Jesus of Nazareth

Jesus of Nazareth (ca. 4 B.C.-A.D. 29), also known as Jesus Christ, was the central personality and founder of the Christian faith.

It is likely that Jesus was born not later than 4 B.C., the year of King Herod's death. Jesus' crucifixion was probably in A.D. 29 or 30. (The term Christ is actually a title, not a proper name; it comes from the Greek Christos, meaning the anointed one; in the Bible it is the Greek equivalent for the Hebrew word Messiah.) Information about Jesus is in some ways scant, in other ways plentiful. Although such ancient historians as Tacitus and Suetonius mention him, as does the Jewish Talmud, the only detailed information comes from the New Testament. There are a few other ancient accounts of Jesus' life, called Apocryphal Gospels because of their poor historical reliability; and in 1946 a Gospel of Thomas, actually a collection of sayings attributed to Jesus, was discovered in Upper Egypt. But none of these sources adds significantly to the New Testament. The letters of Paul are the earliest biblical records that tell about Jesus. But the four Gospels by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, although written later, used sources that in some cases go back very close to the time of Jesus.

Early Years

Jesus first came to general attention at the time of his baptism, just prior to his public ministry. He was known to those around him as a carpenter of Nazareth, a town in Galilee, and as the son of Joseph (John 6:42). Matthew and Luke report that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, a town near Jerusalem, famous in Jewish history as the city of David. They further report that he was miraculously born to the Virgin Mary, although they both curiously trace his Davidic ancestry through Joseph, to whom Mary was betrothed.

Little is known of Jesus' childhood and youth. But about the year A.D. 28 or 29 his life interacted with the career of John the Baptist, a stormy prophet-preacher who emerged from the wilderness and called on the people to repent and be baptized. A controversial character, he was soon jailed and killed by Herod Antipas, the puppet ruler of Galilee under the Roman Empire. Jesus heard John's preaching and joined the crowds for baptism in the Jordan River. Following his baptism Jesus went into the desert for prayer and meditation.

It is clear that Jesus had some consciousness of a divine calling, and in the desert he thought through its meaning. The Gospels report that he was tempted there by Satan as to what kind of leader Jesus would choose to be—a miracle worker, a benefactor who would bring people what they wanted, a king wielding great power. Jesus accepted a harder and less popular mission, that of the herald of the kingdom of God.

Galilean Ministry

Returning from the desert, Jesus began preaching and teaching in Galilee. His initial proclamation was similar to John's: "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel" (Mark 1:15; Revised Standard Version). This message was both frightening and hopeful. It told people not to cling to the past, that God would overthrow old institutions and ways of life for a wonderful new future. This future would be especially welcomed by the poor, the powerless, the peacemakers. It would be threatening to the rich, the powerful, the cruel, and the unjust.

Jesus attracted 12 disciples to follow him. They were mainly fishermen and common workers. Of the 12 it seems that Peter, James, and John were closest to Jesus. Peter's home in Capernaum, a city on the Sea of Galilee, became a headquarters from which Jesus and the disciples moved out into the countryside. Sometimes he talked to large crowds. Then he might withdraw with the 12 to teach only them. Or he might go off by himself for long periods of prayer. On one occasion he sent out the disciples, two by two, to spread the message of God's kingdom.

The Miracles

The records concerning Jesus report many miracles. Through the years there have been great disagreements about these reports. For centuries most people in civilizations influenced by the Bible not only believed literally in the miracles but took them as proofs that Jesus had a supernatural power. Then, in an age of rationalism and skepticism, men often doubted the miracles and denounced the reports as fraudulent.

Today, partly because of psychosomatic medicine and therapy, people are more likely to believe in the possibilities of faith healing. The Bible candidly reports that on some occasions, when people had no faith, Jesus could do no mighty works. People were especially skeptical in his home-town, where they had known him as a boy (Mark 6:1-6). However, usually the Gospels report the healings as signs of the power of God and His coming kingdom.

Teachings of Jesus

Jesus taught people in small groups or large gatherings; his sayings are reported in friendly conversations or in arguments with those who challenged him. At times he made a particularly vivid comment in the midst of a dramatic incident.

The starting point of his message, as already noted, was the announcement of the coming of the kingdom of God. Since this kingdom was neither a geographical area nor a system of government, it might be better to translate the phrase as "God's reign."

The rest of Jesus' teaching followed from this message about the reign of God. At times he taught in stories or parables that described the kingdom or the behavior of people who acknowledged God's reign. Perhaps the most famous of his many parables are those of the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan. At times he pronounced ethical commandments detailing the demands upon men of a loving and righteous God. At times Jesus taught his disciples to pray: the words that he gave them in the Lord's Prayer are often used today.

Jesus' teaching was a subtle teaching, and often it was directed to the needs of a particular person in a specific time and place. Therefore almost any summary can be challenged by statements of Jesus that point in an opposite direction. One way to explore the dynamics of his teachings is to investigate some of its paradoxes. Five are worth mentioning here.

First, Jesus combined an utter trust in God with a brute realism about the world. On the one hand, he told men not to be anxious about life's problems, because God knows their needs and will look out for them. So if men trust God and seek His kingdom, God will look out for the rest of their needs. Yet, on the other hand, Jesus knew well that life can be tough and painful. He asked men to give up families and fortunes, to accept persecution out of faithfulness to him, thus promising them a hard life.

Second, Jesus taught both ethical rigor and forgiveness. He demanded of men more than any other prophet or teacher had asked. He criticized the sentimentalists who call him "Lord, Lord" but do not obey him, and he told men that, if they are to enter God's kingdom, their righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, who made exceedingly conscientious efforts to obey God's laws. He told men not to be angry or contemptuous with others, not to lust after women, and not to seek revenge but to love their enemies. Yet this same Jesus understood human weakness. He was known as a friend of sinners who warned men not to make judgments of others whom they consider sinful. He forgave men their sins and told about a God who seeks to save sinners.

Third, Jesus represented a kind of practicality that offends the overly spiritual-minded; but he also espoused an expectation of a future world (God's reign) that will make the attractions of this world unimportant. As a worldly man, he wanted to relieve hunger and sickness. He wanted no escape from responsibility into worship. He taught that sometimes a man would better leave church and go to undo the wrongs he has done.

But with this attention to the world was coupled the recognition that men are foolish to seek security and happiness in wealth or possessions. They would do better to give away their riches and to accept persecution. Jesus promised—or warned—that God's reign will reverse many of the values of this world.

Fourth, Jesus paradoxically combined love and peace with conflict. His followers called him the Prince of Peace, because he sought to reconcile men to God and each other. He summed up all the commandments in two: love for God and love for men. He refused to retaliate against those who had harmed him but urged his followers to forgive endlessly—not simply seven times but seventy times seven. Yet he was not, as some have called him, "gentle Jesus, meek and mild" he attacked evil fearlessly, even in the highest places.

Fifth, Jesus promised joy, freedom, and exuberant life; yet he expected sacrifice and self-denial. He warned men not to follow him unless they were ready to suffer. But he told people to rejoice in the wonders of God's reign, to celebrate the abundant life that he brings.

Views of His Contemporaries

To some people Jesus was a teacher or rabbi. The healing ministry did not necessarily change that conception of him, because other rabbis were known as healers. But Jesus was a teacher of peculiar power, and he was sometimes thought to be a prophet.

Jesus certainly was a herald of the kingdom of God. But then a question arises: was he simply talking about God and his reign, or did he have some special relationship to that kingdom? Those who heard Jesus were frequently perplexed. In some ways he was a modest, even humble man. Instead of making claims for himself or accepting admiration, he turned people's thoughts from himself to God. But at other times he asked immense loyalty of his disciples. And he astonished people by challenging time-honored authority—even the authority of the Bible—with his new teachings. He was so audacious as to forgive sins, although men said that only God could do that.

There was also the question whether it was possible that Jesus was the Messiah. For generations some of the Jewish people had hoped that God would send a king, an heir of the great King David of past history, who would undo the oppression that the Jews suffered, would reestablish the glorious old kingdom, and would bring justice. Some expected even more—that a divine savior would come and inaugurate a radical transformation of life.

Various reports in the New Testament lead to various possible conclusions. Today some scholars think that Jesus never claimed to be the Messiah. Others feel that he clearly did. But there was one occurrence that is especially interesting. Once, in the neighborhood of Caesarea Philippi, a city north of the Sea of Galilee (Mark 8:27-30), Jesus asked his disciples, "Who do men say that I am?" They gave various answers: John the Baptist, Elijah, or another of the prophets. Then Jesus asked, "But who do you say that I am?" And Peter answered, "You are the Christ [Messiah]." Jesus' answer was curious, for "He charged them to tell no one about him."

Why, if he accepted the designation, did he want it kept a secret? One persuasive answer often given is that Jesus was radically revising the traditional idea of the Messiah. If the people thought he was the promised Messiah, they would demand that he live up to their expectations. He had no intention of becoming a conquering king who would overthrow Rome.

Jesus, who knew the Old Testament well, had read the Messianic prophecies. He had also read the poems of the suffering servant in Second Isaiah, the unknown prophet whose writings are now in Isaiah, chapters 40-55. These tell of a servant of God and man, someone despised and rejected, who would bear the cost of the sins of others and bring healing to them. It may be that Jesus combined in his own mind the roles of the Messiah and the suffering servant. The undeniable fact is that his life and character were of such a sort that they convinced his followers he was the Messiah who, through his suffering love, could bring men a new experience of foregiveness and new possibilities for human and social life.

Passion Week

Soon after Peter's confession Jesus led his disciples to Jerusalem in an atmosphere of gathering crisis. On the day now known as Palm Sunday he entered the city, while his disciples and the crowds hailed him as the Son of David, who came in the name of the Lord. The next day Jesus went to the Temple and drove out the money changers and those who sold pigeons for sacrifices, accusing them of turning "a house of prayer" into a "den of robbers." This act was a direct challenge to the small group of priests who were in charge of the Temple, and they clearly resented it. During the following days he entered into controversies with the priests and authoritative teachers of religion. Their anger led them to plot to get rid of him, but they hesitated to do anything in the daytime, since many people were gathered for the feast of Passover.

On Thursday night Jesus had a meal with his disciples. This meal is now reenacted by Christians in the Lord's Supper, the Mass, or the Holy Communion. After the meal Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane, where he prayed alone. His prayer shows that he expected a conflict, that he still hoped that he might avoid suffering, but that he expected to do God's will. There into the garden one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, led the priests and the temple soldiers, who seized Jesus.

That same night Jesus' captors took him to a trial before the temple court, the Sanhedrin. Several evidences indicate that this was an illegal trial, but the Sanhedrin declared that Jesus was a blasphemer deserving death. Since at that time only the Roman overlords could carry out a death sentence, the priests took Jesus to Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea.

Pilate apparently was reluctant to condemn Jesus, since it was doubtful that Jesus had disobeyed any Roman laws. But as the ruler of a conquered province, Pilate was suspicious of any mass movements that might become rebellions. And he also preferred to keep the religious leaders of the subjugated people as friendly as possible. Jesus, as a radical intruder into the conventional system, and believing that obedience to God sometimes required defiance of human authority, represented a threat to both the Sanhedrin and the Romans. Pilate thus ordered the crucifixion of Jesus. Roman soldiers beat him, put a crown of thorns on his head, and mocked him as a fraudulent king. Then they took him to the hill Golgotha ("the Skull"), or Calvary, and killed him as an insurrectionist. Pilate ordered a sign placed above his head: "King of the Jews." Among the "seven last words," or sayings, from the cross are two quotations from Jewish psalms, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Psalms 22:1) and "Into thy hands I commit my spirit" (Psalms 31:5); and the especially memorable "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34). That same day (now known as Good Friday) Jesus was buried in a cavelike tomb.

The Resurrection

On Sunday morning (now celebrated as Easter), the Gospels report, Jesus rose from the dead and met his disciples. Others immediately rejected the claim of the resurrection, and the controversy has continued through the centuries.

The New Testament states very clearly that the risen Christ did not appear to everybody. "God … made him manifest; not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead" (Acts 10:40-41). Among those who saw Jesus were Cephas (Peter), the 12 disciples, "more than five hundred brethren at one time," James, "all the apostles," and finally Paul. Other records tell of appearances to Mary Magdalene and other women and of a variety of meetings with the disciples both in the Jerusalem area and in Galilee. The four Gospels all say that the tomb of Jesus was empty on Easter morning, but Paul never mentions the empty tomb. None of the records ever tells of an appearance of the risen Christ to anyone who had not been a follower of Jesus or (like Paul) had not been deeply disturbed by him.

The evidence is very clear that the followers of Jesus were absolutely convinced of his resurrection. The experience of the risen Jesus was so overwhelming that it turned their despair into courage. Even though it might have been easier, and certainly would have been safer, to regard Jesus as dead, the disciples spread the conviction that he had risen, and they persisted in telling their story at the cost of persecution and death. Furthermore they were sure that their experiences of Jesus were not private visions; rather, as in the statement quoted above, they "ate and drank with him." The faith in the resurrection (and later the ascension) of Jesus, despite differences in interpretation and detail, is a major reason for the rise and propagation of the Christian faith.

Further Reading

There are thousands of books about Jesus, written for many purposes and from many points of view. Those mentioned here are only a few of the most reputable works using the methods of modern historical scholarship. Although many scholars doubt, on the basis of the sources, that an objective biography of Jesus can be written, several noteworthy attempts should be mentioned. Vincent Taylor, The Life and Ministry of Jesus (1955), is a direct, narrative account. Two longer books that give more space to the analysis of sources are Maurice Goguel, The Life of Jesus, translated by Olive Wyon (1933), and Charles Guignebert, Jesus, translated by S. H. Hooke (1935). A very readable biography by a distinguished American scholar is Edgar J. Goodspeed, A Life of Jesus (1950).

More frequent than biographies among contemporary scholars are efforts to interpret the sources in their meaning for modern man's belief in Jesus. Probably the most notable such Protestant effort is Gunther Bornkamm, Jesus of Nazareth, translated by Irene and Fraser McLuskey with James M. Robinson (1960). A distinguished Roman Catholic work is Yves Congar, Jesus Christ, translated by Luke O'Neill (1966). Joseph Klausner, Jesus of Nazareth: His Life, Times, and Teaching, translated by Herbert Danby (1925), is a scholarly study written by a Jewish historian. Sholem Asch, an American Jew, in The Nazarene, translated by Maurice Samuel (1939), wrote a novel about Jesus that is both imaginative and scholarly.

The most important sources for all these works are the letters of Paul and the Gospels of the New Testament. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are known as Synoptic Gospels because they parallel each other in many respects, although each has its own point of view. The fourth Gospel, John, has a different structure and a more highly articulated theological position. □

Jesus The focus of Christian devotion; born a Palestinian Jew c.4 BCE.

1. The name. A common personal name for Jewish males in the centuries BCE; it is the Latin form of the Greek translation of the Hebrew Joshua or Jehoshua, and means ‘He whose salvation is Yahweh’. Joshua was the name of Moses' successor who commanded the Israelite forces when they occupied Canaan, and it was the name of the author of Ecclus. [= Sir.]. (When Joshua is mentioned in NT at Acts 7: 45 and Heb. 4: 8, the name appears in AV, misleadingly for modern readers, as ‘Jesus’.) Josephus mentions four high priests called Jesus, and one of Paul's fellow workers was called Jesus Justus (Col. 4: 11). Later the name was dropped for Christians out of piety and by Jews out of revulsion, though in modern times ‘Jesus’ has been used at baptisms for children in Spain and the Philippines.

The name Jesus occupies many columns in NT concordances, often with ‘of Nazareth’ added, but ‘Jesus Christ’ appears only twice in the synoptics, though it is common in the epistles, and Paul uses ‘Jesus’ (by itself) only eighteen times.

2. The life of Jesus: the evidence in ancient historians. Outside the NT, there is little recorded about ‘Jesus of Nazareth’: a reference in Josephus' Antiquities (xviii. 63) describes Jesus as a wise man who performed astonishing deeds, and a teacher; Tacitus (c.110 CE) mentions his death, and Pliny (c.110 CE) refers to Christians who worship ‘Christ as a God’; Suetonius (c.120) mentions the expulsion of Jews from Rome in 49 CE when they had rioted about a certain ‘Chrestos’ (probably a mistake for ‘Christos’). There are a few references to Jesus in rabbinic writings but they yield very little historical evidence; they reject his claim to be Son of Man, and there are several references to the crucifixion, and suggestions in connection with miracles and the resurrection that Jesus was a magician. However, the discoveries of the Dead Sea scrolls and the Nag Hammadi codices have made possible a new evaluation of Christian origins and a more reliable assessment of the Jewishness of Jesus and his teaching.

3. The life of Jesus: the NT evidence. It is necessarily from the gospels that evidence for Jesus' life and teaching must be drawn. And because they were written from within the Christian community in response to its own internal needs, they must be examined (as they have been) with all the resources at the command of scholarship, and their claims tested by appropriate criteria of coherence and methodology, as well as in the light of what is known of social, political, and intellectual conditions of the 1st cent. CE.

The study of the historical Jesus has had many repercussions and consequences, even in politics and in international relations. It was held in the gospel of Barnabas (in the 15th cent. CE) that Jesus prophesied the coming of Muhammad and that it was Judas who was crucified—though this work was probably a medieval forgery by a convert to Islam. In modern times Jesus has been portrayed as an economic reformer (an early Marxist), as an anti-Roman Black Messiah, as a Liberator of the poor; and as a pacifist; a Socialist, a Freemason; and the first utilitarian philosopher. It has been alleged that Jesus was not crucified by the Romans but stoned to death by the Jews. In these mutually incompatible assessments of the evidence, the Jesus of history is blurred. Some have said he cannot be recovered at all. But there are grounds for greater confidence.

In this study it has long been recognized that the three synoptic gospels must have pre-eminence for extracting the historical core from the interpretation rather than the gospel of John, which represents theological interpretation, primarily, while preserving the outline of the story. There are other accounts of the lives of teachers in the ancient world which are not unlike the synoptic gospels, but as biographies the gospels omit much that a modern writer would expect to use and to psychologize about. Still, Matt. and Luke record the birth of Jesus and both agree that it was when Herod the Great reigned. Luke also mentions that Caesar Augustus (27 BCE–14 CE) was the ruling Roman emperor, and that a census was held when Quirinius was governor of Syria which necessitated the journey of Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem. These assertions raise difficult historical questions—as also when these two gospels say that Jesus was miraculously conceived ‘by the Holy Spirit’; and also that he was descended from King David: both assertions have been important for NT Christology. As Herod died in 4 BCE, the date of Jesus' birth was in that year or a little before. (The reckoning as the year 1 AD was a 6th-cent. miscalculation.)Jesus' family lived at Nazareth, where Joseph worked as a carpenter. This was a lowly occupation and implies that Jesus would not have had the intellectual education so admired by Ben Sirach (Ecclus.[= Sir.] 38: 24), but he did have a gift for vivid and popular speaking.

Much modern scholarship stresses that Jesus must be understood within contemporary Judaism. As a teacher and healer he was a charismatic itinerant leader or a Galilean holy man. The evidence is against docetism of any kind and clear about Jesus as a human being within the social and religious order of 1st-cent. Palestine.

Jesus' public ministry began when he identified himself with the work of John the Baptist the Baptist. He then called twelve men to be immediate disciples—not because they were men rather than women (he did not distance himself from women (Luke 8: 2–3), unlike the generality of Jewish teachers) but because they were to correspond to the twelve patriarchs who were the ancestors of the twelve tribes of the old Israel and therefore the foundation of a new community, a ‘new Israel’. As an itinerant teacher in a rural context, Jesus is never recorded as having visited the important town of Sepphoris, not far from Nazareth. (His ministry is not forced by the gospels to conform to the later Church experience of urban settings.) Jesus was a charismatic personality whose authority created a strong impression, and bitter opposition, reinforced by his association with outcasts and pariahs (Luke 15: 2). He did not set out to undermine the Law or ridicule the principles of Judaism: on the contrary, there is no record of his repudiating any of the legislation in the Torah which was the framework for civilized life; he spoke in synagogues (Mark 6: 2) and wore ‘fringes’ (Mark 6: 56), the four blue tassels worn by a Jew in accordance with the Law (Num. 15: 38); but he said that the relief of human need or suffering might override the observance of the Sabbath (Mark. 3: 4; Matt. 12: 3–14). The essence of the Law could be briefly summed up (Matt. 22: 37–9) in the duty to love God and our neighbours and the ‘Golden Rule’ to do to others as you would wish others to do to you (Matt. 7; 12). But he demanded more than his contemporaries: not only neighbours but enemies must be loved (Matt. 5: 44); the rich young ruler must sell everything and follow him (Luke 18: 22). It is an ethic in view of the Kingdom. For the message that Jesus proclaimed was that the kingdom of God is coming. Therefore some traditional duties would have to be abandoned (Matt. 8: 21–2). Jesus at no point describes this Kingdom, but it was assumed to refer to the time of deliverance, when the wrongs suffered by the people would be reversed, and a period of justice and peace would be ushered in. The coming of the Kingdom is pictured as in the future—the near future (Mark 1: 15)—and it will be a time of judgement (Matt. 20: 1–16; Luke 12: 16–21; 18: 1–6). Hence the call for repentance, which means not ‘being sorry’ but a change of outlook. Jesus insists also that this coming judgement has already begun (Luke 11: 20): Jesus' own ministry is included within God's plan of salvation. His mission is to show that the eternal Creator and Father is a near and approachable God, and can be known as compassionate and merciful. Those people who acknowledge their need of his grace are welcome into God's covenant. Jesus is God's instrument for bringing the new age in which ritual and ethnic conditions required by Sadducees or Pharisees or Essenes are ignored.

The method of Jesus' teaching included extended parables (there are thirty-nine in the synoptic gospels) and brief proverbial sayings, metaphors and similes, and prophecies. He makes no explicit Messianic claim for himself but his regular use of ‘Son of Man’ is not a denial of such a claim, and unorthodox references to the Temple ensured the hostility of vested interests (Mark 14: 58). The cleansing of the Temple (Mark 11: 15) followed by the withering of the fig tree (symbolizing the nation of Israel) could be interpreted as a Messianic action.

Like many Hellenistic teachers of the period, Jesus is portrayed as a healer and exorcist, but unlike some contemporaries he speaks plainly in his native Aramaic and does not use drugs or charms. The healings are done in a context of prayer (Mark 1: 23) and against an OT background. As an eschatological prophet, Jesus was influenced especially by Isaiah 40–66 (e.g. Luke 4: 18–19). Faith is either presupposed by a healing or it is required, and the onlookers are amazed (Mark 5: 1–20). People who were affected by diseases which rendered them ‘unclean’ were welcomed into fellowship with Jesus: it was part of Jesus' revision of current attitudes.

4. The last week. Not surprisingly, then, Jesus excited opposition from the moment he went public (Mark 2: 6–7) and a final fatal clash became inevitable. At a farewell supper with his disciples, sharing bread and wine, Jesus gave his interpretation of his coming death in terms of a new covenant. Yet he had not journeyed to Jerusalem in order deliberately to die; he went in the hope of giving his contemporaries a last chance for a change of mind and to embrace his way of peace (Luke 19: 42), for the long-promised Reign of God had drawn near. The Temple, the special place where God was present amidst his people, would be destroyed (Mark 13: 1–4) and a new faithful people established by the new covenant (Mark 12: 1–9). So if death was to be the end of his journey, then that death could be the means of salvation, ‘a ransom for many’ (Mark 10: 45). The authorities feared his popularity, disbelieved his eschatological message about the Kingdom, and were terrified by his outrageous disturbance in the Temple when the city was crowded with pilgrims for the Passover (Mark 11: 15). The Jewish leaders, angered too by the challenge of some of his implicit claims, resolved to lay a charge against him of inciting to insurrection, which the prefect could not possibly ignore. Thus the death of Jesus by the Roman method of crucifixion was engineered (29/30 CE) on the basis of the very claim which he himself rejected, of aspiring to be a political ‘king’.

The gospels were not the earliest of the writings of the NT. The epistles of Paul are to be dated ten years at least before the gospel of Mark; and 1 Cor. 15: 3–7 is therefore important testimony to the belief of the first Christians that Jesus was raised from the dead and appeared to many of his followers. Many of the details in the accounts of the resurrection are difficult to reconcile, but what happened at Easter that year created a new faith, a new community, a new future.

Jesus (d. 30 or 33 CE). Jewish religious teacher, and in traditional Christian belief the unique incarnation of God. (For the name ‘Jesus Christ’ see CHRIST.)

Jesus was born before the death of King Herod (4 BCE), of pious parents Joseph and Mary, of Nazareth in Galilee. According to Matthew and Luke, Mary conceived Jesus by the operation of the Holy Spirit while remaining a virgin: see VIRGIN BIRTH. Jesus is once called a ‘carpenter’ (Mark 6. 3, unless the alternative reading referring to his believed father is preferred), but nothing is known of his life (apart from the fact that he had brothers and sisters) until he began to preach publicly. Probably his first work was alongside John the Baptist in the Jordan valley (John 3. 22 ff.), Jesus himself having been baptized by John (Mark 1. 9). The gospels, however, place most of his career in Galilee and N. Palestine generally. Probably this career lasted only two or three years, before he was arrested and executed, having made a deliberate journey to Jerusalem for Passover.

Jesus preached about the kingdom of God, and specifically of its imminent approach. Jesus, however, speaks of it sometimes as future (Matthew 6. 10), sometimes as already present (Matthew 12. 28, Luke 11. 20), and at other times as something which cannot be described except indirectly through parables (Mark 4. 30). Jesus taught and acted (especially in healing) in a way which manifested the ‘power’ (dunamis) and ‘authority’ (exousia), not of himself but of God, whom he characterized as both king and father, addressing him as Abba. This provoked the fundamental question of Mark 6. 2 which is the beginning of Christology.

How Jesus thought of himself in relation to this coming kingdom is uncertain. Clearly he mediated through himself an effect of God which transfigured his own life and transformed the lives of others. From the wellattested fact that Jesus addressed God as Abba (Aramaic, ‘father’), it could be inferred that he was Son of God; but Jesus did not use this expression as an exclusive title for himself. His most significant reference to himself seems to have been as ‘the son of man’.

Jesus selected an intimate band of twelve disciples (Mark 3. 14), but there are many sayings about the challenge of following him (e.g. Mark 8. 34) which seem to be addressed to his adherents generally. It is striking that there is no clear evidence that Jesus formed any kind of institution for his followers.

In his teaching, he often challenged the teaching of others, while remaining within the Jewish religion of the Torah (e.g. in attending synagogue, Matthew 4. 23, 9. 35; Luke 4. 16 ff.; John 6. 59). Often where he appears to criticize the biblical commandments themselves (e.g. Matthew 5. 21–48) his own dictates are more rather than less exacting, or even on a different plane altogether. His summary of Torah (kelal) was in effect a context-independent command (see ETHICS, CHRISTIAN).

The gospels record that Jesus was executed by crucifixion by the Roman authorities in Judaea. Jesus clearly made his way deliberately to Jerusalem (the Gk. uses strong words of necessity concerning his determination to leave the relative security of Galilee and to go to Jerusalem), because it was only in Jerusalem that the issue could be resolved, whether his teaching was ‘from God or men’. It is equally clear that the initial offence of Jesus had to do with his threat to the authority of the Temple in deciding the true interpretation of Torah (the same issue which was raised by Stephen, Acts 7. 11 f.). This (as an offence) goes back to Deuteronomy 17. 8–13, which states that an obstinate teacher (see REBELLIOUS ELDER), who insists on his own opinion against the majority, must be brought before ‘the judge who shall be in those days’ (i.e. the highest authority), and if he rejects the decision on his teaching, he must be executed—because two interpretations of Torah must necessarily destroy Israel. The so-called ‘trial’ of Jesus was initially an investigation to see whether he came into the category of an obstinate teacher who insisted on his own opinion. Whether it was necessary or simply convenient to hand Jesus over to the Romans for the punishment which Deuteronomy requires is uncertain; the charge then would have involved Jesus’ threat to the Roman administration by his threat to the religious establishment which co-operated with the Romans.

There is good reason, therefore, to believe that Jesus anticipated his own death (the necessity of the journey to Jerusalem carries that implication, since Jesus knew that his teaching and actions came, not from himself, but from God, and that they were not subject to human authority). If the connection with Daniel 7 is correct, then he saw his death as the fulfilment of Israel's true destiny; and he saw it also as a lutron (ransom, in terms of a current dispute between Pharisees and Sadducees) for the sins of ‘many’ (Mark 10. 45). Such an interpretation is inherent above all in the eucharistic words at the Last Supper.

Jesus was executed and laid in a tomb on Friday; according to the gospels on Sunday morning his tomb was found to be empty. Beyond this point the three gospels Matthew, Luke, and John offer various and differing accounts of appearances of Jesus to his followers. These appearances are also mentioned by Paul (1 Corinthians 15. 5–8) as among the earliest traditions he knew, and (more than the empty tomb) lie at the basis of the Christian belief that Jesus had risen from the dead (see RESURRECTION OF CHRIST).

In Islam Jesus is generally called Īsā ibn Maryam (Jesus, son of Mary) in the Qurān. He is one of the Prophets, a line which began with Adam and ended with Muḥammad. He is mentioned, together with Zakariyā, John, and Elias, as one of the ‘Righteous’ (6. 85). Like Adam, he was created from dust (3. 59). The Qurān concentrates on the beginning and the end of Īsā's earthly life; his actual teachings are not reported. He is conceived through the power of Allah, the message being conveyed to the virgin Maryam by ‘Our Spirit’ (19. 17–22), later identified with the angel Jibrīl Gabriel (cf. 3. 45–7). He speaks in the cradle, to vindicate his mother's reputation (19. 30).

His miracles are said to include making birds out of clay, healing the sick, blind, and lepers, and raising the dead, (3. 49, 5. 113). The strange story of his making a ‘table prepared’ appear from heaven is thought by some to be an echo of the miracle of the loaves and fishes, or of the Last Supper (5. 115–18; sūra 5 is named ‘the Table’). This is to be a ‘solemn festival and a sign’ (5. 117).

The crucifixion is apparently denied in the Qurān: ‘They killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them’ (4. 157); but the Arabic can be taken to mean that the resurrection contradicted what they thought had happened.

Īsā has several titles: ‘Word’ from Allāh, and a ‘Spirit’ from him, though neither term corresponds to the Christian concept; ‘Servant’, ‘Prophet’, ‘Messiah’, ‘Messenger’, and ‘only a messenger’ (4. 171, 5. 78). He is ‘strengthened by the Spirit of holiness’ (rūḥ al-qudus; 5. 113, 2. 253). His humanity is emphasized, and the Christians are severely rebuked for ascribing divine status to him. The Qurān, however, objects to ideas which are not orthodox Christian teaching. There is within Arabic a distinction between ibn, ‘son’, which can be used metaphorically or to denote a spiritual relationship, and walad, ‘son’ or ‘offspring’, in a more literal sense. It is this latter term which the Qurān employs in the verses just quoted, and the point is appreciated by some Muslim commentators.

Jesus Christ. Jesus of Nazareth is called by His followers ‘Christ’, i.e. (God's) Messiah or anointed one. He was apparently born shortly before the death in 4 BC of Herod the Great and was executed in or around AD 30 after condemnation by Pontius Pilate (on dates, see CHRONOLOGY, BIBLICAL).

The Gospel of St Mark (c.AD 70) reports His Baptism by St John the Baptist, His Temptation in the desert, and a ministry of preaching, teaching, and healing in Galilee and Judaea. The narrative centres on a Transfiguration. Jesus chose twelve disciples (Apostles) and attracted other supporters. The religious leadership was hostile and finally handed Him over to Pilate for trial and crucifixion. He was buried but the tomb was found empty and a ‘young man’ announced that He had been raised. Mark's narrative is generally followed by the Gospels of St Matthew and St Luke, with expansions, including accounts of the Resurrection appearances and (in Luke-Acts) the Ascension. The author of St John's Gospel clearly had access to a different narrative tradition which gave more prominence to Jesus' activity in Judaea. He portrays Jesus as the man from heaven who is barely touched by human weakness or pain, but he is clear that Jesus was a human being, whose mother Mary and brethren were known, and who suffered an ignominious death on a cross outside Jerusalem.

Little is known of Jesus' early life. His ‘presumed father’, St Joseph, does not appear during the ministry and was perhaps dead by then. The birth narratives are partly modelled on Scripture. Matthew's genealogy established the messianic identity of Jesus as son of David and son of God; Luke's prelude roots God's saving intervention on behalf of both Gentiles and Israel in biblical tradition and so reinforces the Church's identity as God's multiracial people. All four Gospels reflect the importance of John the Baptist. The ministries of Jesus and John perhaps overlapped, but there are differences between their message and activity. Both included a note of Divine judgement in their eschatological proclamation, but in His certainty of the nearness of God's rule, Jesus stressed the positive role of what this meant for the poor, hungry, suffering, and the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

The forms of this preaching are more easily analysed than its content. Jesus' remembered words consist largely of parables and aphorisms. Using this-worldly realities, He proclaimed the will of God with prophetic and more than prophetic authority; He spoke and acted with an immediacy grounded in His consciousness of an intimate relationship with God, whom He addressed as Father (Abba). While debates on the interpretation of the Sabbath laws were common, Jesus' extraordinary powers provoked controversy when He healed someone on the Sabbath. His sense of God's will and the intention of the law led Him to criticize the traditions of scribal interpretation and perhaps to sit lightly to the laws on purity. Conversely, His prohibition of divorce was stricter than that in Deuteronomy. The most important symbol by which He expressed His religious meaning was God's rule or kingship, often rendered in English as ‘the Kingdom of God’. It is not, however, clear how He understood the coming of God's rule or what kind of eschatological transformation He envisaged. His deeds and words expressed God's providence, love, judgement, and forgiveness and the symbol of sovereignty is qualified by that of fatherhood in Jesus' speaking of God.

The potentially political implications of the ‘Kingdom of God’ have sometimes been taken to suggest that Jesus was a political national messiah, but it is unlikely that He intended the phrase in an anti-Roman sense. A political motivation for the crucifixion can, however, accommodate the strongly attested claim that the Sadducean high priestly leaders and their associates in Jerusalem (not the Pharisees or the Jewish people in general) were responsible for handing Jesus over to the Roman authorities for trial and execution around the time of the Passover. Jesus attracted crowds, and fears that that enthusiasm might lead to Roman intervention could explain His arrest. The fact that His followers were not arrested with Him suggests that the movement was not perceived as a serious political threat.

How exactly Jesus understood what the evangelists have interpreted in their different ways is uncertain, but He evidently understood Himself to be playing a decisive role in God's saving work and it became clear that this would involve suffering. His execution on a political charge and the inscription over His cross may have helped to crystallize the disciples' growing conviction that He was, or was destined to become, the Christ. But the decisive factor was what they believed had followed His death. They described it as resurrection and understood it to signify His vindication by God. See also CHRISTOLOGY.

Christ The translation Christos is employed in the LXX for the Hebrew Messiah, meaning ‘anointed’; originally it applied to the king, who was anointed, as David by Samuel (1 Sam. 16: 13), and his successors (Ps. 2: 2; Dan. 9: 25), and in the NT to Jesus as the one who fulfilled the OT expectations (Luke 2: 11).

‘Christ’ was so often applied to Jesus, as the Messiah, that it virtually became a surname attached to Jesus (John 1: 17). Those who came to believe that the life, death and resurrection of Christ was their guarantee of salvation were baptized into the Church, whose single reason for existing was its relation to Christ, and which shared his sense of urgency and expectation.

Christ the title, also treated as a name, given to Jesus of Nazareth; the Messiah as prophesied in the Hebrew scriptures. The name is recorded in Old English (in form Crīst), from Latin Christus, from Greek Khristos, noun use of an adjective meaning ‘anointed’, from khriein ‘anoint’, translating Hebrew māšīaḥ ‘Messiah’.
Christ's cross me speed a formula said before repeating the alphabet; the figure of a cross preceded the alphabet in horn-books (See also criss-cross).
Christ's thorn a thorny shrub popularly supposed to have formed Christ's crown of thorns, in particular either of two shrubs related to the buckthorn.

Christ the Lord's Anointed, title of Jesus of Nazareth. OE. (= OS., OHG.) Crīst — L. Chrīstus — Gr. Khrīstós, sb. use of khrīstós anointed, pp. of khrī́ein anoint; tr. Heb. māšī^aḥ MESSIAH.
So christen †make Christian OE.; baptize XII. OE. crīstnian, f. crīsten Christian (see -EN 5), whence Christendom †Christianity OE.; Christians collectively XII; †baptism XIII. OE. crīstendōm. So Christian adj. and sb. XVI. — L. chrīstiānus; superseding †christen, OE. crīsten. Christianity †Christendom; the Christian religion. XIV.

Jesus the central figure of the Christian religion. He conducted a mission of preaching and healing (with reported miracles) in Palestine in about ad 28–30, which is described in the Gospels, as are his arrest, death by crucifixion, and Resurrection from the dead. His followers considered him to be the Christ or Messiah and the Son of God, and belief in his Resurrection became a central tenet of Christianity.

The name comes from Christian Latin Iesus, from Greek Iēsous, from a late Hebrew or Aramaic analogous formation based on Yĕhōšûă῾ ‘Joshua’.

Jesus, Jesu the Founder of Christianity. Not used in OE., in which it was rendered by Hǣlend Saviour; in ME. (XII) not usu. written in full, but almost always in the abbreviated Gr. forms ihu(s), ihs, etc.; repr. ChrL. Iēsūs, obl. cases Iēsū — Gr. Iēsoûs, Iēsoû — late Heb. or Aramaic yēŝūa', for earlier y'hōŝua' Joshua, which is explained as ‘Jah (or Jahveh) is salvation’.

Christ / krīst/ • n. the title, also treated as a name, given to Jesus of Nazareth (see Jesus). • interj. an oath used to express irritation, dismay, or surprise. PHRASES: before Christfull form of BC.DERIVATIVES: Christ·hood / -ˌhoŏd/ n. Christ·like / -ˌlīk/ adj. Christ·ly adj.

Christ (Gk., literally the ‘Anointed One’). The word is a Greek translation of the Hebrew Messiah. Originally a title, it soon came to be used by the followers of the risen Jesus as a proper name for their Lord, so that they themselves came to be known as Christians. See also JESUS CHRIST and CHRISTOLOGY.

Christ (Gk. christos, ‘anointed one’) Epithet for the Messiah in Old Testament prophecies. Later applied to Jesus Christ, in recognition that he was the expected Messiah.

Jesús ♂ (Spanish) Religious name bestowed as a token of Christian faith. Jesus ‘saviour’ is an Aramaic form of the earlier Hebrew name Joshua.

Jesus. The Greek form of the Hebrew Joshua. By Divine command the name was given to the Infant Christ. See also NAME OF JESUS.

jésus French, Swiss; sausage made from pig's liver.

Christ see Jesus .

Christ See JESUS CHRIST.

Jesus •Malthus •acanthus, agapanthus, clianthus, dianthus, helianthus, polyanthus •Hyacinthus • Aegisthus • traverse •canvas, canvass •Selvas • grievous • mischievous •redivivus • fulvous • nervous •Peleus, rebellious •Kansas • Jesus

Christ •Christ, heist, underpriced, unsliced •Zeitgeist • poltergeist • Antichrist