The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page.

This article concerns critical reconstructions of the Historical Jesus. Other related articles present different descriptions and perspectives of Jesus. Image File history File links Nuvola_apps_important. ... Jesus (Greek Ιησούς [Iēsoũs]) (8-2 BC/BCE — 29-36 AD/CE) also known as Jesus of Nazareth or Jesus the Nazarene is the central figure of Christianity, in which context he is known as Jesus Christ, where Christ is a title meaning Anointed One and corresponding to the...

Scholars arguing in favor of the existence of Jesus as a historical figure attempt a reconstruction of his life using the historical method. This is to be distinguished from the Biblical Jesus, which derives from a theological reading of the Gospel texts which historians agree were written several decades after his death. A minority ^[1] of scholars dispute the historicity of Jesus. Jesus (Greek Ιησούς [Iēsoũs]) (8-2 BC/BCE — 29-36 AD/CE) also known as Jesus of Nazareth or Jesus the Nazarene is the central figure of Christianity, in which context he is known as Jesus Christ, where Christ is a title meaning Anointed One and corresponding to the... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Jesus. ... According to the canonical Gospels, Jesus of Nazareth, also called the Christ by Christians, worked many miracles in the course of his ministry. ... The Parables of Jesus are a collection of parables told by Jesus that embody much of his teaching and are recorded in the four Gospels. ... Jesus sayings according to the Christian Bible are different things that Jesus said in the New Testament of the Bible. ... The chronology of Jesus depicts the traditional chronology established for the events of the life of Jesus by the four canonical gospels (which allude to various dates for several events). ... Religious perspectives on Jesus is the specific significance some religions place on Jesus. ... As historian E. P. Sanders has observed, of all the religions that existed within the Roman Empire, only two have widespread followings today: Rabbinic Judaism and Christianity, both of which have their origins in Roman-occupied Palestine, both of which claim to be based on the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament... A large variety of names and titles have been used to describe Jesus, many of which reflect various theological understandings or different beliefs about him. ... There are many relics attributed to Jesus that people believe or believed to be authentic relics of the Gospel accounts. ... This article discusses whether Jesus, the central figure of Christianity, actually existed as a historical figure. ... The race of Jesus has been a subject of debate since at least the 19th century. ... The Passion of the Christs cover, a 2004 movie by Mel Gibson. ... There are no undisputed historical images of Jesus; he sat for no portraits which are preserved and of unquestioned authenticity and undoubted provenance. ... Jesus (Greek Ιησούς [Iēsoũs]) (8-2 BC/BCE — 29-36 AD/CE) also known as Jesus of Nazareth or Jesus the Nazarene is the central figure of Christianity, in which context he is known as Jesus Christ, where Christ is a title meaning Anointed One and corresponding to the... The historical method comprises the techniques and guidelines by which historians use primary sources and other evidence to research and then to write history. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Jesus. ... This article discusses whether Jesus, the central figure of Christianity, actually existed as a historical figure. ...

The Names of Jesus and his Family

Main article: Names and titles of Jesus

A hypothetical reconstruction of someone from the same time and place of Jesus, created by forensic artist Richard Neave.

All sources agree that this man's name was indeed "Jesus", or in Greek, Ιησους. Given that this was an extremely common name in the first century Jewish world, this is quite credible. Josephus alone mentions some twenty or so men called "Jesus" in his writings, four of whom were high priests, and no fewer than ten belonging to the first century. A large variety of names and titles have been used to describe Jesus, many of which reflect various theological understandings or different beliefs about him. ... This is Fair Use image-- See Popular Mechanics link-- cited BBC Sexual Image Library This work is copyrighted. ... This is Fair Use image-- See Popular Mechanics link-- cited BBC Sexual Image Library This work is copyrighted. ... Josephus (c. ...

This name is usually assumed to be derived from the Aramaic Yeshua. This name was a shortened form of Yehoshua, which originally meant "Yahweh helps" or "May Yahweh help." By the time of the first century, many were interpreting this as "Yahweh saves" or "May Yahweh save." This understanding is attested in the work of the philosopher Philo (On the Change of Names 21.121): Jesus means "salvation of the Lord" (Gk. Ιησους δε σοτερια κυριου). This popular etymology is also hinted at in Matthew 1:21. Yeshua (ישוע) is believed by many to be the Hebrew or Aramaic name for Jesus. ... Philo (20 BCE - 40 CE), known also as Philo of Alexandria and as Philo Judeaus, was a Hellenized Jewish philosopher born in Alexandria, Egypt. ... Greek (Greek Ελληνικά, IPA — Hellenic) is an Indo-European language with a documented history of 3,500 years. ...

The name is derived from the three-letter root yod-shin-`ayin which has the meaning of "to save", but the name is not identical to the word "salvation" (y'shu`ah) or to any verb form such as "he will save" (yoshia`). It does not contain part of the name of God YHWH as the name Yehoshua` (Joshua) appears to do, although this name (yod-he-vav-shin-`ayin) could be considered a third person imperfect hiph`il verbal form of the same yod-shin-`ayin root. The Tetragrammaton in Phoenician (1100 BC to 300 CE), Aramaic (10th Century BC to 0) and modern Hebrew scripts. ...

The name Yeshua was pronounced with a tsere, a long e as in "neighbor" (but not diphthongized) not with a schwa (as Y'shua) or segol (Yesh-shua). The final consonant of the name was the voiced pharyngeal fricative consonant `ayin, sometimes transcribed by "`" (Yeshua`) The "a" represents the patach genuvah ("furtive" patach) indicating the diphthongization of the "u" vowel due to the effect of the final `ayin - in simple terms the "a" is not an additional syllable but indicates a modification of the "u" vowel which due to the `ayin was pronounced somewhat like the oo of English moor as opposed to that of food. Vowels Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ...

Both infancy narratives, in Matthew and in Luke, agree that his putative father was "Joseph" and his mother was "Mary," which is also attested by a few scattered references elsewhere in the Gospel tradition. For Joseph, see Luke 3:23, 4:22; John 1:45, 6:42; for Mary, see Mark 6:3, Acts 1:14, and a letter of Ignatius. The Gospel of Matthew (literally: according to Matthew, Greek: Κατα Μαθθαιον ) is one of the four Gospel accounts of the New Testament. ... The Gospel of Luke is the third of the four canonical Gospels of the New Testament, which tell the story of Jesus life, death, and resurrection. ... Joseph of Nazareth, also called Joseph the Betrothed and Saint Joseph, was the legal father of Jesus of Nazareth (Matthew 1:16; Luke 3:23) and the husband of Mary. ... Saint Mary and Saint Mary the Virgin both redirect here. ... The Gospel according to John is the fourth gospel document in the sequence of the canon of the New Testament, and scholars agree it was the fourth to be written down. ... The Gospel of Mark is traditionally the second of the New Testament Gospels. ... The Acts of the Apostles (Greek Praxeis Apostolon) is a book of the Bible, which now stands fifth in the New Testament. ... Icon of Ignatius being eaten by lions St. ...

Although we refer to Jesus' best-known brother in English as "James" out of tradition, in ancient Greek documents this brother of Jesus is always identified as Ιακοβος, or Jacob (Antiquities 20.9.1, Galatians 1:19), which was also a fairly common name, after the Hebrew patriarch. According to Mark 6:3, the other brothers of Jesus are named Joses (=Joseph), Judas (=Judah), and Simon (=Simeon); these are three of the twelve tribes or sons of Israel. A scholar can only guess that Mary and Joseph shared a common sentiment of their day: May God deliver us from our oppressors and restore Israel. (In Hebrew, the names of the brothers are Yaakob, Yosef, Yehudah, and Shimeon.) For people and places called Saint James, see the disambiguation page. ...

When was Jesus born?

Gerd Theissen and Annette Merz write, "There is no certain indication of the precise year of his birth. Certainly Matthew and Luke agree in attesting that Jesus was born in the lifetime of Herod the Great (Matt. 2.1ff.; Luke 1.5), i.e. according to Josephus (Antt. 17, 167, 213; BJ 2, 10) before the spring of 4 BC. This is certainly probable, but there is some dispute over it, as doubts about the reliability of the chronological information in both the Matthean and Lukan infancy narratives is justified" (The Historical Jesus: A Comprehensive Guide, Fortress Press: Minneapolis, 1998: page 153). Gerd Theissen (1943- ) is a German Protestant theologian and New Testament scholar. ... Anno Domini (Year of the Lord), abbreviated as AD or A.D. defines an epoch based on the traditionally-reckoned year of the birth (or actually Incarnation) of Jesus of Nazareth. ...

Luke 2:1 connects the birth of Jesus to the census of Quirinius, which took place in AD 6 according to Josephus (Wars of the Jews 2.117f., 7.253; Antiquities 17.355, 18.1ff.). Emil Schürer regards this as a chronological error in Luke. Publius Sulpicius Quirinius (rendered in Greek Κυρήνιος Kyrenios, c. ... Anno Domini (Year of the Lord), abbreviated as AD or A.D. defines an epoch based on the traditionally-reckoned year of the birth (or actually Incarnation) of Jesus of Nazareth. ... Emil Schürer (May 2, 1844 - April 30, 1910), German Protestant theologian, was born at Augsburg. ...

Some have attempted to make a more precise determination of Jesus' birthdate by correlating the magi's star (Matthew 2:2) with astronomical phenomena; however, Matthew 2 describes a miraculous travelling star, which does not fit into known astronomical categories, and such theories have commanded no wide assent.

Where was Jesus Born?

The Mandylion of Edessa from the private chapel of the pope in the Vatican. Considered to be the earliest painting of Jesus.

In John 7:41-42, the Jews make the following objection to considering Jesus of Nazareth to be the Messiah: Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1316x2060, 2267 KB)The Mandylion of Edessa from the private chapel of the pope in the Vatican. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1316x2060, 2267 KB)The Mandylion of Edessa from the private chapel of the pope in the Vatican. ... According to the legend, King Abgarus received the Image of Edessa from the apostle Thaddeus. ...

"The Messiah isn't going to come from Galilee, is he? Doesn't the Scripture say that the Messiah will be descended from David and will come from Bethlehem, the town David came from?"

Some would say that this is "Johannine irony," and that the author and his audience knew that Jesus really came from Bethlehem. However, the evangelist also mentions Jesus' home town as Nazareth (1:45), to which Nathaneal replied: "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" This tradition also shows up later (18:5-7), and the evangelist never clues in his reader on the "true" hometown of Jesus. The irony in John's story is probably not that Jesus actually came from Bethlehem, but rather that his birthplace according to the flesh is not important because Jesus is the pre-existent Logos that comes from above (8:23). Galilee (Arabic al-jaleel الجليل, Hebrew hagalil הגליל), meaning circuit, is a large area overlapping with much of the North District of Israel. ... This page is about the Biblical king David. ... The Church of the Nativity, a Bethlehem Landmark Bethlehem (Arabic بيت لحم (help· info) house of meat; Standard Hebrew בית לחם house of bread, Bet léḥem / Bet láḥem; Tiberian Hebrew Bêṯ léḥem / Bêṯ lāḥem) (Greek: Βηθλεέμ) is a city in the West Bank under Palestinian Authority considered a central hub of... The factual accuracy of this article needs to be verified. ... The Greek word λόγος or logos is a word with various meanings. ...

Matthew 2 and Luke 2 are the only two chapters of the NT that clearly make the claim that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Elsewhere, in Matthew and Luke as well the rest of the NT, Jesus is simply Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus the Nazarene, or Jesus the Nazorean. Even in these infancy narratives, the writers employ elaborate techniques to clarify that Jesus was born in Bethlehem instead of Nazareth: Luke says that Caesar Augustus ordered a census of the entire Empire, which required Joseph to register in his ancestral town. Matthew says that Herod ordered the massacre of innocent children, so that they fled to Egypt and later returned to Nazareth. This massacre is not mentioned by Josephus. The story of Jesus coming out of Egypt does fit Matthew's presentation of him as the New Moses. Matthew 2 is the second verse of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. ... We dont have an article called Luke 2 Start this article Search for Luke 2 in. ... See New Covenant for the concept translated as New Testament in the KJV. The New Testament, sometimes called the Greek Testament or Greek Scriptures, and, in recent times, also New Covenant, is the name given to the part of the Christian Bible that was written after the birth of Jesus. ... The famous statue of Octavian at the Prima Porta Caesar Augustus (Latin:IMP·CAESAR·DIVI·F·AVGVSTVS) ¹ (23 September 63 BC–19 August AD 14), known to modern historians as Octavian for the period of his life prior to 27 BC, is considered the first and one of the most... For other uses, see Roman Empire (disambiguation). ... Herod I, also known as Herod the Great, was a Roman client-king of Judaea (c. ... The Massacre of the Innocents is the name given to infanticide in Bethlehem mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew, but not mentioned in the other gospels nor in the early apocrypha. ... Josephus (c. ... Moses or Móshe (מֹשֶׁה, Standard Hebrew Móše, Tiberian Hebrew Mōšeh, Arabic موسى Musa, Ethiopic ሙሴ Musse), son of Amram and his wife, Jochebed, a Levite. ...

The setting of Luke's census is doubtful as well: During Herod's life time, Judaea was not under direct Roman rule and hence not subject to a Roman census. Also, the practice of enrolling in one's ancestral home is unknown from Roman practices.

The universal census Luke refers to did take place under Quirinius, when he became legate of Syria c. 6 AD. Judaea had come under direct Roman rule in that year and the census, angering many Jewish people, features prominently in Josephus' works. This date cannot be reconciled with the Matthean date. In light of such considerations, Michael Grant concludes (Jesus: A Historian's Review of the Gospels, p. 9): "the familiar story that Jesus was born at Bethlehem—which was in Judaea and not in Galilee—is very doubtful. More probably his birthplace was Nazareth in Galilee, or possibly some other small town in the same region." However, it has also been argued that a different reading Luke's text actually indicates an earlier census during Herod's lifetime. Publius Sulpicius Quirinius (rendered in Greek Κυρήνιος Kyrenios, c. ...   This article is about the year 6. ... There are several people with the name Michael Grant: Michael Grant - the historian who wrote about the Roman empire. ...

The fact that Jesus came from Galilee is the object of some embarrassment, as the quotes from John above show. And this is not just because the Messiah was supposed to come from Bethlehem. In John 7:52, a group of Pharisees object that no prophet can come from Galilee. As also reflected in the Talmud, the higher classes in Jerusalem and elsewhere looked upon those from the rural backwater of Galilee as uneducated, uncouth, and even barbaric. Among other things, this was reflected in their speech, which was considered to be slurred in a distinctive dialect (Matthew 26:73; in the Talmud, cf. b. Ber. 32a, b. Erub. 53a, b. Meg. 24b). The Pharisees (from the Hebrew perushim, from parash, meaning to separate) were, depending on the time, a political party, a social movement, and a school of thought among Jews that flourished during the Second Temple Era (536 BCE–70 CE). ... The Talmud (תלמוד) is a record of rabbinic discussions on Jewish law, Jewish ethics, customs, legends and stories, which Jewish tradition considers authoritative. ...

Because the town is not mentioned by Josephus or other early non-Christian writers, some believe that Nazareth did not exist at the time of Jesus, instead interpreting the Greek to refer to Jesus as being a Nazarite (a particular type of ascetic), which however is contradicted by Jesus' consumption of wine. A Nazarite or Nazirite, Nazir in Hebrew, was a Jew who took an ascetic vow described in the Book of Numbers at 6:1-21. ... The word ascetic derives from the ancient Greek term askesis (practice, training or exercise). ...

Also, it is also possible that Nazareth was just a small village; archaeological findings suggest that it was occupied since the 7th c. BC and may have had a "refounding" in the 2d c. BC (Meier, A Marginal Jew, Vol. I, page 300). If Jesus was not actually born in Nazareth, he may have been associated with the town by the Hebrew word netzer, a shoot or branch, a term related to the Davidic house in a passage of Isaiah regarded as prophetic of the Messiah to come (Is 11:1, cf. Jer 23:5). It has also been proposed that 'Nazareth' was used as a synechdoche for all Galilee, which is why Jesus was also known often as 'the Galilean'. However, both of these suggestions would be a little strange unless Nazareth actually existed; moreover, as the City of David, Bethlehem would be a much more likely choice for the supposed hometown of Jesus based on OT prophecies of the Messiah. Hence, we may continue to speak about "Jesus of Nazareth." Isaiah the Prophet in Hebrew Scriptures was depicted on the Sistine Chapel ceiling by Michelangelo. ...

The Synagogue of Nazareth

The Gospel of Luke records Jesus "as was his custom," entering the synagogue of Nazareth. In this event Jesus "...stood up to read." Some argue that archaeological excavations have found no public buildings and therefore there could not have been a synagogue. However these arguments are inconclusive in that only a very small portion of the ancient Nazareth has ever been excavated. Modern Nazareth sits on the ancient site. While conventional thinking in archaeological circles suggests that Nazareth was a small community in the time of Jesus, there is no conclusive evidence one way or the other.

In Jewish tradition, scriptures are precious and handled with extreme care. The statement that Jesus is handed the scroll of Isaiah suggests Nazarenes had at least that scroll, and likely others, and that they had a place to store and care for the scrolls. The synagogue would have been the likely place for this.

Archaeologists have found synagogues from the time of Jesus at Gamala, Jerusalem, the Herodium, and Masada. The New Testament mentions synagogues at Capernaum and Nazareth, but archaeologists have not been able to confirm this. Neither have they been able to find remains of the synagogues mentioned by Josephus as existing in Tiberias, Dora, or the wealthy city of Caesarea Maritima. The last one is particularly puzzling. Unlike Nazareth, Caesarea is uninhabited today, so archaeologists have been able to excavate more extensively and intensively. The question is far more complex than appears prima facie. It is a major challenge to investigators. (See the Macmillan Bible Atlas, ISBN 0025006053) Catholic church built over the house of Saint Peter Capernaum (Kfar Nahum) was a settlement on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. ... The factual accuracy of this article needs to be verified. ... Josephus (c. ... Tiberias in 1862, the ruins reminiscent of its ancient heritage. ... Dora can refer to: A female name Asteroid 668 Dora, namesake of the Dora family of asteroids. ... Caesarea Palaestina, also called Caesarea Maritima, a town built by Herod the Great about 25 - 13 BC, lies on the sea-coast of Israel about halfway between Tel Aviv and Haifa, on the site of a place previously called Pyrgos Stratonos (Strato or Stratons Tower, in Latin Turris Stratonis). ... Prima facie (PRY-muh-FAY-shee; -shuh) is a Latin expression meaning at first sight, used in common law jurisdictions to denote evidence that is sufficient, if not rebutted, to prove a particular proposition of fact. ...

What language did Jesus speak?

Since Jesus became an itinerant preacher throughout his home area and surroundings, a relevant question here is: What was the language spoken by ordinary Jews during their daily lives in first century Judea? Jesus must have been fluent in this language, and possibly in others as well.

From the writings and inscriptions of the time, there are four languages attested: Latin, Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic. We may quickly eliminate the first from consideration. Latin was used almost exclusively by Roman officials, who had only recently introduced the tongue. The Romans would have written inscriptions on public buildings without regard for the ability of most Jews to read them. Notably, almost all of the known Latin inscriptions were situated in and around Caesarea Maritima and Jerusalem—the seats of imperial power, not Galilean villages. Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... Hebrew (עִבְרִית ‘Ivrit) is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family spoken by more than 7 million people, mainly in Israel, the West Bank, the United States and by Jewish communities around the world. ... Aramaic is a Semitic language with a four-thousand year history. ...

Whether Jesus knew any Hebrew would hinge on whether he was literate. Hebrew suffered a great decline in popular use after the Babylonian exile and the return of Jews to Judah. Increasingly Aramaic, the lingua franca of the ancient Near East from the neo-Assyrian and Persian periods onward, made inroads among ordinary Jews resettled in Israel. Although the Dead Sea Scrolls found at Qumran have many Hebrew writings, these works are theological and literary compositions of an esoteric group. The rise of the Aramaic targums (translations of Hebrew Scriptures), witnessed already in a Qumran community that was devoted to compositions in Hebrew, is a strong objection to seeing Hebrew as the language of the common people. It would seem that Hebrew was only preserved in first century Judea among those Jews dedicated to the study of the Scriptures, much as Latin was mainly for the clergy in the Middle Ages. The Babylonian captivity, or Babylonian exile, is the name generally given to the deportation and exile of the Jews of the ancient Kingdom of Judah to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. ... Lingua franca, literally Frankish language in Italian, was originally a mixed language consisting largely of Italian plus a vocabulary drawn from Turkish, Persian, French, Greek and Arabic and used for communication throughout the Middle East. ... The term Persian Empire refers to a series of historical empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau. ... Fragments of the scrolls on display at the Archeological Museum, Amman The Dead Sea Scrolls comprise roughly 600 documents, including texts from the Hebrew Bible, discovered between 1947 and 1956 in eleven caves in and around the Wadi Qumran (near the ruins of the ancient settlement of Khirbet Qumran, on... Qumran (Khirbet Qumran) is located on a dry plateau on the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea in Israel. ... A targum (plural: targumim) is an Aramaic translation of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) written or compiled in the Land of Israel or in Babylonia from the Second Temple period until the early Middle Ages (late first millennium). ...

Concerning Greek, we must note the testimony of Josephus (Antiquities 20.21.2): "I have also taken a great deal of pains to obtain the learning of the Greeks, and understand the Greek language, although I have so long accustomed myself to speak our own tongue [Aramaic], that I cannot pronounce Greek with sufficient exactness; for our nation does not encourage those that learn the languages of many nations..." Antiquities of the Jews was a work published by the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus in the year A.D. 93. ...

As J.P. Meier observes (A Marginal Jew, Vol. I, page 261): "Admittedly, all this sheds at most a very indirect light on our main question, the language that Jesus knew and used best. But if even the gifted Jerusalemite intellectual Josephus was not totally at home in Greek after years of writing in it while living in Rome, and if in AD 70 he had found it necessary or at least advisable to address his fellow Jews in Jerusalem in Aramaic rather than Greek, the chances of a Galilean peasant knowing enough Greek to become a successful teacher and preacher who regularly delivered his discourses in Greek seem slim."

Inscriptions of the time evince that the commonly spoken Aramaic was mostly free of Greek influence on its vocabulary, unlike in later centuries (Meier, page 265). Although they are all written in Greek, the only foreign words that the Gospels put on the lips of Jesus are in Aramaic, such as in Mark 5:41, 7:34, and 15:34. The Greek Gospel of John says that Jesus named Simon as Kephas (Jn 1:42), and Paul used the Aramaic address to God, abba, even when writing to Greek-speaking Gentiles in Gal 4:6 and Rom 8:16.

Meier concludes his discussion with these words: "Jesus regularly and perhaps exclusively taught in Aramaic, his Greek being of a practical, business type, and perhaps rudimentary to boot." (page 268)

Was Jesus Literate?

To refute the idea that Jesus was illiterate, Ben Witherington simply says that, "the only concrete evidence we have suggests the contrary (cf. Lk 4 to Lk 24)" (The Jesus Quest, p. 88). Luke 4 tells of Jesus reading from a scroll in a Nazareth synagogue. However, Meier notes the following (A Marginal Jew, Vol. I, page 270): "However, the sources and historicity of the narrative in this pericope are disputed. Some exegetes consider Luke's scene a tradition from his special 'L' source and hence an independent verification of what the other Gospel traditions tell us about Jesus' return to and preaching in Nazareth. However, it is also possible that Luke 4:16-30 simply represents Luke's imaginative and colorful reworking of Jesus' preaching and rejection at Nazareth as recounted in Mark 6:1-6a. A middle ground is also possible: the pericope shows Luke's acquaintance with Mark, but some important elements come from Luke's special source. Certainly the Lucan pericope is loaded with Lucan motifs; the highly symbolic scene functions as a programmatic preview of the course of Jesus' ministry, death, and resurrection, resulting in the proclamation of the good news to the Gentiles. The clear presence of Luke's redactional hand makes one wary." Luke 4 is the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. ... The Two-Source Hypothesis is the most commonly accepted solution to the synoptic problem among biblical scholars, which posits that there are two sources to Gospel of Matthew and Gospel of Luke: the Gospel of Mark and a lost, hypothetical sayings collection called Q. The Two-Source Hypothesis was first...

Other scholars, such as Safrai, have argued that the majority of Jewish children in first century Judea received education at schools, a program instituted by Simeon ben Shetah (c. 103-76 BC) and later Joshua ben Gamala (c. 63-65 AD). However, our accounts of this in the Talmud were written down about 200 years after Jesus' boyhood. The references from Philo and Josephus probably only refer to the public reading of the Torah in the synagogue. Any school system would have to be reinstituted after disruption during the two Jewish revolutions around 70 and 130. Many scholars consider the educational program of Simeon to be a later legend: "What elementary education did exist was carried out within the family, and most often it simply involved instruction in a given craft by the father." (page 273) Meier writes: "Hence, despite inflated claims from some modern authors, we are not to imagine that every Jewish male in Palestine learned to read - and women were rarely given the opportunity. Literacy, while greatly desirable, was not an absolute necessity for the ordinary life of the ordinary Jew. Indeed, the very existence of Aramaic targums (translations) of the Hebrew Scriptures argues that a good number of ordinary Jews present in the synagogue could not understand Hebrew even when it was spoken, to say nothing of an ability to read or write it. Jewish peasants who never learned to read or write could still assimilate and practice their religion through family traditions in the home, the reading of the Scriptures in the synagogue (with accompanying Aramaic translations), and the homily that preceded or followed the reading. These living traditions of the community would have been the matrix of Jesus' religious life and thought, as they were for most Palestinian Jews at the time. Taken by themselves, therefore, such influences as reverence for the Torah and respect for literacy do not prove that Jesus was counted among those Jews who could read and study the Scriptures; they simply show what might have been." (page 275-276) Centuries: 3rd century BC - 2nd century BC - 1st century BC Decades: 150s BC 140s BC 130s BC 120s BC 110s BC - 100s BC - 90s BC 80s BC 70s BC 60s BC 50s BC Years: 108 BC 107 BC 106 BC 105 BC 104 BC - 103 BC - 102 BC 101 BC... Centuries: 2nd century BC - 1st century BC - 1st century Decades: 120s BC 110s BC 100s BC 90s BC 80s BC - 70s BC - 60s BC 50s BC 40s BC 30s BC 20s BC Years: 81 BC 80 BC 79 BC 78 BC 77 BC - 76 BC - 75 BC 74 BC 73... For other uses, see number 63. ... For other uses, see number 65. ... The Talmud (תלמוד) is a record of rabbinic discussions on Jewish law, Jewish ethics, customs, legends and stories, which Jewish tradition considers authoritative. ... Philo (20 BCE - 40 CE), known also as Philo of Alexandria and as Philo Judeaus, was a Hellenized Jewish philosopher born in Alexandria, Egypt. ... Torah (תורה) is a Hebrew word meaning teaching, instruction, or law. ... Lesko synagogue, Poland A synagogue (Hebrew: בית כנסת ; beit knesset, house of assembly; Yiddish: שול, shul) is a Jewish place of religious worship. ... The first Jewish-Roman War (66–73 CE), sometimes called the Great Jewish Revolt, was the first of three major rebellions by the Jews of Iudaea Province against the Roman Empire (the second was the Kitos War in 115-117, the third was Bar Kokhbas revolt in 132-135). ... Centuries: 1st century BC - 1st century - 2nd century Decades: 20s 30s 40s 50s 60s - 70s - 80s 90s 100s 110s 120s Years: 65 66 67 68 69 - 70 - 71 72 73 74 75 Events The building of the Colosseum starts (approximate date). ... For other uses, see number 130. ...

So far, the results have been unpromising, as neither the most relevant biblical citation nor common Jewish practices do much support the idea that Jesus was literate. But Meier argues that the debates of Jesus over the Scripture in the synagogues and other details suggest that Jesus had the ability to read the sacred Hebrew texts. However, this "indirect argument" can be doubted, not least because the scriptural background "could have been conveyed by word-of-mouth catechesis and memorization."

W. V. Harris in Ancient Literacy estimates less than 10% of the Roman Empire under the principate to be literate, with that number falling as low as 3% in Roman Judaea (see also M. Bar-Ilan, 'Illiteracy in the Land of Israel in the First Centuries CE', in S. Fishbane and S. Schoenfeld, Essays in the Sociel Scientific Study of Judaism and Jewish Society, pages 46-61). Since we do not have any clear reliable tradition in the Gospels, a positive judgment cannot be made here, especially in light of the fact that illiteracy was widespread in the ancient world. For other uses, see Roman Empire (disambiguation). ... The Principate is, according to its etymological derivation from the Latin word princeps, meaning chief or first, the political regime dominated by such a head of state and government. ... Desert hills in southern Judea, looking east from the town of Arad Judea or Judaea (יהודה Praise, Standard Hebrew Yəhuda, Tiberian Hebrew Yəhûḏāh) is a term used for the mountainous southern part of historic Palestine, an area now divided between Israel, Jordan and the West Bank. ...

What was Jesus' Socioeconomic Status?

Although Jesus is traditionally identified as a carpenter, this rests on a single phrase in Mark 6:3, "Is this fellow not the carpenter [τεκτον]?" Nowhere else in the entire NT is the occupation of Jesus specified. Perhaps out of reverence for Jesus, the author of Matthew changes the question to (Matthew 13:55), "Is this fellow not the son of the carpenter?" Luke, apparently also finding the jibe offensive, changes it to (Luke 4:22), "Is this fellow the son of Joseph?" One might apply the criterion of embarrassment here, because the evangelists drop the reference to Jesus as a woodworker, as well as the fact that the trade was not very prominent and has no theological significance. Despite the lack of multiple attestation, we may acknowledge this universally known "fact" that Jesus was a woodworker, without any countertradition to challenge it. A carpenter is a skilled craftsman who performs carpentry -- a wide range of woodworking that includes constructing buildings, furniture, and other objects out of wood. ... For the 1944 movie, see Lifeboat (movie). ... Matthew 23 is the fifteenth chapter in the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament section of the Christian Bible. ... Luke 4 is the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. ... The Criterion of Embarrassment is a tool used by New Testament scholars to determine whether certain actions or sayings by Jesus in the New Testament are historically authentic or not. ...

J.D. Crossan writes (Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, pp. 24-26): John Dominic Crossan (born Nenagh, Co. ...

Ramsay MacMullen has noted that one's social pedigree would easily be known in the Greco-Roman world and that a description such as "carpenter" indicated lower-class status. At the back of his book he gives a "Lexicon of Snobbery" filled with terms used by literate and therefore upper-class Greco-Roman authors to indicate their prejudice against illiterate and therefore lower-class individuals. Among those terms is tekton, or "carpenter," the same term used for Jesus in Mark 6:3 and for Joseph in Matthew 13:55. One should not, of course, presume that upper-class sneers dictated how the lower classes actually felt about themselves. But, in general, the great divide in the Greco-Roman world was between those who had to work with their hands and those who did not.

We may balance this picture with a quote from J.P. Meier (A Marginal Jew, Vol. I, pp. 281-282):

Many people fell into a vague middle group (*not* our American "middle class"), including business people and craftsmen in cities, towns, and villages, as well as freehold farmers with fair-sized plots of land. In speaking of this middle group, we must not be deluded into thinking that belonging to this group meant economic security known to middle-class Americans today. Small farmers in particular led a precarious existence, sometimes at subsistence level, subject as they were to the vagaries of weather, market prices, inflation, grasping rulers, wars, and heavy taxes (both civil and religious). Further down the ladder were day laborers, hired servants, traveling craftsmen, and dispossessed farmers forced into banditry - what Sean Freyne, former Chair of Theology at Trinity College Dublin, calls the "rural proletariat." At the bottom of the ladder stood the slaves, the worst lot falling to slaves engaged in agricultural labor on large estates - although this was not the most common pattern for Galilean agriculture.

On this rough scale, Jesus the woodworker in Nazareth would have ranked somewhere at the lower end of the vague middle, perhaps equivalent - if we may use a hazy analogy - to a blue-collar worker in lower-middle-class America. He was indeed in one sense poor, and a comfortable, middle-class urban American would find living conditions in ancient Nazareth apalling. But Jesus was probably no poorer or less respectable than almost anyone else in Nazareth, or for that matter in most of Galilee. His was not the grinding, degrading poverty of the day laborer or the rural slave.

In any case, we must acknowledge that the historical Jesus who grew up in a small Galilean village did not become very wealthy or influential through his meager trade there.

Family background and childhood

Joseph (Yosef) — his father?

The main Christian sources about Joseph come from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Joseph was betrothed to Mary at the time that she conceived Jesus; and therefore they were already legally husband and wife then, although they were not yet permitted to live together. The Gospel of Matthew (literally: according to Matthew, Greek: Κατα Μαθθαιον ) is one of the four Gospel accounts of the New Testament. ... The Gospel of Luke is the third of the four canonical Gospels of the New Testament, which tell the story of Jesus life, death, and resurrection. ... Gabriel delivering the Annunciation to Mary. ...

In the Christian Gospels of Matthew and Luke, Joseph is referred to as Jesus' foster father. Joseph does not feature in any of the four canonical gospels, except in these childhood narratives; moreover, he does not feature in the Book of Acts, unlike Jesus' other relatives; these facts are generally taken to mean that he was dead by the time of his ministry. Since the focus of each of the Christian Gospel accounts is primarily found in "Jesus's" later life with special emphasis on the three year period of ministry prior to the Crucifixion, it is considered likely that the childhood narratives are non-historical. The Acts of the Apostles (Greek Praxeis Apostolon) is a book of the Bible, which now stands fifth in the New Testament. ...

Matthew's gospel tries to convince the Jews that Jesus was indeed the royal son of David. Seven times in the Matthew's Gospel we see where the statement "son of David" is used (1:1, 9:27, 12:23, 15:22, 20:30, 21:9, 22:42). Only in Matthew does Jesus speak of "The throne of his glory" (19:28, 25:31). And only in Matthew is Jerusalem referred to as "the holy city" (4:5). Therefore, Matthew spends a great deal of time trying to convince the Jewish people that Jesus was indeed the "King of the Jews" (27:29, 27:37). It is therefore important to note that Jesus is treated within biblical genealogies as the descendant of King David, and this could only occur if Joseph was his actual father. Joseph is shown to be related to David through the line of Nathan.

Mary (Miryam) - his mother?

The majority of information on Jesus' mother Mary comes from her mention in three of the four canonical Gospels, and the Book of Acts; the Gospel of John does not mention her by name. For the novel by Wilton Barnhardt, see Gospel: a novel, for the manga, see One-Pound Gospel. ... The Acts of the Apostles (Greek Praxeis Apostolon) is a book of the Bible, which now stands fifth in the New Testament. ... The Gospel according to John is the fourth gospel document in the sequence of the canon of the New Testament, and scholars agree it was the fourth to be written down. ...

Beyond the accounts given in the Gospels and a few other early Christian sources, there is no independent or verifiable information about any aspect of Mary's life. An account of the childhood of Mary is given in the mid-second century non-canonical Gospel of James. The Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions built around the figure of Mary, and the centuries of Marian cult derived from the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christian churches, are based on faith, and their traditions and interpretations of the Scriptures and especially on the writings of the Church Fathers The Gospel of James also sometimes known as the Infancy Gospel of James or the Protevangelium of James probably written about AD 150. ... The Roman Catholic Church (commonly known as the Catholic Church) is the Christian Church which is led by the Pope, the Bishop of Rome, currently Pope Benedict XVI. The Roman Catholic Church teaches that it is the one holy catholic and apostolic Church founded by Jesus Christ. ... Eastern Orthodoxy (also called Greek Orthodoxy and Russian Orthodoxy) is a Christian tradition which represents the majority of Eastern Christianity. ... The word faith has various uses; its central meaning is similar to belief, trust or confidence, but unlike these terms, faith tends to imply a transpersonal rather than interpersonal relationship – with God or a higher power. ...

Mark 6:3 (and analogous passages in Matthew and Luke) reports that Jesus was "Mary's son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon," and also states that Jesus had sisters. The Jewish historian Josephus and the Christian historian Eusebius (who wrote in the 4th century but quoted much earlier sources now unavailable to us) refer to James the Just as Jesus' brother (See Desposyni). Saint Mary and Saint Mary the Virgin both redirect here. ... Josephus (c. ... Eusebius of Caesarea (~275 – May 30, 339) (often called Eusebius Pamphili, Eusebius [the friend] of Pamphilus) was a bishop of Caesarea in Palestine and is often referred to as the father of church history because of his work in recording the history of the early Christian church. ... As a means of recording the passage of time, the 4th century was that century which lasted from 301 to 400. ... For people and places called Saint James, see the disambiguation page. ... The Desposyni (from Greek, belonging to the Master) was a sacred name reserved only for Jesus blood relatives. ...

Mary is also directly named in the Qur'an, although this was written some six hundred years later. The Quran (Arabic , literally the recitation; also called or The Noble Quran; also transliterated Quran, Koran, and less commonly Alcoran) is the holy book of Islam. ...

James (Yacov) - his brother?

Jesus is also described in the Gospel of Mark as having brothers: (Yacov) James, Joses, (Judas) Jude, and Simon, and several sisters (Mark 6:3; Matthew 13:55). The Christian tradition at least as early as the second century, still adopted by Eastern Orthodoxy, explains that these "brothers and sisters" were from Joseph's marriage to an unnamed woman, before Joseph married Mary and so making them step-brothers and step-sisters. This version of events is related in the apocryphal History of Joseph the Carpenter. In contradistinction to the eastern opinion the Roman Catholic Church has largely held that these brothers were in fact cousins or other relatives. The term brother was in fact used periodically to speak of more distant relations. For people and places called Saint James, see the disambiguation page. ... Joses, in Hebrew, means He that forgives. Joses is one of the brothers of Jesus mentioned in the Gospel of Mark 6:3 and its parallel passage in Matthew 13:54 - 57. ... This entry discusses problems of the identity of Jude Thomas Didymus. ... The Gospel of Mark is traditionally the second of the New Testament Gospels. ... ... The History of Joseph the Carpenter is one of the texts within the New Testament apocrypha concerned with period of Jesus life before he was 12. ...

Thus Early Christian debate on the topic of "Jesus'" brothers can be divided into three points of view, each named for the respective theologian who put forth the idea.

• The Helvidius view, which accepts that Jesus did have brothers
• The Epiphanius view, accepted in Eastern Orthodoxy, which suggests that Jesus' brothers were in fact Joseph's from another marriage
• The Jerome view, accepted in Roman Catholicism, that the term that meant "brother" could also mean "cousin"

Helvidius Priscus, Stoic philosopher and statesman, lived during the reigns of Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitellius and Vespasian. ... Epiphanius (ca 310–20 – 403) was a Church Father, a heresiologist who was a strong defender of orthodoxy, known for tracking down deviant teachings (heresies) wherever they could be traced, during the troubled era in the Christian Church following the Council of Nicaea. ... , by Albrecht Dürer Saint Jerome (ca. ...

Works and miracles

According to the Gospels, Jesus began his public ministry of preaching, teaching, and healing soon after he was baptized by John the Baptist. Luke's gospel records that Jesus' mother, Mary, was the cousin of John's mother, Elizabeth, making the two men cousins. Though Matthew portrays John humbly attempting to decline baptizing Jesus, the earlier gospel of Mark and the later gospel of Luke do not mention this reluctance; this would tend to indicate a difference in the writers' theological and historical perspectives. Disciples of John are contrasted with the followers of Jesus, even as late as the Book of Acts. The Mandaeans look to John as their founder to this day. Baptism is a water purification ritual practiced in certain religions such as Christianity, Mandaeanism, Sikhism, and some historic sects of Judaism. ... The Baptism of Christ, by Piero della Francesca, 1449 John the Baptist (also called John the Baptizer or Yahya the Baptizer) is regarded as a prophet by at least three religions: Christianity, Islam, and Mandaeanism. ... The Acts of the Apostles (Greek Praxeis Apostolon) is a book of the Bible, which now stands fifth in the New Testament. ... Mandaeanism is a pre-Christian religion which has been classified by scholars as Gnostic. ...

The Gospel of John mentions three separate Passovers during Jesus' ministry, so most scholars have traditionally concluded that it spanned a period of approximately three years. However, the other Gospels only mention one Passover, and a few scholars suggest that a ministry of more than three years is possible. The factual accuracy of this article needs to be verified. ...

Jesus used a variety of methods in his teaching. He made extensive use of illustrations in his teaching. (For example, consider Matthew 13:34, 35.) The detailed nature of Jesus' spiritual teaching cannot be fully agreed upon because the Gospel accounts are fragmentary, and their objectivity is suspect. Furthermore, he made extensive use of paradox, metaphor and parable, leaving it unclear how literally he wished to be taken and precisely what he meant. Robert Boyles self-flowing flask fills itself in this diagram, but perpetual motion machines cannot exist. ... In language, a metaphor (from the Greek: metapherin) is a rhetorical trope defined as a direct comparison between two seemingly unrelated subjects. ... An ill digested lesson The Governess. ...

Jesus, like most holy men throughout history, is said to have performed various miracles in the course of his ministry. These mostly consist of cures and exorcisms; but some of the alleged miracles show a dominion over nature. Scholars in both Christian and secular traditions debate whether these miracles should be construed as claims of supernatural power (which would be rejected by naturalistic historians, while possibly accepted by others), or explained without recourse to supernatural occurrences. Naturalistic historians generally choose either to see the texts as allegory or to attribute the healings and exorcisms to the placebo effect. According to the canonical Gospels, Jesus of Nazareth, also called the Christ by Christians, worked many miracles in the course of his ministry. ... Exorcism is the practice of evicting demons or other evil spiritual entities which are supposed to have possessed (taken control of) a person or object. ... An allegory (from Greek αλλος, allos, other, and αγορευειν, agoreuein, to speak in public) is a figurative mode of representation conveying a meaning other than and in addition to the literal. ... The placebo effect (Latin placebo, I shall please), also known as non-specific effects and the subject-expectancy effect, is the phenomenon that a patients symptoms can be alleviated by an otherwise ineffective treatment, since the individual expects or believes that it will work. ...

Jesus also seems to have preached the imminent end of the current era of history; in this sense he was an apocalyptic preacher. For other uses, see Apocalypse (disambiguation). ...

The Gospels present Jesus as engaging in frequent question and answer debates with other religious figures; these debates were common between religious teachers of the period. For example, the gospels report that Jesus made use of a quote from the Law of Moses to answer a question posed by the Sadducees regarding the resurrection of the dead, in which they did not believe. The Gospels agree that Jesus generally opposed stringent interpretations of Jewish law, and preached a more flexible understanding of the law. They present an inclination to following a teleological approach, in which the spirit of the law is more important than the letter, and record him as having many disagreements with the Pharisees and Sadducees. But in some places, Jesus suggests that the Pharisees were not strict enough in their observance of the law. It should be noted that the Evangelists would presumably favor accounts of Jesus which would tend to support their own theology and interpretations of the law. Torah (תורה) is a Hebrew word meaning teaching, instruction, or law. ... Halakha (Hebrew: הלכה; also transliterated as Halakhah, Halacha, Halachah) is the collective corpus of Jewish rabbinic law, custom and tradition. ... Teleology (telos: end, purpose) is the supposition that there is design, purpose, directive principle, or finality in the works and processes of nature, and the philosophical study of that purpose. ...

A few modern scholars believe that Jesus may have been a liberal Pharisee, or an Essene (a sect with whom he shared many views). In this view Jesus was later cast as an enemy of the Pharisees because by the time Christians transcribed the Gospels, the Pharisees had become the dominant sect of Judaism, and hence the most responsible for preventing conversions of Jews. This view receives some support in the Acts of the Apostles, where the apostles were generally attacked by Sadducees but sometimes protected by Pharisees with more liberal interpretations of Jewish law (for example, see Acts 23:6-9). Evidence against this view is found in the understanding that some of the gospel materials were compiled before the destruction of the temple in 70. It was around this time in which the Pharisees came to power. The Essenes (es-eenz) were followers of a religious way of living in Judaism that flourished from the 2nd century BC to the 1st century AD. Many scholars today argue that there were a number of separate but related groups that had in common mystic, eschatological, messianic, and ascetic beliefs... The Acts of the Apostles (Greek Praxeis Apostolon) is a book of the Bible, which now stands fifth in the New Testament. ... The Twelve Apostles (in Koine Greek απόστολος apostolos [1], someone sent forth/sent out, an emissary) were probably Galilean Jewish men (10 names are Aramaic, 4 names are Greek) chosen from among the disciples, who were sent forth by Jesus of Nazareth to preach the Gospel to both Jews and Gentiles... Centuries: 1st century BC - 1st century - 2nd century Decades: 20s 30s 40s 50s 60s - 70s - 80s 90s 100s 110s 120s Years: 65 66 67 68 69 - 70 - 71 72 73 74 75 Events The building of the Colosseum starts (approximate date). ...

According to the Bible, the theme of Jesus' preaching (and also that of John the Baptist) was: "Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near." (e.g. Matthew 4:17) Jesus trained his disciples to do the same work: "As you go, preach, saying, 'The kingdom of the heavens has drawn near.'" (Matthew 10:7) These disciples were not just to preach in public places but were also to contact people at their homes. Jesus instructed them: "Wherever you enter into a house say first, 'May this house have peace.'" (Luke 10:1-7) After Jesus' demise, these apostles preached his teachings and performed healing to both Jews and Gentiles. The Gospels disagree about whether Jesus had intended for them to preach to the Gentiles; Matthew contains the most notable arguments for the negative position. The Bible (Hebrew תנ״ך tanakh, Greek η Βίβλος [hē biblos] ) (sometimes The Holy Bible, The Book, Good Book, Word of God, The Word Scripture), from Greek (τα) βίβλια, (ta) biblia, (the) books, is the classical name for the Hebrew Bible of Judaism or the combination of the Old Testament and New Testament of Christianity (The... A Gentile refers to a non-Israelite; the word is derived from the Latin term gens (meaning clan or a group of families) and is often employed in the plural. ...

Jesus is reported to have praised the value of celibacy, saying that some have made themselves "eunuchs" for the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 19:12). This was not uncommon at the time; although most Jews married (including those who were Pharisees), others, like the Essenes, promoted celibacy. However, he is also presented as having spoken out against divorce, which would imply at least a tacit approval of marriage. Celibacy may refer either to being unmarried or to sexual abstinence. ... The Pharisees (from the Hebrew perushim, from parash, meaning to separate) were, depending on the time, a political party, a social movement, and a school of thought among Jews that flourished during the Second Temple Era (536 BCE–70 CE). ... The Essenes (es-eenz) were followers of a religious way of living in Judaism that flourished from the 2nd century BC to the 1st century AD. Many scholars today argue that there were a number of separate but related groups that had in common mystic, eschatological, messianic, and ascetic beliefs...

In his role as a social reformer Jesus would have threatened the status quo. He was unpopular with many Jewish religious authorities, although the book of Acts and some of the Epistles say that numerous members of the priests and the Pharisees became followers of his teachings. According to the Gospels, his unpopularity among the leadership of the area was because he criticised it, and, moreover, because Jesus' followers held the controversial and inflammatory view that he was not only the Messiah but God Himself. Even the former claim would disturb the local leaders, who feared that a claimed Messiah would incite a revolt against Roman rule. (This view is also presented in the Gospels.)

Was the Entrance to Jerusalem during Passover or Tabernacles?

The Entrance to Jerusalem is traditionally associated with Passover, but the waving of palm fronds and the Hosanna shout are not part of Passover. Rather, they are part of Sukkoth or Tabernacles. It is very probable that either an accidental error happened, or a deliberate change was made due to doctrinal constraints. The factual accuracy of this article needs to be verified. ... Hosanna, (Ωσαννα) is the cry of praise or adoration shouted in recognition of the Messiahship of Jesus on his entry into Jerusalem (Matt. ... Sukkot (סוכות or סֻכּוֹת sukkōt, booths) or Succoth is an 8-day Biblical pilgrimage festival, also known as the Feast of Booths, the Feast of Tabernacles, or Tabernacles. ... For the Feast of Tabernacles, see Sukkot. ...

Was Jesus the same as Barabbas?

According to the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus sometimes prayed to God as ABBA, father. For this reason, some scholars have argued that he was identical with Barabbas, or, in some manuscripts, Jesus Barabbas, who the Gospels report was a criminal released by Pontius Pilate instead of Jesus. This view is not, however, commonly accepted. ABBA (1972–1983) were a Swedish pop music group. ... Give us Barabbas!, from The Bible and its Story Taught by One Thousand Picture Lessons, 1910 In the Christian story of the Passion of Jesus, Barabbas, actually Jesus bar-Abbas, (Aramaic Bar-abbâ, son of the father), was the insurrectionary whom Pontius Pilate freed at the Passover feast in Jerusalem. ... Ecce Homo (Behold the Man!), Antonio Ciseris depiction of Pontius Pilate presenting a scourged Jesus of Nazareth to the people of Jerusalem Pontius Pilate (Classical Latin Pontivs Pilatvs; Ecclesiastical Latin Pontius Pilatus) was the governor of the Roman province of Judea from AD 26 until around AD 36. ...

Final days

Michelangelo's Pietà shows Mary holding the dead body of Jesus.

According to the Bible, Jesus came with his followers to Jerusalem to fulfill his Messianic mission. He was involved in a public disturbance at the Temple in Jerusalem when he overturned the tables of the moneychangers there. At some later point, he was betrayed to the Jewish religious authorities of the city — either the full council (Sanhedrin) or perhaps just the High Priest — by one of his apostles, Judas Iscariot. The High Priest of the city was appointed by the government in Rome and the current holder of the post was Joseph Caiphas. The Romans ruled the city through the High Priest and Sanhedrin, so often the Jewish authorities of the city had to arrest people in order to obey Roman orders to maintain the peace. Jesus' disciples went into hiding after he was arrested. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (800x766, 141 KB) Pietà by Michelangelo, St. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (800x766, 141 KB) Pietà by Michelangelo, St. ... This article is about the most famous Pietà Florentine Pietà (or Deposition), the Rondanini Pietà and the Palestrina Pietà The Pietà (1498–99) by Michelangelo is a marble sculpture in St. ... The Temple in Jerusalem or the Holy Temple (Hebrew: בית המקדש, transliterated Bet HaMikdash) was built in ancient Jerusalem in c. ... For the tractate in the Mishnah, see Sanhedrin (tractate). ... Judas Iscariot (died April AD 29–33, Hebrew יהודה איש־קריות ) was, according to the New Testament, one of the twelve original apostles of Jesus, and the one who ultimately betrayed him. ... City motto: Senatus Populusque Romanus – SPQR (The Senate and the People of Rome) Founded 21 April 753 BC mythical, 1st millennium BC Region Latium Mayor Walter Veltroni (Left-Wing Democrats) Area  - City Proper  1285 km² Population  - City (2004)  - Metropolitan  - Density (city proper) 2,553,873 almost 4,300,000 1. ... In the New Testament, Caiaphas was the Jewish high priest to whom Jesus was taken to after his arrest in the garden of Gethsemane, and who played a part in Jesus crucifixion. ...

Jesus was crucified by the Romans on the orders of Pontius Pilate, the Roman Prefect of Judea in Jerusalem. The Gospels state that he did this at the behest of the Jewish religious leaders, but it may have been simply that Pilate considered Jesus' ability to incite public disturbance as a potential Messiah to be a threat to Roman order. Pilate was known as a harsh ruler who ordered many executions for lesser reasons during his reign; he had also been in trouble twice with his Roman superiors for being too harsh in his rule. Furthermore, the plaque placed on Jesus' cross to detail his crime is quoted as IESVS NAZARENVS REX IVDAEORVM (INRI) — meaning either "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews" or "Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews", indicating that Jesus was crucified for the crime of rebelling against the authority of Rome by being declared the "King of the Jews". (In the Aramaic it would have been Yeshua HaNotsri Malka diYehudin - in Hebrew, Yeshua HaNazarei v Melech HaYehudim: Jesus the Nazarei, King of the Jews.) Ecce Homo (Behold the Man!), Antonio Ciseris depiction of Pontius Pilate presenting a scourged Jesus of Nazareth to the people of Jerusalem Pontius Pilate (Classical Latin Pontivs Pilatvs; Ecclesiastical Latin Pontius Pilatus) was the governor of the Roman province of Judea from AD 26 until around AD 36. ... A Crucifix with the stylized INRI plaque attached. ... For the Danish youth organization, see Rebel (Denmark) A rebellion is, in the most general sense, a refusal to accept authority. ...

All the Gospel accounts agree that Joseph of Arimathea, variously a secret disciple or sympathiser to Jesus, and possible member of the Sanhedrin, arranged with Pilate for the body to be taken down and entombed. Joseph of Arimathea, according to the Gospels, was the man who donated his own prepared tomb for the burial of Jesus after his crucifixion. ...

The Resurrection

Main article: Resurrection of Jesus

According to the Christian Gospels and the book of Acts, Jesus' disciples encountered him again on the third day after his death, raised to life. No one was a witness of the actual resurrection event, though all four Gospels report that women who went to anoint the body found the tomb empty. After the resurrection, the Gospels give various accounts of Jesus meeting various people in various places over a period of forty days before "ascending into heaven". Some notable historians have affirmed the resurrection of Jesus such as A. N. Sherwin-White, Thomas Arnold, and Michael Grant. Conservative Bible scholars who affirm and defend the resurrection of Jesus include: Dr. Gary Habermas, F.F. Bruce, John Warwick Montgomery, Norman Geisler and N. T. Wright. According to the New Testament, Jesus was both human and God, so he had the power to lay his life down and to take it up again; thus after Jesus died, he came back to life. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Thomas Arnold (June 13, 1795 – June 12, 1842) was a famous schoolmaster and historian, head of Rugby School from 1828 to 1841. ... Michael Grant (21 November 1914 – 9 August 2004) was a trained classicist who was one of the few classical historians to win respect from academics and a lay readership. ... Gary Habermas is an American Christian apologist, theologian, and philosopher of religion. ... Frederick Fyvie Bruce (1910-1990) was a Bible scholar, and one of the founders of the modern evangelical understanding of the Bible. ... John Warwick Montgomery was born October 18, 1931 in Warsaw, New York. ... Dr. Norman L. Geisler is a scholar, contributor to the field of Christian apologetics, and the author or coauthor of some sixty books defending the Christian faith. ... Tom (N.T.) Wright is the Bishop of Durham of the Anglican Church and a leading British New Testament scholar. ...

The belief in the Resurrection is the basis of Christianity, and so has been frequently challenged. The varying accounts of the Gospel writers have led some critics to consider that the resurrection event itself was a later insertion into the story. For example, the resurrection narrative in Mark (thought to be the oldest Gospel - see Markan priority) is taken by some to be a late addition (see Mark 16). Also, various details in the resurrection narratives are difficult, though not impossible, to reconcile from Gospel to Gospel. On the other hand, Bible commentators John Wenham, Dr. Gleason Archer and others have offered exegesis of the Biblical text in respect to the gospels arguing among other things that omissions are not contradictions and that alleged contradictions are often due to poor Bible exegesis/cultural differences. [2][3][4] Finally, the Gospels indicate that the disciples were unable to recognize Jesus at first after the resurrection. Some Christians consider this a validation of authenticity because they say a manufactured report would have the disciples recognise him immediately. In addition, Christians say that Christ may have supernaturally hid himself much like he did when the angry crowd wanted to throw him off a cliff (Luke 4: 20-30). There have been a number of theories disputing the historicity of the resurrection as well as affirming it, which are discussed in the article Resurrection of Jesus. The Gospel of Mark is traditionally the second of the New Testament Gospels. ... Markan priority is the hypothesis that the Gospel of Mark was the first written of the three Synoptic Gospels, and that the two other synoptic evangelists, Matthew and Luke, used Marks Gospel as one of their sources. ... Mark 16 is the final chapter of the Gospel of Mark. ... John W. Wenham was a Anglican Bible scholar. ... Gleason Leonard Archer (May 22, 1916 – April 27, 2004) was a Biblical scholar, theologian, educator, and author. ... This article discusses textual hermeneutics. ... According to the New Testament, Jesus was both human and God, so he had the power to lay his life down and to take it up again; thus after Jesus died, he came back to life. ...

See also