Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ (5or 6 BC-30 AD) , believed founder of the Christian religion.

Christians believe that Jesus was the son of God. His mother was a Jewish girl named Mary. Her home was at Nazareth in Palestine (present-day Israel) and she was married to a carpenter named Joseph.

Jesus's story is told in the four Gospels of the Bible by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

For centuries the Jews had been waiting for the Messiah or 'Anointed One'. He was to do something good for the Jewish nation. The Gospels show Jesus to be this Messiah and the title 'Christ' added to his name is from the Greek word 'Khristós' meaning 'Anointed One' or 'Messiah'.

The Gospels tell us little about Jesus's early life. He was born in Bethlehem, about 80 miles (128 km) from Nazareth. At this time, Palestine was part of the Roman Empire and Mary and Joseph had traveled to Nazareth for a counting of the people by the Romans. Both of them had been born there.

It is believed that Jesus learned from Joseph to be a carpenter but, at the age of about thirty, he began to travel from place to place preaching. Thousands of people flocked to hear him and he chose twelve apostles.

The leaders of the Jews did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah. To stop him preaching, they had him arrested and he was crucified by order of the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate. According to the Gospels, he rose from the dead and later went back to heaven by ascending from the earth. During his life, Jesus performed thirty-six miracles which are described in the Gospels.

Afterwards, led by St. Peter, the twelve apostles began to preach the new religion of Jesus.

Today there are more than 840 million Christians in the world, mostly in the western countries.

Although the above is widely believed by most Christians, no one really knows for sure who Jesus was, or if he even existed at all.