User:Newbie222/Jesus Introduction

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jesus, also known as Jesus of Nazareth, also known as Jesus Christ, is Christianity's central figure, both as Messiah, and for most Christians, as God incarnate.In Islam he is regarded as one of God's most important prophets. Jesus is believed to have been born between 8 BC and 4 BC. According to the Gospels, Jesus's birth was recognized by four wise men from various places in the Middle East. Little is known about his until 33 AD and events until his death in 36 AD. This period of his life was marked by his moral teaching, parables and miracles(according to the New Testemant). According to the Biblical story of Gethsemane where Jesus prayed to God the Father knowing that he was to be crucified the next day. He sweated to the point of blood coming out which some have paralled to the known but rare medical condidition Hematidrosis. That night the Saduccees sent a small band of Roman or Jewish solidiers(its unclear which) to arrest Jesus. He was then tried in a Saducee court where it was decided he would be tried by the Roman general.

The earlier dating agrees with Tertullian (died 230) who, in Adversus Marcionem xv, expresses a Roman tradition that placed the crucifixion in the twelfth year of Tiberius Caesar. A faulty 6th-century attempt to calculate the year of his birth (which, based upon a story in the Gospel of Matthew involving Herod the Great, is now estimated from 8 BC to 4 BC) became the basis for the Anno Domini system of reckoning years (and also the chronologically equivalent Common Era system).

The primary sources about Jesus are the four canonical Gospel accounts, which depict him as a Galilean Jewish preacher and healer often at odds with Jewish authorities — who was crucified in Jerusalem during the rule of the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate. In addition to the four Gospels, a dozen or so non-canonical texts also exist, among which the Gospel of Thomas is believed by some textual critics to predate the Gospels of the traditional canon. The historicity, teachings and nature of Jesus are subject to debate. The earliest New Testament texts which refer to him are Paul's letters, which are usually dated from the mid-1st century. Paul saw Jesus only in visions, but he claimed they were divine revelations and hence authoritative. Some modern scholars hold that the works describing Jesus (primarily the Gospel accounts) were initially communicated by oral tradition and were committed to writing as soon as several decades after the Crucifixion. Some believe that these texts may not have retained the same level of historical accuracy as direct firsthand accounts written during or soon after the life of Jesus. However, some scholars argue for a high degree of historical reliability of the key New Testament events, and some also for early dates of the entire New Testament. Although the exact level of the historical accuracy contained in these texts is debated, the vast majority of scholars agree that Jesus did exist. [1]It should also be noted that the New Testemant is believed to be written by some archaelogists, and historians by 90 A.D. while others place the completion at a later date in the 2nd century. This largely explains the differing views on the historicity because the earlier dates would bring more validity to the works than would the later date. Either way the earliest New Testement texts are closer to the supposed dates of the events than that other historical figures such as Plato.

Most Christians believe in one God that is a trinity composed of three persons, that Jesus is the second person of that trinity, and also that he is the Messiah (Greek: Christos) prophesied in the Old Testament (or Hebrew Bible). Most Christians also believe that Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead, and that through him they can be saved. Muslims believe that he was one of God's most important prophets and also the Messiah, though they attach a different meaning to this than Christians, as they do not share the Christian belief in the divinity of Jesus.