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Jesus (Our Lord)....
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Jesus, or Jesus of Nazareth, also known as Jesus Christ
or Christ Jesus, and Jesus the Nazarene is the central figure of
Christianity. He is also regarded as a major prophet in
Islam and the Bahá'í
Faith, and is widely considered one of the world's most influential figures.
The primary sources about Jesus are the four Gospel accounts, which depict
him as a Jewish preacher and healer — often at odds with Jewish authorities
— who was crucified in Jerusalem when it was under the rule of the
Roman
procurator Pontius Pilate. |
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According to the texts of Christianity,
Jesus was born in
Bethlehem to Mary, a virgin, via the Holy Spirit. Joseph,
Mary's husband,
appears only in stories of Jesus' childhood; this is generally taken to mean
that he was dead by the time of Jesus' ministry. In the gospels, Jesus'
birth is attended by visits from shepherds who were told of the birth by
angels. 'Wise men' from the East were guided by a star to his location some
months later. |
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Brief timeline of Jesus
of important years from empirical sources.
| c. 6 BC/BCE |
Suggested birth (earliest). |
| c. 4 BC/BCE |
Herod's death. |
| c. AD 6/6 CE |
Suggested birth (latest).
Quirinius census. |
| c. 26/27 |
Pilate appointed Judea governor. |
| c. 27 |
Suggested death (earliest). |
| c. 36 |
Suggested death (latest). |
| c. 36/37 |
Pilate removed from office. |
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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 1st century 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. However, Jerome argued
that they were Jesus's cousins, which the Greek word for "brother" used in
the Gospels would allow. This was based on the Roman Catholic and Eastern
Orthodox tradition that Mary remained a perpetual virgin, thus having no
biological children before or after Jesus. Luke's gospel records that
Mary,
was a relative of Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist (Luke 1:36). The
Bible, however, does not exactly reveal how Mary and Elizabeth were related. |
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