Jesus[e] (c. 4 BC – AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus of Nazareth or Jesus Christ,[f] was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious leader.[11] He is the central figure of Christianity, the world's largest religion. Most Christians believe he is the incarnation of God the Son and the awaited messiah (the Christ), prophesied in the Hebrew Bible.

Virtually all modern scholars of antiquity agree that Jesus existed historically.[g] Research into the historical Jesus has yielded some uncertainty on the historical reliability of the Gospels and on how closely the Jesus portrayed in the New Testament reflects the historical Jesus, as the only records of Jesus' life are contained in the Gospels.[19][h] Jesus was a Galilean Jew who underwent circumcision, was baptized by John the Baptist, and began his own ministry.[11] His teachings were initially conserved by oral transmission[22] and he himself was often referred to as "rabbi".[23] Jesus debated with fellow Jews on how to best follow God, engaged in healings, taught in parables and gathered followers.[24][25] He was arrested and tried by the Jewish authorities,[26] turned over to the Roman government, and crucified on the order of Pontius Pilate, the Roman prefect of Jerusalem.[24] After his death, his followers believed he rose from the dead, and the community they formed eventually became the early Christian Church.[27]

Christian doctrines include the beliefs that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, was born of a virgin named Mary, performed miracles, founded the Christian Church, died by crucifixion as a sacrifice to achieve atonement for sin, rose from the dead, and ascended into Heaven, from where he will return.[28] Commonly, Christians believe Jesus enables people to be reconciled to God. The Nicene Creed asserts that Jesus will judge the living and the dead[29] either before or after their bodily resurrection,[30][31][32] an event tied to the Second Coming of Jesus in Christian eschatology.[33] The great majority of Christians worship Jesus as the incarnation of God the Son, the second of three persons of the Trinity. However, there is a small minority of Christian denominations that reject Trinitarianism, wholly or partly, as non-scriptural. The birth of Jesus is celebrated annually on 25 December as Christmas.[j] His crucifixion is honored on Good Friday and his resurrection on Easter Sunday. The world's most widely used calendar era—in which the current year is 2022 AD/CE—is based on the approximate birthdate of Jesus.[34][k]

Jesus is also revered in other religions. In Islam, Jesus (often referred to by his Quranic name ʿĪsā) is considered the penultimate prophet of God and the messiah.[l] Muslims believe Jesus was born of the virgin Mary (another figure revered in Islam), but was neither God nor a son of God.[41][42] The Quran states that Jesus never claimed to be divine.[43] Most Muslims do not believe that he was killed or crucified, but that God raised him into Heaven while he was still alive.[44] In contrast, Judaism rejects the belief that Jesus was the awaited messiah, arguing that he did not fulfill messianic prophecies, and was neither divine nor resurrected.[45]

A typical Jew in Jesus' time had only one name, sometimes followed by the phrase "son of [father's name]", or the individual's hometown.[46] Thus, in the New Testament, Jesus is commonly referred to as "Jesus of Nazareth".[m][47][48] Jesus' neighbors in Nazareth refer to him as "the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon",[49][50] "the carpenter's son",[51][52] or "Joseph's son".[53][54] In the Gospel of John, the disciple Philip refers to him as "Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth".[55][56]

The English name Jesus is derived from the Latin Iesus, itself a transliteration of the Greek Ἰησοῦς (Iēsoûs).[57] The Greek form is probably a rendering of the Hebrew and Aramaic name ישוע (Yēšūaʿ), a shorter variant of the earlier Hebrew name יהושע (Yəhōšūaʿ, English: "Joshua").[58] The name Yəhōšūaʿ likely means "Yah saves".[59] This was also the name of Moses's successor[60] and of a Jewish high priest in the Hebrew Bible,[61] both of whom are represented in the Septuagint (a Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible) as Iēsoûs.[62] The name Yeshua appears to have been in use in Judea at the time of the birth of Jesus.[63] The 1st-century works of historian Flavius Josephus, who wrote in Koine Greek, the same language as that of the New Testament,[64] refer to at least twenty different people with the name Jesus (i.e. Ἰησοῦς).[65] The etymology of Jesus' name in the context of the New Testament is generally given as "Yahweh is salvation".[66]

The Gospel of Matthew states that an angel appeared to Jesus' adoptive father, Joseph, to tell Joseph about his future son and to name him Jesus because "he will save his people from their sins":

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins." Matthew 1:20-21

Since the early period of Christianity, Christians have commonly referred to Jesus as "Jesus Christ".[67] "Jesus Christ" is the name that the author of the Gospel of John claims Jesus gave to himself during his high priestly prayer.[68] The word Christ was a title or office ("the Christ"), not a given name.[69][70] It derives from the Greek Χριστός (Christos),[57][71] a translation of the Hebrew mashiakh (משיח) meaning "anointed", and is usually transliterated into English as "messiah".[72][73] In biblical Judaism, sacred oil was used to anoint certain exceptionally holy people and objects as part of their religious investiture.[74]

Christians of the time designated Jesus as "the Christ" because they believed him to be the messiah, whose arrival is prophesied in the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. In postbiblical usage, Christ became viewed as a name — one part of "Jesus Christ". Etymons of the term Christian (meaning a follower of Christ) have been in use since the 1st century.[75]

The four canonical gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) are the foremost sources for the life and message of Jesus.[46] But other parts of the New Testament also include references to key episodes in his life, such as the Last Supper in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26.[76][77][78][79] Acts of the Apostles[80] refers to Jesus' early ministry and its anticipation by John the Baptist.[81][82] Acts 1:1-11[83] says more about the Ascension of Jesus[84] than the canonical gospels do.[85] In the undisputed Pauline letters, which were written earlier than the Gospels, Jesus' words or instructions are cited several times.[86][n]

Some early Christian groups had separate descriptions of Jesus' life and teachings that are not in the New Testament. These include the Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Peter, and Gospel of Judas, the Apocryphon of James, and many other apocryphal writings. Most scholars conclude that these were written much later and are less reliable accounts than the canonical gospels.[89][90][91]

The canonical gospels are four accounts, each by a different author. The authors of the Gospels are all anonymous, attributed by tradition to the four evangelists, each with close ties to Jesus:[92] Mark by John Mark, an associate of Peter;[93] Matthew by one of Jesus' disciples;[92] Luke by a companion of Paul mentioned in a few epistles;[92] and John by another of Jesus' disciples,[92] the "beloved disciple".[94]