Jesus

Jesus (c. 6 to 4 BC – AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and by various other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader in the Roman province of Judaea. He is the central figure of Christianity, the world's largest religion. Most Christians consider Jesus to be the incarnation of God the Son and the awaited messiah, or Christ, a descendant of the Davidic line prophesied in the Old Testament. Virtually all modern scholars of antiquity agree that Jesus existed historically. Accounts of Jesus's life are contained in the Gospels, especially the four canonical Gospels of the New Testament. Since the Enlightenment, academic research has produced various views on the historical reliability of the Gospels and the extent to which they reflect the historical Jesus.

According to Christian tradition, as preserved in the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, Jesus was circumcised at eight days old, presented at the Temple in Jerusalem at forty days old, baptized by John the Baptist as a young adult, and, after 40 days and nights of fasting in the wilderness, began his public ministry. He was an itinerant teacher whom his followers believed to possess divine authority in interpreting Jewish law. Jesus often debated with other Jews about how best to follow God, engaged in healings, taught in parables, and gathered followers, 12 of whom he appointed as his apostles. According to the New Testament accounts, he was arrested in Jerusalem and tried by the Sanhedrin, handed over to the Roman authorities, and crucified on the order of Pontius Pilate, the Roman prefect of Judaea. After his death, his followers became convinced that he rose from the dead, and the community they formed eventually developed into the early Christian Church, which expanded into a worldwide movement.