“Jesus of Nazareth” redirects here. For other uses, see
Jesus of Nazareth (disambiguation).
His birth is celebrated annually on December 25 (or various dates in January for some eastern churches) as a holiday known as
Christmas, his crucifixion is honored on
Good Friday, and his resurrection is celebrated on
Easter. The widely used
calendar era “
AD“, from the Latin
anno Domini (“in the year of the Lord”), and the alternative “
CE“, are based on the approximate birth date of Jesus.
Virtually all modern scholars of antiquity agree that
Jesus existed historically,
although the
quest for the historical Jesus has produced little agreement on the
historical reliability of the Gospels and on how closely the Jesus portrayed in the Bible reflects the
historical Jesus.
Jesus was a
Galilean Jew who was
baptized by
John the Baptist and subsequently began
his own ministry, preaching his message
orally and often being referred to as “
rabbi“.
Jesus debated with fellow Jews on how to best follow God, engaged in healings, taught in
parables and gathered followers.
He was arrested and tried by the
Jewish authorities,
and turned over to the Roman government, and was subsequently
crucified on the order of
Pontius Pilate, the
Roman prefect. After his death, his followers believed he
rose from the dead, and the community they formed eventually became the
Christian Church.
Christian doctrines include the beliefs that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, was born of a virgin named Mary, performed miracles, founded the Church, died by crucifixion as a sacrifice to achieve atonement, rose from the dead, and ascended into Heaven, from where he will return.Most Christians believe Jesus enables people to be reconciled to God. The Nicene Creed asserts that Jesus will judge the living and the dead[33] either before or after their bodily resurrection,an event tied to the Second Coming of Jesus in Christian eschatology. The great majority of Christians worship Jesus as the incarnation of God the Son, the second of three persons of a Divine Trinity. A minority of Christian denominations reject Trinitarianism, wholly or partly, as non-scriptural.
In Islam, Jesus (commonly transliterated as Isa) is considered one of God‘s important prophets and the Messiah. Muslimsbelieve Jesus was a bringer of scripture and was born of a virgin but was not the Son of God. The Quran states that Jesus himself never claimed divinity.To most Muslims, Jesus was not crucified but was physically raised into Heaven by God.
Judaism, apart from Messianic Judaism movements, rejects the belief that Jesus was the awaited Messiah, arguing that he did not fulfill Messianic prophecies. Jewish views on Jesus are that he was neither divine nor resurrected.