Jesus Christ
In brief: Jesus of Nazareth is called by his followers "Christ Jesus" and "Jesus Christ" and believed by them to be the Saviour foretold in the sacred Hebrew Scriptures that they refer to as "The Old Testament" of the Holy Bible. The title Christ is derived from the Greek word "Christos" (meaning "Anointed One" which implies "Anointed King") that the Greek translations use in place of the Hebrew word for Messiah. After him his followers are called "Christians" and their monotheistic way of religious living "Christianity" which today is comprised of several denominations (e.g. Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Anglicans). Jesus himself spoke of them as his "ekklesia", using the Old Testament term for the People of God, a word that is reflected in the English word Church.
According to the birth narratives in the canonical Gospel accounts of Matthew and Luke of the Christian New Testament Jesus had been conceived by Mary of Nazareth in Galilee by the Holy Spirit, the power of the Most High God, after she had become the betrothed wife of Joseph of the House of David but before her husband had taken her home, which is the concluding marriage rite that permits a Jewish couple to live together and have conjugal relations. The Roman Catholic Church teaches that Mary and Joseph therefore never consummated their marriage. Their son was born around 4 BC whilst his parents were visiting Bethlehem in Judea to fulfil their civic duty of enrolment; and Joseph duly named him "Jesus" in obedience to the angel Gabriel's bidding, to signify that he is the one who will save his people from their sins. After a short exile in Egypt the family eventually returned to Nazareth where he grew up. The four canonical Gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are silent about his adult life until John the Baptist publicly witnessed to him being the Lamb of God, whereafter he unsuccessfully claimed his rightful inheritance during the incident called "The Cleansing of the Temple", proclaimed the Good News of God's love and taught that repentance for the forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all the nations beginning from Jerusalem. The same Christian authoritative sources relate that, after a short public ministry, during the procuratorship of Pontius Pilate, on the day before Passover, he was crucified and died on Golgotha, then just outside Jerusalem, but rose from the dead on the third day and, after showing himself alive on many occasions, was lifted up into Heaven before the eyes of the Apostles whom he had carefully taught and appointed to be the witnesses of all this.
Christians believe that Jesus of Nazareth is alive today. Most of them other than Arians believe that he is both God and man (that is to say, "man" in the sense of a human being) according to the nature and the Second Person in the Blessed Trinity that is the One God. They believe that through him the whole world and all that is in it has been created. They believe his teaching that his death atones for the sins of all humanity, and that their belief that he is the Christ, the Son of God, and being baptised in his name will bring them to Eternal Life (cf. John 20:31).
There is a paucity of incontrovertible contemporary or near contemporary non-Christian witnesses to Jesus, yet few Christians doubt that he is a historical personage. Many modern Christian scholars argue, however, that not everything related in the four canonical Gospel accounts is historically true and consider those to be Fundamentalists who continue to support their historicity, that traditionally has been maintained by the Roman Catholic Church (most recently in Vatican II's Apostolic Constitution on Divine Revelation Dei Verbum).
Jesus of Nazareth is highly regarded by some other religions, e.g. Islam.
Overviews
- An introduction to the Christian understanding of Jesus
- Jesus Christ (theopedia)
- Bible Dictionary: Jesus
- Bible Dictionary: Christ
- Jesus (compass)
Topics
- The nature of Christ
- Jesus, our Lord and God
- Historical evidence Jesus Christ
- Jesus, the man
- The birth of Jesus
- The miracles of Jesus
- The parables of Jesus
- The teachings of Jesus
- The death of Jesus
- The resurrection of Jesus
- Ascension of Christ
- Jesus: Miscellaneous topics
Articles / opinions
Quotes
See also
Go to the God contents page
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