Jesus

Born: 6-3 BC

Died: ~30 AD

Parents: God, Mary, Joseph (Stepfather)

Children: None

Spouse(s): None

Overview

Jesus was born between 6-3 BC in the town of Bethlehem to his mother Mary and father God. Shortly afterward, he moved with his family to Egypt to avoid persecution from King Herod. Later, when Herod died, he returned to Israel to live in the region of Nazareth.
At the age of 12 he visited Jerusalem for the feast of Passover with his family. He was left behind since they thought he was with the extended family. When they discovered he was missing they returned and searched Jerusalem, eventually finding him in the temple where Jesus told them: “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (Luke 2:49)


When he was approximately 30 years old, he visited John the Baptist at the Jordan where he was baptised by John. After this the Holy Spirit descended on him in the form of a dove and God spoke to him and said “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
After this, he went into the wilderness where satyed for 40 days he was tempted by “Satan”.
After overcoming the temptation he returned to the region of Galilee and began teaching the Good News of the Kingdom of God to anyone who would listen.
He called 12 disciples who followed him everywhere as he travelled around Israel teaching the people, performing great miracles and disputing with the ruling religious authorities of the time – primarily the Pharisees and the Sadducees. During this time his popularity grew and waned among various parts of the Jewish nation.
After approximately three and a half years, the religious leaders of the time, led by the High Priest Caiaphas, conspired to murder Jesus using false allegations and false witnesses. This was due to Jesus undermining their authority and threatening their power. They were helped in this by Juda, one of Jesus’ 12 disciples who betrayed him for 30 pieces of silvers.
After capturing Jesus, the efforts of the Jewish leaders to condemn Jesus at first failed since the false witnesses did not agree to the lies they were supposed to tell. In the end, the high priest commanded Jesus to tell them whether he was the son of God. When Jesus confessed that he was, he was condemned to death for Blasphemy (speaking evil against God).
The Jews were not allowed to execute people due to the rule of the Romans, so they sent Jesus to Pilate, the Roman governor of the time to have him executed by crucifixtion.
Pilate at first resisted their demands as he examined Jesus and did not find anything in him worthy of death. But in the end, to appease the Jews Pilate ordered his execution.
Jesus was crucified at Golgotha. At his death, there was an earthquake and the curtain that separated the Most Holy Place from the rest of the Temple was miraculously torn in two.
His body was taken by Joseph of Arimathea and buried in a new tomb belonging to Joseph. To protect against any hoax, the Pharisees and chief priests asked for and were granted Roman guards that were placed on the tomb in addition to a large stone being placed to block the entrance.
Despite these precautions, after three days another earthquake shook the earth and an angel appeared to roll back the stone. Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to many people, including his remaining disciples.
He commanded them to continue to spread the good news about the salvation that God offers all humankind. After 40 days, Jesus ascended into heaven.
Jesus continued to appear after his ascension to various people including:
Stephen
Paul
John
Jesus continues to work with God, his father to bring about the plan and purpose of God.
He has promised that one day he will return and establish the Kingdom of God on earth.

Je

Jesus is the cornerstone (foundation) upon which God built His plan of salvation1. Since God’s plan has been from the beginning2 God knew about the advent of Jesus well before he was born. God shared parts of this plan with people who were born before Jesus to give them hope that God had provided a way of salvation even for those that lived before Jesus.

The first appearance of Jesus in the plan of God is in Genesis 3:15. This was after the man Adam and his wife Eve had sinned by breaking the command of God. The consequences of this sin was death and various “curses” for Adam, Eve and the serpent who had misled Eve. However

In verse 15 God adds this detail about a conflict between the serpent and the woman:

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” (ESV Gen 3:15)

This is not a simple curse that created fear and dislike between humans and snakes, it alluded to another conflict between good and evil represented by the seed of the serpent (evil) and the seed of the woman who was ultimately represented by Jesus.

Jesus

There are two family trees provided for Jesus, one in Matthew and one in Luke. The two are quite different in who is included. This is intentional as the two author were writing for different audiences and included different ancestors to make certain points. For example: Matthew’s record begins at Abraham and includes many of the Jewish royalty and also a number of “Gentiles” such as Rahab and Ruth while Luke’s begins with Adam and skips over the notable gentiles (possibly because it was written after Luke). Matthew is also keen to create patterns of 14 whereas Luke does not. It is also possible that Luke was focussing on Mary’s lineage while Matthew instead records Joseph’s.

These difference explain why for example, In Matthew it records that Joseph’s father was Jacob while in Luke it says he was the “son of Heli”. The suggestion is that Joseph was Heli’s son-in-law. The significant of the Luke account shows that Jesus was of the line of King David through his mother as wel las his stepfather Joseph.

Joseph and Mary went on to have many other children after Jesus: James, Joses, Simon and Jude as well as multliple unnamed daughters.3

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Mary was mother of Jesus. When she was still a virgin, bethrothed to Joseph, the angel Gabriel came to tell Mary that she was about to fall pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit4 and that the child would be the Son of God. This came to pass and Joseph, when he found his fiance to be pregnant was going to separate from her without making an example of her despite her supposed unfaithfulness. But he was visited by an angel, this time in a dream, who told him about the miraculous nature of the child.5 As a result, Joseph took Mary to be his wife but did not have intercourse with her until after she had given birth to Jesus.6

At some point during her pregnancy, Mary visited her relative7 Elizabeth who was also pregnant at the time with John the Baptist . John was to play an important role in the life of Jesus was was six to nine months older than Jesus8. When they met, Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit that miraculously shared with her the importance of Mary’s child.

When Jesus was soon to be born, a decree was made by Caesar Augustus that a census was to take place.9

Joseph and Mary left Galilee in Nazareth to go to the city of Bethlehem because Joseph was of the house of David10. The exact reason they were required to go to Bethlehem is disputed. Joseph may have owned ancestral land in Bethlehem and thus be required to return due to Roman instructions as was seen in later censuses11. Another possibility was that the census was conducted using the traditional Jewish customs to minimise friction and as part of other political machinations12. Regardless, the return fulfiled the prophecy of Micah 5:2 that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem:

But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, being small among the clans of Judah, out of you one will come out to me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings out are from of old, from ancient times.
(Micah 5:2)

When Jesus was born, he was famously placed in a feeding trough (manger) because there was no room in the inn13. However, his birth was not unheralded. An angel appeared to shepherds who were in the fields nearby and told them of the shepherds that:

“For there is born to you today, in David’s city, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. This is the sign to you: you will find a baby wrapped in strips of cloth, lying in a feeding trough.”
(Luk 2:11-12)

This was followed by a multitude of angels singing praises to God14. The shepherds proceeded to visit the newborn Jesus. After 8 days, Jesus was circumcised in accordance with the law15.

After

Footnotes

  1. Psalm 118:22 ↩︎
  2. John 1:1 Note that “Word” is a translation of “logos”. This is complex topic that will be covered elsewhere but put simply for this context, God’s plan existed from the beginning. ↩︎
  3. Matthew 13:55-56 ↩︎
  4. Luke 1:35 ↩︎
  5. Matthew 1:20 ↩︎
  6. Matthew 1:25 ↩︎
  7. Luke 1:36 It is unclear how exactly Mary and Elizabeth were related. Since they were of different tribes (Judah and Levi), it is likely that it was through their mother’s side. ↩︎
  8. Luke 1:36 ↩︎
  9. Luke 2:1 The details of the census is disputed. Luke notes that it is the first census when Quirinius was governor of Syria. Quirinius is know to be the governor of Syria in CE 6 when he conducted a census that sparked revolts. That is well after the death of Herod the Great which is generally believed to be between 4-1 BC. Herod commanded the death of children in Bethlehem and the surrounds, likely two years after the birth of Jesus (cf. Mat 2:16) which makes Jesus’ birth at the latest 3 BC. However, there are other possibilities posited including: 1. That Quirinius was governor twice or 2. That the text should read “before” Quirinius was governor of Syria. That topic may be covered elsewhere in due course. ↩︎
  10. Luke 2:4 ↩︎
  11. https://www.kchanson.com/ANCDOCS/greek/census.html ↩︎
  12. Antiquities of the Jews (AJ 17.41–43) ↩︎
  13. Luke 2:7 ↩︎
  14. Luke 2:14 ↩︎
  15. Luke 2:21 ↩︎