Jesus Christ

Jesus, commonly known as Jesus of Nazareth, was a preacher who lived in Roman-ruled Judea in the first century AD. “Christ” comes from the Greek christos, corresponding to the Hebrew “Messiah” (Mashiach), meaning “anointed one.” In Christianity, believers regard him as the Son of God and the Savior of humanity; in Judaism and Islam, his identity is understood differently. Most historians agree that he was a real person who preached in Galilee and was executed in Jerusalem on the orders of the Roman governor.

Jesus is important above all because Christianity began with him. Christian doctrine, worship, church organization, and the system of dating known as the Christian era all center on his life, Passion, and resurrection. His image has also profoundly influenced art, literature, and music in the West and around the world. At the same time, the historical sources concerning him consist mainly of religious texts written later. How to reconstruct the “historical Jesus,” and how his words and deeds relate to the faith that subsequently developed, have therefore remained central questions in scholarship and religious thought.

This article proceeds chronologically and thematically. It first explains his names and the available sources, then introduces his historical setting, life, teachings, Passion, and resurrection. It next discusses his theological status and the formation of the early church, tracing Christianity’s development within the Roman Empire. It then compares portrayals of Jesus in other religious traditions, examines his representation in art and culture, and reviews debates in historical scholarship. Finally, it explains systems of dating, festivals, and contemporary communities of believers.

Names, Titles, and Etymology

The Name Jesus

The English name Jesus is a transliteration of the Greek Ἰησοῦς (Iēsoûs). The Greek form corresponds to the Hebrew and Aramaic Yeshua, which is the Aramaic form and a shortened Hebrew form of Yehoshua. The name is commonly interpreted as meaning “salvation” or “Yahweh saves”; some scholars hold that both names mean “Yahweh saves.” The birth narrative in the first chapter of Matthew draws on this meaning: the angel, speaking in Hebrew, makes a play on the child's name by connecting it with the word for “save.” The Greek Septuagint uses Iēsoûs to transliterate the Hebrew/Aramaic name Yeshua. Later, Hebrew speakers used the shorter form Yeshu to refer to the Jesus of Christianity, while Yehoshua continued to be used for other people bearing the same name.

Christ and Messiah

“Christ” (Christos) is a Greek word. In the Septuagint, the Hebrew term is translated as χριστός (christos), meaning “anointed one,” from the verb χρίω (chrio), meaning “to apply ointment” or “to anoint with oil.” Its Hebrew equivalent is mashiach (Messiah in English, usually transliterated as “弥赛亚” in Chinese). The two terms have the same meaning: “anointed one.” In the ancient Near East, anointing was one means of conferring kingship, as an alternative to coronation: the practice of granting royal authority to a new ruler through anointing rather than coronation is attested eleven times in records from the region. In later Jewish tradition, the term increasingly came to refer to an eschatological figure who was expected to come from David's royal line and rule as a sacred king. Thus, the literal meaning of “Jesus Christ” is close to “Jesus as the Messiah.” The word Christ occurs approximately 531 times in the New Testament and is the title most frequently applied to Jesus.

Other Designations in the Gospels

Designations such as “the Nazarene” (ho Nazōraios) and “Jesus of Nazareth” distinguish people with the same name by their place of origin. Other individuals were likewise distinguished by the addition of designations particular to them. Such designations emphasize geographical origins rather than theological identity, and scholarly interpretations of them are relatively straightforward.

“Son of David” places Jesus within messianic expectations associated with David's royal line. In the context of these established expectations, “Son of David” refers to the anticipated “King of the Jews,” the one anointed by God. Matthew opens with a Davidic genealogy, identifying Jesus in its very first verse as the son of David and the son of Abraham. Jesus himself, however, never uses this designation for himself, and it appears only in the first three Gospels, known as the Synoptic Gospels.

“Son of Man” (ho huios tou anthrōpou) is one of the most common self-designations in the Gospels, occurring approximately 80 times across the four Gospels. It derives from the description in Daniel 7 of a “son of man” figure coming with the clouds of heaven. Scholars differ sharply over its meaning: some argue that the designation was not widely understood as a messianic title in Jesus' time; others maintain that it became a messianic title in Jesus' usage. In the Synoptic Gospels, the only titles Jesus uses to refer to himself are “the Son” and “the Son of Man.”

The term “Son of God” had a relatively broad range of uses in Jewish tradition. In intertestamental Judaism, it was used primarily to refer to Israel and its righteous people, and never specifically to the Messiah. The Gospels further develop the theological implications of this designation, but that subject falls within the scope of the later section on “Christology.”

From Title to Proper Name

In early Christian writings in Greek, “Christ” was often used alongside Jesus' name, producing two word orders: Iēsous Khristos (Jesus Christ) and Khristos Iēsous (Christ Jesus). New Testament authors generally refer to Jesus as Iēsous Khristos (“Jesus Christ” or “Jesus the Messiah”) or Khristos Iēsous. This combined usage gradually transformed “Christ” from a title denoting an office into a fixed designation for Jesus. In the Greek New Testament, the Hebrew word mashiach appears in transliterated form: in the King James Version of the New Testament, this term is rendered as messias (John 1:41; 4:25), whereas Christos is a translation of its meaning. The coexistence of the two forms itself illustrates the term's dual character.

In the Latin tradition, Christus became the equivalent of the Greek Christos and entered the languages of Europe. In everyday usage in modern English and Chinese, “Christ” is often treated as though it were Jesus' surname. Some theologians criticize this habit for weakening the original meaning of the title “anointed one,” arguing that, for many people, “Christ” has virtually become Jesus' last name. This view is quite common in theological writing, although some scholars maintain that “Christ” still retains a clear messianic meaning in the early epistles.

史料来源与可靠性

Paul, the Gospels and Acts

The earliest surviving Christian writings are Paul's letters. Scholars generally accept seven as authentic (Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians and Philemon), dating them to roughly 50–60 CE, about two decades after the crucifixion. They focus on Christ's death, resurrection and the meaning of his status, and say little about his earthly life. Ephesians, Colossians and 2 Thessalonians are often judged to be written in Paul's name, and the Pastoral Epistles (1–2 Timothy, Titus) are usually dated to the late first or early second century.

The four canonical Gospels were all composed in Greek, decades after the events they describe, and none names its author in the text. Mark is usually placed around 65–75 CE and is widely regarded as the earliest. Matthew and Luke, which both appear to draw on Mark and a hypothetical sayings source called Q, are commonly dated to about 80–90 CE. John, which follows a distinct tradition, is usually placed around 90–100 CE. The traditional names of the authors were attached by second-century church writers. Acts is traditionally ascribed to Luke, the author of the third Gospel, since both works share a dedicated preface. Acts is typically dated to the 80s–90s, although some scholars argue for the 60s because the book ends with Paul under house arrest in Rome.

These texts reached the modern era through copies on papyrus and later parchment, and they stand at the end of a period of oral transmission. The Synoptic Gospels' overlapping wording and their differences (for instance, the chronology of Jesus's last week in John compared with the Synoptics) are the reason scholars speak of a Synoptic problem. In historical method, these sources are primary for the early Christian community, but their theological purposes limit what they can show about Jesus alone.

Non-Christian sources: Josephus and Tacitus

The Jewish historian Josephus completed his Antiquities of the Jews in the 90s CE, and it contains the Testimonium Flavianum (Ant. 18.63–64), the longest mention of Jesus in a non-Christian author. Its authenticity remains disputed. Louis H. Feldman surveyed the relevant literature from 1937 to 1980 in Josephus and Modern Scholarship. Feldman noted that 4 scholars regarded the Testimonium Flavianum as entirely genuine, 6 as mostly genuine, 20 accept it with some interpolations, 9 with several interpolations, and 13 regard it as being totally an interpolation. Several arguments carry weight. Writers earlier than Eusebius do not cite the passage, and Origen reports that Josephus did not regard Jesus as the Messiah. Editors such as Niese placed the passage in brackets as a probable interpolation. Partial-authenticity theories have been popular since the mid-twentieth century, and in them a Christian scribe is thought to have added or reworded phrases. Those who defend the text note that its vocabulary matches Josephus's style: the book employs stylometric analysis to demonstrate that the Testimonium Flavianum closely matches Josephus' style. Debate continues over the original wording, and a number of scholars have asserted that it contained some unfavorable references to Jesus, the overwhelming majority assert nowadays that it was originally neutral. The conclusions are divided: a 2024 review judges that the arguments against authenticity outweigh those that would retain the passage as Josephan, while another study concludes that the consensus of scholarship has been that the passage is authentic but corrupt.

Tacitus, writing in his Annals around 116 CE, offers a second non-Christian witness. In book 15, chapter 44, he discusses Nero's persecution of Christians after the Great Fire of 64 CE and says that the movement's founder, who simply says that he put Jesus to death, was executed under Tiberius by Pontius Pilate. Historians treat this as an independent Roman report, not a Christian text, but it is brief. Two additional chapters of Tacitus's Annals that might have mentioned Pilate have been lost. Manuscript evidence also includes a variant spelling of the name "Chrestians" versus "Christians"; some argue that Tacitus may have repeated what Christians already claimed about Jesus, while others think the report draws on an administrative record. Suetonius (who mentions a "Chrestus" in the reign of Claudius) and Pliny the Younger's letter to Trajan (c. 112 CE) add evidence for early Christian communities.

Apocrypha and early extra-canonical texts: the Gospel of Thomas

Non-canonical gospels are useful for showing how tradition developed, though they are rarely reliable for the historical Jesus. The best-known example is the Gospel of Thomas. The Gospel of Thomas (also known as the Coptic Gospel of Thomas) is a non-canonical sayings gospel. It is not a narrative account of Jesus' life but consists of logia (sayings) attributed to Jesus, sometimes stand-alone, sometimes embedded in short dialogues or parables; 13 of its 16 parables are also found in the Synoptic Gospels. Its Coptic text was found in 1945 at Nag Hammadi, Egypt, and three separate Greek portions of this gospel had already been discovered in Oxyrhynchus, Egypt, in 1898.

Dating is contested. Most scholars place the composition during the second century, while some have proposed dates as late as 250 AD and others have traced signs of origins to 60 AD. Most scholars conclude that Thomas depends on or harmonizes the Synoptics. A minority argues that some of its sayings may be early. One popular author proposes that some of the sayings found in the Gospel of Thomas predate the canonical Gospels, but this view remains a minority position. The text also differs theologically from the canon: Christian writings from the 1st century that discuss God's kingdom universally treat it as a future event. Thomas's approach differs on that point, which is one reason many scholars date it later.

Other apocryphal texts, including the Protevangelium of James (on Mary's birth and childhood), the Infancy Gospel of Thomas (childhood miracles) and the Gospel of Peter (a passion narrative known from fragments), supply details absent from the canonical Gospels. Their late dates and devotional or legendary aims make them unreliable as historical sources, and historians usually use them only to study later Christian imagination.

Historical Background: Judea in the Second Temple Period

Roman Rule and the Herodian Dynasty

In 63 BC, Pompey captured Jerusalem, bringing Judea under Roman suzerainty. Rather than governing the territory directly, Rome installed client rulers. In 40 BC, the Roman Senate proclaimed Herod (Herod the Great) king of the Jews. He captured Jerusalem in 37 BC and ruled until his death in 4 BC. Herod greatly expanded the Jerusalem Temple, but his rule depended on Roman support, and his position among the Jewish population remained insecure.

After Herod’s death, his kingdom was divided among several of his sons. Archelaus governed Judea and Samaria until Augustus deposed him in AD 6. Judea then came under the direct administration of governors appointed by Rome, later known as provincial governors or procurators. These included Pontius Pilate, who served from AD 26 to 36. Based in Caesarea, the governor controlled judicial affairs and taxation and could influence the appointment and removal of the high priest. Other members of the Herodian dynasty continued to rule neighboring territories: Herod Antipas governed Galilee and Perea until AD 39, and Philip governed the northeastern territories until AD 34. From AD 41 to 44, Herod Agrippa I briefly reunited Judea and other territories, marking one of the few periods of Jewish rule during this era.

Direct rule brought persistent friction. During his reign from AD 37 to 41, Emperor Caligula ordered a statue of himself as a god to be erected in the Temple, provoking fierce Jewish resistance. This episode illustrates the fundamental tension between Roman religious policy and Jewish faith.

Major Groups: Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, and Zealots

Josephus described the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes as three philosophical schools, using the Greek term haireseis. Their numbers were limited, however, and most Jews belonged to no sect.

• Pharisees: They had the greatest influence among ordinary people. They valued oral tradition alongside the written Law, believed in resurrection and the existence of angels, and often served as teachers in synagogues. They are the group most frequently mentioned in the New Testament Gospels. After the destruction of the Temple in AD 70, Pharisaic thought became the foundation of rabbinic Judaism; see Pharisees.
• Sadducees: Drawn largely from the priestly and aristocratic classes, they oversaw the Temple and its sacrifices and cooperated more closely with the Roman authorities. They rejected the oral Law, advocated a literal interpretation of the Pentateuch, and denied resurrection. The group gradually disappeared after the Temple’s destruction.
• Essenes: They are known chiefly from the writings of Josephus, Philo, and Pliny, as well as related texts among the Dead Sea Scrolls. They emphasized ritual purity and communal living; some practiced celibacy, and they were critical of the sacrificial practices at the Jerusalem Temple. The precise relationship between the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Essenes remains disputed.
• Zealots: Josephus referred to this movement as the “Fourth Philosophy.” Judas the Galilean launched it around AD 6, during a Roman census, advocating refusal to pay taxes to Rome on the grounds that doing so amounted to enslavement. Its members were the principal leaders of the Great Jewish Revolt of AD 66–73. The defenders of Masada committed mass suicide in AD 73 or 74, and the episode ended with the Romans capturing the fortress.

These groups differed both theologically and politically. The Pharisees and Sadducees served together in the Sanhedrin, yet remained longstanding rivals.

Expectations of the Messiah and the Kingdom of God

“Messiah” means “anointed one” and originally referred to a king or priest who had been anointed. Expectations during the Second Temple period were not uniform. Scholars broadly distinguish several orientations: political expectations of liberation from foreign rule and restoration of the Davidic dynasty; priestly expectations, especially in certain Dead Sea Scrolls texts, in which two anointed figures—a king and a priest—would appear together at the end of days; and groups that placed no hope in a Messiah at all.

Closely related to these expectations were eschatology and apocalyptic literature. The Book of Daniel was among the most influential texts: its visions of the end times and chronological calculations inspired many later works. Texts such as 1 Enoch, the Book of Jubilees, the Psalms of Solomon, and the Dead Sea Scrolls depicted the end of “this age”: the wicked would be punished, the righteous would rise from the dead, a new heaven and a new earth would come, and the kingdom of God would be fully established. Apocalyptic works were typically written under the names of ancient holy figures, conveyed their messages through visions and angelic revelations, and held that God had predetermined the course of history.

Scholars still disagree over how widespread these expectations were in Jewish society at the time. One view holds that hopes for the end times permeated all social strata; another maintains that many Jews did not make the idea of a Messiah central to their lives. In any case, the intellectual environment of this period supplied language and concepts for the later Jesus movement and early Christianity. For related discussions, see entries such as Second Temple period and Messiah.

Birth and Early Life

The Two Nativity Accounts

Among the canonical Gospels, only Matthew 1–2 and Luke 1–2 contain nativity accounts. They agree on several central points: Joseph is described as a descendant of David, Mary conceives through the Holy Spirit, Jesus is born in Bethlehem, and the family later settles in Nazareth. Both regard Joseph as a descendant of David; both say that Mary conceived through the action of the Holy Spirit; and both say that Jesus was born in Bethlehem and subsequently grew up in Nazareth.

Their narrative frameworks differ considerably. Matthew’s story is told from Joseph’s perspective: an angel appears to Joseph, magi from the East pay homage in a house, Herod orders the killing of young children, and the family flees to Egypt before eventually returning to Nazareth. Luke’s story, by contrast, centers on Mary: the angel Gabriel announces the birth to her in Nazareth, an imperial decree leads the couple to travel to Bethlehem, the infant is laid in a manger, shepherds come to pay homage, and the family returns to Galilee after completing the Temple rites. In Matthew, Jesus receives homage from magi from the distant East; in Luke, he receives homage from nearby shepherds. Both genealogies trace Joseph’s family line, but in opposite directions, and their lists and details differ considerably. Unlike Matthew’s genealogy, Luke’s is not part of the nativity account.

Scholars differ sharply over the historical value of these accounts. Some argue that if Luke really was a meticulous historian, he could not have been unaware of the massacre of infants in Bethlehem, yet he says nothing about it; if he knew of it, why did he omit it? Others have attempted to reconcile the two accounts. Some, for example, believe that Matthew implies that the family stayed in Bethlehem for an extended period, perhaps as long as two years, which would be consistent with the account of Herod ordering the execution of boys aged two and under in Bethlehem. A more radical view, represented by scholars such as Geza Vermes, holds that the nativity stories were prologues added later to the main Gospel narratives to surround the newborn Jesus with an aura of miracle and mystery, corresponding to Jesus’s resurrection at the end of the Gospels.

Estimating the Date of Birth

Both Matthew and Luke associate Jesus’s birth with the reign of King Herod (Luke 1:5; Matthew 2:1). Estimates of his birth date therefore depend chiefly on the date of Herod’s death. Herod, born around 73 BCE and deceased in March or April 4 BCE in Jericho, Judea, was the Roman-appointed king of Judea, reigning from 37 to 4 BCE. The traditional view connects his death with a lunar eclipse recorded by Josephus, identifying it as the eclipse of March 13, 4 BCE. This date rests on the account in Josephus’s Antiquities of the Jews 17.6.4, which states that a lunar eclipse occurred shortly before Herod’s death and has traditionally been associated with the eclipse of March 13, 4 BCE.

This identification, however, is uncertain. John A. Cramer argues that Herod the Great most likely died after the lunar eclipse of December 29, 1 BCE, rather than the eclipse of March 13, 4 BCE; this view can be traced back to nineteenth-century scholars. Most New Testament scholars nevertheless continue to date Jesus’s birth to 4 BCE or earlier. A common dating among the early Church Fathers was 3–2 BCE.

There are two principal methods for estimating the year of Jesus’s birth. One relies on the Gospel accounts of his birth, using the dates of King Herod’s reign as a reference. The other subtracts his age—“about thirty,” according to Luke—from the date when he began his ministry. The latter method yields a date of roughly 2 BCE, which does not fully agree with the estimate based on Herod’s reign.

The traditional dating of Jesus’s birth to 1 CE is therefore problematic. The sixth-century monk Dionysius Exiguus placed Jesus’s birth in 1 CE when devising his dating system, but according to the Gospel narratives, this year falls after King Herod’s death. Luke explicitly states that Jesus was born in Bethlehem during the census conducted under Quirinius, placing the event around 6–7 CE. This creates an even greater tension between Luke’s and Matthew’s chronological frameworks. The development of the dating system will be discussed in a later section.

Early Life in Galilee

Jesus grew up in Nazareth in Galilee, the only place explicitly identified in the Gospels as the setting of his upbringing. Nazareth was quite small in Jesus’s time, with a population of approximately 200 to 400; some scholars give a slightly higher estimate, describing it as a village of just 400–500 inhabitants. The village appears relatively late in Jewish literature, not being mentioned until the third century CE.

Archaeology provides evidence for this period beyond the Gospels. Archaeologist Ken Dark previously identified an abandoned first-century house in the area as a possible site that people in the late Roman period believed to have been Jesus’s childhood home. Nearby remains of quarrying may have supplied stone for the village and its surrounding hinterland, although the quarry workers may also have engaged in farming. Some scholars suggest that Jesus and Joseph may have worked in nearby cities, such as Sepphoris during the extensive building program undertaken by Herod Antipas beginning in 4 BCE, but this remains conjectural.

The Gospels provide very limited information about Jesus’s family and occupation. Mark 6:3 and Matthew 13:55 use the Greek word tektōn in reference to Jesus. Its semantic range is broader than that of the modern English word “carpenter”: it can refer to a woodworker, artisan, or builder. The traditional rendering “carpenter” is therefore only one possibility. According to the Cambridge Greek Lexicon, tektōn can mean a builder working in wood or a joiner, but also a skilled artisan working with other materials, including a stonemason or even a sculptor. Scholars generally infer from this that Jesus practiced some form of craft, but the sources do not establish which materials he worked with or where he worked, nor do they demonstrate that he worked alongside Joseph throughout this period. Apart from the episode in Luke 2:41–52 in which he speaks with teachers in the Temple at the age of twelve, there is no continuous account connecting this episode with his life up to about the age of thirty. This period is therefore often called the “missing years.”

公开传道与教导

Baptism by John and the start of the ministry

All four of the gospels begin Jesus' ministry with his baptism by John. The Synoptic accounts place the event in the Jordan valley, and the most common dating puts it in the early 1st century AD (most likely in c. AD 28/29). John himself is known from the New Testament and from Josephus as a preacher whose rite was tied to repentance. John explains his baptism as "a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins" (Mark 1:4). Matthew adds a sharper framing: John's message, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matt 3:2), links the rite to an imminent eschatological event.

Historians treat the baptism as one of the most secure facts about Jesus. Critical scholars broadly agree that the baptism of Jesus is one of the most authentic, or historically likely, events in the life of the historical Jesus. The embarrassment this creates for the tradition, since a figure presented as superior is baptized by a lesser one, is visible in Matthew's dialogue, which is unique to Matthew's Gospel. The relationship also had a social dimension: several New Testament accounts report that some of Jesus's early followers had previously been followers of John. Scholars disagree about how long the two ministries ran in parallel. John's Gospel says that Jesus at an early stage led a mission of baptism that drew crowds, a claim that some critical historians, such as E. P. Sanders, leave out of their reconstructions. According to the New Testament, John was executed by Herod Antipas around AD 30, after which Jesus's public work became the main focus of the movement.

The kingdom of God and the parables

The phrase "kingdom of God" is the organizing theme of Jesus's teaching in the Synoptic tradition. Many interpreters regard it as the keystone of Jesus' preaching, and in the parables it is typically presented as a reign that reaches the marginal first. Parables, a form of metaphor drawn from farming, household life, and commerce, allowed Jesus to describe this reign without a formal doctrinal vocabulary. The parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:3–9) pictures seed falling on four kinds of ground, and its later allegorical explanation in the same chapter turns the image into a diagnosis of how different listeners respond to the message.

The parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11–32) is usually read as a reply to criticism. It is generally accepted that the historical Jesus did tell the parable of the Prodigal Son as a response to criticisms of Pharisees when Jesus shared table fellowship with sinners. Luke presents three parables in sequence, and the progression runs from one in a hundred, to one in ten, to one in one, which stresses individual worth. The story's details carry social force: the father's willingness to run to meet a son is portrayed as not customary for a grown man in that setting, and the elder brother is commonly read as a figure for the self-righteous critics of Jesus. Scholarship thus tends to see the parables less as moral examples than as arguments placed in the mouths of listeners who are drawn into a verdict on their own position.

The Sermon on the Mount and Torah

Matthew 5–7 presents the most extensive block of Jesus's ethical teaching. Matthew arranges it on a mountain, and Jesus travels through a wilderness in chapter 4 and ends up on a mountain in chapter 5, where he is again a new Moses bringing a fresh word from God. The Beatitudes echo Israel's covenant blessings: the beatitudes intentionally echo the blessings of Deuteronomy 28:1-14. Matthew's Jesus claims to complete the Law rather than cancel it; in Matthew 5:17 he says he is not abolishing what Moses gave but "filling it full."

The sermon's relation to Jewish legal tradition is one of the most debated questions in its interpretation. Its series of antitheses ("You have heard... but I say to you") is often read as a tightening of the commandments, moving from action to intention. One example concerns anger and murder in Matt. 5:21-22, where the teaching is described as a "fence" built around the Torah. The Golden Rule of 7:12 is presented as a summary of the Law, and Matthew 7:12 is what has become known as the Golden Rule. Older interpretive schools differed sharply. The "social gospel" reading, popular in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, took the ethics as a blueprint for social reform, while others argued that the sermon describes the character of disciples rather than a set of entry requirements. These are not requirements for salvation. They are the results of salvation.

Healing and exorcism

The Gospels portray Jesus as a healer and exorcist throughout his ministry, and the Synoptics connect these acts to the kingdom. In Matthew 12:28 and the parallel in Luke 11:20, exorcism is presented as evidence that God's rule has arrived. The Beelzebul controversy (Mark 3:22–27 and its parallels) shows that the activity was contested even in antiquity: opponents claimed that his power came from a demonic source, and Jesus replied with a parable about a divided kingdom.

Modern interpretations diverge. Some historians, following Geza Vermes, place Jesus among Galilean charismatic holy men within Jewish tradition, where healing and exorcism were recognized forms of religious authority. Others, such as Morton Smith, emphasize parallels with ancient magical practice and have treated Jesus as a figure whose exorcistic claims belong to a wider Hellenistic milieu. A third group focuses on social and psychological readings, arguing that many healings concerned illnesses with psychosomatic components and that the stories reflect community formation as much as medical events. Because the Gospels were written decades after the events and shaped by theological aims, most scholars regard the general fact of Jesus's reputation as a healer as well-attested, while the specific details of individual cures remain uncertain.

耶路撒冷的最后一周与受难

According to the four canonical Gospels, Jesus came to Jerusalem for Passover, was betrayed by Judas Iscariot, and was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane after sharing a final meal with his disciples. The Synoptic Gospels set the Temple disturbance and the Last Supper on the eve of the festival, while John's chronology moves the meal a day earlier, so that Jesus dies as Passover lambs are being slaughtered. Some scholars regard John's arrangement as possibly more original and perhaps even more historical, though the question remains open.

The Jewish hearing

The Gospels describe a hearing before the high priest Caiaphas, with Annas also appearing in John. Historians have questioned whether this was a formal trial. One argument concerns timing: the Sanhedrin did not meet at night, as Mark implies, and a capital case held during the night of a festival would have conflicted with the procedures later recorded in rabbinic literature. The Talmud reports that the Sanhedrin went into exile and took its seat in the trade halls forty years before the destruction of the Temple, and did not adjudicate in capital cases. Since Roman rule restricted Jewish courts' power over life and death, many scholars seriously doubt that in Roman-ruled Palestine the Sanhedrin had the authority to execute anyone. Interpretations of Jewish responsibility have also tended to split along confessional lines, with Jewish scholars willing to accept the presentation that Jewish leadership bore some responsibility, while many Catholic and Protestant scholars were less willing to do so. The Vatican II declaration Nostra Aetate rejected collective guilt, stating that the execution cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today.

Pilate and the charge of treason

Execution required Roman authority. The Roman prefect Pontius Pilate, who was the governor of the Roman province of Judea from 26-36/37 CE, is the figure through whom the case was settled. Four independent reports, namely Josephus, Mark, John and Tacitus, agree that the charge was treason, centred on the title "King of the Jews" (Mark 15:2). Mark's account shows Pilate asking Jesus whether he holds that title, and Jesus answers only enigmatically "You say so." In Mark and John, Pilate repeatedly calls Jesus "your king", which pushes the crowd to ask for the execution. Matthew adds the scene in which Pilate conspicuously washes his hands in front of the crowd, and Luke has Pilate send Jesus to Herod Antipas, who returns him. The custom of releasing a prisoner at Passover is reported in the Gospels, with the choice between freeing Jesus or the convicted murderer Barabbas. Because the Gospel narratives differ on these details, most historians treat the dialogue and the crowd scenes as derived from Mark's account but containing extra information that may be authentic, and they weigh each addition separately.

Crucifixion in the Roman system

Crucifixion was a punishment that Rome reserved primarily for slaves, non-citizens, and those accused of serious crimes. Roman citizens were generally exempt, and Roman crucifixion was always preceded by a scourging of the victim at the place of judgment. The practice was especially popular in the Roman-occupied Holy Land, and Josephus reports that in 4 BCE the Roman general Varus crucified 2,000 Jews. Its political function was deterrence: a condemned rebel was denied burial, which included a ban on any funeral rituals. Bart Ehrman argues that Jesus's execution as a claimant to kingship is as close to a historical certainty as we have, although no Roman records of the trial survive. Physical evidence is scarce; only two known examples of archaeological proof of Roman crucifixion have been identified, and the best-known is the 1968 find of a crucified man's remains near Jerusalem.

Assessing the Passion narratives

The Gospels were written decades after the events, and their accounts of the trial reflect the concerns of the communities that produced them. Early Christian authors may have sought to mitigate the responsibilities of Roman figures such as Pilate in condemning Christ, since the Roman Empire held predominant political power at the time. Some scholars, such as Hyam Maccoby, argue that the emphasis on Jewish culpability served theological goals, including the fulfilment of scriptural prophecy. Later apocryphal material, such as the Acts of Pilate, is more legendary: it is compiled in the Gospel of Nicodemus in the 9th century, and it expands the Gospel accounts rather than preserving independent memory. Historians therefore separate the core facts, namely a Roman execution under Pilate for an alleged claim to kingship, from procedural details such as a nocturnal Jewish trial, the role of the crowd, and Pilate's reluctance, which are more open to question and are shaped by oral transmission and narrative purpose as well as by oral tradition.

复活及其信仰意义

最早的证词：保罗与《哥林多前书》

Paul's most detailed statement comes in 1 Corinthians 15, a letter written in the mid-50s CE. There he passes on a short formula that he says he had himself received. It states that Christ died for sins according to the scriptures, was buried, was raised on the third day, and then appeared to Cephas (Peter), to the Twelve, to more than five hundred believers at one time, to James, and finally to Paul himself (15:3–8). Most scholars regard the formula as pre-Pauline. Its technical verbs ("received" and "handed on") and its non-Pauline vocabulary point to oral transmission. Estimates of how early it is vary: some place its origin within months of the crucifixion, others within about five years, and some doubt whether all of verses 6–8 belonged to the original formula. Paul then argues that if Christ has not been raised, both preaching and faith are empty (15:14, 17). He also describes the risen body as a "spiritual" body (15:44), which suggests a transformed bodily existence rather than a simple return to ordinary life. Skeptics accept the early date but deny that it proves anything about what happened. They argue that the formula records what believers came to think, not independent evidence.

空坟墓与显现的叙述

The Gospels tell the resurrection story in different ways, and the differences matter for historical judgment. In the oldest manuscripts, Mark's Gospel ends at 16:8, where the women flee from the tomb and say nothing to anyone because they are afraid. The longer endings (16:9–20) were added later. Mark therefore contains no appearance of the risen Jesus. Matthew places appearances to the women near the tomb and then to the disciples in Galilee. Luke sets them around Jerusalem, including the road to Emmaus. John has appearances to Mary Magdalene near the tomb, to the disciples in a locked room, and by the lake in chapter 21. The geographic conflict between Galilee and Jerusalem is one of the standard problems in analysing these texts.

The empty tomb itself is the most debated point. Its strongest argument is that women are named as the first discoverers. In the Jewish legal culture of the period, women's testimony was generally not accepted, so many historians consider the detail unlikely to have been invented. Critics respond that the Gospel texts are literary compositions and that the story may have grown up after the appearances. Bart Ehrman and John Dominic Crossan have argued that Roman practice typically left crucified bodies unburied, which makes the burial account less plausible. James Crossley argues that the earliest evidence for the empty tomb lacks eyewitness support, and that the shortness of Mark 16:8 suggests the story was not widely known. Defenders of the historicity of the tomb, such as Gary Habermas, treat it as part of a historical "bedrock" that any explanation must address.

信仰意义与学术解释

For early believers, the resurrection was more than a miracle report. It was the claim that God had vindicated Jesus and had begun the general resurrection that Jewish apocalyptic and Pharisaic thought expected at the end of time. Paul calls Christ the "firstfruits" of those who have died (15:20), linking Jesus' rising to the future resurrection of believers. The idea of dying and rising with Christ shaped baptism and ethical identity (Romans 6). This is why the resurrection became a central element of Christianity and why later creeds include it. The Nicene Creed in its 381 form still affirms that Christ rose on the third day according to the scriptures.

Modern interpretations diverge sharply. Historical naturalists propose that the disciples had visionary experiences that they interpreted as the bodily resurrection of Jesus, and that the empty tomb story developed to support that interpretation. Apologists such as William Lane Craig argue that the resurrection is the best explanation of the available evidence. Rudolf Bultmann and later existential theologians held that the resurrection is best understood as the saving meaning of the proclamation, not as a datable event that historians can verify. Philosophers also debate whether the testimony of ancient witnesses can establish a miracle, how the epistemology of historical testimony should work, and whether a bodily resurrection is coherent within a given metaphysics. These disagreements are rarely settled by new evidence alone, because they depend on prior views about method, the reliability of testimony, and the possibility of miracles.

基督论：神性与人性

Christology asks how one historical figure could be fully God and fully human. Its classic answers took shape in the fourth and fifth centuries through a series of councils, and Nicaea (325) and Chalcedon (451) were the most consequential. Their vocabulary drew heavily on Greek metaphysics.

Nicaea (325): the Son and the Father's substance

An imperial summons brought bishops to Nicaea in 325 to end a doctrinal conflict that was dividing the church of the Roman Empire. Arius taught that the Son was a created being, brought into existence by the Father and therefore not eternal in the same sense. In Arius's account the Son had a beginning and a different essence from the Father, a view that Arianism later systematized.

The decisive term was homoousios, "of one substance." The term was decisive precisely because Arius and his sympathisers could not accept it. Scripture never uses the word, and many bishops were profoundly uncomfortable with being asked to define Christian belief using the vocabulary of Greek philosophy rather than Scripture itself. The council condemned Arius and affirmed that the Son is homoousios with the Father. The creed was later revised at the Council of Constantinople in 381, and that revised form is the one still recited in many churches.

Chalcedon (451): one person in two natures

The Council of Chalcedon was convened by the emperor Marcian, with the reluctant approval of Pope Leo the Great, to set aside the 449 Second Council of Ephesus, better known as the "Robber Council". Its central formula describes Christ as one person subsisting in two natures. Chalcedon confessed one and the same Lord Jesus Christ, perfect in divinity and perfect in humanity, "in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation." The text insisted that it also insisted on the completeness of his two natures, Godhead and manhood. Leo I's letter to Flavian of Constantinople, known as the Tome, was expressly mentioned in the Definition of the faith.

Modern scholars have noted a tension in the legacy. The formal definition of "two natures" was understood by critics at the time, and by many historians today, to side with Western and Antiochene Christology rather than with Cyril of Alexandria, who always stressed that Christ is "one". Modern analysis of the sources shows that the bishops considered Cyril the great authority and that even the language of "two natures" derives from him.

The hypostatic union and its opponents

The Chalcedonian vocabulary separates physis (nature) from hypostasis (person). The hypostatic union holds that the divine and human natures are joined in the one hypostasis of the Son without being mixed, so each nature keeps its own properties while both belong to one subject.

Several positions were rejected in the process. Eutyches publicly professed that while Christ had two natures before the incarnation, the two natures had merged to form a single nature after the incarnation. Chalcedon was partly aimed at what later theology called Monophysitism; so monophusis or monophysite simply means "one nature." Those churches that rejected Chalcedon, now known as Oriental Orthodox, dispute that label. On the other side, Nestorius, patriarch of Constantinople, stressed the distinction so strongly that the Council of Ephesus (431) condemned him for seeming to split Christ into two persons. The controversy over the title Theotokos ("God-bearer") for Mary was bound up with these questions, and the resulting disputes are often grouped under Nestorianism.

The Trinity and the Arian controversy

Arianism was not only a Christological position but also a challenge to the Trinity. Athanasius argued that the Christ is coeternal and consubstantial with God the Father, and his position became the basis of the Nicene settlement. Emperor Constantine, through the Council of Nicaea in 325, attempted to unite Christianity and establish a single, imperially approved version of the faith. Ironically, his efforts were the cause of the deep divisions created by the disputes after Nicaea. A later confession, held that both homoousios (of one substance) and homoiousios (of similar substance) were unbiblical and that the Father is greater than the Son. This confession was later known as the Blasphemy of Sirmium.

The fuller Trinitarian doctrine, in which one essence (ousia) is shared by three hypostases, was developed in the 370s and 380s by the Cappadocian Fathers, Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus and Gregory of Nyssa. The Council of Constantinople (381) extended the Nicene confession to the Holy Spirit. Arianism was later condemned as heresy, though it persisted for a time among some Germanic peoples.

早期教会与新约的形成

Jerusalem, Antioch and Paul's mission

The earliest community of Jesus's followers was centred in Jerusalem, where leaders such as Peter and James, the brother of Jesus, were regarded as the principal authorities. From the 40s CE, the church at Antioch in Syria became a second centre. Its membership included both Jewish and non-Jewish believers, and it was from Antioch that Paul and Barnabas set out on missionary journeys into Asia Minor and the Aegean. Paul's letters, the earliest of which date to around the late 40s and 50s, show him founding and supervising churches in cities such as Thessalonica, Corinth and Philippi, and they are the oldest surviving Christian writings.

The question of whether non-Jewish converts had to accept circumcision and the Mosaic law became the central dispute of this period. According to Acts 15, some visitors from Judea taught the Antioch believers that circumcision was necessary for salvation, and Paul and Barnabas contested this. The matter was referred to an assembly in Jerusalem, where Peter argued that God had accepted Gentiles without the law, and James proposed a compromise. The resulting letter exempted Gentile believers from circumcision but asked them to observe a few basic prohibitions, such as abstaining from idol meat and from blood. Historians debate how closely Acts reflects the event: Paul's own account in Galatians 2 describes a meeting in private with Jerusalem leaders and later conflict with Peter at Antioch, and the two accounts do not match in every detail. Even so, the episode is widely read as a turning point that established the principle of a mission open to non-Jews.

Gospels, letters and the formation of the canon

The New Testament was not assembled as a single book in the first generation. The letters of Paul were circulating among churches during his lifetime or shortly after, and the Gospels, written roughly between the 60s and 90s CE, were composed for particular communities and later gathered into a fourfold collection. Acts, traditionally attributed to the same author as the Gospel of Luke, was then joined to the corpus. Many texts were copied on papyrus and then parchment, and their survival depended on local use and copying networks, which meant that different regions often read different sets of books.

Scholars generally describe canon formation as a process spanning roughly the second to fourth centuries rather than a single decision. Criteria such as apostolic origin, doctrinal agreement and widespread use shaped which writings were accepted. Several lists from this period circulated, including the Muratorian fragment and the list of Eusebius of Caesarea, and some books, such as Hebrews, James, 2 Peter and Revelation, were disputed for long periods. The first known list naming exactly the twenty-seven books of today's New Testament is in the thirty-ninth Festal Letter of Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, written in 367. Regional synods in North Africa, at Hippo Regius in 393 and at Carthage in 397 and 419, subsequently endorsed this set. Some scholars argue that Athanasius's list codified a consensus already emerging, while others stress that agreement remained provisional in the East for some time, and that Athanasius himself was not the only figure proposing a canon.

Organisation, baptism and the Eucharist

Early Christian communities were organised locally and informally at first, with leadership passing to elders or overseers and to deacons, and with itinerant prophets and teachers playing important roles. By the early second century, Ignatius of Antioch's letters show a growing emphasis on a single bishop in each city supported by presbyters and deacons, a development that became standard across the Mediterranean.

Ritual life centred on baptism and the shared meal. The Didache, a short manual probably composed in the late first or early second century and of uncertain provenance (Syria and Egypt are among the proposed regions), gives instructions for baptism in running water, or in other water if necessary, with pouring permitted as a last resort, along with fasting beforehand and the use of a trinitarian formula. It also presents a Eucharistic thanksgiving prayer, asks that only the baptized take part, and advises confession of sins before the gathering on the Lord's Day. Paul's letters, by contrast, reflect a more theological interpretation of these rites, linking baptism with dying and rising with Christ and describing the meal as a participation in the body and blood of Christ. The Didache also shows that practice was not uniform: it records variation in the baptismal method and in the structure of worship.

Together, these developments show a community that moved from loosely connected house groups to a network of churches with shared texts, recognised leaders and regular rites. Their gradual definition of scripture, sacrament and ministry set the framework for the later spread of Christianity within the Roman Empire and the eventual imperial patronage of the faith.

罗马帝国中的传播与国家化

3世纪以前的零散迫害

Before the third century, persecution of Christians was usually local and irregular. Until Decius's rule, persecution of Christians had been confined to specific areas and were sporadic in nature. The pattern changed in 250, when Decius ordered every inhabitant of the empire to offer sacrifice to the gods of Rome. Commissions were set up throughout the state to supervise the sacrifices and to grant certificates of participation, and more than forty of these certificates, mostly from Egypt, have survived. Historians disagree about the edict's target. One view holds that his sacrifice edict was not specifically directed at Christians, though it did pose a particular problem for the followers of this monotheistic religion. Because Christian belief excluded worship of other gods, the order forced a choice that many believers resolved by lapsing, while others were executed. Under Valerian, from 257, the attack shifted toward church leadership: his first edict sent all bishops into exile and forbade assemblies of the Christians. In 258, more stringent measures ordered the execution of all bishops and other clergy. Valerian's capture by the Persians in 260 ended this campaign, and his son Gallienus later rescinded his father's edict and proclaimed freedom of worship for all.

The Great Persecution and the Edict of Milan

The most extensive campaign was the Great Persecution, which began under Diocletian. The persecution began on February 23, 303 with the demolition of a large and prominent church in Diocletian's capital Nicomedia. Its legal basis was a series of four edicts. Diocletian ordered Christian buildings and the homes of Christians torn down, and their sacred books collected and burned, and later orders targeted the clergy and ordered all inhabitants to sacrifice to the Roman gods. Enforcement was uneven: weakest in Gaul and Britain, where only the first edict was applied, and strongest in the Eastern provinces. Modern death-toll estimates vary widely; one popular account puts the number of Christians killed between 303 and 311 at at least 23,000, but such figures rest on uncertain sources.

The persecution ended in stages. In 311, the eastern Augustus Galerius issued the Edict of Serdica, which nullified persecutory laws and granted Christians the right to worship, though it did not restore any property to them. The Edict of Milan of 313 is traditionally treated as the decisive settlement. Historians note that it is not preserved as a single surviving text; its content is known mainly from later Greek and Latin accounts, and the name is a modern convention. The arrangement grew out of the political struggle after Constantine's victory at the Milvian Bridge in 312. In 313 he and Licinius, soon to control the Eastern Empire, issued the Edict of Milan, which decreed full legal toleration of Christianity. Its scope went beyond Galerius's measure: it went further than Galerius' edict, not only ending persecution, but restoring privileges and property to Christian leaders. The eastern provinces followed after Licinius defeated Maximinus Daia, and the reversal was thus completed across the empire. Whether Constantine's faith was sincere and how far his policies favoured the church remain debated; see the sections on Constantine and on the Council of Nicaea.

From toleration to state religion

After 313, Christianity was no longer a persecuted minority religion, but the empire still contained competing Christian groups and pagan elites. Theodosius I took the decisive step. On 27 February 380 Theodosius issued the Edict of Thessalonica, making Nicene Christianity the state church of the Roman Empire. The decree was issued jointly with Gratian and Valentinian II and was addressed to all subjects. It required them to hold the faith of the bishops of Rome and Alexandria, and it condemned other Christian creeds such as Arianism as heresies of "foolish madmen", and authorized their punishment. Scholars regard it as the first imperial law that explicitly defined Catholic orthodoxy as the established faith of the state. Theodosius was himself baptized shortly before the decree, after an illness at Thessalonica. In October 379 the Council of Antioch was convened. Some textbooks date the decisive act to 381, when the First Council of Constantinople confirmed the Nicene settlement, so the timing of the change is sometimes given differently.

Theodosius's later legislation extended the shift against non-Christian cults. He dissolved the order of the Vestal Virgins in Rome's Temple of Vesta. In 393, he banned the pagan rituals of the Olympic Games. These measures show that the change from persecuted sect to imperial religion was accompanied by new restrictions on rival worship. Later emperors would build on this model, and the fusion of imperial authority with a defined orthodoxy shaped relations between the state and the church in both the Western and Eastern empires, including the Byzantine Empire and its capital at Constantinople.

Jesus in Other Religions and Traditions

The Jewish Position

Judaism does not recognize Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah, a prophet, or God. Traditionally, Jewish thought regards the Messiah as a fully human figure whose mission is to bring about a verifiable fulfillment of end-time expectations: the ingathering of Israel, the rebuilding of the Third Temple, and universal peace and knowledge of God. Because these outcomes did not occur in Jesus’s time, most Jewish scholars consider him not to have met the criteria for the Messiah. Jews also reject the Trinity and the Christian doctrine of the Incarnation; regarding Jesus as God is therefore impermissible under Jewish law.

Understandings of the Messiah within Jewish tradition are not uniform. Jews of the Second Temple period held a range of messianic expectations, encompassing both a royal figure from the house of David and priestly figures. During the rabbinic period, thought gradually shifted toward a Torah-centered understanding of the Messiah. Maimonides’s view has been particularly influential: someone who failed to fulfill the entire mission, and was even killed, could not be recognized as the Messiah. Some traditional accounts also envisage two messiahs, of whom the “suffering Messiah” (Messiah ben Joseph) would die in battle against Israel’s enemies, paving the way for the other Messiah. The dates when these ideas took shape and their precise meanings, however, remain subjects of scholarly debate.

In modern times, Jewish attitudes toward Jesus have varied considerably. Some regard him as a wise rabbi or an important Jewish teacher, while others consider him a heretic. In the Middle Ages, Christians sought veiled references to Jesus in the Talmud and brought accusations against the work in 1236. Contemporary Jewish scholarship has also included favorable reassessments of Jesus and studies of him from the perspective of Jewish history. Messianic Judaism maintains that Jesus is the Messiah, but many Jewish religious communities exclude it from Judaism precisely because of the fundamental disagreement over Jesus’s messianic status and divinity.

Isa in Islam

In Islam, Jesus is known as Isa (ʿĪsā). He is one of the major prophets and messengers who preceded Muhammad, is regarded as the son of Mary, and is expected to return at the end of time. Quran 4:157 is the central Islamic passage concerning Jesus’s Passion. It denies that the Jews killed or crucified Isa, stating that “it was only made to appear so” to them, and criticizes disputes over the matter as lacking certain knowledge.

This gave rise to the widespread “substitution theory”: at the last moment, God made another person resemble Isa, and that person suffered in his place. Traditional commentators have offered various suggestions about the substitute’s identity, including Judas. Other interpretations hold that Isa was taken directly up to heaven by God rather than dying. Early Islamic exegesis also offered differing interpretations of the word for “death” (tawaffī). From the early Islamic period onward, denial of Jesus’s death on the cross has generally been regarded as the orthodox position. A minority of scholars, however, including some early Ismaili scholars and modern scholars, have argued that the verse does not deny Jesus’s Passion. In recent years, some scholars have also proposed that the verse should be understood in the context of polemics with Jews, or even in connection with the Talmud, but this interpretation has not gained general acceptance.

Scholars have also noted connections between Islamic accounts of Isa and the intellectual milieu of early Christianity. Some argue that the Quran’s account of an “apparent Passion” may have a Docetic character, and that Muhammad and his followers may have believed this view to be consistent with the Christian traditions they encountered.

The Bahá’í Faith and Other Traditions

The Bahá’í Faith originated in nineteenth-century Iran. Its founder, Bahá’u’lláh, included Jesus among the Manifestations of God, alongside Moses, Abraham, Muhammad, Zoroaster, and the Báb. The faith holds that these Manifestations have a dual station: on the one hand, they transcend the created world and are one with the essence of God; on the other, they enter the created world and are subject to its limitations. Jesus is thus both a manifestation of God and a member of humanity.

Bahá’í writings acknowledge the divine origin of Christianity, explicitly affirm Jesus’s status as the “Son of God” and his divinity, and honor the holiness of the Virgin Mary. They understand “Son of God,” however, as a spiritual relationship rather than a physical or ontological one, and do not accept the doctrine of the Trinity. This position creates clear differences between the Bahá’í Faith and orthodox Christianity. Christian critics argue that Bahá’í teaching diminishes Jesus’s unique divinity and redemptive role. Within the faith, Jesus is regarded as belonging to the same succession of divine revelation as Moses, Muhammad, and others, and as a symbol of religious unity. This framework also reflects the Bahá’í concept of the “Covenant”: Peter’s succession to Jesus and Ali’s succession to Muhammad are seen as attempts that failed to preserve unity.

Taken as a whole, these traditions’ interpretations of Jesus have often shaped one another. Islamic understandings of Isa are connected to early Christian debates, Jewish messianic ideas provide a point of reference for Christian interpretations, and the Bahá’í doctrine of Manifestations draws on Islamic and Christian terminology. In scholarship, these mutual influences are often discussed within the frameworks of comparative religion and intellectual history.

艺术、文学与音乐中的耶稣形象

Early Christian art showed Jesus rarely and often through symbols, and the fully developed Byzantine type that followed was built around the Christ Pantocrator. The name comes from a Greek word meaning "ruler of all." In this type, the Gospel book rests in the left hand while the right hand is raised in benediction, and the figure's face is turned toward the viewer. Pantocrator images always show Christ with a cruciform halo, a halo containing the outline of a cross. Beside the halo, the letters IC and XC abbreviate the name Jesus Christ. The image was also a theological statement. Defenders of icons argued that because God had become visible in the Incarnation, the human body of Christ could be painted. The type presents the two natures of Christ, fully God and fully man, in a single image. A 4th-century mosaic in Rome's Santa Pudenziana is among the oldest surviving examples of the type in the city.

The images were contested. Iconoclast campaigns in the eighth and ninth centuries destroyed many of them. A famous Constantinople icon at the Chalke Gate was destroyed in the waves of 726 and 814, which makes its link to the Pantocrator difficult to confirm. The conflict was ultimately resolved in favour of images, and the Byzantine church-dome Pantocrator became the most prominent image in Orthodox churches.

In the Renaissance, the figure of the dead Christ held by his mother became one of the most intense religious subjects. Michelangelo's Pietà was carved from Carrara marble between 1497 and 1499 and sits in St Peter's Basilica. It was commissioned by a French cardinal, Jean Bilhères de Lagraulas, for his funerary monument. It is the only work of art Michelangelo ever signed, inscribed across the band that crosses Mary's body. The subject had been far more common in Northern Europe than in Italy at the time, and Michelangelo's group, with its youthful Virgin, became a model for later sculpture. In 1972 a man attacked the work with a hammer, damaging Mary's arm and face, and it was later enclosed behind protective glass.

Baroque music offered another approach. Johann Sebastian Bach's St Matthew Passion was first performed on Good Friday, 11 April 1727, at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig. The work sets the Gospel narrative of Matthew 26–27, with additional poetic texts by Christian Friedrich Henrici, who wrote under the name Picander. It uses two orchestras and double choirs, along with non-scriptural choruses and arias, making it exceptional for its musical richness even within the florid Baroque style. The piece is divided into two parts and contains 68 numbers. Bach revised it until 1746, and the final version is the one usually performed today. Within the work, the Passion Chorale is quoted five times. The genre of sacred music that Bach used reflects a wider tradition of Passion settings.

Literature after the Middle Ages reinterpreted Jesus through narrative and moral argument rather than liturgy. In Dante's Divine Comedy, written in the early fourteenth century, Christ's descent into Limbo appears in Inferno IV, where he leads out the Old Testament patriarchs and prophets. Christ's triumph is later celebrated in Paradiso, and the work presents him as the centre of a cosmic order. Fyodor Dostoevsky's novels, written in the nineteenth century, return to the figure of Christ through characters and images. In The Idiot (1868–69), Prince Myshkin is struck by Hans Holbein the Younger's painting of the dead Christ. In The Brothers Karamazov (1880), the chapter titled "The Grand Inquisitor" depicts Christ returning to Seville, where he is arrested and then silently kisses the Inquisitor who condemns him. These works show how a figure from Scripture could become a vehicle for questions about faith, power, and suffering. Their influence is seen in later novels and poetry.

历史研究中的争论与方法

Modern study of the historical Jesus is often told as a series of "quests." One common periodization gives the Old Quest as 1778 to 1906, a "no quest" period from 1906 to 1953, a New Quest from 1953, and a Third Quest from the 1970s, though other schemes date the Third Quest to the early 1980s and some now speak of a fourth phase. The Old Quest is linked to Enlightenment critics such as Hermann Reimarus and David Strauss, who read miracle narratives as mythology. Albert Schweitzer ended this phase by arguing that Jesus was best understood as an apocalyptic prophet, and by showing how earlier biographers had tended to produce a Jesus who matched their own convictions.

Rudolf Bultmann's skepticism then dominated the middle decades. He held that almost nothing beyond Jesus' bare existence could be known with confidence, a stance partly born from reacting against the Old Quest's belief that a researcher could trace Jesus' inner psychological development. The New Quest began in 1953, when Ernst Käsemann addressed Bultmann's former students on the problem of the historical Jesus. Käsemann argued that if there were no continuity between Jesus' preaching and the early church's proclamation, the church would be left with a merely mythological Lord. Günther Bornkamm's 1956 work extended this program, but the New Quest weakened as the gap between the Gospels' portrayal of Jesus and the reconstructed figure widened under closer literary analysis.

The Third Quest is distinguished by its attention to Jesus as a Jew of the Second Temple period. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls showed that Judaism in Jesus' time was far more varied than earlier scholarship had assumed, and this encouraged historians to read the Gospels against the backdrop of Jewish eschatology and social politics. Many Third Quest scholars also take the Gospels more seriously as sources than their predecessors did. Yet the movement lacks a single program, and critics note that its participants often bring theological commitments of their own.

The most debated methodological tools are the so-called criteria of authenticity. The criterion of multiple attestation, first formulated by F. C. Burkitt in 1906, holds that an event or saying gains credibility when several independent sources report it. In practice, however, it is hard to apply, because Matthew, Luke and John may have borrowed from Mark or from a shared source rather than from independent memory; many scholars in effect count only Mark and the hypothetical sayings source Q. The criterion of embarrassment assumes that material the early church would not have invented, because it created difficulties for Christian belief, is more likely to be authentic. John the Baptist's baptism of Jesus is a frequently cited example, since Matthew and Luke seem to explain it away and John omits it. The criterion of dissimilarity, which favors material unlike either contemporary Judaism or later Christianity, has been criticized because it risks cutting Jesus off from the Jewish milieu that shaped him. Some scholars also use a plausibility criterion, asking how well a saying fits within first-century Jewish thought.

These criteria have come under sustained critique. Scholars note that what embarrassed one early community may not have embarrassed another, and that the criteria are best understood as sufficient rather than necessary conditions for authenticity. Since the late 2000s, the usefulness of the criteria has been questioned more openly, and some researchers have called for a broader, more interdisciplinary "next quest."

The most radical position is the Christ myth theory, which holds that the Gospel story is essentially mythological. Historians regard it as a fringe view. Its roots lie in the Enlightenment, it was revived in the 1970s, and its recent advocates include Earl Doherty, Robert M. Price and George Albert Wells. Mythicists typically argue that the Pauline letters and the Gospels are unreliable for establishing Jesus' historicity, that secular sources from the first and early second centuries say little about him, and that early Christianity had syncretistic origins. Mainstream scholars respond that Paul wrote within decades of Jesus' death and knew his brother, and that Simon Gathercole has argued the undisputed Pauline letters presuppose a human Jesus. Even the consensus has limits: most historians accept that Jesus lived in Roman Judea and was probably baptized and crucified, but they remain divided over many details of the Gospel accounts. Mythicism's marginal status thus reflects both the strength of the broader evidence and the methodological cost of discounting sources that historians would not reject for other ancient figures.

纪年、节日与礼仪传统

The Anno Domini era

In 525 the Scythian monk Dionysius Exiguus, working in Rome, produced an Easter table that counted years from the incarnation of Christ instead of from the reign of Diocletian, which earlier Alexandrian Easter tables had used. His 95-year table covered the years 532 to 626, and it joined the old numbering to the new: the last year of the previous table (Diocletian's Anno Martyrium 247) was followed directly by Anno Domini 532. His purpose was computistical. He wanted to calculate Easter, and he placed the incarnation at AD 1 on the basis of calculation rather than documented chronology. Modern scholars generally place Jesus's birth a few years earlier, around 5 BC, so the conventional year numbering reflects a reckoning that was never a simple historical record.

The system spread slowly. It was rarely used before the ninth century, and Latin Christendom adopted it gradually, largely by the eleventh century. The English historian Bede used it in his historical writing in the eighth century, but the term "Before Christ" for years preceding the era did not appear in print until the seventeenth century. Many scholars now prefer the neutral labels CE and BCE, which keep the same numbering without the explicit religious reference. Today the system is used worldwide for civil dating.

Christmas and the fixing of December 25

The New Testament gives no birth date, and Christians did not celebrate the nativity as a feast in the first centuries. The earliest datable witness to a December 25 observance is a mid-fourth-century Roman almanac, which lists the birth of Christ in Bethlehem of Judea under that date. Earlier, the chronographer Sextus Julius Africanus had reasoned that Jesus was conceived on March 25, the date of the Annunciation, so a birth nine months later would fall on December 25. The Roman church is recorded as observing the feast in 336, during the period when Constantine's favour had made Christianity influential in the empire.

The traditional explanation that the date was chosen to replace Roman winter-solstice festivals, such as Saturnalia or the feast of Sol Invictus established by Aurelian in 274, remains debated. Critics note that the theory is not found in early Christian writings, and that the calculation from the Annunciation provides an internal rationale. Some Christian authors did draw parallels between Christ and the sun. The Eastern churches traditionally kept the nativity together with the Epiphany on January 6, and the Armenian Apostolic Church still observes Christmas on that date. Eastern Orthodox churches that follow the Julian calendar celebrate the same fixed feast on what is January 7 in the Gregorian calendar.

Easter and the computus

Easter, the central feast, was given a formal rule at the Council of Nicaea in 325: it falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the March equinox. This settled a dispute in which some churches tied the date to the Jewish Passover. The calculation of this date, known as the computus, combines lunar cycles, such as the Metonic 19-year cycle, with the solar year. The Alexandrian computus used a 532-year period, and the medieval Latin tables that descended from Dionysius's work were derived from it.

The Gregorian reform of 1582, promulgated by Pope Gregory XIII, corrected the drift of the calendar and altered the lunar tables. The Roman Catholic Church adopted the new computus immediately, and most Protestant churches followed between 1753 and 1845. Most Eastern churches kept the Julian-based Alexandrian method. Because the Julian calendar is now 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar, Orthodox Easter is never earlier than the Western date and is often later, although the two sometimes coincide, as in 2028.

Holy Week and the liturgical year

The liturgical year is organised around these feasts. In the Western churches it begins with Advent, followed by Christmas and Epiphany, then Lent, a forty-day season that starts on Ash Wednesday. Holy Week commemorates Palm Sunday, the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday, the crucifixion on Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil on the night before Easter Sunday. Pentecost follows fifty days after Easter. Roman Catholic and Anglican practice keeps a fairly elaborate Triduum, while many Protestant churches, particularly those in the Reformed and free-church traditions, observe Good Friday and Easter Sunday with a simpler liturgy and less emphasis on the full calendar.

Eastern Orthodox practice places greater weight on the Paschal cycle. Great Lent starts seven weeks before Pascha, and Holy Week includes services on Holy Thursday, a procession with a decorated bier on Good Friday, and a midnight service on Holy Saturday, at which the Paschal light is passed among the congregation before the Easter liturgy. Churches using the Julian calendar keep these dates according to their own reckoning, so Eastern and Western congregations in the same city may celebrate Easter on different days.

Contemporary Faith Communities and Developments in Research

Global Numbers

Christians remain the world’s largest religious group, although precise figures depend on the methods used. A 2025 report by the Pew Research Center estimated that fertility rates and religious switching together shape trends in the global religious population. According to the study, there were approximately 2.3 billion Christians in 2020, accounting for 28.8% of a world population of roughly 8 billion and making Christianity the world’s largest religion. The same study also noted that Christians’ share of the global population is declining because large numbers of Christians are “switching” to become religiously unaffiliated. The Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Wainwright–Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary uses a different database: its annual statistics for 2026 put the global Christian population at 2.6 billion and project that it will approach 3.7 billion by 2075. The differences between the two sets of figures arise primarily from their population baselines, reference years, and definitions of “affiliation”; readers should assess each separately.

Geographic Distribution: A Shift from Europe and North America to the Southern Hemisphere and Asia

The demographic center of Christianity has shifted fundamentally over the past century and more. The center’s statistics show that in 1900, approximately 82% of Christians lived in the Global North—the “Christendom” of Europe and North America. By 2025, the Global South was home to 69% of the world’s Christians, a share projected to reach 78% by 2050. Pew’s regional classification shows that in 2020, sub-Saharan Africa accounted for 30.7% of the world’s Christians, compared with Europe’s 22.3%, making Africa the region with the largest Christian population. Growth in Africa has been particularly rapid: by 2025, its Christian population exceeded 750 million.

At the national level, the United States has the largest Christian population, with more than 217 million, accounting for 9.6% of Christians worldwide. It is followed by Brazil (more than 168 million), Mexico (more than 113 million), the Philippines and Russia (more than 102 million each), and Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (more than 92 million each). Growth is uneven: Africa and Asia are the two continents where Christianity is growing fastest, with annual growth rates of 2.6% and 1.27%, respectively. By contrast, decline is more pronounced in other regions. In Australia and New Zealand in Oceania, the Christian share of the population fell from 97% in 1900 to 71% in 2025. The situation in the Middle East also deserves attention: Christians’ share of the region’s population fell from 12.7% in 1900 to 4.1% in 2025.

Denominational Landscape and Shared Beliefs

Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Protestantism are the three major traditions. According to one compilation of statistics, approximately 50% of Christians belong to the Catholic Church, including the Latin Church and the Eastern Catholic Churches; 37% are Protestant; 10% belong to Eastern Orthodoxy; 2% belong to the Oriental Orthodox Churches, which are non-Chalcedonian; and the remainder belong to other traditions. Growth rates also vary among these traditions: Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy are growing at rates of 0.56% and 0.28%, respectively, while evangelical Christianity is growing by 1.34% annually, with Pentecostal and charismatic movements growing at approximately 2%.

Beliefs about Jesus shared across these denominations include that he is the Son of God, became incarnate, was crucified, and rose again on the third day. These beliefs are expressed primarily through the Nicene–Constantinopolitan Creed. Beyond this shared foundation, each tradition has its own emphases. Catholicism upholds Chalcedonian Christology, stresses the authority of the pope and the Church’s magisterium, and regards the sacraments—especially the Eucharist—and devotion to the Virgin Mary and the saints as important aspects of religious practice. Eastern Orthodoxy likewise accepts the position of the Council of Chalcedon, places particular importance on the concept of “deification” (theosis), and uses icons as an expression of the theology of the Incarnation. The Oriental Orthodox Churches reject the Chalcedonian formula and uphold a “miaphysite” formulation. Protestantism follows the principles of “Scripture alone” and “justification by faith alone,” emphasizing the atonement accomplished through Christ’s death on the cross and the individual’s trust in Jesus. Lutheranism and Anglicanism retain more of the sacramental tradition, evangelical Christianity emphasizes repentance and personal conversion, and Pentecostalism highlights the work of the Holy Spirit.

Major Directions in Contemporary Scholarship

One important shift in contemporary research on Jesus has been to situate him within his Jewish society and local environment. Historians generally acknowledge that Jesus was Jewish in every sense. Some scholars draw on social-scientific methods, including anthropology and sociology, archaeological and historical studies of Galilee, and the approach known as “memory studies.” Richard Horsley’s work on Galilee, among that of others, exemplifies this social-historical approach: he brings together archaeology, history, and social structures to examine the respective social contexts of Jesus and the rabbinic tradition.

Archaeology has supplied concrete evidence. There are currently 16 sites identified as possible synagogues that may date to the Early Roman period, from 63 BCE to 135 CE, or to the earlier Late Hellenistic period. These discoveries have enabled scholars to reconsider the settings of synagogue teaching described in the Gospels. In this connection, Craig Evans argues that the most important achievement of historical Jesus research over the past few decades has been a renewed recognition of the Jewish character of Jesus, his mission, and the world in which he lived.

Interreligious research focuses primarily on relations between Jews and Christians. One important scholarly question is how Jesus’ Jewish identity affects the construction of Christology, and what this recognition means for theological research and Jewish–Christian relations. These studies have also prompted scholars to reassess the continuities and ruptures between early Christianity and Jewish tradition, while deepening the dialogue between research on Jesus and other monotheistic traditions, including Judaism and Islam.

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