historicity of Jesus

The historicity of Jesus (i.e., his existence as an actual historical figure), is accepted as a theological axiom by three world religions, Christianity, Islam and the Bahá’í Faith, based on their respective scriptures.

The earliest known sources are Christian writings - the New Testament - which, according to modern historians, were written only 20-30 years after Jesus died.

However, while Christianity considers Jesus to be the Christ (Messiah) and Son of God, and Islam views him only as a prophet, secular historians and followers of most other world religions (including Judaism) tend to regard him as an ordinary human. Messianic Judaism, however, also considers Jesus (Yeshua HaMashiach) to be the Jewish Messiah.

With few exceptions (such as Robert M. Price), scholars in the fields of biblical studies and history agree that Jesus was a Jewish teacher from Galilee who was regarded as a healer, was baptized by John the Baptist, was accused of sedition against the Roman Empire, and on the orders of Roman Governor Pontius Pilate was sentenced to death by crucifixion.

Most scholars, however, agree that Jesus was an historical figure regardless of their perspectives on His teaching, His message of salvation, or statements about Himself.

Greeting to the Seven Churches

⁴ John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, ⁵ and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood ⁶ and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. ⁷ Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.

⁸ "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty." (Revelation of Jesus Christ 1:4-8 ESV)

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Case For The Resurrection of Jesus Dr. William Lane Craig

The Defeat of Satan

The deceiver was given an advantage when Jesus was led into the desert to be tempted. Jesus was by Himself, none to pray for Him or to give Him any advice during this difficult time of temptation.

40 days.
No food.

Jesus knew His own strength, and could give Satan this advantage. We, on the other hand, dare not.

The Temptation of Jesus

1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.

3 The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread."
4 Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone.'"

5 The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And he said to him, "I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7 So if you worship me, it will all be yours."

8 Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.'"

9 The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down from here. 10 For it is written:

"'He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully;

11 they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'"

12 Jesus answered, "It says: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"

13 When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time. —Luke 4:1-13

Jesus was human, like us, depended upon the Father's Providence and promise. The Word of God is our sword, and faith in it, our shield. We must always know that God is faithful and, we can depend upon Him to keep His promises. He has many ways of providing for His children. Satan, on the other hand, tells nothing but lies and if given an inch he will take a mile. He will use any opportunity he has to trap, deceive, and ensnare you to your destruction. We need to reject, without omission, any and all of Satan's deceptions, all opportunities offering sinful advancement or personal gain that are offered as a price for our very souls. Rather, we ought to seek all things in worship and service only of God.

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Comparative religion

The Truth About Muhammad
(Book By Robert Spencer).

Comparative religion is a field of religious study that analyzes the similarities and differences of themes, myths, rituals and concepts among the world's religions. Religion can be defined as "Human beings' relation to that which they regard as holy, sacred, spiritual, or divine" (see also spiritual formation, divinity).

In the field of comparative religion, the main world religions are generally classified as either Abrahamic, Indian or Taoic. Areas of study also include creation myths and Humanism.

In the study of comparative religion, the category of Abrahamic religions consists of the three monotheistic religions, Christianity, Islam and Judaism, which claim Abraham (Hebrew: אברם 'Abram "exalted father," later to be named Avraham אַבְרָהָם "father of a multitude" or "chief of multitude" by God (אלהים  'elohiym), cf. Genesis 17:5 Arabic Ibrahim ابراهيم ) as a part of their sacred history. Other religions (such as the Bahá’í Faith) that fit this description are sometimes included but also often omitted.

The original belief in the One God of Abraham eventually became present-day Judaism. Christians believe that Christianity is the fulfillment and continuation of the Jewish Old Testament, recognizing Jesus as the Son of God.

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son of god

"Son of God" is a biblical phrase from the Hebrew bible, and the New Testament of the Christian bible. According to the bible, it refers to Jesus.

Throughout the New Testament the phrase "son of God" is applied repeatedly, in the singular, only to Jesus. "Sons of God" is applied to others only in the plural. The King James version of the New Testament calls Jesus God's "only begotten son"

(John 1:14, 3:16-18, 1 John 4:9)

• "begotten"
  Greek: μονογενής
  single of its kind, only


• "his own son" (Romans 8:3)


• "own"
  Greek: ἑαυτοῦ
  himself, herself, itself, themselves

It also refers to Jesus simply as "the son" in contexts in which "the Father" is used to refer to God.

16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 ESV

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Jesus the man

During the Sanhedrin Trial of Jesus, the high priests and elders asked Jesus, "Are you the Son of God?" When he replied, "You are right in saying I am," they condemned Jesus for blasphemy (Luke 22:70–71). The high priests then turned him over to the Roman procurator Pontius Pilate, based on an accusation of sedition for forbidding the payment of taxes Luke 23:1-2 and claiming to be King of the Jews. When Jesus came before Pilate, Pilate asked him, "Are you the king of the Jews?" to which he replied, "It is as you say." According to the Gospels, Pilate personally felt that Jesus was not guilty of any crime against the Romans, and since there was a custom at Passover for the Roman governor to free a prisoner (a custom not recorded outside the Gospels), Pilate offered the crowd a choice between Jesus of Nazareth and an insurrectionist named Barabbas. The crowd chose to have Barabbas freed and Jesus crucified. Pilate washed his hands to indicate that he was innocent of the injustice of the decision (Matthew 27:11–26).

According to all four Gospels, Jesus died before late afternoon at Calvary, which was also called Golgotha. The wealthy Judean Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Sanhedrin according to Mark and Luke, received Pilate's permission to take possession of Jesus' body, placing it in a tomb. According to John, Joseph was aided by Nicodemus, who joined him to help bury Jesus, and who appears in other parts of John's gospel (John 19:38–42). The three Synoptic Gospels tell of the darkening of the sky from twelve until three that afternoon; Matthew also mentions an earthquake (Matthew 27:51, the earth breaking open and a number of righteous dead people rising out of the grave and going into Jerusalem.

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Son of God

"Son of God" is a biblical phrase from the Hebrew bible, and the New Testament of the Christian bible. According to the bible, it refers to Jesus.

Throughout the New Testament the phrase "son of God" is applied repeatedly, in the singular, only to Jesus. "Sons of God" is applied to others only in the plural. The King James version of the New Testament calls Jesus God's "only begotten son"

(John 1:14, 3:16-18, 1 John 4:9 KJV)

"begotten"
Greek: μονογενής
single of its kind, only

"his own son" (Romans 8:3)

"own"
Greek: ἑαυτοῦ
himself, herself, itself, themselves

It also refers to Jesus simply as "the son" in contexts in which "the Father" is used to refer to God.

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The death of Jesus

The death of Jesus is an event described by the New Testament, as occurring after the Passion of Jesus, as a result of his crucifixion. In Christianity the quasi-annual day of commemoration of the event is a highly important feast day, known as Good Friday.

In the accounts, as Jesus is dying, a darkness appears over the land. The Gospel of Mark states it was at the sixth hour (noon). Some have interpreted the darkness as a solar eclipse, but this is astronomically impossible, since Jesus is described as dying around the time of the Passover, a date on the Hebrew calendar fixed to a full moon, while solar eclipses can only occur at a new moon. It is clearly phrased for dramatic effect, but it could simply mean that the day was overcast.

Both Matthew and Mark state that Jesus cried out his last words - My God, My God, why have you forsaken me, Mark indicating that it was the ninth hour (3 PM). John states that Jesus just said "I thirst." (John 19:28)

A passer is described by both the synoptics and John as then wetting a sponge with vinegar and offering it to Jesus via a stick, but the crowd is described as saying that they should wait to see if Elijah will come to save Jesus. John states that Jesus drank what was offered. Elijah fails to arrive, and shortly after the sponge is offered, Jesus [gives] up the ghost, crying out wordlessly (according to Matthew and Mark), or crying his last words according to Luke and John, and dying.

Luke and Mark report that the veil of the temple split at this point, but Matthew claims that there were earthquakes, splitting rocks, and that dead saints were resurrected. The synoptics report that the immediate events after Jesus' death led a centurion to say Truly this man is [a/the] Son of God (there is no article in the original Greek, so this could as equally be a Son of God as the Son of God), which might be considered a vindication of Jesus (Brown 147), or might be sarcastic (Miller 51). John makes no such supernatural claims, and doesn't mention the centurion.

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Jesus

Jesus¹ (8–2 BC/BCE to 29–36 AD/CE) is the central figure of Christianity. He is also called Jesus Christ, where "Jesus" is an Anglicization of the Greek: Ίησους (Iēsous), itself a Hellenization of the Hebrew יהושע (Yehoshua) or Aramaic ישוע (Yeshua), meaning "YHVH is salvation"; and where "Christ" is a title derived from the Greek christós, meaning the "Anointed One," which corresponds to the Hebrew-derived "Messiah." Jesus is the incarnate Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, and the prophesied Hebrew Messiah (Anointed One, deliverer of Israel). Jesus is also known as "Jesus Christ", "Jesus of Nazareth", and "Jesus the Nazarene."

Christian views of Jesus (known as Christology) are both diverse and complex. Most Christians are Trinitarian and affirm the Nicene Creed, believing that Jesus is both the Son of God and God made incarnate¹, sent to provide salvation and reconciliation with God by atoning for the sins of humanity (see also Christian worldview).

The most detailed accounts of Jesus' birth are contained in the Gospel of Matthew (probably written between 60 and 85 AD/CE) and the Gospel of Luke (probably written between 60 and 100 AD/CE). There is considerable debate about the details of Jesus' birth even among Christian scholars, and few scholars claim to know either the year or the date of his birth or of his death.

⁷He (Jesus) said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. ⁸But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." -Jesus (Acts 1:7-8)

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