cloaks and small branches of trees (known as palm fronds) in front of him and sing part of Psalms 118:25-26.

Jesus next expels the money changers from the Second Temple, accusing them of turning it into a den of thieves through their commercial activities. He then prophesies about the coming destruction, including false prophets, wars, earthquakes, celestial disorders, persecution of the faithful, the appearance of an "abomination of desolation", and unendurable tribulations. The mysterious "Son of Man", he says, will dispatch angels to gather the faithful from all parts of the earth. Jesus warns that these wonders will occur in the lifetimes of the hearers. In John, the Cleansing of the Temple occurs at the beginning of Jesus' ministry instead of at the end.

Jesus comes into conflict with the Jewish elders, such as when they question his authority and when he criticizes them and calls them hypocrites. Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve apostles, secretly strikes a bargain with the Jewish elders, agreeing to betray Jesus to them for 30 silver coins.

The Gospel of John recounts two other feasts in which Jesus taught in Jerusalem before the Passion Week. In Bethany, a village near Jerusalem, Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. This potent sign increases the tension with authorities, who conspire to kill him. Mary of Bethany anoints Jesus' feet, foreshadowing his entombment. Jesus then makes his messianic entry into Jerusalem. The cheering crowds greeting Jesus as he enters Jerusalem add to the animosity between him and the establishment. In John, Jesus has already cleansed the Second Temple during an earlier Passover visit to Jerusalem. John next recounts Jesus' Last Supper with his disciples.

Last Supper

The Last Supper, depicted by Juan de Juanes, c. 1562

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; Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians also refers to it. During the meal, Jesus predicts that one of his apostles will betray him. Despite each Apostle's assertion that he would not betray him, Jesus reiterates that the betrayer would be one of those present. Matthew 26:23-25 and John 13:26-27 specifically identify Judas as the traitor.

In the Synoptics, Jesus takes bread, breaks it, and gives it to the disciples, saying, "This is my body, which is given for you". He then has them all drink from a cup, saying, "This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood," The Christian sacrament or ordinance of the Eucharist is based on these events. 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 6:22-59 (the Bread of Life Discourse) has a eucharistic character and resonates with the institution narratives in the Synoptic Gospels and in the Pauline writings on the Last Supper.

In all four gospels, Jesus predicts that Peter will deny knowledge of him three times before the rooster crows the next morning. In Luke and John, the prediction is made during the Supper. In Matthew and Mark, the prediction is made after the Supper; Jesus also predicts that all his disciples will desert him. The Gospel of John provides the only account of Jesus washing his disciples' feet after the meal. John 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 and are a significant source of Christological content.

Agony in the Garden, betrayal, and arrest

A depiction of the kiss of Judas and arrest of Jesus, by Caravaggio, c. 1602

In the Synoptics, Jesus and his disciples go to the garden Gethsemane, where Jesus prays to be spared his coming ordeal. Then Judas comes with an armed mob, sent by the chief priests, scribes and elders. He kisses Jesus to identify him to the crowd, which then arrests Jesus. In an attempt to stop them, an unnamed disciple of Jesus uses a sword to cut off the ear of a man in the crowd. After Jesus' arrest, his disciples go into hiding, and Peter, when questioned, thrice denies knowing Jesus. After the third denial, Peter hears the rooster crow and recalls Jesus' prediction about his denial. Peter then weeps bitterly.

In John 18:1-11, Jesus does not pray to be spared his crucifixion, as the gospel portrays him as scarcely touched by such human weakness. The people who arrest him are Roman soldiers and Temple guards. Instead of being betrayed by a kiss, Jesus proclaims his identity, and when he does, the soldiers and officers fall to the ground. The gospel identifies Peter as the disciple who used the sword, and Jesus rebukes him for it.

Trials by the Sanhedrin, Herod, and Pilate

After his arrest, Jesus is taken late at night to the private residence of the high priest, Caiaphas, who had been installed by Pilate's predecessor, the Roman procurator Valerius Gratus. The Sanhedrin was a Jewish judicial body, The gospel accounts differ on the details of the trials. In Matthew 26:57, Mark 14:53 and Luke 22:54, Jesus is taken to the house of the high priest, Caiaphas, where he is mocked and beaten that night. Early the next morning, the chief priests and scribes lead Jesus away into their council. John 18:12-14 states that Jesus is first taken to Annas, Caiaphas's father-in-law, and then to the high priest.

During the trials Jesus speaks very little, mounts no defence, and gives very infrequent and indirect answers to the priests' questions, prompting an officer to slap him. In Matthew 26:62, Jesus' unresponsiveness leads Caiaphas to ask him, "Have you no answer?" In Mark 14:61 the high priest then asks Jesus, "Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?" Jesus replies, "I am", and then predicts the coming of the Son of Man. This provokes Caiaphas to tear his own robe in anger and to accuse Jesus of blasphemy. In Matthew and Luke, Jesus' answer is more ambiguous: in Matthew 26:64 he responds, "You have said so", and in Luke 22:70 he says, "You say that I am".

The Jewish elders take Jesus to Pilate's Court and ask the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, to judge and condemn Jesus for various allegations: subverting the nation, opposing the payment of tribute, claiming to be Christ, a King, and claiming to be the son of God. The use of the word "king" is central to the discussion between Jesus and Pilate. In John 18:36 Jesus states, "My kingdom is not from this world", but he does not unequivocally deny being the King of the Jews. In Luke 23:7-15, Pilate realizes that Jesus is a Galilean, and thus comes under the jurisdiction of Herod Antipas, the Tetrarch of Galilee and Perea. Pilate sends Jesus to Herod to be tried, but Jesus says almost nothing in response to Herod's questions. Herod and his soldiers mock Jesus, put an expensive robe on him to make him look like a king, and return him to Pilate, who then calls together the Jewish elders and announces that he has "not found this man guilty".

Observing a Passover custom of the time, Pilate allows one prisoner chosen by the crowd to be released. He gives the people a choice between Jesus and a murderer called Barabbas ( or Bar-abbâ, "son of the father", from the common given name : 'father'). Persuaded by the elders, the mob chooses to release Barabbas and crucify Jesus. Pilate writes a sign in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek that reads "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews" (abbreviated as INRI in depictions) to be affixed to Jesus' cross, then scourges Jesus and sends him to be crucified. The soldiers place a crown of thorns on Jesus' head and ridicule him as the King of the Jews. They beat and taunt him before taking him to Calvary, also called Golgotha, for crucifixion.

Crucifixion and entombment

Pietro Perugino's depiction of the Crucifixion as Stabat Mater, 1482

Jesus' crucifixion is described in all four canonical gospels. After the trials, Jesus is led to Calvary carrying his cross; the route traditionally thought to have been taken is known as the Via Dolorosa. The three Synoptic Gospels indicate that Simon of Cyrene assists him, having been compelled by the Romans to do so. In Luke 23:27-28, Jesus tells the women in the multitude of people following him not to weep for him but for themselves and their children. At Calvary, Jesus is offered a sponge soaked in a concoction usually offered as a painkiller. According to Matthew and Mark, he refuses it.

The soldiers then crucify Jesus and cast lots for his clothes. Above Jesus' head on the cross is Pilate's inscription, "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews". Soldiers and passersby mock him about it. Two convicted thieves are crucified along with Jesus. In Matthew and Mark, both thieves mock Jesus. In Luke, one of them rebukes Jesus, while the other defends him. Jesus tells the latter: "today you will be with me in Paradise". The four gospels mention the presence of a group of female disciples of Jesus at the crucifixion. In John, Jesus sees his mother Mary and the beloved disciple and tells him to take care of her.

In John 19:33-34, Roman soldiers break the two thieves' legs to hasten their death, but not those of Jesus, as he is already dead. Instead, one soldier pierces Jesus' side with a lance, and blood and water flow out. The Synoptics report a period of darkness, and the heavy curtain in the Temple is torn when Jesus dies. In Matthew 27:51-54, an earthquake breaks open tombs. In Matthew and Mark, terrified by the events, a Roman centurion states that Jesus was the Son of God.

On the same day, Joseph of Arimathea, with Pilate's permission and with Nicodemus's help, removes Jesus' body from the cross, wraps him in a clean cloth, and buries him in his new rock-hewn tomb. In Matthew 27:62-66, on the following day the chief Jewish priests ask Pilate for the tomb to be secured, and with Pilate's permission the priests place seals on the large stone covering the entrance.

Resurrection and ascension

The Gospels do not describe the moment of the resurrection of Jesus. They describe the discovery of his empty tomb and several appearances of Jesus, with distinct differences in each narrative.

In the four Gospels, Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb on Sunday morning, alone or with one or several other women. The tomb is empty, with the stone rolled away, and there are one or two angels, depending on the accounts. In the Synoptics, the women are told that Jesus is not here and that he is risen. In Mark and Matthew, the angel also instructs them to tell the disciples to meet Jesus in Galilee. In Luke, Peter visits the tomb after he is told it is empty. In John, he goes there with the beloved disciple. Matthew mentions Roman guards at the tomb, who report to the priests of Jerusalem what happened. The priests bribe them to say that the disciples stole Jesus' body during the night.

The four Gospels then describe various appearances of Jesus in his resurrected body. Jesus first reveals himself to Mary Magdalene in Mark 16:9 and John 20:14-17, along with "the other Mary" in Matthew 28:9, while in Luke the first reported appearance is to two disciples heading to Emmaus. Jesus then reveals himself to the eleven disciples, in Jerusalem or in Galilee. In Luke 24:36-43, he eats and shows them his tangible wounds to prove that he is not a spirit. He also shows them to Thomas to end his doubts, in John 20:24-29. In the Synoptics, Jesus commissions the disciples to spread the gospel message to all nations, while in John 21, he tells Peter to take care of his sheep.

Jesus' ascension into Heaven is described in Luke 24:50-53, Acts 1:1-11 and mentioned in 1 Timothy 3:16. In the Acts of the Apostles, forty days after the Resurrection, as the disciples look on, "he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight". 1 Peter 3:22 states that Jesus has "gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God".

The Acts of the Apostles describes several appearances of Jesus after his Ascension. In Acts 7:55, Stephen gazes into heaven and sees "Jesus standing at the right hand of God" just before his death. On the road to Damascus, the Apostle Paul is converted to Christianity after seeing a blinding light and hearing a voice saying, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting." In Acts 9:10-18, Jesus instructs Ananias of Damascus in a vision to heal Paul. The Book of Revelation includes a revelation from Jesus concerning the last days of Earth.

Early Christianity

A 3rd-century depiction of Jesus as the Good Shepherd

After Jesus' life, his followers, as described in the first chapters of the Acts of the Apostles, were all Jews either by birth or conversion, for which the biblical term " proselyte" is used, and referred to by historians as Jewish Christians. The early Gospel message was spread orally, probably in Aramaic, but almost immediately also in Greek. The New Testament's Acts of the Apostles and Epistle to the Galatians record that the first Christian community was centered in Jerusalem and its leaders included Peter, James, the brother of Jesus, and John the Apostle.

After his conversion, Paul the Apostle spread the teachings of Jesus to various non-Jewish communities throughout the eastern Mediterranean region. Paul's influence on Christian thinking is said to be more significant than that of any other New Testament author. By the end of the 1st century, Christianity began to be recognized internally and externally as a separate religion from Judaism which itself was refined and developed further in the centuries after the destruction of the Second Temple.

Numerous quotations in the New Testament and other Christian writings of the first centuries, indicate that early Christians generally used and revered the Hebrew Bible (the Tanakh) as religious text, mostly in the Greek ( Septuagint) or Aramaic ( Targum) translations.

Early Christians wrote many religious works, including the ones included in the canon of the New Testament. The canonical texts, which have become the main sources used by historians to try to understand the historical Jesus and sacred texts within Christianity, were probably written between 50 and 120 AD.

Historical views

Prior to the Enlightenment, the Gospels were usually regarded as accurate historical accounts, but since then scholars have emerged who question the reliability of the Gospels and draw a distinction between the Jesus described in the Gospels and the Jesus of history. Since the 18th century, three separate scholarly quests for the historical Jesus have taken place, each with distinct characteristics and based on different research criteria, which were often developed during the quest that applied them. While there is widespread scholarly agreement on the existence of Jesus, and a basic consensus on the general outline of his life, the portraits of Jesus constructed by various scholars often differ from each other, and from the image portrayed in the gospel accounts.

Approaches to the historical reconstruction of the life of Jesus have varied from the "maximalist" approaches of the 19th century, in which the gospel accounts were accepted as reliable evidence wherever it is possible, to the "minimalist" approaches of the early 20th century, where hardly anything about Jesus was accepted as historical. In the 1950s, as the second quest for the historical Jesus gathered pace, the minimalist approaches faded away, and in the 21st century, minimalists such as Price are a small minority. Although a belief in the inerrancy of the Gospels cannot be supported historically, many scholars since the 1980s have held that, beyond the few facts considered to be historically certain, certain other elements of Jesus' life are "historically probable". Modern scholarly research on the historical Jesus thus focuses on identifying the most probable elements.

Judea and Galilee in the 1st century

In AD 6, Judea, Idumea, and Samaria were transformed from a Herodian client kingdom of the Roman Empire into an imperial province, also called Judea. A Roman prefect, rather than a client king, ruled the land. The prefect ruled from Caesarea Maritima, leaving Jerusalem to be run by the High Priest of Israel. As an exception, the prefect came to Jerusalem during religious festivals, when religious and patriotic enthusiasm sometimes inspired unrest or uprisings. Gentile lands surrounded the Jewish territories of Judea and Galilee, but Roman law and practice allowed Jews to remain separate legally and culturally. Galilee was evidently prosperous, and poverty was limited enough that it did not threaten the social order.

This was the era of Hellenistic Judaism, which combined Jewish religious tradition with elements of Hellenistic Greek culture. Until the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the Muslim conquests of the Eastern Mediterranean, the main centers of Hellenistic Judaism were Alexandria (Egypt) and Antioch (now Southern Turkey), the two main Greek urban settlements of the Middle East and North Africa area, both founded at the end of the 4th century BC in the wake of the conquests of Alexander the Great. Hellenistic Judaism also existed in Jerusalem during the Second Temple Period, where there was conflict between Hellenizers and traditionalists (sometimes called Judaizers). The Hebrew Bible was translated from Biblical Hebrew and Biblical Aramaic into Jewish Koine Greek; the Targum translations into Aramaic were also generated during this era, both due to the decline of knowledge of Hebrew.

Jews based their faith and religious practice on the Torah, five books said to have been given by God to Moses. The three prominent religious parties were the Pharisees, the Essenes, and the Sadducees. Together these parties represented only a small fraction of the population. Most Jews looked forward to a time that God would deliver them from their pagan rulers, possibly through war against the Romans.

A 1640 edition of the works of Josephus, a 1st-century Roman-Jewish historian who referred to Jesus

New Testament scholars face a formidable challenge when they analyse the canonical Gospels. The Gospels are not biographies in the modern sense, and the authors explain Jesus' theological significance and recount his public ministry while omitting many details of his life.

The reports of supernatural events associated with Jesus' death and resurrection make the challenge even more difficult. Scholars regard the Gospels as compromised sources of information because the writers were trying to glorify Jesus. Even so, the sources for Jesus' life are better than sources scholars have for the life of Alexander the Great.

Scholars use a number of criteria, such as the criterion of independent attestation, the criterion of coherence, and the criterion of discontinuity to judge the historicity of events. The historicity of an event also depends on the reliability of the source; indeed, the Gospels are not independent nor consistent records of Jesus' life. Mark, which is most likely the earliest written gospel, has been considered for many decades the most historically accurate. John, the latest written gospel, differs considerably from the Synoptic Gospels, and thus is generally considered less reliable, although more and more scholars now also recognize that it may contain a core of older material as historically valuable as the Synoptic tradition or even more so.

Some scholars (most notably the Jesus Seminar) believe that the non-canonical Gospel of Thomas might be an independent witness to many of Jesus' parables and aphorisms. For example, Thomas confirms that Jesus blessed the poor and that this saying circulated independently before being combined with similar sayings in the Q source. However, the majority of scholars are sceptical about this text and believe it should be dated to the 2nd century AD.

Other select non-canonical Christian texts may also have value for historical Jesus research.

Early non-Christian sources that attest to the historical existence of Jesus include the works of the historians Josephus and Tacitus. Josephus scholar Louis Feldman has stated that "few have doubted the genuineness" of Josephus's reference to Jesus in book 20 of the Antiquities of the Jews, and it is disputed only by a small number of scholars. Tacitus referred to Christ and his execution by Pilate in book 15 of his work . Scholars generally consider Tacitus's reference to the execution of Jesus to be both authentic and of historical value as an independent Roman source.

Non-Christian sources are valuable in two ways. First, they show that even neutral or hostile parties never show any doubt that Jesus actually existed. Second, they present a rough picture of Jesus that is compatible with that found in the Christian sources: that Jesus was a teacher, had a reputation as a miracle worker, had a brother James, and died a violent death.

Archaeology helps scholars better understand Jesus' social world. Recent archaeological work, for example, indicates that Capernaum, a city important in Jesus' ministry, was poor and small, without even a forum or an agora. This archaeological discovery resonates well with the scholarly view that Jesus advocated reciprocal sharing among the destitute in that area of Galilee.

Chronology

Jesus was a Galilean Jew, born around the beginning of the 1st century, who died in 30 or 33 AD in Judea. The general scholarly consensus is that Jesus was a contemporary of John the Baptist and was crucified as ordered by the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, who held office from 26 to 36 AD.

The Gospels offer several indications concerning the year of Jesus' birth. Matthew 2:1 associates the birth of Jesus with the reign of Herod the Great, who died around 4 BC, and Luke 1:5 mentions that Herod was on the throne shortly before the birth of Jesus, although this gospel also associates the birth with the Census of Quirinius which took place ten years later. Luke 3:23 states that Jesus was "about thirty years old" at the start of his ministry, which according to Acts 10:37-38 was preceded by John the Baptist's ministry, which was recorded in Luke 3:1-2 to have begun in the 15th year of Tiberius's reign (28 or 29 AD). By collating the gospel accounts with historical data and using various other methods, most scholars arrive at a date of birth for Jesus between 6 and 4 BC, but some propose estimates that include a wider range.

The date range for Jesus' ministry has been estimated using several different approaches. One of these applies the reference in Luke 3:1-2, Acts 10:37-38, and the dates of Tiberius's reign, which are well known, to give a date of around 28-29 AD for the start of Jesus' ministry. Another approach estimates a date around 27-29 AD by using the statement about the temple in John 2:13-20, which asserts that the temple in Jerusalem was in its 46th year of construction at the start of Jesus' ministry, together with Josephus's statement that the temple's reconstruction was started by Herod the Great in the 18th year of his reign. A further method uses the date of the death of John the Baptist and the marriage of Herod Antipas to Herodias, based on the writings of Josephus, and correlates it with Matthew 14:4 and Mark 6:18. Given that most scholars date the marriage of Herod and Herodias as AD 28-35, this yields a date about 28-29 AD.

A number of approaches have been used to estimate the year of the crucifixion of Jesus. Most scholars agree that he died in 30 or 33 AD. The Gospels state that the event occurred during the prefecture of Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea from 26 to 36 AD. The date for the conversion of Paul (estimated to be 33-36 AD) acts as an upper bound for the date of Crucifixion. The dates for Paul's conversion and ministry can be determined by analysing the Pauline epistles and the Acts of the Apostles. Astronomers have tried to estimate the precise date of the Crucifixion by analysing lunar motion and calculating historic dates of Passover, a festival based on the lunisolar Hebrew calendar. The most widely accepted dates derived from this method are 7 April 30 AD, and 3 April 33 AD (both Julian).

Historicity of events

Nearly all historians (both modern and historical) agree that Jesus was a real person who historically existed. Scholars have reached a limited consensus on the basics of Jesus' life.

Many scholars agree that Joseph, Jesus' father, died before Jesus began his ministry. Joseph is not mentioned in the Gospels during Jesus' ministry. Joseph's death would explain why in Mark 6:3, Jesus' neighbors refer to Jesus as the "son of Mary" (sons were usually identified by their fathers).

According to Theissen and Merz, it is common for extraordinary charismatic leaders, such as Jesus, to come into conflict with their ordinary families. In Mark, Jesus' family comes to get him, fearing that he is mad (Mark 3:20-34), and this account is thought to be historical because early Christians would likely not have invented it. After Jesus' death, many members of his family joined the Christian movement. Jesus' brother James became a leader of the Jerusalem Church.

Géza Vermes says that the doctrine of the virgin birth of Jesus arose from theological development rather than from historical events. Despite the widely held view that the authors of the Synoptic Gospels drew upon each other (the so-called synoptic problem), other scholars take it as significant that the virgin birth is attested by two separate gospels, Matthew and Luke.

According to E. P. Sanders, the birth narratives in the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke are the clearest case of invention in the Gospel narratives of Jesus' life. Both accounts have Jesus born in Bethlehem, in accordance with Jewish salvation history, and both have him growing up in Nazareth. But Sanders points out that the two Gospels report completely different and irreconcilable explanations for how that happened. Luke's account of a census in which everyone returned to their ancestral cities is not plausible. Matthew's account is more plausible, but the story reads as though it was invented to identify Jesus as like a new Moses, and the historian Josephus reports Herod the Great's brutality without ever mentioning that he massacred little boys. The contradictions between the two Gospels were probably apparent to the early Christians already, since attempts to harmonize the two narratives are already present in the earlier apocryphal infancy gospels (the Infancy Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of James), which are dated to the 2nd century AD.

Sanders says that the genealogies of Jesus are based not on historical information but on the authors' desire to show that Jesus was the universal Jewish savior. In any event, once the doctrine of the virgin birth of Jesus became established, that tradition superseded the earlier tradition that he was descended from David through Joseph. The Gospel of Luke reports that Jesus was a blood relative of John the Baptist, but scholars generally consider this connection to be invented.

Baptism in the Jordan River, the river where Jesus was baptized

Most modern scholars consider Jesus' baptism to be a definite historical fact, along with his crucifixion. Theologian James D. G. Dunn states that they "command almost universal assent" and "rank so high on the 'almost impossible to doubt or deny' scale of historical facts" that they are often the starting points for the study of the historical Jesus. Scholars adduce the criterion of embarrassment, saying that early Christians would not have invented a baptism that might imply that Jesus committed sins and wanted to repent. According to Theissen and Merz, Jesus was inspired by John the Baptist and took over from him many elements of his teaching.

Ministry in Galilee

Most scholars hold that Jesus lived in Galilee and Judea and did not preach or study elsewhere. They agree that Jesus debated with Jewish authorities on the subject of God, performed some healings, taught in parables and gathered followers. Jesus' Jewish critics considered his ministry to be scandalous because he feasted with sinners, fraternized with women, and allowed his followers to pluck grain on the Sabbath. According to Sanders, it is not plausible that disagreements over how to interpret the Law of Moses and the Sabbath would have led Jewish authorities to want Jesus killed.

According to Ehrman, Jesus taught that a coming kingdom was everyone's proper focus, not anything in this life. He taught about the Jewish Law, seeking its true meaning, sometimes in opposition to traditions. Jesus put love at the center of the Law, and following that Law was an apocalyptic necessity. His ethical teachings called for forgiveness, not judging others, loving enemies, and caring for the poor. Funk and Hoover note that typical of Jesus were paradoxical or surprising turns of phrase, such as advising one, when struck on the cheek, to offer the other cheek to be struck as well.

The Gospels portray Jesus teaching in well-defined sessions, such as the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew or the parallel Sermon on the Plain in Luke. According to Gerd Theissen and Annette Merz, these teaching sessions include authentic teachings of Jesus, but the scenes were invented by the respective evangelists to frame these teachings, which had originally been recorded without context. While Jesus' miracles fit within the social context of antiquity, he defined them differently. First, he attributed them to the faith of those healed. Second, he connected them to end times prophecy.

Jesus chose twelve disciples (the "Twelve"), evidently as an apocalyptic message. All three Synoptics mention the Twelve, although the names on Luke's list vary from those in Mark and Matthew, suggesting that Christians were not certain who all the disciples were. The twelve disciples might have represented the twelve original tribes of Israel, which would be restored once God's rule was instituted. The disciples were reportedly meant to be the rulers of the tribes in the coming Kingdom. According to Bart Ehrman, Jesus' promise that the Twelve would rule is historical, because the Twelve included Judas Iscariot. In Ehrman's view, no Christians would have invented a line from Jesus, promising rulership to the disciple who betrayed him.

In Mark, the disciples play hardly any role other than a negative one. While others sometimes respond to Jesus with complete faith, his disciples are puzzled and doubtful. They serve as a foil to Jesus and to other characters. The failings of the disciples are probably exaggerated in Mark, and the disciples make a better showing in Matthew and Luke.

Sanders says that Jesus' mission was not about repentance, although he acknowledges that this opinion is unpopular. He argues that repentance appears as a strong theme only in Luke, that repentance was John the Baptist's message, and that Jesus' ministry would not have been scandalous if the sinners he ate with had been repentant. According to Theissen and Merz, Jesus taught that God was generously giving people an opportunity to repent.

Jesus taught that an apocalyptic figure, the " Son of Man", would soon come on clouds of glory to gather the elect, or chosen ones. He referred to himself as a " son of man" in the colloquial sense of "a person", but scholars do not know whether he also meant himself when he referred to the heavenly "Son of Man". Paul the Apostle and other early Christians interpreted the "Son of Man" as the risen Jesus.

The Gospels refer to Jesus not only as a messiah but in the absolute form as "the Messiah" or, equivalently, "the Christ". In early Judaism, this absolute form of the title is not found, but only phrases such as "his messiah". The tradition is ambiguous enough to leave room for debate as to whether Jesus defined his eschatological role as that of the messiah. The Jewish messianic tradition included many different forms, some of them focused on a messiah figure and others not. Based on the Christian tradition, Gerd Theissen advances the hypothesis that Jesus saw himself in messianic terms but did not claim the title "Messiah". Bart Ehrman argues that Jesus did consider himself to be the messiah, albeit in the sense that he would be the king of the new political order that God would usher in, not in the sense that most people today think of the term.

Passover and crucifixion in Jerusalem

Around AD 30, Jesus and his followers travelled from Galilee to Jerusalem to observe Passover. Jesus caused a disturbance in the Second Temple, which was the center of Jewish religious and civil authority. Sanders associates it with Jesus' prophecy that the Temple would be totally demolished. Jesus held a last meal with his disciples, which is the origin of the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. His words as recorded in the Synoptic gospels and Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians do not entirely agree, but this meal appears to have pointed to Jesus' place in the coming Kingdom of God when very probably Jesus knew he was about to be killed, although he may have still hoped that God might yet intervene.

The Gospels say that Jesus was betrayed to the authorities by a disciple, and many scholars consider this report to be highly reliable. He was executed on the orders of Pontius Pilate, the Roman prefect of Judaea. Pilate most likely saw Jesus' reference to the Kingdom of God as a threat to Roman authority and worked with the Temple elites to have Jesus executed. The Sadducean high-priestly leaders of the Temple more plausibly had Jesus executed for political reasons than for his teaching. They may have regarded him as a threat to stability, especially after he caused a disturbance at the Second Temple. Other factors, such as Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, may have contributed to this decision. Most scholars consider Jesus' crucifixion to be factual, because early Christians would not have invented the painful death of their leader.

After crucifixion

The Resurrection of Christ from a 16th-century manuscript of La Passion de Nostre Seigneur

After Jesus' death, his followers said he was restored to life, although exact details of their experiences are unclear. The gospel reports contradict each other, possibly suggesting competition among those claiming to have seen him first rather than deliberate fraud. On the other hand, L. Michael White suggests that inconsistencies in the Gospels reflect differences in the agendas of their unknown authors. The followers of Jesus formed a community to wait for his return and the founding of his kingdom.

Portraits of Jesus

Modern research on the historical Jesus has not led to a unified picture of the historical figure, partly because of the variety of academic traditions represented by the scholars. Given the scarcity of historical sources, it is generally difficult for any scholar to construct a portrait of Jesus that can be considered historically valid beyond the basic elements of his life. The portraits of Jesus constructed in these quests often differ from each other, and from the image portrayed in the Gospels.

Jesus is seen as the founder of, in the words of Sanders, a "renewal movement within Judaism". One of the criteria used to discern historical details in the "third quest" is the criterion of plausibility, relative to Jesus' Jewish context and to his influence on Christianity. A disagreement in contemporary research is whether Jesus was apocalyptic. Most scholars conclude that he was an apocalyptic preacher, like John the Baptist and Paul the Apostle. In contrast, certain prominent North American scholars, such as Burton Mack and John Dominic Crossan, advocate for a non- eschatological Jesus, one who is more of a Cynic sage than an apocalyptic preacher. In addition to portraying Jesus as an apocalyptic prophet, a charismatic healer or a cynic philosopher, some scholars portray him as the true messiah or an egalitarian prophet of social change. However, the attributes described in the portraits sometimes overlap, and scholars who differ on some attributes sometimes agree on others.

Since the 18th century, scholars have occasionally put forth that Jesus was a political national messiah, but the evidence for this portrait is negligible. Likewise, the proposal that Jesus was a Zealot does not fit with the earliest strata of the Synoptic tradition.

Language, ethnicity, and appearance

The ethnicity of Jesus in art has been influenced by cultural settings.[412]

Jesus grew up in Galilee and much of his ministry took place there. The languages spoken in Galilee and Judea during the 1st century AD include Jewish Palestinian Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek, with Aramaic being predominant. There is substantial consensus that Jesus gave most of his teachings in Aramaic in the Galilean dialect. Other than Aramaic and Hebrew, it is likely that he was also able to speak in Koine Greek.

Modern scholars agree that Jesus was a Jew of 1st-century Judea. in New Testament Greek is a term which in the contemporary context may refer to religion ( Second Temple Judaism), ethnicity (of Judea), or both. In a review of the state of modern scholarship, Amy-Jill Levine writes that the entire question of ethnicity is "fraught with difficulty", and that "beyond recognizing that 'Jesus was Jewish', rarely does the scholarship address what being 'Jewish' means".

The New Testament gives no description of the physical appearance of Jesus before his death-it is generally indifferent to racial appearances and does not refer to the features of the people it mentions. Jesus probably looked like a typical Jewish man of his time and place; standing around 166 cm (5 ft 5 in) tall with a thin but fit build, olive-brown skin, brown eyes and short, dark hair. He also likely had a beard that was not particularly long or heavy. His clothing may have suggested poverty, consisting of a mantle (shawl) with tassels, a knee-length basic tunic and sandals.

Christ myth theory

The Christ myth theory is the hypothesis that Jesus of Nazareth never existed; or if he did, that he had virtually nothing to do with the founding of Christianity and the accounts in the gospels. Stories of Jesus' birth, along with other key events, have so many mythic elements that some scholars have suggested that Jesus himself was a myth.

Bruno Bauer (1809-1882) taught that the first Gospel was a work of literature that produced history rather than described it. According to Albert Kalthoff (1850-1906), a social movement produced Jesus when it encountered Jewish messianic expectations. Arthur Drews (1865-1935) saw Jesus as the concrete form of a myth that predated Christianity.

Despite arguments put forward by authors who have questioned the existence of a historical Jesus, virtually all scholars of antiquity accept that Jesus was a historical figure and consider Christ myth theory fringe.

Religious perspectives

Jesus' teachings and the retelling of his life story have significantly influenced the course of human history, and have directly or indirectly affected the lives of billions of people, even non-Christians. He is considered by many people to be the most influential figure to have ever lived, finding a significant place in numerous cultural contexts.

Apart from his own disciples and followers, the Jews of Jesus' day generally rejected him as the messiah, as does Judaism today. Christian theologians, ecumenical councils, reformers and others have written extensively about Jesus over the centuries. Christian denominations have often been defined or characterized by their descriptions of Jesus. Meanwhile, Manichaeans, Gnostics, Muslims, Druzes, the Baháʼí Faith, and others, have found prominent places for Jesus in their religions.

The Trinity is the belief in Christianity that God is one God in three persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit.

Jesus is the central figure of Christianity. Although Christian views of Jesus vary, it is possible to summarize the key beliefs shared among major denominations, as stated in their catechetical or confessional texts. Christian views of Jesus are derived from the texts of the New Testament, including the canonical gospels and letters such as the Pauline epistles and the Johannine writings. These documents outline the key beliefs held by Christians about Jesus, including his divinity, humanity, and earthly life, and that he is the Christ and the Son of God. Despite their many shared beliefs, not all Christian denominations agree on all doctrines, and both major and minor differences on teachings and beliefs have persisted throughout Christianity for centuries.

The New Testament states that the resurrection of Jesus is the foundation of the Christian faith. Christians believe that through his sacrificial death and resurrection, humans can be reconciled with God and are thereby offered salvation and the promise of eternal life. Recalling the words of John the Baptist in the gospel of John, these doctrines sometimes refer to Jesus as the Lamb of God, who was crucified to fulfill his role as the servant of God. Jesus is thus seen as the new and last Adam, whose obedience contrasts with Adam's disobedience. Christians view Jesus as a role model, whose God-focused life believers are encouraged to imitate.

At present, most Christians believe that Jesus is both human and the Son of God. While there has been theological debate over his nature, Trinitarian Christians generally believe that Jesus is the Logos, God's incarnation and God the Son, both fully divine and fully human. However, the doctrine of the Trinity is not universally accepted among Christians. With the Reformation, Christians such as Michael Servetus and the Socinians started questioning the ancient creeds that had established Jesus' two natures. Nontrinitarian Christian groups include the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Unitarians and Jehovah's Witnesses.

Christians revere not only Jesus himself, but also his name. Devotions to the Holy Name of Jesus go back to the earliest days of Christianity. These devotions and feasts exist in both Eastern and Western Christianity.

Judaism rejects the idea of Jesus (or any future Jewish messiah) being God, or a mediator to God, or part of a Trinity. It holds that Jesus is not the messiah, arguing that he neither fulfilled the messianic prophecies in the Tanakh nor embodied the personal qualifications of the messiah. Jews argue that Jesus did not fulfill prophesies to build the Third Temple, gather Jews back to Israel, bring world peace, and unite humanity under the God of Israel. Furthermore, according to Jewish tradition, there were no prophets after Malachi, who delivered his prophesies in the 5th century BC.

Judaic criticism of Jesus is long-standing, and includes a range of stories in the Talmud, written and compiled from the 3rd to the 5th century AD. In one such story, Yeshu HaNozri ("Jesus the Nazarene"), a lewd apostate, is executed by the Jewish high court for spreading idolatry and practising magic. According to some, the form Yeshu is an acronym which in Hebrew reads: "may his name and memory be blotted out". The majority of contemporary scholars consider that this material provides no information on the historical Jesus. The Mishneh Torah, a late 12th-century work of Jewish law written by Moses Maimonides, states that Jesus is a "stumbling block" who makes "the majority of the world to err and serve a god other than the Lord".

Medieval Hebrew literature contains the anecdotal "Episode of Jesus" (known also as Toledot Yeshu), in which Jesus is described as being the son of Joseph, the son of Pandera (see: Episode of Jesus). The account portrays Jesus as an impostor.

Manichaeism

Manichaeism was the first organized religion outside of Christianity to venerate Jesus. He is considered one of the four prophets, along with Zoroaster, Gautama Buddha, and Mani.

Persian miniature of Mary and Jesus

A major figure in Islam, Jesus (often referred to by his Quranic name ʿĪsā) is considered to be a messenger of God (Allāh) and the messiah () who was sent to guide the Children of Israel ( Banī Isrāʾīl) with a new scripture, the Gospel (referred to in Islam as ). Muslims regard the gospels' accounts in the New Testament as partially authentic, and believe that Jesus' original message was altered () and that Muhammad came later to revive it. Belief in Jesus (and all other messengers of God) is a requirement for being a Muslim. The Quran mentions Jesus by name 25 times-more often than Muhammad-and emphasizes that Jesus was a mortal human who, like all other prophets, had been divinely chosen to spread God's message. While the Quran affirms the Virgin birth of Jesus, he is considered to be neither an incarnation nor a son of God. Islamic texts emphasize a strict notion of monotheism (tawḥīd) and forbid the association of partners with God, which would be idolatry.

The Quran describes the annunciation to Mary () by the Holy Spirit that she is to give birth to Jesus while remaining a virgin. It calls the virgin birth a miracle that occurred by the will of God. The Quran ( 21:91 and 66:12) states that God breathed his spirit into Mary while she was chaste. Jesus is called a "spirit from God" because he was born through the action of the Spirit, but that belief does not imply his pre-existence.

To aid in his ministry to the Jewish people, Jesus was given the ability to perform miracles, by permission of God rather than by his own power. Through his ministry, Jesus is seen as a precursor to Muhammad. In the Quran ( 4:157-159) it is said that Jesus was not killed but was merely made to appear that way to unbelievers, and that he was raised into the heavens while still alive by God. According to most classic Sunni and Twelver Shi'ite interpretations of these verses, the likeness of Jesus was cast upon a substitute (most often one of the apostles), who was crucified in Jesus' stead. However, some medieval Muslims (among others, the writing under the name of al-Mufaddal ibn Umar al-Ju'fi, the Brethren of Purity, various Isma'ili philosophers, and the Sunni mystic al-Ghazali) affirmed the historicity of Jesus' crucifixion. These thinkers held the docetic view that, although Jesus' human form (his body) had died on the cross, his true divine nature (his spirit) had survived and ascended into heaven, so that his death was only an appearance. Nevertheless, to Muslims it is the rather than the crucifixion that constitutes a major event in the life of Jesus. There is no mention of his resurrection on the third day, and his death plays no special role in Islamic theories of salvation. However, Jesus is a central figure in Islamic eschatology: Muslims believe that he will return to Earth at the end of time and defeat the Antichrist () by killing him.

According to the Quran, the coming of Muhammad was predicted by Jesus:

And ˹remember˺ when Jesus, son of Mary, said, "O children of Israel! I am truly Allah's messenger to you, confirming the Torah which came before me, and giving good news of a messenger after me whose name will be Aḥmad."1 Yet when the Prophet came to them with clear proofs, they said, "This is pure magic."

Through this verse, early Arab Muslims claimed legitimacy for their new faith in the existing religious traditions and the alleged predictions of Jesus.

Ahmadiyya Islam

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community has several distinct teachings about Jesus. Ahmadis believe that he was a mortal man who survived his crucifixion and died a natural death at the age of 120 in Kashmir, India, and is buried at Roza Bal.

Druze faith

In the Druze faith, Jesus is considered and revered as one of the seven spokesmen or prophets ( natiq), defined as messengers or intermediaries between God and mankind, along with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Muhammad and Muhammad ibn Isma'il, each of them sent in a different period of history to preach the message of God.

Baháʼí Faith

In the Baháʼí Faith, Jesus is considered one of the Manifestations of God, defined as divine messengers or prophets sent by God to guide humanity, along with other religious figures such as Abraham, Moses, Krishna, Zarathushtra, Buddha, Muhammad and Baháʼu'lláh. Baháʼís believe that these religious founders or leaders have contributed to the progressive revelation by bringing spiritual and moral values to humanity in their own time and place. As a Manifestation of God, Jesus is believed to reflect God's qualities and attributes, but is not considered the only savior of humanity nor the incarnation of God. Baháʼís believe in the virgin birth, but see the resurrection and the miracles of Jesus as symbolic.

Jesus depicted as the liberator of Black slaves, on the masthead of the abolitionist paper The Liberator

Enthroned Jesus image on a Manichaean temple banner from c. 10th-century Qocho

In Christian Gnosticism (now a largely extinct religious movement), Jesus was sent from the divine realm and provided the secret knowledge ( gnosis) necessary for salvation. Most Gnostics believed that Jesus was a human who became possessed by the spirit of "the Christ" at his baptism. This spirit left Jesus' body during the crucifixion but was rejoined to him when he was raised from the dead. Some Gnostics, however, were docetics, believing that Jesus did not have a physical body, but only appeared to possess one.

Some Hindus consider Jesus to be an avatar or a sadhu. Paramahansa Yogananda, an Indian guru, taught that Jesus was the reincarnation of Elisha and a student of John the Baptist, the reincarnation of Elijah. Some Buddhists, including Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, regard Jesus as a bodhisattva who dedicated his life to the welfare of people. The New Age movement entertains a wide variety of views on Jesus. Theosophists, from whom many New Age teachings originated, refer to Jesus as the Master Jesus, a spiritual reformer, and they believe that Christ, after various incarnations, occupied the body of Jesus. The Urantia Book teaches Jesus is one of more than 700,000 heavenly sons of God. Antony Theodore in the book Jesus Christ in Love writes that there is an underlying oneness of Jesus' teachings with the messages contained in Quran, Vedas, Upanishads, Talmud and Avesta. Atheists reject Jesus' divinity, but have different views about him - from challenging his mental health to emphasizing his "moral superiority" ( Richard Dawkins).

Artistic depictions

Jesus healing a paralytic in one of the first known images of Jesus from Dura Europos in the 3rd century[548]

Some of the earliest depictions of Jesus at the Dura-Europos church are firmly dated to before 256. Thereafter, despite the lack of biblical references or historical records, a wide range of depictions of Jesus appeared during the last two millennia, often influenced by cultural settings, political circumstances and theological contexts. As in other Early Christian art, the earliest depictions date to the late 2nd or early 3rd century, and surviving images are found especially in the Catacombs of Rome.

The depiction of Christ in pictorial form was highly controversial in the early Church. From the 5th century onward, flat painted icons became popular in the Eastern Church. The Byzantine Iconoclasm acted as a barrier to developments in the East, but by the 9th century, art was permitted again. The Protestant Reformation brought renewed resistance to imagery, but total prohibition was atypical, and Protestant objections to images have tended to reduce since the 16th century. Although large images are generally avoided, few Protestants now object to book illustrations depicting Jesus. The use of depictions of Jesus is advocated by the leaders of denominations such as Anglicans and Catholics and is a key element of the Eastern Orthodox tradition.

In Eastern Christian art, the Transfiguration was a major theme, and every Eastern Orthodox monk who had trained in icon painting had to prove his craft by painting an icon depicting it. Icons receive the external marks of veneration, such as kisses and prostration, and they are thought to be powerful channels of divine grace.

In Western Europe, the Renaissance brought forth a number of artists who focused on depictions of Jesus; Fra Angelico and others followed Giotto in the systematic development of uncluttered images. Before the Protestant Reformation, the crucifix was common in Western Christianity. It is a model of the cross with Jesus crucified on it. The crucifix became the central ornament of the altar in the 13th century, a use that has been nearly universal in Roman Catholic churches since then.

Associated relics

The Shroud of Turin, Italy, is the best-known claimed relic of Jesus and one of the most studied artefacts in human history.[563]

The total destruction that ensued with the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans in AD 70 made the survival of items from 1st-century Judea very rare and almost no direct records survive about the history of Judaism from the last part of the 1st century through the 2nd century. Margaret M. Mitchell writes that although Eusebius reports (Ecclesiastical History III 5.3) that the early Christians left Jerusalem for Pella just before Jerusalem was subjected to the final lockdown, we must accept that no first-hand Christian items from the early Jerusalem Church have reached us. Joe Nickell writes, "as investigation after investigation has shown, not a single, reliably authenticated relic of Jesus exists".

However, throughout the history of Christianity, a number of relics attributed to Jesus have been claimed, although doubt has been cast on them. The 16th-century Catholic theologian Erasmus wrote sarcastically about the proliferation of relics and the number of buildings that could have been constructed from the wood claimed to be from the cross used in the Crucifixion. Similarly, while experts debate whether Jesus was crucified with three nails or with four, at least thirty holy nails continue to be venerated as relics across Europe.

Some relics, such as purported remnants of the crown of thorns placed on the head of Jesus, receive only a modest number of pilgrims, while the Shroud of Turin (which is associated with an approved Catholic devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus), has received millions, including popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI.

References

1. ^ Baden, Candida Moss (5 October 2014). "So-Called 'Biblical Scholar' Says Jesus a Made-Up Myth". The Daily Beast.

2. ^ Komoszewski, J. Ed; Bock, Darrell, eds. (2019). Jesus, Skepticism & The Problem of History: Criteria and Context in the Study of Christian Origins. Zondervan Academic. pp. 22-23. ISBN 9780310534761. ...a considerable number of specific facts about Jesus are so well supported historically as to be widely acknowledged by most scholars, whether Christian (of any stripe) or not:...(lists 18 points)...Nevertheless, what can be known about Jesus with a high degree of confidence, apart from theological or ideological agendas, is perhaps surprisingly robust.

3. Dunn, James D. G. (2013). The Oral Gospel Tradition. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. pp. 290-291.

4. ^ "anno Domini". Merriam Webster Online Dictionary. Merriam-Webster. 2003. Archived from the original on 22 December 2007. Etymology: Medieval Latin, in the year of our Lord.

5. ^ Maas, Anthony J. (1913). "Origin of the Name of Jesus Christ" . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

6. May, Herbert G. and Bruce M. Metzger. The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha. 1977. "Luke" pp. 1240-1285.

7. May, Herbert G. and Bruce M. Metzger. The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha. 1977. "John" pp. 1286-1318.

8. ^ France, R. T. (1985). The Gospel According to Matthew: An Introduction and Commentary. Eerdmans. p. 72. ISBN 978-0-8028-0063-3. Archived from the original on 29 February 2020. "From David the two lists diverge, as Matthew follows the line of succession to the throne of Judah from Solomon, whereas Luke's list goes through Nathan, ... and converges with Matthew's only for the two names of Shealtiel and Zerubabbel until Joseph is reached."

9. ^ Lincoln, Andrew T. (2013). "Luke and Jesus' Conception: A Case of Double Paternity?". Journal of Biblical Literature. 132 (3): 639-658. doi:10.2307/23487891. ISSN 0021-9231. JSTOR 23487891.

10. ^ "Lincoln, Andrew T., "Conceiving Jesus: re-examining Jesus' conception in canon, Christology, and creed", Th Severn Forum, 5 March 2015, p. 4" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 May 2020.

11. ^ Reverend Archdeacon Kinane. "Section VI - The perpetual virginity os St. Joseph". Saint Joseph: His Life, His Virtues, His Privileges, His Power. Aeterna Press. p. 138. OCLC 972347083.

12. ^ Liddell, Henry G.; Scott, Robert (1889). An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon: The Seventh Edition of Liddell and Scott's Greek-English Lexicon. Clarendon Press. p. 797.

13. ^ Tabor, James (22 March 2013). "What the Bible Says About Death, Afterlife, and the Future". UNCC. Archived from the original on 23 August 2016.

14. ^ Pohle, Joseph (1913). "The Blessed Eucharist as a Sacrament" . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

15. ^ Lange, Johann P. (1865). The Gospel according to Matthew, Volume 1. Charles Scribner Co. p. 499.

16. ^ Van den Biesen, Christian (1913). "Apocalypse" . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

17. ^ Catholic Encyclopedia: Proselyte Archived 10 June 2017 at the Wayback Machine: "The English term 'proselyte' occurs only in the New Testament where it signifies a convert to the Jewish religion (Matthew 23:15; Acts 2:11; 6:5; etc.), though the same Greek word is commonly used in the Septuagint to designate a foreigner living in Palestine. Thus the term seems to have passed from an original local and chiefly political sense, in which it was used as early as 300 BC, to a technical and religious meaning in the Judaism of the New Testament epoch."

18. ^ Fee, Gordon; Stuart, Douglas (2014). How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth: Fourth Edition. Zondervan. ISBN 978-0-310-51783-2. Archived from the original on 26 June 2019.

19. ^ Ehrman, Bart D. (1997). The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings. Oxford University Press. p. 8. ISBN 978-0-19-508481-8. Archived from the original on 16 April 2019. The New Testament contains twenty-seven books, written in Greek, by fifteen or sixteen different authors, who were addressing other Christian individuals or communities between the years 50 and 120 C.E. (see box 1.4). As we will see, it is difficult to know whether any of these books was written by Jesus' own disciples.

20. ^ Amy-Jill Levine in The Historical Jesus in Context edited by Amy-Jill Levine et al. Princeton University Press ISBN 978-0-691-00992-6 p. 4

21. ^ Pratt, J. P. (1991). "Newton's Date for the Crucifixion". Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society. 32: 301-304. Bibcode:1991QJRAS..32..301P. Archived from the original on 16 January 2010.

22. White, L. Michael (2010). Scripting Jesus: The Gospels in Rewrite. HarperOne.

23. ^ Funk, Robert W.; The Jesus Seminar (1998). "Mark". The acts of Jesus: the search for the authentic deeds of Jesus. HarperSanFrancisco. pp. 51-161.

24. ^ Bruner, Frederick Dale (30 April 2004). Matthew a Commentary: The Christbook, Matthew 1-12, Volume 1. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 41. ISBN 978-0-8028-1118-9. Archived from the original on 13 September 2016.

25. ^ Funk, Robert W.; The Jesus Seminar (1998). "Birth & Infancy Stories". The acts of Jesus: the search for the authentic deeds of Jesus. HarperSanFrancisco. pp. 497-526.

26. Jacobs, Joseph; Kohler, Kaufmann; Gottheil, Richard; Krauss, Samuel. "Jesus of Nazareth". Jewish Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 26 February 2016. See Avodah Zarah 17a:1, Sanhedrin 43a:20, Gittin 57a:3-4, and Sotah 47a:6.

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Jesus ( c. - AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many other names and titles, was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the central figure of Christianity, the world's largest religion.