The Rise of Christianity
The Life of Jesus Christ
The Life of Jesus
Sometime around 6 to 4 B.C. a Jew named Jesus was born in Bethlehem. He was raised in the village of Nazareth. Jesus was baptized by a prophet known as John the Baptist. When he was a young man, Jesus took up the trade of carpentry. When he was 30 years old, Jesus began his public ministry. For the next three years after he began his ministry, he preached, taught, and reportedly performed miracles.
The Teachings of Jesus
Jesus' teachings consisted of many ideas from Jewish culture to the principals of the Ten Commandments. He emphasized on God's special relationship with each and every human being. Jesus stressed on the importance of people's love for God, their neighbors, their enemies, and themselves. Jesus also taught that God would end all of the unrighteousness in the world and would build an eternal kingdom after death for the people who truthfully repented their sins. The primary source of his teachings are the Gospels, the first four books of the New Testament in the Bible. A few of the Gospels are thought to have been written by more than one of Jesus' disciples. His 12 disciples later became known as apostles. While Jesus preached going from one town to the next, his fame began to grow. Jesus attracted large groups of people. Many of them were touched by his message. Jesus ignored wealth and status and because of this, his message had a special appeal to the people that were poor. His messages were simple and direct.
The Death of Jesus
Jesus' growing reputation made both Roman and Jewish leaders uneasy. When Jesus visited Jerusalem around 29 A.D. the anxious greeted him as the Messiah, the one that God had promised would come and save the Jews. The head priests of the Jews, denied that he was the Messiah. They all said that Jesus' teachings were blasphemy. The Roman governor Pontius Pilate incriminated Jesus of provoking the authority of Rome. The Roman governor arrested Jesus and condemned him to be crucified. After the death of Jesus, his body was placed in a tomb. In accordance to the Gospels, three days later his body was no longer in the tomb he was placed in three days earlier. A living breathing Jesus began appearing to his disciples. The Gospels later go on to say that Jesus went to heaven after he died. The apostles believed more than ever that Jesus was the Messiah. It was from this very belief that Jesus became known as Jesus Christ. The word Christ come from the Greek word meaning messiah or savior. Christianity was also derived from the Christ.