I was just thinking, the entire world agrees that it is the year 2014. That year is based on the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. That is simply amazing to me. Its hard to deny the significance of the man. I then began reading about Jesus in Wikipedia article written about him. Here are eight facts I found interesting from the introduction and the first two sections, Etymology of names and Chronology. 1. Virtually all modern scholars of antiquity agree that Jesus existed historically. 2. Most scholars agree that Jesus was a Jewish rabbi from Galilee who preached his message orally, was baptized by John the Baptist, and was crucified in Jerusalem on the orders of the Roman prefect, Pontius Pilate. 3. Scholars have correlated the New Testament accounts with non-Christian historical records to arrive at an estimated chronology of Jesus life. The most widely used calendar era in the world (abbreviated as AD, alternatively referred to as CE), counts from a medieval estimate of the birth year of Jesus. 4. In Islam, Jesus (commonly transliterated as Isa) is considered one of Gods important prophets and the Messiah. 5. In Islam, Jesus (commonly transliterated as Isa) is considered one of Gods important prophets and the Messiah. To Muslims, Jesus is a bringer of scripture and was born of a virgin, but neither the Son of God nor the victim of crucifixion. According to the Quran, Jesus was not crucified but was physically raised into the heavens by God. 6. Since early Christianity, Christians have commonly referred to Jesus as Jesus Christ.The word Christ is derived from the Greek Χριστός (Christos), which is a translation of the Hebrew מָשִׁיחַ (Masiah), meaning the anointed and usually transliterated into English as Messiah. Christians designate Jesus as Christ because they believe he is the awaited Messiah prophesied in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). In post-biblical usage, Christ became viewed as a name—one part of Jesus Christ—but originally it was a title. The term Christian (meaning one who owes allegiance to the person Christ or simply follower of Christ) has been in use since the first century. 7. The four canonical gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) are the main sources for the biography of Jesus. Some early Christian and Gnostic groups had separate descriptions of the life and teachings of Jesus that are not included in the New Testament. These include the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Peter, and the Apocryphon of James, among many other apocryphal writings. Most scholars consider these much later and less reliable accounts than the canonical gospels. 8. In general, the authors of the New Testament showed little interest in an absolute chronology of Jesus or in synchronizing the episodes of his life with the secular history of the age.[91] As stated in John 21:25, the gospels do not claim to provide an exhaustive list of the events in the life of Jesus.[92] The accounts were primarily written as theological documents in the context of early Christianity, with timelines as a secondary consideration.[93] One manifestation of the gospels as theological documents rather than historical chronicles is that they devote about one third of their text to just seven days, namely the last week of the life of Jesus in Jerusalem, referred to as the Passion.[94] Although the gospels do not provide enough details to satisfy the demands of modern historians regarding exact dates, it is possible to draw from them a general picture of the life story of Jesus.
Posted on: Thu, 30 Oct 2014 10:22:03 +0000