Name

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

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

Jesus Christ

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

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

Life and teachings in the New Testament

Canonical gospels

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

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

Authorship, date, and reliability

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

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

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

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

Comparative structure and content

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

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

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

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

Genealogy and nativity

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

Both Matthew and Luke describe Jesus's birth, especially that Jesus was born to a virgin named Mary in Bethlehem in fulfilment of prophecy. Luke's account emphasizes events before the birth of Jesus and centers on Mary, while Matthew's mostly covers those after the birth and centers on Joseph. Both accounts state that Mary was engaged to a man named Joseph, who was descended from King David and was not his biological father, and both support the doctrine of the virgin birth of Jesus, according to which Jesus was miraculously conceived by the Holy Spirit in Mary's womb when she was still a virgin. At the same time, there is evidence, at least in the Lukan Acts of the Apostles, that Jesus was thought to have had, like many figures in antiquity, a dual paternity, since there it is stated he descended from the seed or loins of David. By taking him as his own, Joseph will give him the necessary Davidic descent. Some scholars suggest that Jesus had Levite heritage from Mary, based on her blood relationship with Elizabeth.

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

In Luke 1:31–38, Mary learns from the angel Gabriel that she will conceive and bear a child called Jesus through the action of the Holy Spirit. When Mary is due to give birth, she and Joseph travel from Nazareth to Joseph's ancestral home in Bethlehem to register in the census ordered by Caesar Augustus. While there Mary gives birth to Jesus, and as they have found no room in the inn, she places the newborn in a manger. An angel announces the birth to a group of shepherds, who go to Bethlehem to see Jesus, and subsequently spread the news abroad. Luke 2:21 tells how Joseph and Mary have their baby circumcised on the eighth day after birth, and name him Jesus, as Gabriel had commanded Mary. After the presentation of Jesus at the Temple, Joseph, Mary and Jesus return to Nazareth.

Early life, family, and profession

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

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

Jesus is called a in Mark 6:3, a term traditionally understood as carpenter but could also refer to makers of objects in various materials, including builders. Given the term's broad semantic range and "the socio-historical reality of a common Nazarene τέκτων", Matthew K. Robinson, minister and academic, prefers to translate τέκτων as 'builder-craftsman'. The Gospels indicate that Jesus could read, paraphrase, and debate scripture, but this does not necessarily mean that he received formal scribal training.

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

Baptism and temptation

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

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

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

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

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

=== Public ministry ===

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

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

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

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

Disciples and followers

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

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

==== Teachings and miracles ====

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

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

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

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

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

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

Proclamation as Christ and Transfiguration

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

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

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

Passion Week

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

Activities in Jerusalem

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

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

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

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

Last Supper

The Last Supper is the final meal that Jesus shared with his twelve apostles in Jerusalem before his crucifixion. The Last Supper is mentioned in all four canonical gospels; Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians also refers to it. During the meal, Jesus predicts that one of his apostles will betray him. Despite each Apostle's assertion that he would not betray him, Jesus reiterates that the betrayer would be one of those present. Matthew 26:23–25 and John 13:26–27 specifically identify Judas as the traitor.

In the Synoptics, Jesus takes bread, breaks it, and gives it to the disciples, saying, "This is my body, which is given for you." He then has them all drink from a cup, saying, "This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood." The Christian sacrament or ordinance of the Eucharist is based on these events. Although the Gospel of John does not include a description of the bread-and-wine ritual during the Last Supper, most scholars agree that John 6:22–59 (the Bread of Life Discourse) has a eucharistic character and resonates with the institution narratives in the Synoptic Gospels and in the Pauline writings on the Last Supper.

In all four gospels, Jesus predicts that Peter will deny knowledge of him three times before the rooster crows the next morning. In Luke and John, the prediction is made during the Supper. In Matthew and Mark, the prediction is made after the Supper; Jesus also predicts that all his disciples will desert him. The Gospel of John provides the only account of Jesus washing his disciples' feet after the meal. John also includes a long sermon by Jesus, preparing his disciples (now without Judas) for his departure. Chapters 14–17 of the Gospel of John are known as the Farewell Discourse and are a significant source of Christological content.

Agony in the Garden, betrayal, and arrest

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

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

Trials by the Sanhedrin, Herod, and Pilate

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

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

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

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

Crucifixion and entombment

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

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

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

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

Resurrection and ascension

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

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

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

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

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

Early Christianity

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

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

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

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

Historical views

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

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

Judea and Galilee in the 1st century

In AD 6, Judea, Idumea, and Samaria were transformed from a Herodian client state of the Roman Empire into an imperial province, also called Judea. A Roman prefect, rather than a client ruler, governed the land. The prefect governed from Caesarea Maritima, leaving Jerusalem to be run by the High Priest of Israel. As an exception, the prefect came to Jerusalem during religious festivals, when religious and patriotic enthusiasm sometimes inspired unrest or uprisings. Galilee with Perea was a Herodian client state under the rule of Herod Antipas since 4 BC. Galilee was evidently prosperous, and poverty was limited enough that it did not threaten the social order.

Philip (d. 34 AD), half-brother of Herod Antipas, ruled as Tetrarch yet another Herodian client state to the north and east of the sea of Galilee that included Gaulanitis, Batanea, and Iturea though this was mostly non-Jewish. South of this on the east bank of the Jordan was the Decapolis; a collection of Hellenistic city-states that were at this time clients of the Roman empire. North of Galilee were the cities of Tyre and Sidon which were in the Roman province of Syria. Though non-Jewish lands surrounded the mostly Jewish territories of Judea and Galilee, Roman law and practice allowed Jews to remain separate legally and culturally.

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

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

Sources

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chronology

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

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

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

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

Historicity of events

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

Family

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

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

Géza Vermes says that the doctrine of the virgin birth of Jesus arose from theological development rather than from historical events.

Despite the widely held view that the authors of the Synoptic Gospels drew upon each other (the so-called synoptic problem), other scholars take it as significant that the virgin birth is attested by two separate gospels, Matthew and Luke.

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

Conservative scholars argue that despite the uncertainty of the details, the gospel birth narratives trace back to historical, or at least much earlier pre-gospel traditions. For instance, according to Ben Witherington:

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

Baptism

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

Ministry in Galilee

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

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

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

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

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

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

Role

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

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

Passover and crucifixion in Jerusalem

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

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

After crucifixion

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

Portraits of Jesus

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

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

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

Language, ethnicity, and appearance

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

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

The New Testament gives no description of the physical appearance of Jesus before his death—it is generally indifferent to racial appearances and does not refer to the features of the people it mentions. Jesus probably looked like a typical Jewish man of his time and place; standing around tall with a thin but fit build, olive-brown skin, brown eyes and short, dark hair. He also probably had a beard that was not particularly long or heavy.

Christ myth theory

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

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

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

Religious perspectives

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

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

Christianity

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

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

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

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

Judaisms view

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

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

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

Manichaeism

Manichaeism, an ancient religious movement, became one of the earliest organized religions outside of Christianity to honor Jesus as a significant figure. Within the Manichaean belief system, Jesus is revered alongside other prominent prophets such as Zoroaster, Gautama Buddha, and Mani himself.

=== Islam ===

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

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

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

According to the Quran, the coming of Muhammad (also called "Ahmad") was predicted by Jesus:

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

Ahmadiyya

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

Druze

In the Druze faith, Jesus is considered and revered as one of the seven spokesmen or prophets, defined as messengers or intermediaries between God and mankind, along with figures including Moses, Muhammad and Muhammad ibn Isma'il, each of them sent at a different period of history to preach the message of God. In Druze tradition, Jesus is known under three titles: the True Messiah, the Messiah of all Nations, and the Messiah of Sinners. This is due, respectively, to the belief that Jesus delivered the true Gospel message, the belief that he was the Saviour of all nations, and the belief that he offers forgiveness.

Baháʼí Faith

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

Other

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

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

Artistic depictions

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

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

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

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

Associated relics

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

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

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

名號釋義

「耶穌」一詞音譯自希臘語，在《新約聖經》中的希臘語原文是，這來自于希伯來名字「約書亞」（ישוע）。當時希臘文是羅馬帝國的通行語言，最初的《新約聖經》就是用希臘文寫成，這是當時猶太人中一個常見的名字。根據《馬太福音》記載，這個名字是天使啟示下來的，天使向馬利亞宣告她要懷孕生子的時候，對她說：你要給他起名叫以馬內利，因他要將自己的百姓從罪惡裡救出來。（馬太福音1:21）耶穌說：「我奉差遣，不過是到以色列家迷失的羊那裡去。」（馬太福音15:24）。耶穌以道成肉身的形式來到世人中間，帶來得救的救恩與自由之福音。在他釘十字架，復活升天後再來之前，神恩膏耶穌這名成為大有能力的名，凡信他的人必歸入耶穌這名，成為神的兒女。

耶穌被羅馬帝國猶太行省的總督本丟·彼拉多釘上十字架時，釘板上寫著「猶太人的王拿撒勒人耶穌」，神預備耶穌為百姓的罪、世人的罪，這名成了猶太百姓與世人的中保（幫助者，辯護者）。當耶穌再來時，不再道成肉身，不為罪，只為拯救，不再以羔羊的身份而是以君王的身份。如經上所記：「像這樣，基督既然一次被獻，擔當了多人的罪，將來要向那等候祂的人第二次顯現，並與罪無關，乃是為拯救他們」。

基督

「基督」的原文是Χριστός（轉寫為Christos），是希伯來文稱號「彌賽亞」（מָשִׁיחַ，轉寫為māšîaḥ）的希臘文翻譯，是「受膏者」的意思。《舊約》中多處提到君王、祭司在冊立的時候要用油膏抹，稱為「受膏者」（），舊約聖經意譯為「受膏者」。在舊約《以賽亞書》和《但以理書》等多部先知書中，「彌賽亞」是先知所預言的解救萬民的救主。《約翰福音》這麼記載：

耶穌基督有許多別的頭銜和稱呼：麥基洗德、受膏者、以馬內利、神的兒子、人子、道、中保、大祭司、君王、萬王之王、萬主之主、羔羊、明亮的晨星（曉明）、大衛的兒子（大衛的子孫）、大衛的根、拉比或拉波尼（老師的意思）、拿撒勒人耶穌⋯⋯等等。

耶穌有好幾次說到「我是」：我是生命的糧，我是世上的光，我是好牧人，我是羊的門，我是道路、真理、生命，我是生命，我就是復活，我是葡萄樹。此處的「我是」與「耶和華」這個名字有密切的關係，基督教認為這是暗喻，表明耶穌就是耶和華，就是神。也與神性本就在每人心中的思想光譜接近。

聖經中的耶穌

耶穌生平主要記載在《新約聖經》的四福音書，在羅馬帝國時代的官方歷史文獻上則只有零星的側面記載。下面是聖經中記載的和基督教傳統上所信的耶穌的生平。

早年

在公元元年左右的羅馬帝國猶太希律王國，由服從羅馬皇帝奧古斯都的猶地亞王大希律王統治的自治王國，在加利利地區的拿撒勒城，有一位童貞女馬利亞已經許配了一個木匠約瑟，還沒有迎娶同房，天使加百列向她顯現，宣告她將要由聖靈感孕，給他起名叫耶穌，因為他要將自己的百姓從罪惡裡拯救出來。約瑟是大衛王的後代，是一個義人，因為馬利亞的身孕，想把她暗暗地休了，經過天使向他說明而回心轉意。

根據《路加福音》記載，因為當時的人口普查，所有的居民都須各歸故鄉，約瑟帶著懷孕的馬利亞前往大衛的城伯利恆，客店裡沒有地方住，瑪利亞在馬廄產下耶穌，然後放在馬槽里。那天晚上，天使向野地裡的牧羊人顯現，宣告主基督的降生，他們便來拜訪耶穌，把天使論這孩子的話傳開了。東方的博士看見了他的星，帶著禮物也來拜訪。約瑟和馬利亞在耶穌出生第八天按照摩西律法為他行了割禮，並於出生四十天在耶路撒冷的聖殿行潔淨禮。

大希律王聽到有一位要做猶太人的王的嬰孩誕生，便要除滅他，約瑟受到天使的警告帶著馬利亞和耶穌逃往埃及行省，大希律命令羅馬駐軍殺死了伯利恆城內及其四境所有2歲以內的男孩。約瑟得知希律·阿基勞斯繼承他的父王為新的猶太分封王後決定前往加利利地區（由阿基勞斯的兄弟希律·安提帕斯管治，大希律死後羅馬帝國將他的王國拆散進行分封）定居。這也解釋了耶穌為什麼在伯利恆出生但在拿撒勒長大。根據《馬可福音》與《馬太福音》記載，耶穌他有幾個兄弟，分別是雅各、猶大、西門與約西，還有幾個妹妹。

對于耶穌從出生到30歲左右出來傳道的這近三十年時間，福音書提及的很少。

傳道

30歲時，耶穌在約旦河接受施洗約翰的洗禮，並在曠野四十天禁食禱告，其間勝過魔鬼的若干試探，往後開始在故鄉加利利一帶開展傳道工作，有很多人跟隨他，他在信徒當中親自揀選了十二位門徒。耶穌表示他是神的兒子，用淺近而生動的話語，包括許多比喻，宣揚天國的福音。並施行神蹟，比如醫病和趕鬼，讓人可以信他。這過程中，他與猶太宗教領袖產生了很大的衝突，耶穌在安息日也醫病；他接近當時為猶太社會所鄙視的罪人，如稅吏、外邦人、犯姦淫的婦女，予以安慰鼓勵，並向他們傳講福音；他批評猶太宗教領袖的形式主義和假冒偽善，這些宗教領袖仇視他，開始計劃要殺他。

耶穌的傳道可以看作有兩方面，一是關乎神學的，主要是關於他自己的身份，和天國的降臨，可以說是如何愛神；一是關乎道德的，可以說是如何愛人。

• 耶穌自稱是天父的兒子，與天父原為一，信他的人會永遠不死，他是道路、真理、生命，不藉著他，沒有人能夠到天父那裡去。

• 天國近了，人應該悔改，信從福音，應當愛神並且愛人，當天國降臨的時候，悔改信從耶穌的人會享有祝福與永生。

• 「希望別人如何對待自己，自己就要那樣對待他人」是耶穌替律法和先知所作的總結。

• 不可仇恨，要愛鄰舍如同自己，甚至要愛自己的仇敵，為逼迫自己的人禱告。

• 不可貪求金錢，也不要憂慮吃什麼、穿什麼，要先求神的國和神的義，因為我們需用的東西神都會看顧。

• 不可自以為聰明，要柔和謙卑，有小孩子的樣式。

• 不可炫耀善行和虔誠，博取人的榮耀，但要做世上的光，讓人通過我們的好行為，將榮耀歸給神。

• 不要論斷人，免得我們被人論斷，先去掉自己眼中的樑木，再去掉弟兄眼中的刺。

• 不可自以為義，要悔改。

• 不可將摩西律法形式主義化，比如堅持安息日不可治病，因而延誤了病情。但要堅守律法的愛，神愛人的總綱。

受難

[Perugino 040.jpg|thumb|200px|耶穌受難像，彼得羅·佩魯吉諾畫作，1482年]

耶穌傳道約有三年的時間，在約公元30年左右的逾越節前夕，最後一次進入耶路撒冷，受到群眾的歡迎。耶穌和門徒一起吃逾越節的晚餐，這成為他最後的晚餐。這中間他為門徒洗腳，囑咐他們也要這樣彼此服侍；預言自己將要受難，門徒將要四散；為門徒禱告，應許聖靈會降下；設立聖餐的聖禮。關於聖餐的設立，《路加福音》如此記載：

當時猶太的宗教領袖，包括聖殿祭司、法利賽人、文士，對耶穌非常憎恨，以三十兩銀子收買了十二門徒之一的猶大。他帶領衛兵在客西馬尼園找到耶穌，以親吻耶穌為暗號，把耶穌抓捕。耶穌的門徒彼得（天主教思高譯本譯為伯多祿）拔刀削掉祭司僕人的耳朵，耶穌阻止他說：『收刀入鞘吧！凡動刀的，必死在刀下。』耶穌在治好了那人之後，終於被抓走了。

猶太宗教領袖以「自稱神的兒子基督」的褻瀆罪名控告耶穌。猶太宗教領袖及民眾將耶穌帶往猶太行省的羅馬總督彼拉多的，說他煽動猶太人反羅馬皇帝，禁止民眾納稅給他，於是彼拉多多次審問他，但他答非所問令彼拉多查不出他有什麼罪，並要釋放他，猶太宗教領袖及民眾仍要求把耶穌定罪，說他從加利利起就開始傳道。彼拉多這才知道耶穌是加利利人，就把耶穌交給了當時正在耶路撒冷的加利利郡王希律·安提帕斯，希律問了耶穌許多話，但耶穌卻一言不發，希律只好把祂帶回總督府。當時正值逾越節，猶太地的總督按照猶太人習俗可釋放一名囚犯。於是彼拉多給猶太人選擇釋放巴拉巴還是耶穌，猶太人選了前者。祭司長和群眾更威脅彼拉多如果他不釋放巴拉巴他就不是凱撒的朋友，令彼拉多生怕猶太人被他們煽動而暴亂導致自己被提比留·凱撒罷免，為了他的政治生涯，於是先命令羅馬士兵將他鞭刑，然後判處死刑，押往各各他的刑場，在十字架上將他釘死，大約三個小時以後斷氣。這時遍地黑暗，聖殿裡的幔子從上到下裂為兩半，象徵著因為耶穌的死為人的罪付上了贖價，人與神之間的隔閡被除去。這是星期五，日後基督教以每年的這一天為受難節，紀念耶穌受難。關於耶穌受難的意義，聖經上這麼講：

耶穌受審、受難的時候，眾門徒非常驚恐。雖然耶穌曾經多次向他們預言自己的受難，但他們並沒有準備好。曾經誇口「就是必須和你同死，也總不能不認你」的彼得，在別人問他是不是耶穌門徒的時候，居然三次否認，正如耶穌預言。耶穌受難的時候，他的門徒約翰，他的母親馬利亞和其他幾位婦女在場，其他的門徒可能已經逃遁。

復活

因為星期五晚上猶太人安息日已經開始，耶穌的屍體被暫時安放於各各他附近的一個墓室，準備安息日後膏抹他的身體。猶太人的安息日（星期六）過後，第三天當跟隨他的幾位婦女拿香膏，要膏抹他的身體的時候，發現耶穌的身體已經不見了。有天使向她們宣告耶穌已經復活。耶穌的復活日是星期日，日後基督教以每年的這一天為「復活節」，並以星期日代為安息日─稱為「主日」。耶穌復活表明了將來所有信他的人也要這樣復活，得享永生。關於復活的意義，《聖經》這麼說：

升天

耶穌從死裡復活後，多次在門徒面前顯現，有四十天之久，講說神國的事，並把傳福音的大使命交託給他們：

然後在一次與門徒聚集的時候，他就被取上升，有一朵雲彩把他接去，有天使向門徒說：「這離開你們被接升天的耶穌，你們見他怎樣往天上去，他還要怎樣來。」他從此坐在父神的右邊，為信他的人預備將來的去處。耶穌基督將要在最後的審判的時候榮耀再來，所有的人都要復活，接受他的審判。信他的人有永生，不信的將要永遠沉淪。

耶穌也賜下真理的聖靈與信他的人同在，聖靈是保惠師，他為耶穌作見證，引導信徒明白一切的真理，賜給他們各樣屬靈的恩賜。

耶穌受難以後本來很消沉的門徒，在耶穌復活升天以後聚在一起，有上百人，恆切禱告，有十天之久，然後五旬節的時候聖靈降下，他們得著能力，開始大膽傳講耶穌是基督的福音，一次就有三千人信主，信的人都在一處，凡物共用，信主的人天天增加。這是基督教教會的開始。此後，猶太公會和官府迫害門徒，司提反成為第一個殉道的基督徒。門徒暫時逃離耶路撒冷，同時也將福音傳到四方。後來耶穌特別向一位本來迫害基督和基督徒的保羅顯現徒9:4-5，他成為向外邦人（就是非猶太人）傳福音最重要的使徒。後來，猶太人繼續信耶穌的人很少，但基督教在羅馬帝國的外邦人中間卻漸漸傳開，雖然經歷了很多的迫害，但越發廣傳，在公元四世紀成為羅馬帝國的國教。

末日再來

經過兩千年的時間，世界末日是什麼時候是個未知數，因為主耶穌說只有父知道。（馬太福音24：36）到那日，就會派聖子大君王耶穌來作王千年公審判所有生者死者最後迎來新天地，帶來沒有仇恨沒有眼淚沒有失望等等的永遠幸福，俗稱末日時刻。

耶穌的家譜

耶穌的父親約瑟是亞伯拉罕的後裔，在馬太福音第一章有所記載，由亞伯拉罕到約瑟一共有42代，但根據路加福音第三章的記載，由亞伯拉罕到約瑟則只有36代，比較兩個列表，除了代數不同，人物也不盡相同。關於這個差異，有兩派說法，其一為馬太所述為約瑟的世系，路加所述為馬利亞的世系，另一說法為馬太所述為約瑟的繼承父雅各伯的世系，路加所述為約瑟的生父赫里的世系，然而這幾種說法都沒有實質證據支持。

根據馬太福音的記載，馬利亞是在約瑟還未迎娶的情況下懷孕的，而且耶穌不是約瑟血統上的兒子。然而耶穌出生後第8天行了割禮，第40天由父母帶到聖殿去獻祭，可見他是約瑟承認的長子，是按照摩西律法繼承家族產業最多的人，也是產業的合法繼承人。

根據以賽亞書中以賽亞的預言，耶穌出于大衛的家族就是猶大部族。從路加福音中說約瑟帶著馬利亞去猶大的伯利恆登記戶口可得知，新約認為他們屬于猶大部族。因為大衛的父親耶西就是住在猶大的伯利恆。

以下是馬太版本的耶穌族譜（粗體表示重要人物）：

誕生年份

[van Honthorst - Adoration of the Shepherds (1622).jpg|thumb|left|《牧羊人的敬拜》（Adoration of the Shepherds）：耶穌誕生場景；人們與動物圍繞著馬利亞和新生的耶穌，他們受到光所包覆著。赫拉德·范洪特霍斯特畫作，1622年]

關于耶穌出生的年份，聖經指出，耶穌的表兄施洗者約翰是在羅馬皇帝提比留·凱撒在位第15年開始先知生涯的。提比留於公元14年9月15日登基，因此他在位第15年應該是公元28年下半年至公元29年下半年。在那段期間，約翰開始向人傳教；耶穌也展開他的服事職務，聖經記載當時耶穌「約有三十歲」）。

公曆以耶穌的出生為參照。6世紀時，東羅馬帝國為了修訂曆法，以替代非常混亂的羅馬曆法，就請當時精通天文的僧侶建議一個更合理的紀年標準。由於自君士坦丁大帝以後，羅馬帝國舉國改信基督教，修士就決定改以耶穌出世的年份為新紀元一年。當時的修士就基於聖經上「該撒提庇留在位的十五年...耶穌年紀三十歲」，就在該撒提庇留在位的第十五年的年份減去三十，作為耶穌的降生年份，之後的那一年即為公元元年。

以下為根據新約聖經裡各個篇章記載的各種線索：

屠殺嬰兒前

《馬太福音》裡，馬太提及過耶穌出生時，希律王曾下令屠殺猶太的新生嬰兒，以免王位受到威脅。希律王在公元前4年去世，所以耶穌應在公元前4年以前出生。不過現在有研究指出希律王的去世年份是在公元前1年，那麼耶穌出生的年份則應是在公元前2至3年。

人口普查時

《路加福音》記載：「在那些日子（耶穌出生前），凱撒·奧古斯都（又譯：凱撒·奧古士督）頒布法令，要在世人所住的全地進行登記。（這是第一次登記，是居里紐做敘利亞施政官的時候進行的。）于是所有人都啟程，各歸各城去登記。」

有不少批評家認為路加福音中的記載張冠李戴。他們認為，這次人口調查和居里紐做施政官的時間，應該是公元6或7年。如果他們的看法沒有錯，路加的記載就值得質疑了。不過，這些批評家卻忽略了幾個重要的細節：

• 首先，路加承認人口調查不僅一次。文中說「這是第一次登記。」表明後來還有另一次人口調查。後來這次調查就是歷史家約瑟夫斯所描述，在公元6年進行的那一次。

• 在奧古斯都時代，雖然沒有舉行全國性人口普查的法律記錄，但是有記錄證明當時通過行政命令在許多地方舉行人口調查。《猶太古史XViii.42》記載：大約此時，「全體猶太人」宣誓效忠凱撒，可能就是反映這一次的人口普查。

• 奧古斯都的手稿遺留了直接稅與間接稅的統計資料，最自然的解釋是從人口調查來的。

• 有些碑文證實，居里紐於公元前10～7年間在敘利亞擔任羅馬帝國的軍職。

文獻顯示敘利亞的人口調查每十四年舉行一次。已知約瑟夫記載的那次人口普查在公元6年舉行，加以綜合以上歷史線索，路加所記載的調查很可能於公元前7年舉行，亦即耶穌於該年出生。

史學中的耶穌

耶穌沒有在世上留下任何的著作，所有關于耶穌的記錄均在其死亡後創作。公元一世紀非基督教記載中羅馬學者塔西佗的《編年史》和猶太學者約瑟夫斯的《猶太古史》中提到過耶穌，被廣泛視為耶穌歷史真實性的証據。這也使得二個歷史事實「幾乎普遍獲得認可」：施洗約翰幫耶穌施洗、耶穌被總督彼拉多釘在十字架上。主要爭議是關于福音書中耶穌生平的可信度：有些人認為，四個經典福音書都符合曆史可靠性的五個標準；但也有人說福音書中沒有什麼歷史可靠性。

旁證資料

謝拉皮翁家書

馬拉·巴·謝拉皮翁是一位來自敘利亞的斯多葛派學者。他於公元73年後不久寫給兒子的信開頭敘述羅馬人在戰爭中摧毀了他的城市並且俘虜了他，正文主旨是鼓勵兒子追求智慧以面對生活中的困難。其中列舉了三個受迫至死的智者：蘇格拉底、畢達哥拉斯和「猶太人的賢君」，指出猶太人在處死自己的賢君之後被攆出故土、四散流離，是為公正的報應；並認為這位「賢君」因著他本身所訂定的「新律法」而（精神）不死（與之並列的其他二位：蘇格拉底因柏拉圖而不死、畢達哥拉斯因朱諾的雕像而不死）。信裡不直接稱這位「猶太人的賢君」（INRI）為耶穌，可能是為了躲避囚禁他的羅馬官長的耳目，以免被當作基督徒迫害。信的內容並未反映基督教教義，對耶穌的敘述也不像是引自福音書或其他基督教來源（例如稱耶穌為智者而非神子、認為耶穌不死的是「新律法」而未提到復活等），許多重要學者認為馬拉並非基督徒；作為教外觀點，此信是對於耶穌歷史性的重要參考。

猶太古史

公元一世紀著名的猶太歷史學家約瑟夫斯在他的主要著作《猶太古史》中，耶穌的名字被提到了兩處。

第一處在第18章3.3節：「就在這時，有一個名叫耶穌的智者，如我們說他是人不會對他冒犯的話；因為他做過很多奇妙的事，對他表示認同的人樂於奉他為師。他吸引了不少猶太人和希利尼人，並被尊為基督。當彼拉多因為我們同胞的領導者的鼓動而把他判處十字架之刑，當初愛他的人並未有離棄他；因為他在受刑後的第三日復活，並在眾人面前出現；就如神聖的先知最初所預言的，以及那與他相關的萬千奇事。而基督徒一族，就是那班稱他為基督的人，到現在還沒有消失。」

這一段對耶穌記載的文字，被稱為（Testimonium Flavianum）。但是幾乎所有的研究聖經的學者，都一致質疑這一段是後來基督徒更動後的結果。由於作者是為改信的猶太人，不可能直接宣稱耶穌是彌賽亞並死而復活。而自從阿拉伯文版的《猶太古史》被發現後，一些學者（例如約翰·保羅·梅爾和戈柏〔Goldberg〕等）相信儘管整體上的記述是源自約瑟夫斯，但認同耶穌為「基督」這一點大概是基督徒後加，「復活」這一段則是引述，非描述。

而在20章中，「耶穌，人稱基督，其兄名為詹姆斯」，史學界一般認為是約瑟夫斯對基督教最可信的記錄。

書信

羅馬帝國比提尼亞行省在公元112年時的總督小普林尼曾寫信給當時的君主圖拉真，詢問有關審訊和懲治基督徒時的程序。這封信的內容由（William Melmoth）在18世紀譯成英語，並於1935年由哈佛大學出版社集結他的書信而出版的著作Letters （中譯：《書信》）的第二卷第十章96頁中。信裡提及基督徒「把基督當作神一樣」。

編年史

公元115年，羅馬帝國執政官、歷史學家科爾奈利烏斯·泰西塔斯在他的著作《編年史》記載羅馬皇帝尼祿把羅馬大火的責任歸咎於耶穌門徒的事時說：「尼祿（為了轉移視線）把罪名強加在基督徒，一般被大眾所憎恨的人群，並給他們各種各樣的折磨。他們之所以被稱為基督徒，是源於基督，一個在皇帝提比留在位時，被我們的一位執政官本丟·彼拉多得到了最嚴峻的處罰的人。在他受刑後，這個最難以控制的迷信，得以暫時受控，但後來又再次在禍端發源地猶大行省流行，甚至連羅馬本身都蔓延，在這個世上任何最隱閉的地方都可以找到基督徒的蹤跡」。

羅馬十二帝王傳

內中提到：「由於猶太人在基督的鼓動下不斷地製造事端，因此克勞狄一世將他們驅離羅馬。」多數學者將這起事件推定為公元49-50年，很可能是使徒行傳18:2的平行記載。然而蘇維托尼烏斯誤在文中以為當時基督還在世，使得這段記述的歷史價值大大削弱。

塔木德

巴比倫塔木德中出現的耶書被認為指的就是基督教中的耶穌，該說法源自中世紀，現代學者對此有各種不同觀點。部分當代學者認為這些段落指向基督教和基督徒描述的耶穌，另外一部分學者認為這些段落是後世拉比添加的內容，塔木德學者認為米書拿和兩個塔木德版本均沒有記錄耶穌。

塔木德中關于耶穌的生活時間的描述是矛盾的，Sotah 47a和Sanhedrin 107中表示耶穌生活在亞歷山大·詹納烏斯的統治時期（公元前103～前76年），但是Sanhedrin 43a中提到耶穌于公元200～500年之間被處死。

總結的各方觀點如下（2000年）：

• 學者約翰·梅爾（1978年），，站在同一邊。梅爾認為提到耶穌名字的Sanh. 43a 107b作為中世紀的修改版並無可信度可言，其不過是對基督教救世主形象的耶穌的反應而已。反對使用現版塔木德作為耶穌歷史真實性的証據的論據包括上下文的証據，比如年代上的不一致性。巴特·葉爾曼和認為塔木德的時間距離過于遙遠（公元一世紀後數百年）無法作為關于耶穌生平的史料。

• 另一邊，學者約瑟夫·克勞斯納 (1925)， (1901)， (1887)反對認為塔木德沒有獨立的歷史價值的觀點，認為塔木德至少保存了一些可信的歷史記載。部分學者認為塔木德對耶穌的負面描述可以視為可信的歷史依據，因為猶太教傳統只是抹黑耶穌而從未否定其存在，因此可以據此推斷耶穌生平。

學界態度

有關對耶穌是否虛構人物的爭論始於啟蒙時代，較早認為耶穌是虛構人物的學者，是十九世紀中葉的德國歷史學家布魯諾·鮑威爾。二十世紀初期，學者們開始質疑新約內有關耶穌的生平記載，最主要的工作是阿爾伯特·史懷哲、和做的。史懷哲在他的著作《歷史性耶穌的謎團》（The Quest for the Historical Jesus）裡更提出：「（聖經中描述的）拿撒勒人耶穌……從來都未存在過。」五十年代以來，認為耶穌是虛構人物的研究者主要有Guy Fau、、W.B. Smith、約翰·馬可·阿列佐、和等人。其中，倫敦大學的G. A. Wells和波士頓大學的Michael Martin的研究最為引人注目。

現今幾乎所有歷史學者都同意耶穌確實存在於歷史上。羅馬帝國前基督教時期產生許多抨擊基督教的文章，諸多批評中獨未見對於耶穌是否存在的任何質疑，也因此大部分學者仍然認為「耶穌的存在是由基督徒編造的」這一理論令人難以置信，且一貫無法使多方學者信服。大部分的學者同意：耶穌受洗於施洗約翰、與猶太教權威人士辯論、驅魔、召集男女信徒、設喻講道、赴耶路撒冷最後被彼拉多處死。

耶穌之墓

耶路撒冷的聖墓教堂傳統上被認為是耶穌被釘死、入葬的地方。耶路撒冷的花園墓地、、克什米爾的、日本新鄉村也有耶穌之墓的傳說。紀錄片《》（The Lost Tomb of Jesus）的導演及其宗教顧問認為陶比奧古墓是耶穌及其家族之墓，著有耶穌家族之墓一書，但是被考古學界質疑。2015年在動用過廣泛的化學檢測法之後，並與作比對，以色列地質學家席姆倫（Arye Shimron）表示，他已肯定發現於1980年的陶比奧古墓屬於耶穌、他的兒子及親屬。這項研究認定耶穌有結婚、生了孩子，而且肉身復活並沒發生。但也有一些學者持反對意見，認為當時猶太人沒有姓，同名的極多，而且無論是陶比奧古墓中的骨棺還是詹姆士骨棺，其上都有不準確因素，例如：「耶穌的骨棺」上面的名字也可以拼做其他名字，而詹姆士骨棺上有明顯篡改過的痕跡。

背景研究

透過對當時耶穌可能生存過的那段時間的歷史知識，而去檢查在新約中的耶穌記錄，尤其對於在新約編寫時期的歷史知識，促使聖經學者重新演繹新約所紀錄的眾多情節。這些情節包括了加里肋亞和猶太省的分別，法利賽人、撒都該人、艾賽尼人及奮銳黨之間的分別，以及在羅馬人佔領期間，猶太社會裡的各種矛盾。

福音書記載耶穌是拿撒勒人，但「拿撒勒」這個字的意思卻很模糊。耶穌其實亦是法利賽人的一份子。在耶穌時代，法利賽人的學說有兩個主流，分別是：希列派及煞買派。這兩派對離婚有不同的看法：希列派依照的理由而認為男性在任何時候都可以要求離婚，這種觀點亦是當時猶太社會的主流思想。相反的，耶穌卻贊同另一派煞買派對於離婚的嚴格要求。根據《馬爾谷福音》記載，當時有法利賽人試探耶穌，要求耶穌表明對休妻的立場，試圖誘使他說出違反摩西律法的言論。現代的猶太拉比雅各布·諾伊斯納亦在他的著作中指出耶穌的教導在兩派立場中傾向於煞買派。對於希列派有關最大的誡命及推己及人的原則，耶穌亦有評論過。

有學者指耶穌應該是艾賽尼人，一個在《新約全書》沒有提及過的猶太人派系。這種講法，是基於把四福音書的內容與死海古卷的內容比較，特別是四福音書與《正義之師》及《被扎的默西亞》的比較。

新約中關於耶穌的姓名和他的頭銜特別引人注目。根據大多數重要歷史學家的意見，耶穌很可能大部份時間都住在加利利，他可能會說亞蘭語及希伯來語。

宗教觀點

基督教中的耶穌

伊斯蘭教中的耶穌

在伊斯蘭教中，耶穌（爾撒）（عيسى）被認為是真主的使者，被派遣為其同族以色列人之使者；並且帶去一個新的經文——《引支勒》。《古蘭經》被穆斯林認為是真主的最後啟示，指出耶穌由處女馬利亞（麥爾彥）生出，這是由真主（安拉）所指示的神跡。真主為了幫助耶穌，給了他行奇蹟的權柄，這些都是真主所賜予的。按照《古蘭經》經文：耶穌既沒有被殺，也沒有釘在十字架上受辱，而是直接被真主佑助升上了天堂。這使得耶穌成為唯一的一個由處女生出的先知，並且是唯有的三個沒有經歷死亡就被升至天堂的先知之一（另外兩個為以諾和以利亞）。伊斯蘭傳統記載：他將于世界末日回到人間，但不是像基督徒所說進行末日審判，而是以穆斯林身份恢復正統的伊斯蘭教，並挫敗敵基督（假彌賽亞），執行真主的旨意。與基督教不一樣，伊斯蘭教認為耶穌不是神，只是一個聖人，耶穌教誨人們通過正直的方式來履行安拉的旨意。《新約聖經》中提到耶穌是神的兒子一事，耶穌從來不認同，是被迷信的基督徒竄改的，伊斯蘭教反對基督教所說耶穌是化身或聖子，更覺得道成肉身根本更是無稽之談，指出耶穌就像其他先知一樣，是一個凡夫俗子，但是他是天選之人，以真主的使者身分傳播天啟。《古蘭經》記載真主嚴禁人類為其「創造同伴」，強調真主的神聖獨一性。在《古蘭經》中，爾撒有很多尊稱，如彌賽亞（基督），但它與基督教中的概念有所不同。爾撒在伊斯蘭教中作為和穆罕默德一樣領受天命的先知，而同樣得到所有的穆斯林尊重，在《約翰福音》中爾撒預言的保惠師即為穆罕默德，穆罕默德是繼耶穌之後把中斷了六百多年的道統的復興者和最後一位先知。

耶穌與佛教

水徒行紀

耶穌曾經到印度學佛一說，是根據新世紀運動者Levi H. Dowling宣稱他經由超能力觀看阿卡西記錄而寫就的《》，描述了耶穌十一歲到二十八歲期間的事情，宣稱年方十一歲的耶穌當時經由羅馬帝國所屬的小亞細亞，途經安息王朝的波斯及甫統一的貴霜帝國，然後抵達北印度及西藏等修行地區，並在西藏修行地裡居住且冥想約七年。爾後再經由波斯返抵以色列，此事在聖經上毫無記載。然而一位佛教人士－馮馮居士認為此書乃由耶穌的弟子－彼得（天主教：伯多祿）所寫，但是在基督教義中是被認定為偽經的書籍。該書並被拍攝成電影《水徒行紀》。不過，佛教傳入西藏是西元四世紀時的事；藏傳佛教的興盛與佛寺的建立，更是於西元六世紀（唐朝文成公主時代）之後才有的事。該書稱西元一世紀時代的耶穌，能到當時根本還不存在的西藏佛寺學佛，在時間上相當令人難以置信。提供：書中被懷疑是耶穌同一人之先知－「伊薩」曾到訪過之佛寺名為法戒寺，位於喀什米爾拉達克邦，在四世紀並不屬西藏版圖，定性為藏傳佛教之寺院是後來的事。因此可以說，這卷文字描述內容完全是不符歷史事實的偽托著作。

諾托維奇論

俄國貴族記者諾托維奇在1894年表示：在喜馬拉雅山腳下拉達克的裏，親自讀到兩卷西藏經書，記載著耶穌在14歲時，隨同商人來到印度地區學習6年，後來又到尼泊爾繼續學習佛法6年。但所稱的兩卷經書並未公諸於世。

移居印度說

另外有一說認為耶穌釘上十字架後沒有死去，後移居至印度，修習佛法，後來在克什米爾定居，並在斯利那加去世。科幻小說作者便是採用了這個題材而製作了《耶穌在印度》這部電影。

耶穌與猶太教

相對基督徒認為耶穌是救世主基督，猶太人並不承認耶穌是彌賽亞，他們認為救世主還未降臨，而耶穌不合猶太教相信的彌賽亞的特徵。並認為基督徒是以合乎他們信仰的方式將《塔納赫》翻譯為《舊約聖經》。比如在七十士譯本中，希伯來語中的少女產子，翻譯時使用了希臘語中的詞彙，意為處女，而基督教在翻譯聖經時基本上沿用了這一說法。因此，猶太教不接受基督徒的《新約聖經》，而且還在等待彌賽亞的來臨。

猶太教經典記載

雖然猶太教徒否認《塔木德》記載過耶穌，即使是到現在還痛恨基督教的猶太人，在他們的經典《塔木德‧密西拿》第四卷《》(推斷應在第2世紀編纂)的第43a節提及過「罪犯耶穌」在逾越節之前被「掛了起來」（處死）。

根據猶太拉比所編纂的文獻─《塔木德經》中較晚期作品《耶穌一生》的記載：耶穌又名耶穌·本·潘得拉（Yeshu Ben Pandera），他的母親是馬利亞，他的父親是約瑟·本·潘得拉。在《塔木德經》中的耶穌是一位巫師，他在埃及學到黑魔法並有五個門徒。最後他以使用巫術的罪名被起訴，在逾越節後四十天被絞死。有學者認為Ben Pandera是扭轉Ben Parthenos（童貞女子之子）而成的。然而《死海古卷》與基督教緣起的專家詹姆斯．泰伯則認為「潘得拉」是當時確實存在且常在使用的名字。在他的著作《耶穌的真實王朝》有提到相關的論述和墓碑考古資料。在此書中詹姆斯·泰伯推測耶穌的生父很可能就是一名叫做約瑟·本·潘得拉的羅馬帝國士兵。

神道教

在日本青森縣新鄉村流傳著耶穌曾經來到這裡，一直活到106歲的故事。該地有兩所古墓，被視為耶穌及其弟弟的墓地。每逢6月拜祭耶穌的基督祭，以日本傳統神道教儀式追悼耶穌。

摩尼教

在摩尼教的藝術作品中亦經常描繪耶穌的形像，比如於高昌發現的10世紀摩尼教繪幡上的耶穌像，學者命名為「夷數王者像」，呈現出西域藝術的特徵；以及一幅南宋時期繪製的絹畫掛軸《夷數佛幀》，出自中國南方沿海地區，則是以亞洲畫風的耶穌像。

耶穌與道教

明代道教名著《歷代神仙通鑑》將耶穌納入其神仙體系當中，見于卷九第二節「嚴子陵高屈光武，瑪利亞貞產耶穌」。其文稱：「遠西國，人云去中國九萬七千里……彼國初有童貞瑪利亞，於辛酉歲（實漢元始元年），天神嘉俾厄爾恭報：『天主特選爾為母。』已而果孕降生。母極喜敬，裹以常衣，置於馬槽。群天神奏樂於空。後四十日，母抱獻於聖師罷德肋，取名耶穌。」反映了明朝時期道教廣納其他宗教並融合於自身的手法。

拜上帝教

在太平天國的官方宗教拜上帝會中，天王洪秀全自認為天父耶和華次子，其兄則為耶穌。西王蕭朝貴常以耶穌為名，通過「天兄下凡附體上身」發布命令。

潮汕地區信仰

潮汕人稱耶穌為「番公」，與大禹一起供奉在惠來縣靖海鎮的水仙廟中。

注釋