The New Testament of the Bible contains accounts of the life of Jesus as well as his teachings. Jesus was a religious leader. Jesus is considered by many Christians all over the globe to be the embodiment of God and to play a pivotal role in the development of the Christian religion.
Who Was Jesus Christ?
Bethlehem was the location of Jesus Christ’s birth in the year 6 B.C. There is not much information available regarding his early life; nonetheless, the events of his life and ministry are documented in the New Testament, which is considered to be more of a theological source than a biography.
Christians believe that Jesus was an incarnation of God and that his teachings should be followed as an example of how to live a more spiritual existence. Christians believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay for the sins of the entire world and then resurrected from the dead.
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Background and Early Life
The majority of the events that took place in Jesus’ life are detailed in the canonical gospels included in the New Testament of the Bible. These four gospels were written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. They are not biographies in the way that we use the term today; rather, they are stories with an allegorical focus. They were composed with the purpose of inspiring readers to have trust in Jesus as the promised Messiah as well as the incarnation of God who came to earth to educate, suffer, and die for the transgressions of others.
Bethlehem was the location of Jesus’ birth in the year 6 B.C. Mary, his mother, was a young woman who had not yet given birth when she was engaged to Joseph, a carpenter. The doctrine of the “Immaculate Conception” holds that Jesus was conceived without sin. It is possible to trace his ancestry all the way back to the house of David. According to the first verse of the Gospel of Matthew (2:1), Jesus was born during the reign of Herod the Great.
Upon hearing of Jesus’ birth, Herod felt threatened, and he sought to murder Jesus by ordering the deaths of all of the male children in Bethlehem who were under the age of two years old. But Joseph received a warning from an angel, so he took Mary and the baby to Egypt until Herod died. After that, he brought the family back to Israel and settled in the town of Nazareth, which is located in the Galilee region.
There is not a lot of information available on the early life of Jesus. The story is told in Luke’s Gospel (2:41-52) that when Jesus was 12 years old, he joined his parents on a trip to Jerusalem but they lost track of him while they were there. A few days later, he was discovered talking about current events with some of the city’s most senior citizens at a temple.
There are scattered allusions to the fact that, when he was a young adult, Jesus worked as a carpenter throughout the New Testament. It is thought that at the age of 30, he began his ministry by being baptized by John the Baptist, who, upon seeing Jesus, proclaimed him to be the Son of God. John the Baptist carried out this rite.
Following his baptism, Jesus entered the Judean desert, where he would spend the next forty days and nights fasting and meditating. The accounts of Christ’s testing in the wilderness may be found in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke (known as the Synoptic Gospels).
Jesus was confronted by Satan on three separate occasions, and each time, he was tempted in a different way: once to transform stones into bread; once to throw himself off a mountain in the hope that angels would save him; and once to offer him all of the kingdoms in the world. Jesus was tempted three times, and each time he turned down the Devil’s offer and sent him away.
Jesus’ Ministry
Jesus went back to Galilee and began traveling to the communities that were nearby. Around this period, a number of people decided to follow him and become his followers. One of these was Mary Magdalene, who is named for the first time in the Gospel of Luke (8:1–3) and who is later referenced in all four gospels at the time of the crucifixion.
She is thought to have been participating in Jesus’ ministry from the very beginning all the way through his death and thereafter, despite the fact that she is not named in the context of the “12 disciples.” After his resurrection, Jesus is said to have made his first appearance to Mary Magdalene, at least according to the gospels of Mark and John.
According to the Gospel of John, chapter 2, verses 1-11, during the start of Jesus’ career, he and his followers, together with his mother Mary, went to a wedding at Cana, which is located in the region of Galilee. Jesus’ mother had come to seek his assistance since the host of the wedding had ran out of wine. After first refusing to get involved, Jesus eventually changed his mind and requested one of his servants to bring him some big jars that had been filled with water. He transformed the water into wine of superior quality than that any other wine that was served at the wedding. The gospel according to John portrays the incident as the first proof of Jesus’ splendor and the belief that his followers had in him.
Jesus, his mother Mary, and his followers left the wedding early to make the journey to Jerusalem for the Passover celebration. They witnessed money changers and merchants selling things while they were at the temple. Jesus, in a rather unusual display of fury, flipped over the tables and drove the merchants out of the house with a whip made of cords. He did this while proclaiming that his Father’s house is not a place for business transactions.
The Synoptic Gospels tell the story of Jesus as he journeyed across Judea and Galilee. As he went, he performed miracles and spoke parables to demonstrate how the prophecies were coming true and that the kingdom of God was drawing close. More and more people began to join Jesus as news spread about his teaching and his ability to heal those who were sick and afflicted.
Jesus at one point went to a level place and saw a large crowd of people already there waiting for him there. There, during the Sermon on the Mount, Christ delivered a series of speeches that are collectively referred to as the Beatitudes. These statements are considered to be an encapsulation of many of the spiritual teachings pertaining to love, humility, and compassion.
When Jesus continued to speak about the kingdom of God, the crowds got bigger and began to declare him as the son of David and as the Messiah. They also began to call him the Son of Man (Messiah). As soon as the Pharisees got wind of this, they confronted Jesus in public and accused him of being possessed by Satan and his power. He justified his conduct by telling a parable, after which he questioned their reasoning and warned them that their way of thinking contradicted the might of God. This only served to further cement their desire to work against him.
Jesus had a conversation with his disciples in the region around the city of Caesarea Philippi. Matthew (16:13), Mark (8:27), and Luke (9:18) all record that he posed the question, “Who do you claim that I am?” in their respective gospels. The question seemed to baffle everyone, and only Peter spoke forward to answer it by claiming that Jesus was the Christ and the Son of the Living God. Jesus bestowed his blessings onto Peter, taking the names of “Christ” and “Son of God,” and proclaimed that the announcement was a heavenly revelation from God. After that, Jesus anointed Peter as the head of the church and gave him authority over it. Jesus then proceeded to forewarn his followers of the plot that the Pharisees had devised against him, as well as his destiny to endure suffering and death, and then rise from the dead on the third day.
A little less than a week later, Jesus led three of his followers up a mountain to a secluded area where they might pray in privacy. According to the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus’ face started to shine like the sun, and his entire body gleamed with white light. In addition, the Synoptic Gospels say that Jesus’ feet began to glow. The prophets Elijah and Moses then materialized, and Jesus engaged in conversation with them. They were suddenly surrounded by a brilliant cloud, and they heard a voice saying, “This is my most cherished Son, in whom I take great delight; pay attention to what he has to say.” This particular occurrence, which is referred to as the Transfiguration, is an important turning point in Christian theology. This lends credence to the idea that Jesus is in fact the Christ, the eternal Son of God who is still active in the world.
Jesus arrived in Jerusalem on a donkey one week before the Passover celebration. His arrival took place during this week. At the entrance to the city, a large number of people greeted him with palm branches and offered them to him. They lauded Jesus as both the Son of David and the Son of God at the same time. Fearful of the rising public acclaim, the priests and Pharisees came to the conclusion that Jesus ought to be stopped.
The final week that Jesus spent in Jerusalem is detailed in each of the four Gospels. During this period, Jesus challenged moneychangers and merchants in the temple, resurrected Lazarus from the grave, and engaged in a dispute with the high priests who questioned Jesus’s authority. His disciples asked him about the future, and he revealed to them that the temple in Jerusalem will be demolished.
Around this time, the high priest Caiaphas, along with the chief priests and elders, had a meeting to discuss how they could capture Jesus. Judas, one of the disciples, went to see the chief priests and explained to them how he was going to hand Jesus up to them. They came to an agreement that they would pay him thirty pieces of silver.
The Last Supper
After the Passover dinner, Jesus and his followers gathered together, and he shared his final teachings on faith with them. He also prophesied that one of the disciples would be the one to betray him, and he let Judas know in secret that it would be him. Jesus warned Peter that by the time a rooster crowed the next morning, he would have denied knowing Jesus three times. Jesus spoke this to Peter before he died. In the Christian religion, the celebration of the Eucharist, which takes place at the end of a meal, is symbolic of the covenant that exists between God and human beings.
Following the breaking of the bread at the Last Supper, Jesus and his disciples proceeded to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus prayed to God that he could be spared the anguish and death that he was destined to endure. He pleaded with a group of his disciples to pray with him, but they continued to nod off during the conversation. The hour had consequently arrived. Judas was present when the soldiers and authorities showed up, and he was with them.
The soldiers took Jesus into custody after he was identified by the man by giving him a peck on the cheek. One of the disciples attempted to put up a fight against being taken into custody, brandishing his sword, and severing the ear of one of the soldiers. Yet Jesus corrected him and then cured the soldier’s wound at the same time.
Once Jesus was taken into custody, many of the disciples fled into hiding. Jesus was brought before the high priest, where he was questioned. When he did not answer, he was struck and spit upon. Peter, in the meantime, had followed Jesus all the way to the court of the high priests. Three of the house servants approached him as he crouched in the darkness and questioned whether he was one of Jesus’ followers. Each time, he denied that he was one of Jesus’ disciples. A rooster’s crow could be heard following each denial.
Then Jesus was brought outside of the house and turned his attention to Peter who was standing nearby. Peter grieved severely as he recalled how Jesus had informed him that he would deny knowing him in the future. Judas, who was standing off to the side and watching the events unfold, eventually got heartbroken about his decision to betray Jesus and made an effort to get the 30 pieces of silver back. The priests informed him that he was solely responsible for his own guilt. Once he had committed himself by hanging himself, he tossed the money into the shrine.
The Crucifixion
The following day, Jesus was carried to the high court, where he was insulted, beaten, and sentenced for claiming to be the Son of God. This took place on the day of his crucifixion. He was delivered over to Pontius Pilate, who was the Roman ruler of Judea at the time. The priests accused Jesus of boasting about becoming the ruler of the Jews and pleaded for him to be put to death as a result of their accusations. Pilate first attempted to hand Jesus over to King Herod, but after Jesus was brought back, Pilate said to the Jewish priests that he was unable to find any fault in Jesus’s actions.
The priests reminded him that everyone who claimed to be a king spoke out against Caesar, and they warned him against following their example. Pilate formally absolved himself of guilt for the crucifixion, yet he nonetheless gave the order to carry it out in response to the demands of the multitude. Jesus was scourged and beaten by Roman troops before they placed a crown of thorns on his head, then dragged him away to be crucified on Mount Calvary.
Jesus was executed on the cross beside two thieves; one was placed to his left, while the other was placed to his right. The accusation against him read “King of the Jews” and was displayed over his head. Mary, his mother, and Mary Magdalene were both seated at his feet when he was crucified. The Gospels provide a detailed account of the activities that took place during the final three hours of Jesus’s life.
These activities include the mocking that Jesus endured at the hands of the multitude and the soldiers, as well as his pain and his outbursts. The sky became dark as Jesus was dying on the cross, and as soon as he passed away, an earthquake occurred, which tore the curtain that was hanging in the temple from top to bottom. The only thing that came out of his side when a soldier stuck a spear into him was water, so they knew he was dead. After being brought down from the cross, Jesus was laid to rest in a tomb not far away.
Risen from the Dead
The tomb of Jesus was discovered to be empty three days after he died. Christ had risen from the grave and made his first appearance to Mary Magdalene, who was soon followed by his mother, Mary. Both of them shared the news with the disciples, who were hiding out at the time; later, Jesus showed up to reassure them that there was nothing to be scared of. During this small window of opportunity, he pleaded with his followers to spread the good news of the gospel to every person on the face of the earth.
During a period of forty days, Jesus brought his followers to Mount Olivet, which is located to the east of Jerusalem. Before being carried into heaven atop a cloud and departing this world, Jesus gave his followers one more message in which he promised that the Holy Spirit would give them the ability to do God’s will.
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