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Jesus.

Jesus of Nazareth — confessed by Christians as the eternal Son of God, the Word made flesh, the Messiah of Israel, and the only Saviour of the world. Born in Bethlehem to the Virgin Mary around 4 BC, raised in Nazareth, baptised by John the Baptist around age 30. His public ministry lasted roughly three years, characterised by teaching, healing, exorcisms, and confrontation with the religious establishment. He was crucified outside Jerusalem under Pontius Pilate around 30 AD; rose bodily on the third day; appeared to many witnesses over forty days; ascended to the Father.

Timeline

• Born in Bethlehem during the reign of Augustus (Luke 2)
• Baptised by John in the Jordan (Matthew 3)
• Forty days of temptation in the wilderness (Matthew 4)
• Three-year ministry across Galilee and Judea
• Triumphal Entry on Palm Sunday
• Crucifixion under Pontius Pilate
• Resurrection on the third day
• Ascension forty days later (Acts 1)

Key verses

• John 1:14 →
• John 3:16 →
• John 14:6 →

Why Jesus matters

The whole Bible — Old Testament and New — reads itself as the story of which Jesus is the climax. Every line of biblical theology terminates in him. Christianity's claim is not that Jesus was a great teacher, though he was; it's that he is God incarnate, that he died for the sins of the world, and that he rose bodily from the dead. Everything else in the faith is downstream of that claim.

Related tools

• All 29 figuresThe full index
• Bible verse lookupAny reference, ESV
• Trivia categoryMessiah