3 - Jesus of Nazareth

Jesus

Everything we know today about Jesus’ life and the first century of Christianity, comes only from the Gospel and other Christian writings. In the Roman Empire of the first century, Christians were a tiny oriental cult that went unnoticed by historians of the period. The first reference to Christianity is described by Tacitus about the year 100, during the persecution ordered by Emperor Nero against the first Christians, when they were accused of causing the fire that destroyed the city of Rome in 64 AD. The birth of Jesus, during the reign of Emperor Augustus and his life and crucifixion during the reign of Emperor Tiberius, went largely unnoticed by the inhabitants of the Roman Empire, except for the distant province of Judea, where Jesus preached.

The Gospel are texts that describe the life and teachings of Jesus. There are more than thirty Gospels but only four belong to the Bible. These four Gospels were written in the late first century after the fire of Rome. Other gospels, known as apocryphal gospels, were written in the second century or later. The topic of how, where and when the four main Gospels were written will be discussed in a later chapter.

During the years after Jesus death and until the end of the first century, the teachings and life of Jesus were transmitted orally, with the alterations and natural contradictions that come with oral traditions. The Gospels themselves were modified over the centuries, from the copy of a manuscript to the next copy, and the oldest versions known today come from the fourth century. Consequently, the texts that have come to us, 2,000 years later, are not as complete nor as accurate as historians would like them to be, but the four Gospels known to every Christian allow us to draw some essential aspects of Jesus life.

The origin of Jesus (Greek form of Joshua) is unclear. The poetry of Christmas stories says that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, a small town south of Jerusalem. Many historians believe that Jesus was actually born in the Galilean village of Nazareth, as he was known as "the Nazarene" or "the Galilean". Jewish prophecies said that Bethlehem would be the birthplace of the Messiah, as a thousand years earlier had been the birthplace of King David, and it is possible that his followers in the first century adapted Jesus birth to these prophecies. His birth was estimated to be between 9 and 4 B.C.

It is strange to say that Jesus was born from nine to four years "before Christ", but this is due to an error of a Syrian monk, Dionysius Exiguus. Around the year 535 A.D., he argued that Jesus was born in 753 A.U.C. (753 years after the founding of Rome), error that was fixed centuries later, when it was inconvenient to renumber the years of the Christian era. When discussing the Chronology of Jesus’ life, historians only agree that Jesus started his public life around 29 A.D. The duration of his public life is unknown, but it probably was between 1 and 3 years.

The four Gospels do not make mention of Jesus' life before starting his preaching, except for a brief mention in the Gospel of Luke about a visit to the Temple of Jerusalem with his parents,  when Jesus was 12 years old. Jesus began his preaching when he was about 30 years old, which means that nothing is known about most of his life. He possibly spent his childhood in Nazareth with his parents and his brothers and sisters. For the vast majority of Christians it is a surprise that historians speak of brothers and sisters of Jesus of Nazareth, but they are mentioned several times in the Gospels (twice in the Gospel of Matthew, twice in the Gospel of Mark, once in the Gospel of Luke and twice in the Gospel of John) and in the Acts of the Apostles. Since the existence of blood brothers of Jesus of Nazareth is in contradiction with the dogma of the perpetual virginity of her mother Mary, the Catholic Church and other Christian denominations prefer to talk about "cousins" or "step brothers" instead of Jesus' brothers. His public life began when he met in the desert with the preacher named John the Baptist, who preached repentance to all Jews, followed by a purifying bath that ensured divine forgiveness in the coming Last Judgment.

After the arrest of John the Baptist by the year 28, during the reign of Emperor Tiberius, Jesus stopped baptizing and changed his preaching. Instead of bringing the repentant crowds into the desert to be baptized, as John did, he delivered a new and liberating message to all. People only needed love and compassion for everybody, without distinction of race, social status or nationality. This simple and new direction immediately offered to all the possibility of living at peace with God. Jesus reduced the demands of Jewish law to the love for God and he taught that the love for God is accomplished through the love for every human being. "Do unto others as ye would do to yourself ... A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another as I have loved you." Faith was essential to be with God. For Jesus, faith was total trust in God, and not intellectual and blind acceptance of doctrines about the nature of God, as subsequently was established when Christianity became a religion.

This bold message, proclaimed before crowds, was accompanied by spectacular healings that caused a great impression among those simple people for whom a disease was a hopeless curse. Jesus had a magnetic personality and he made selfless use of his power to heal. People saw this as a confirmation of his message and his teachings became popular.

Some of his disciples and followers began to call him the Messiah that the people expected. He also started to be called Son of God, Savior, Rabbi, son of David, Son of Man, etc. Perhaps Jesus did not personally arrogate himself none of those titles, but he accepted that people used them to characterize him. What mattered to him was that his message was accepted by the largest possible number of people. Jesus was sure to play a unique role in what he called the Kingdom of God already present.

Jesus gathered a group of devoted disciples whom he instructed carefully to disseminate his words. Twelve of these disciples accompanied him on his preaching and they are known as thetwelve apostles. They were, in order of choice:

    Simon, renamed by Jesus as Peter or Simon Peter.

    James, son of Zebedee.

    Andrew, Peter's brother and John the Baptist's disciple.

    John, the youngest of the twelve, also son of Zebedee.

    Philip from Bethsaida.

    Bartholomew, son of Talemai, also named Nathanael of Cana.

    Thomas, also called Didymus.

    Matthew the publican or tax collector.

    James, son of Alphaeus.

    Jude Thaddaeus, son of James.

    Simon theZealot.

    Judas Iscariot. Because of his betrayal of Jesus, he hanged himself and was replaced by Matthias.

    Matthias, the successor of Judas, elected by casting lots.

 They were all Galileans except Judas Iscariot, who was presumed from Judea.

The preaching of Jesus did not intend to create a new sect or religion. He and his disciples were devout Jews and did not depart from the mandates of Judaism. His famous words "You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church", from the Gospel of Matthew, is the main point argued by the Catholic Church to attribute its foundation to Jesus. But Jesus and his disciples (while he lived) were "fishers of men" and never bothered with theology, ceremonies, sacraments, priesthood, hierarchical organization, etc. In the Gospel, the word "church" should not be understood as a current or future institution or as a building dedicated to the worship of God. The ancient Semitic equivalent of the word "church" or "ekklesia" designated the general meeting of the Jewish people before God.

The Jewish priests watched with irritation and jealousy as Jesus attracted more and more people. Although Jesus preached a doctrine of rejection of violence, they were concerned about problems with the Romans caused by an outbreak of messianism. The new Roman procurator, Pontius Pilate, had given clear signs that he was going to drown in blood any revolt.

In year 29 or 30 A.D., Jesus traveled to Jerusalem to celebrate Easter. There, a crowd hailed him as the expected Messiah. The religious authorities quietly arrest him to avoid riots among his followers, with the complicity of Judas, one of his disciples. He was taken before the Roman procurator Pontius Pilate and before the Jewish King Herod Antipas (son and successor of Herod the Great), and was accused of treason against Rome. For the Romans, to claim to be the messiah was considered as to claim to be king of the Jews, and only the emperor had the right to appoint kings. Therefore, Jesus received the usual treatment that Roman law gave to traitors, and he was crucified as another rebel.

After the crucifixion of Jesus, his disciples fled and hid to escape persecution. The failure seemed complete, for Jesus left behind no writings or organized group, and his message was discredited by his death. However, the scattered and dispirited disciples were torn from their hiding places, as they recalled, by mysterious appearances of Jesus exhorting them to resume the interrupted work, affirming that he had conquered death. Numerous disciples resumed with new courage the dissemination of Jesus message and told the story of his resurrection. The initial impetus was given and from there, the words of Jesus would spread throughout the Roman Empire.

Next Chapter: The early years of Christianity



The chapters published up to now can be consulted in the INDEX OF PUBLISHED CHAPTERS.

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