Michael hadn’t grown up in a religious household and didn’t think of himself as a Christian. He believed in a supreme creator God. Everything around and inside him told him that God existed. Michael also felt himself accountable to God. He tried to be good most of the time, while believing that the times he wasn’t so good didn’t amount to much in the grand scheme of things. At least, Michael felt that God would understand. Michael had heard about Jesus but never really thought much about him until Michael’s college roommate, a Christian, began sharing what Jesus meant to him. Their discussions stunned Michael, who began seeing how selfish and corrupt he actually was. Yet he also saw that he had a sure way out of it.

Record

We have a remarkably reliable record of the life of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Scholars who study ancient manuscripts find that the record of the life of Jesus is as reliable as, and in many cases more reliable than, the record of other ancient figures whose existence and significance we do not doubt. No fewer than four detailed accounts of the life of Jesus exist, each written by contemporaries of Jesus or within their lifetime. Those contemporaneous accounts are consistent in many details and in main outline, although they differ in perspectives and in some details, just as scholars would expect of multiple independent historical accounts. The accounts are not styled as or fitted to a mythic narrative but instead present themselves as factual accounts. Historians writing outside of the culture in which Jesus lived acknowledge his life, leaving no credible doubt of his existence as a historical figure. No historical figure has had more study and scrutiny than Jesus Christ. The compendium of writings describing his life, the history leading up to it, and the events occurring after it is by far the most-widely published, distributed, and read book in all of human history. Publishers have distributed around five billion Bibles and distribute as many as eighty million more each year. 

Life

Jesus was a Jewish itinerant teacher and preacher living in the early part of the First Century AD. We have marked human history around the life of Jesus since about the Sixth Century AD, when the Christian monk Dionysius standardized other conflicting Christian calendars. The designation AD stands for Anno Domini, which is Latin for the year of our Lord, while the corollary designation BC stands for Before Christ. The alternative and more-recent designations CE and BCE stand for Common (Current) Era and Before Common Era, referring to the same event of the birth of Jesus Christ. To his followers, Jesus was the fulfillment of the Hebrew Bible’s promised Messiah, through whom God would save not only his chosen people the Jews but also the rest of the world. At the behest of the Jewish religious leaders and crowd, the local Roman ruler of Jerusalem condemned and crucified Jesus, as Jesus predicted and permitted, and the Hebrew Bible foreshadowed. Three days later, the resurrected Jesus emerged from the tomb in which Roman soldiers had buried and secured his body. In the following days, Jesus met the disciples and women attending them, and hundreds of other witnesses, before returning to heaven, whereupon he sent God’s Spirit in the form of descending flames to indwell his followers.

Birth

Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Judaea, between about 6 BC and 2 BC. His Jewish mother was the young virgin Mary, who conceived Jesus under God’s Spirit. At the time Jesus was born, Mary was betrothed to the Jewish man Joseph. Both Mary and Joseph lived in the northern Israel town of Nazareth near the Sea of Galilee. Joseph brought the pregnant Mary to his native Bethlehem to comply with the Roman ruler’s edict for a census throughout Israel. Among the twelve tribes of Israel, Joseph was from the line of Judah, which was also the line of king David. Mary bore Jesus in an animal enclosure as soon as she and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem, with no time to find and arrange a room at an inn. Angels heralded the birth of Jesus to local shepherds who paid homage to Jesus, while wise men likewise followed a star from the East to give gifts honoring Jesus. Mary and Joseph fled with Jesus from Bethlehem to Egypt, to avoid the local ruler Herod’s edict to kill Bethlehem’s infants with the goal of murdering Jesus. 

Maturity

When it was safe, Mary and Joseph returned from Egypt to their home in Nazareth in Israel’s north near the Sea of Galilee, to raise the boy Jesus with several children they had together after Mary bore Jesus. Two gospel accounts name four half-brothers to Jesus and indicate that he also had half-sisters. We refer to them as half-siblings because Mary conceived Jesus under the Spirit, not her betrothed Joseph. Tradition and much scholarship credits two of half-brothers James and Jude with authorship of the New Testament letters bearing their names. Joseph was a carpenter, woodworker, or craftsman in Nazareth with whom Jesus likely worked as a boy and young man before beginning his public ministry. When Jesus was twelve years old, Mary and Joseph took him to Jerusalem for the Passover festival, according to their custom. When Mary and Joseph began their return to Nazareth, Jesus secretly stayed behind in the Temple, amazing the teachers with his questions and understanding. When Mary and Joseph returned to find Jesus, and Mary admonished him over their distress in missing him, Jesus replied that he had to be in his Father’s house. But he obeyed Mary and Joseph and returned to Nazareth with them. The gospel accounts say little else of the maturation of Jesus other than that he grew in wisdom and stature. 

Baptism

His baptism at about age thirty marked the beginning of the public ministry of Jesus. Jesus had a cousin John who had been baptizing people in the Jordan River, while warning them to repent to prepare for the Messiah’s arrival. When Jesus approached John asking that John baptize him, John announced that Jesus was the Messiah whom John had heralded. When John baptized Jesus, God said from heaven that Jesus was his Son. God also sent his Spirit in the form of a dove to descend on Jesus as he rose from the baptism waters. God’s Spirit promptly led Jesus from his baptism into the wilderness for forty days of fasting and preparation. The adversary Satan tempted Jesus at the end of his wilderness sojourn, but Jesus rejected the temptation, quoting Hebrew Bible scripture.

Disciples

After his baptism and wilderness preparation, Jesus gathered disciples around him to conduct a public ministry that lasted about three years. Although Jesus had many more disciples at times, his twelve chosen disciples included the leader and fisherman Peter and his brother Andrew, the brothers James and John (who called himself a favorite of Jesus), the tax collector Matthew, Thomas who doubted Christ’s resurrection until he saw and touched the risen Christ, and Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus. The disciples stayed with Jesus throughout his ministry until his arrest. The disciples abandoned Jesus at his arrest, although Peter and John watched the trial of Jesus from the courtyard, and John remained with Mary, the mother of Jesus, at the foot of the cross as Christ died. The disciples, minus the betrayer Judas, huddled in secret in a locked room together after Christ’s crucifixion. Christ appeared to them there and ate with them after his resurrection. Christ appeared again to several disciples as they fished on the Sea of Galilee. The disciples then witnessed Christ’s ascension. The New Testament records later actions of the disciples establishing and supporting the first churches throughout the region. Tradition affords that the disciples gave their lives for Christ in service to those churches.

Ministry

Jesus, the disciples, and women who attended to their needs traveled together around Israel for the three years of Christ’s public ministry. Large crowds gathered to hear Jesus wherever Jesus and the disciples went. Jesus told parables that taught the crowds about the coming kingdom of heaven. Jesus also delighted the crowds with mockery of the hypocritical religious leaders. The crowds also brought the sick and disabled for Jesus to heal them. The crowds were so large and persistent that Jesus and the disciples had at times to hide from them. Jesus largely kept his public ministry away from Jerusalem and out of sight of the religious leaders, even admonishing those whom he healed not to tell of his miracles. But the public ministry and miracles of Jesus soon brought him such acclaim that the religious leaders began to plot to murder him so as not to lose their standing and authority. When Jesus knew that his time had come to confront the religious leaders and give his life to save the world, Jesus made a triumphal entry into Jerusalem riding a donkey colt, to great popular acclaim. The religious leaders then paid the disciple Judas Iscariot to tell them where Jesus and the disciples hid and slept at night outside Jerusalem, so that they could arrest and try Jesus, and have him executed.

Miracles

The disciples and crowds witnessed many miracles by Jesus. Jesus healed all the sick and disabled whom the crowds brought to him. Jesus also fed 5,000 men and more women and children, and fed another 4,000 men and more women and children soon after, all from a few fish and loaves of bread, with basketfuls left over. Jesus gave sight to the blind, healed Peter’s mother-in-law of a fever, healed a woman’s bleeding with her touch of the hem of his garment, healed a centurion’s servant with a word from a distance, restored a man’s withered hand, healed several of leprosy, restored a mute man’s voice, and several times raised the dead. Jesus also cast demons from people and sent demons into a herd of pigs. Jesus also stilled a storm on the Sea of Galilee, walked across the sea, and drew Peter out onto it to walk to him. Jesus also drew coins from the mouth of a fish, filled empty fishing nets with swarms of fish, and turned water into fine wine at a wedding celebration. Jesus also withered a fig tree and restored a servant’s ear after Peter had just cut it off. The miracles of Christ served the purpose of announcing him as from God and the Son of God. Christ’s miracles also hold rich symbolism referring back to the events and promises of the Hebrew Bible, further anointing Jesus as the promised Messiah. 

Trial

Jesus faced multiple trials leading to his crucifixion. Jesus first faced trial before the Jews’ religious leaders and full Sanhedrin body of leaders. The trial, the result of which the religious leaders had already determined, occurred in the depth of night to avoid public scrutiny and outcry. The Sanhedrin heard only conflicting testimony against Jesus. But the high priest questioned Jesus, to which Jesus responded that he was indeed the Christ and Son of God. The religious leaders construed Christ’s words as blasphemy worthy of the death penalty. The Jews, under Roman rule, could not impose the death penalty themselves and so handed Jesus over to the Roman governor Pontius Pilate. After first sending Jesus before the Jewish royal authority Herod as a courtesy, Pilate put Jesus on trial before a crowd. The religious leaders spurred the crowd to demand the condemnation of Jesus. Warned by his wife not to trifle with the righteous Jesus, Pilate did not want to condemn Jesus. Pilate took Jesus aside to ask if Jesus was indeed the king of the Jews. Jesus replied that his kingdom was not from this world but that he came to tell the truth. Pilate scoffed but then gave the crowd a choice to have Jesus released and a murderer condemned in his place. Yet the crowd insisted on the crucifixion of Jesus, to which Pilate finally relented.

Crucifixion

Pilate had Roman soldiers lead Jesus away and strip and scourge him brutally. The soldiers then had Jesus carry his own cross to the crucifixion site, with the help of a man drawn from the crowd lining the way. Soldiers crucified Jesus between two thieves also condemned to death on crosses. While one thief shouted curses at Jesus, the other thief told him to stop because they were justly condemned, while Jesus was innocent. The thief turned to Jesus, asking that Jesus remember him when coming into his kingdom. Jesus assured the confessing thief that he would be with Jesus that day in paradise. Although it was day, the sky fell dark as Jesus died on the cross. A soldier pierced Jesus in the side to confirm his death, with blood and water pouring out. Two Sanhedrin members received permission to anoint, wrap, and bury the body of Jesus in a fresh tomb, which soldiers secured with a great stone and seal against the body’s theft. The disciples hid and mourned in bewilderment, as the soldiers guarded the tomb.

Resurrection

An angel with the appearance of lightning rolled aside the stone securing the tomb where they had laid the body of Jesus. The soldiers guarding the tomb were overcome at the sight of it. Women attending to the disciples checked the tomb, where an angel told them that Jesus had risen. One of the women met the risen Jesus at the tomb, initially mistaking him for a gardener. When the women told the disciples that Jesus had risen, Peter and John ran to the tomb to confirm the women’s report that the body of Jesus was no longer there. The resurrected Jesus met and walked and talked with two disciples on the road shortly later. Jesus then appeared to the disciples in the room where they were hiding. Jesus later stood on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, calling to disciples who had gone fishing. Jesus first helped them secure a great catch of fish and then fed them fish he had cooked on the shore. Jesus also appeared to the disciples on the mountain in Galilee where he had told them to go from Jerusalem. There, Jesus commissioned them to make disciples of all nations and teach everyone to obey everything Jesus had commanded. Jesus appeared to hundreds of others in those days after his resurrection before his ascension. 

Ascension

Jesus returned to heaven from the Mount of Olives outside Jerusalem, interpreted as occurring forty days after his resurrection. Jesus led his disciples there and, as he was blessing them, ascended toward heaven until a cloud hid him from the disciples’ sight. As the disciples were watching Jesus disappear above, two men in white appeared beside them, explaining that although Jesus had gone to heaven, he would come back in the same way. Christians refer to the future return of Jesus as his second coming. The Bible’s final account, the book of Revelation, includes the disciple John’s vision of the second coming of Jesus and the establishment of the kingdom of heaven on earth.

Reflection

What credit do you give the records of the life and ministry of Jesus? If you have read the gospel accounts, what was your impression of their authenticity? Did the trials and crucifixion of Jesus, for instance, seem factual and original? Did they seem to you to be factual or mythologized? Have you read any other ancient record of someone else’s life that is nearly as detailed and factual in its presentation? If the account of the life of Jesus is deceptively false and unreliable, why would five billion copies of it circulate down through the ages? What do you make of the teachings of Jesus? What do you make of the miracles of Jesus? What impression do you have of his disciples from the gospel accounts, that they were heroes or that they were ordinary men? If you have read the gospel accounts of the life of Jesus, how much or little did they move you? Have you read anything else at all like them?

Key Points

• A reliable record of multiple ancient accounts describe the life of Jesus.

• Jesus was an early first-century itinerant Jewish teacher and preacher.

• The virgin Mary bore Jesus in Bethlehem where they went for a census.

• Jesus grew to maturity in Galilee under Mary and her husband Joseph.

• Jesus began his public ministry with baptism and a wilderness time.

• Jesus had a three-year public ministry beginning when he was thirty.

• Jesus traveled around Israel with disciples and women caring for them.

• Jesus taught crowds, healing the sick and disabled they brought him.

• Jesus did miracles showing he was God, including raising the dead.

• Religious leaders and the Roman governor tried and condemned Jesus.

• Roman soldiers tortured and crucified Jesus, letting Jews bury him.

• Jesus rose from his tomb three days later, as women witnessed.

• The resurrected Jesus appeared to the disciples and many others.

• Jesus ascended to heaven in the disciples’ sight forty days later.

Read Chapter 7.