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Jesus Christ
Not many men had an impact on humankind
like Jesus of Nazareth.
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Image
Above
Christ's
Deposition from the Cross.
Also in the shot
are Nicodemus and John, who carry the body of
Christ, as well as Mary Magdalene, and Mary of
Cleophas with dramatic arms.
Caravaggio's oil
on canvas, created circa 1600-1604, is hanging
in the Vatican. |
Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Judea (or Judaea,) around 6 to
4 BC. At the time of his birth, the country was officially
part of the
Roman Empire, but governed
by
Herod
the Great, king of Judea.
Here is the map
MAP OF HEROD'S KINGDOM
Click to enlarge
Jesus' mother was
Mary, his father
Joseph, a carpenter. The
family later settled in Nazareth.
Jesus grew up and became a carpenter
as well. But more importantly for many, he became Christ and
Messiah.
Terminology
Christ, by the way, stems from
the Greek word khristos, which is the equivalent to the
Aramaic meshiha and the Hebrew mashiah, which became
the English word Messiah. All of the above terms mean
the same thing: "the anointed one."
Jesus' Life
Not completely unlike
Margaret
Thatcher, Jesus has done many things that you haven't.
One of Jesus' most famous speeches was the
Sermon on the Mount.
It is preserved in Matthew 5 to 7. Part of this sermon
is the Lord's Prayer, or Pater Noster.
This only made sense to Margaret and consequently she followed suit
with her
Sermon on the Mound. The year? 1988.
What Language Did Jesus
Speak?
Encyclopaedia Britannica helps
us out:
Aramaic dialects survived into Roman
times, however, particularly in Palestine and Syria. Aramaic had
replaced Hebrew as the language of the Jews as early as the 6th
century BC.
Certain portions of the Old
Testament—i.e., the books of Daniel and Ezra—are written in
Aramaic, as are the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds.
Among the Jews, Aramaic was used by
the common people, while Hebrew remained the language of
religion and government and of the upper class.
Jesus and the Apostles are
believed to have spoken Aramaic, and Aramaic-language
translations (Targums) of the Old Testament circulated. Aramaic
continued in wide use until about AD 650, when it was supplanted
by Arabic.
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