The Life of Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth is born under Herod, teaches and heals in Galilee and Judea, is crucified under Pontius Pilate, and is proclaimed risen by his followers.
The four Gospels are the main sources, with Paul’s letters as the earliest written witness and brief notices in Josephus and Tacitus. The Gospels are not diaries: they arrange Jesus’ words and deeds to proclaim who he is, so the order of events inside the ministry is approximate. The crucifixion is dated to AD 30 or 33.
Events of this era
- c. 6–4 BC, estimated dateThe Birth of Jesus
Matthew and Luke each tell, in a story set in the days of Herod, that Jesus was born at Bethlehem to Mary, a virgin betrothed to Joseph of David’s line, and grew up at Nazareth in Galilee.
- 4 BC, estimated dateThe Death of Herod and the Division of His Kingdom
Herod the Great dies at Jericho. Augustus divides his kingdom among three sons: Archelaus in Judea, Antipas in Galilee and Perea, Philip in the north-east. Matthew sets the return of Jesus’ family from Egypt at this point.
- AD 6, firm dateJudea Comes under Direct Roman Rule
Augustus banishes Archelaus and puts Judea, Samaria and Idumea under a Roman governor. Quirinius, legate of Syria, registers property for taxation, and Judas the Galilean calls for resistance.
- c. AD 28–29, estimated dateJohn the Baptist Preaches at the Jordan
Luke dates to the fifteenth year of Tiberius the preaching of John, who calls Israel to repentance in the wilderness and baptises crowds in the Jordan. All four Gospels and the Jewish historian Josephus describe him.
- c. AD 26–29, estimated dateThe Baptism and Temptation of Jesus
Jesus comes from Nazareth to the Jordan and is baptised by John. The Gospels tell of the Spirit descending on him and a voice from heaven naming him the beloved Son, and then of forty days of testing in the wilderness.
- c. AD 28–29, estimated dateJesus Begins His Ministry in Galilee
Mark and Matthew tell how, after John’s arrest, Jesus returns to Galilee, announces that the kingdom of God is at hand, calls four fishermen and makes Capernaum, on the lake, the centre of his teaching and healing.
- c. AD 28–29, estimated dateJesus Appoints the Twelve
From his wider following Jesus chooses twelve men to be with him and to be sent out to preach and heal. Mark, Matthew and Luke list their names from Simon Peter to Judas Iscariot; Acts lists the eleven who remained.
- c. AD 28–29, estimated dateThe Sermon on the Mount
Matthew presents the teaching of Jesus as one long discourse on a hillside in Galilee. It includes the Beatitudes, the command to love enemies, the Lord’s Prayer and the Golden Rule. Luke has a shorter version.
- c. AD 28–32, estimated dateThe Execution of John the Baptist
Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee, has John the Baptist put to death. The Gospels tell of a beheading in prison and connect it with John’s rebuke of the tetrarch’s marriage to Herodias; Josephus places the death at Machaerus and gives a political motive.
- c. AD 29 or 32, estimated dateThe Feeding of the Five Thousand
In a lonely place by the Sea of Galilee, all four Gospels relate, Jesus feeds a crowd of about five thousand with five loaves and two fish. John adds that the crowd wanted to make him king, and the discourse on the bread of life.
- c. AD 29 or 32, estimated datePeter’s Confession at Caesarea Philippi
Mark and Matthew tell how, near Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asks his disciples who they say he is, and Peter answers: You are the Christ. Jesus then begins to speak of his coming suffering and death. Matthew adds the saying about the rock and the keys.
- c. AD 29 or 32, estimated dateThe Transfiguration
Mark, Matthew and Luke tell how three disciples on a high mountain see Jesus changed in appearance, his clothes shining white, with Moses and Elijah beside him, and hear a voice from a cloud call him “my beloved Son”. The Gospels do not name the mountain.
- AD 30 or 33, estimated dateThe Raising of Lazarus
John reports that Jesus called his friend Lazarus out of the tomb at Bethany four days after his death. Many believed, and the council in Jerusalem, on the advice of the high priest Caiaphas, resolved that Jesus must die.
- AD 30 or 33, estimated dateJesus Enters Jerusalem
A few days before the Passover Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey from the Mount of Olives. Crowds spread cloaks and branches on the road and hail him with words from Psalm 118, as the one who comes in the name of the Lord.
- AD 30 or 33, estimated dateJesus Drives the Traders from the Temple
Jesus overturns the tables of the money changers in the temple courts and drives out those buying and selling, calling the place a house of prayer made into a den of robbers. Three Gospels set this in his last week, John at the start of his ministry.
- AD 30 or 33, estimated dateThe Last Supper
On the night before he dies Jesus eats with the twelve in Jerusalem, gives them bread and a cup, calling them his body and his blood of the covenant, and foretells his betrayal. John tells instead how he washed their feet. The Gospels differ on the day.
- AD 30 or 33, estimated dateGethsemane and the Arrest
After the supper Jesus prays in distress at Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives while his disciples sleep. Judas arrives with an armed party and identifies him with a kiss. Jesus is seized and the disciples flee.
- AD 30 or 33, estimated dateThe Trials before the Council and Pilate
The Gospels tell how Jesus is questioned before the high priest Caiaphas and the council, judged guilty of blasphemy, and handed in the morning to the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate, who has him flogged and orders him crucified as “King of the Jews”.
- AD 30 or 33, estimated dateThe Crucifixion
Jesus is crucified outside Jerusalem at a place called Golgotha, on the order of Pontius Pilate, under the charge “King of the Jews”, and dies the same afternoon. Tacitus mentions the execution, and so does a passage of disputed wording in Josephus.
- AD 30 or 33, estimated dateThe Burial and Resurrection
The Gospels tell that Jesus was buried in a rock tomb on the evening of his death and that on the first day of the week women found the tomb open and empty and were told that he had risen. That God raised him from the dead is the central claim of Christian faith.
- AD 30 or 33, estimated dateThe Appearances and the Great Commission
The Gospels and Paul report that the risen Jesus appeared to his followers, in Jerusalem, on the road to Emmaus and in Galilee, and sent them to make disciples of all nations. The accounts differ on where and in what order.
- AD 30 or 33, estimated dateThe Ascension
Luke reports that the risen Jesus, after telling his apostles to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit, was taken up from the Mount of Olives and hidden by a cloud. Acts places this forty days after the resurrection.