Christianity · Christian mysticism · Catholicism · Protestantism · Orthodox Christianity
Jesus of Nazareth
יֵשׁוּעַ · Ἰησοῦς ὁ Ναζαρηνός · ܝܫܘܥ · عيسى
c. 5 BCE – c. 30Account combining history, theology and tradition
A Jewish preacher from Galilee, crucified in Jerusalem on the orders of the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate around the year 30, whose movement gave rise to Christianity. What we know of him comes mainly from the gospels, written in Greek forty to seventy years later by authors who believed in his resurrection. Historical criticism accepts his existence, his baptism by John, his proclamation of the kingdom of God and his death on the cross; almost everything else is a matter of theological interpretation and debate.
- works
- 31works
- editions
- 96editions
- quotes
- 11quotes
- videos
- 11videos
- images
- 8images
Cristo Pantocrátor del Sinaí · Public domain
In their words
«The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.»Marcos 1:15. Griego: SBLGNT; inglés: King James Version (1611); español: traducción propia.
Their central idea
The kingdom of God: It is the centre of Jesus's preaching according to the Synoptics: the expression appears more than a hundred times in the gospels and almost never in the rest of the New Testament.
See in context
Biography
4 min read
The problem of the sources
Jesus wrote nothing, and none of his contemporaries left a testimony that has reached us. The oldest Christian documents are the letters of Paul of Tarsus, written around the 50s, which take little interest in his earthly life: from them we learn that he was Jewish, that he had brothers—one of them, James, led the community in Jerusalem—, that he held a last supper and that he died by crucifixion. The four canonical gospels, composed between c. 70 (Mark) and c. 90–110 (John), are anonymous: the names Mark, Matthew, Luke and John were assigned to them in the second century. They are not biographies in the modern sense but proclamations of faith that gather oral and written traditions, arranged according to the needs of particular communities. Among non-Christian sources, the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (c. 93) mentions him twice—once in a passage retouched by Christian copyists—and Tacitus (c. 116) records that "Christ" was executed by Pontius Pilate under Tiberius.
With these materials, modern research—from Reimarus in the eighteenth century to the successive "quests" for the historical Jesus—has tried to separate what can be affirmed with probability from what belongs to faith. There is broad consensus on a small core of facts; around it, reconstructions diverge profoundly.
Galilee
Jesus—in Aramaic, Yeshua, a shortened form of Joshua—was born towards the end of the reign of Herod the Great, who died in 4 BCE. The infancy narratives of Matthew and Luke have him born in Bethlehem, the city of David, but by routes incompatible with each other; most historians regard them as theological compositions and place his real origin in Nazareth, a small village in Galilee, a territory ruled by the tetrarch Herod Antipas. His mother was called Mary (Miriam); his father, according to the gospels, Joseph, a craftsman (tekton). Mark names four brothers and mentions sisters. He spoke Aramaic and very probably knew the Hebrew of the Scriptures; there is no evidence that he preached in Greek.
He grew up in a Jewish, rural Galilee, a few hours from Sepphoris, the Hellenised city Antipas was rebuilding, at a time of economic tension and religious expectation: Roman rule, taxation, the purity of the Temple and the hope that God would restore Israel were common concerns.
John the Baptist and the kingdom of God
The first well-attested fact of his adult life is his baptism by John, a prophet who preached imminent judgement and a baptism of repentance at the Jordan. The scene embarrassed the evangelists themselves—why would the Messiah submit to a baptism for the forgiveness of sins?—and for precisely that reason historians consider it authentic. Luke dates it to the fifteenth year of Tiberius, that is, around 28–29. After John's arrest by Antipas, Jesus begins his own activity around the Sea of Galilee, centred on Capernaum.
His message can be summed up in a formula: the kingdom of God has come near. He announces it in parables drawn from peasant life—the mustard seed, the leaven, the sower, the hidden treasure—, shows it in meals open to tax collectors and sinners, and accompanies it with healings and exorcisms that even his opponents, according to the sources, attributed to him, while disputing their origin. He chooses twelve disciples, a number evoking the twelve tribes of Israel. His ethics are radical: love your enemies, forgive without limit, do not accumulate wealth, overturn hierarchies. He calls God Abba, "father". He debates with other teachers on the interpretation of the Law—the sabbath, purity, divorce—within the Judaism of his time, not against it. Whether he regarded himself as the Messiah, or as the "Son of Man" of the apocalyptic tradition, is one of the most debated questions in all the research.
Jerusalem
Around the year 30, at Passover, Jesus goes up to Jerusalem with his followers. All four gospels narrate an incident in the Temple—the overturning of the money-changers' tables—which many historians regard as the trigger of his arrest. After a last supper with the Twelve, he is seized at night in Gethsemane, questioned by the Temple authorities and handed over to the prefect Pontius Pilate, who condemns him to crucifixion, the Roman penalty reserved for slaves and rebels. The inscription on the cross, "the king of the Jews", sums up the political charge. The gospels differ on the day—John places it on the eve of Passover, the Synoptics on Passover itself—, on the details of the trial and on the words he spoke on the cross. He died within a few hours and was buried that same day.
After the cross
Shortly afterwards his disciples claimed that God had raised him and that he had appeared to them. The oldest list of those appearances is transmitted by Paul around the year 54 (1 Corinthians 15). The historian can neither verify nor refute the resurrection, which is an object of faith; he can note that this conviction transformed a Jewish renewal movement into a religion that, within three centuries, would become that of the Roman Empire. The titles Christ ("anointed"), Lord and Son of God, the doctrine of his two natures and of the Trinity, fixed at the councils of Nicaea (325) and Chalcedon (451), are elaborations of that faith.
Many memories
Alongside the four canonical gospels others circulated: collections of sayings such as the Gospel of Thomas, passion narratives such as that of Peter, Gnostic dialogues such as those of Mary or Philip, infancy narratives. Their discovery—above all at Nag Hammadi (Egypt) in 1945—has revealed the diversity of Christianity in its first centuries. For Islam, Jesus (Isa) is one of the great prophets, born of a virgin, but neither crucified nor divine. For Judaism, a Jewish teacher whose messiahship is not recognised. For history, a first-century Galilean prophet whose figure remains, two thousand years later, one of the most studied and debated in human history.
Sources: Nestle, Eberhard y Erwin; Aland, Barbara y Kurt, et al. (eds.). Novum Testamentum Graece, 28.ª ed. Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, 2012; y Holmes, Michael W. (ed.). The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition. Society of Biblical Literature / Logos, 2010 (texto griego citado, CC BY 4.0). · Meier, John P. A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus. 5 vols. Doubleday / Yale University Press, Nueva York y New Haven, 1991–2016 (trad. esp.: Un judío marginal, Verbo Divino). · Sanders, E. P. The Historical Figure of Jesus. Allen Lane / Penguin, Londres, 1993 (trad. esp.: La figura histórica de Jesús, Verbo Divino, 2000). · Theissen, Gerd y Merz, Annette. Der historische Jesus: Ein Lehrbuch. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Gotinga, 1996 (trad. esp.: El Jesús histórico, Sígueme, Salamanca, 1999). · Ehrman, Bart D. Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium. Oxford University Press, Nueva York, 1999.
Timeline
A life, year by year
Each point is a documented event. Click to read it, with its source and degree of certainty.
c. 5 BCEage 0Probablemente Nazaret (Galilea); según Mateo y Lucas, Belén (Judea)
Birth
Matthew places the birth under Herod the Great, who died in 4 BCE; hence the conventional date of c. 6–4 BCE. The infancy narratives of Matthew and Luke are incompatible in their itinerary and scholarship regards them as theological compositions. Years BCE are expressed as negative numbers.
ProbableSanders, E. P. The Historical Figure of Jesus. Allen Lane / Penguin, Londres, 1993 (trad. esp.: La figura histórica de Jesús, Verbo Divino, 2000).
After their death
- c. 50Paul's letters
- c. 70Gospel of Mark
- c. 93Flavius Josephus mentions Jesus
- c. 116Tacitus and the execution of "Christ"
- 325Council of Nicaea
- December 1945Discovery of the Nag Hammadi codices
- 1961Discovery of the Pilate inscription
c. 5 BCE · age 0
Birth
Matthew places the birth under Herod the Great, who died in 4 BCE; hence the conventional date of c. 6–4 BCE. The infancy narratives of Matthew and Luke are incompatible in their itinerary and scholarship regards them as theological compositions. Years BCE are expressed as negative numbers.
Probable
c. 4 BCE
Death of Herod the Great
His kingdom is divided among his sons: Galilee passes to the tetrarch Herod Antipas, who will rule the territory where Jesus grows up.
Documented
6
Census of Quirinius
Judea becomes a Roman province and the legate of Syria, Quirinius, conducts a fiscal census (Josephus, Antiquities 18.1). Luke links it to Jesus's birth, which clashes with Matthew's chronology; it is one of the classic problems of research.
Documented
c. 8 · age 12
The boy in the Temple
The only episode of his youth in the canonical gospels (Luke 2:41–52): at twelve, Jesus stays behind in the Temple debating with the teachers. It is a tradition found only in Luke.
Tradition
26
Pontius Pilate, prefect of Judea
Pilate governs Judea from 26 to 36. The inscription found at Caesarea in 1961 confirms his office of praefectus.
Documented
c. 28 · age 32
Baptism by John
Jesus is baptised by John the Baptist. Luke (3:1) dates the start of John's preaching to the fifteenth year of Tiberius (c. 28–29). The baptism is considered very probably historical because it embarrassed the evangelists themselves.
Probable
c. 28
Preaching in Galilee
He proclaims the kingdom of God in parables, performs healings and exorcisms and gathers a group of Twelve. The length of the ministry ranges from one year (Synoptics) to about three (John, who mentions three Passovers).
Probable
c. 29
Execution of John the Baptist
Herod Antipas imprisons and executes John. Josephus (Antiquities 18.116–119) ascribes it to fear of revolt; the gospels, to John's criticism of Antipas's marriage to Herodias.
Documented
c. 30
Entry into Jerusalem and the Temple incident
At Passover Jesus reaches Jerusalem and overturns the money-changers' tables in the Temple, an act many historians regard as the immediate cause of his arrest.
Probable
c. 30
Last supper, arrest and crucifixion
After a supper with the Twelve he is arrested, questioned by the Temple authorities and crucified on Pilate's orders on the charge of claiming to be "king of the Jews". Tacitus and Josephus confirm the execution under Pilate. Astronomical calculations for 14 Nisan point to 7 April 30 or 3 April 33.
Documented
c. 30
Belief in the resurrection
His disciples claim that he has risen and appeared to them. It is an object of faith, not a verifiable fact; the belief is documented by Paul around 54 (1 Corinthians 15:3–8), who passes on an earlier formula.
Tradition
c. 50
Paul's letters
Paul's authentic letters (c. 50–58) are the oldest surviving Christian documents and mention some facts about Jesus: his Jewish origin, his brothers, the last supper and the crucifixion.
Documented
c. 70
Gospel of Mark
The oldest gospel is composed around the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple by Rome (70). Matthew and Luke use it as a source around 80–90; John is written c. 90–110.
Probable
c. 93
Flavius Josephus mentions Jesus
In the Jewish Antiquities Josephus refers to "Jesus, who was called Christ", brother of James (20.200), and devotes a passage to him (18.63–64) that Christian copyists interpolated; most specialists believe it contains an authentic core.
Documented
c. 116
Tacitus and the execution of "Christ"
Narrating the fire of Rome under Nero, Tacitus (Annals 15.44) explains that the Christians' name comes from Christ, executed by the procurator Pontius Pilate in the reign of Tiberius.
Documented
325
Council of Nicaea
The first ecumenical council defines the Son as "consubstantial" with the Father; Chalcedon (451) will fix the doctrine of his two natures, divine and human, in one person.
Documented
December 1945
Discovery of the Nag Hammadi codices
Farmers find in a jar twelve fourth-century Coptic codices and the loose leaves of a thirteenth, containing among other texts the complete Gospel of Thomas and the Gospels of Philip and of Truth.
Documented
1961
Discovery of the Pilate inscription
An Italian expedition discovers in the theatre at Caesarea a reused stone bearing the name of Pontius Pilate, prefect of Judea: the first archaeological evidence of the governor who condemned Jesus.
Documented
Works
Essential works
The works without which their legacy cannot be understood.
Later compilation · c. 70
The Gospel according to Mark
Τὸ κατὰ Μᾶρκον εὐαγγέλιον
The shortest and oldest of the canonical gospels. It begins without an infancy narrative, with the baptism in the Jordan, and moves swiftly through the Galilean activity—healings, exorcisms, parables of the kingdom—to the passion in Jerusalem, which takes up almost a third of the text. Its Jesus is a man of action who imposes silence about his identity (the "messianic secret"), and his disciples often fail to understand him. The original ending (16:8) closes with the women fleeing the empty tomb "for they were afraid"; verses 16:9–20 are a later addition.
8 editions · amazon.com
Later compilation · c. 85
The Gospel according to Matthew
Τὸ κατὰ Ματθαῖον εὐαγγέλιον
The gospel the early Church placed first and the most quoted in the liturgy. It organises Jesus's teaching into five great discourses, the first being the Sermon on the Mount (chs. 5–7), with the beatitudes, the Lord's Prayer and the golden rule. It presents Jesus as a new Moses and the fulfilment of Israel's Scriptures, with frequent fulfilment quotations, and opens with its own genealogy and infancy narrative (the magi, the flight into Egypt). It ends with the sending of the disciples to all nations.
8 editions · amazon.com
Later compilation · c. 85
The Gospel according to Luke
Τὸ κατὰ Λουκᾶν εὐαγγέλιον
The most literary of the gospels, written in careful Greek and addressed to one Theophilus. It contains its own infancy narrative (the annunciation, the manger, the shepherds) and exclusive parables—the good Samaritan, the prodigal son, the rich man and Lazarus—that stress mercy towards the poor, women and the marginalised. It sets Jesus's life in the history of the Empire (Augustus, Tiberius, Quirinius) and narrates a long journey to Jerusalem. On the cross it transmits the words of forgiveness and of surrender to the Father.
8 editions · amazon.com
Later compilation · c. 100
The Gospel according to John
Τὸ κατὰ Ἰωάννην εὐαγγέλιον
Very different from the other three: it begins with a prologue on the Logos that "became flesh", replaces the parables with long discourses and seven "signs" (water turned into wine, the raising of Lazarus), and puts in Jesus's mouth the "I am" sayings (the bread of life, the light of the world, the way, the truth and the life). It places the cleansing of the Temple at the beginning and the crucifixion on the eve of Passover. It has been the main source of Christian Christology and mysticism.
8 editions · amazon.com
Complete works (31)
The Q Source (Sayings Gospel Q)
60
The Gospel of Thomas
125
The Gospel of Peter
150
The Gospel of Mary (Magdalene)
150
The Gospel of Philip
250
The Gospel of Judas
150
The Infancy Gospel of Thomas
150
The Protevangelium of James
150
The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew
625
The Arabic Infancy Gospel
550
The History of Joseph the Carpenter
600
The Gospel of Nicodemus (Acts of Pilate)
350
Jesus of Nazareth
The Letters of Christ and Abgar
The Conscious LibraryThe Letters of Christ and Abgar
300
Jesus of Nazareth
The Epistle of the Apostles
The Conscious LibraryThe Epistle of the Apostles
150
Jesus of Nazareth
Agrapha (Sayings of Jesus outside the Gospels)
The Conscious LibraryAgrapha (Sayings of Jesus outside the Gospels)
The Gospel according to the Hebrews
125
The Gospel of the Ebionites
150
The Gospel of the Nazareans
150
The Gospel of the Egyptians
130
The Egerton Gospel (Papyrus Egerton 2)
150
Jesus of Nazareth
The Secret Book of James
The Conscious LibraryThe Secret Book of James
150
Jesus of Nazareth
The Dialogue of the Savior
The Conscious LibraryThe Dialogue of the Savior
150
Jesus of Nazareth
The Book of Thomas the Contender
The Conscious LibraryThe Book of Thomas the Contender
200
Jesus of Nazareth
The Wisdom of Jesus Christ
The Conscious LibraryThe Wisdom of Jesus Christ
175
Quotations
Quotations located in a specific work. Each carries its provenance and its level of confidence.
The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.Πεπλήρωται ὁ καιρὸς καὶ ἤγγικεν ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ· μετανοεῖτε καὶ πιστεύετε ἐν τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ.
VerifiedMarcos 1:15. Griego: SBLGNT; inglés: King James Version (1611); español: traducción propia.
Apocryphal quotes or disputed attributions (5)
«He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone.»
It belongs to the episode of the woman taken in adultery (John 7:53–8:11), which is missing from the oldest manuscripts of the gospel (P66, P75, Sinaiticus, Vaticanus) and in others appears in different places, even in Luke. Textual criticism regards it as an ancient tradition added to the text, not an original part of John.
«Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.»
Luke 23:34a is missing from important early witnesses (P75, Vaticanus, Bezae, and a corrector's hand in Sinaiticus). Editors print it in double brackets: it is ancient but probably not part of Luke's original text.
«Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature… They shall take up serpents.»
It comes from the "longer ending" of Mark (16:9–20), absent from Sinaiticus and Vaticanus and unknown to Clement of Alexandria and Origen. It is regarded as a second-century addition harmonising Mark's abrupt ending with the other gospels.
«God helps those who help themselves.»
It is often attributed to Jesus or the Bible, but it appears in no biblical text. The widespread English wording comes from Algernon Sidney (1698) and Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack (1736); the idea has precedents in Greek antiquity.
«It is more blessed to give than to receive.»
It is an agraphon: it appears in no gospel. Only Paul quotes it in the Acts of the Apostles (20:35) as "words of the Lord Jesus", and its origin cannot be verified; it has parallels in Greek literature.
Last words
Contradictory versions
«"Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" which is, being interpreted, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Mark 15:34).»Ἐλωῒ ἐλωῒ λεμὰ σαβαχθάνι; ὅ ἐστιν μεθερμηνευόμενον Ὁ θεός μου ὁ θεός μου, εἰς τί ἐγκατέλιπές με;
There is no direct testimony: the gospels are later and do not agree. Mark (15:34–37) gives as the only sentence on the cross the Aramaic cry of Psalm 22:1 and adds that Jesus expired "with a loud cry", without words. Matthew (27:46–50) follows Mark, with the Hebrew form "Eli, Eli", and repeats the final cry. Luke (23:46) omits the cry of abandonment and puts in his mouth Psalm 31:5: "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit"; before that, the prayer of forgiveness for his executioners (23:34, textually doubtful) and the promise to the good thief (23:43). John (19:30) ends with "It is finished" (tetelestai), after entrusting his mother to the beloved disciple and saying "I thirst". The Gospel of Peter (5:19) gives another variant: "My power, O power, you have left me." Devotional tradition harmonised all these sayings into the "Seven Last Words"; historians see in each version the theology of its evangelist.
Source: Nestle, Eberhard y Erwin; Aland, Barbara y Kurt, et al. (eds.). Novum Testamentum Graece, 28.ª ed. Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, 2012; y Holmes, Michael W. (ed.). The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition. Society of Biblical Literature / Logos, 2010 (texto griego citado, CC BY 4.0).
Ask
What their work answers
Twelve great human questions and what their texts allow us to answer, with references. We never put words in their mouth.
What is the Absolute? Does God exist?
God is the Father who cares, forgives and reigns
A personal GodStated explicitly
According to the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus does not discuss God's existence: as a first-century Galilean Jew he presupposes it, and radicalises it as relationship. Asked about the first commandment he quotes the Shema: the Lord is one, and is to be loved with all one's heart (Mk 12:29–30). He addresses God as Father, and Mark preserves the Aramaic word Abba in the Gethsemane prayer (Mk 14:36); he teaches people to ask for daily bread and forgiveness (Mt 6:9–13; Lk 11:2–4) and describes a Father who knows what is needed before it is asked and who clothes the lilies of the field. The heart of his preaching is the Kingdom of God, the sovereignty of that God breaking into history. The Absolute is, in these texts, someone who sees, hears, forgives and acts.
Compare this question with other teachersWho am I? Is there a true self?
One's life is worth more than the world; whoever gives it up gains it
A created, immortal soulInferred from their doctrine
The Synoptic Gospels record no theory of the self, but they do contain statements about the worth of the person before God. Jesus asks what it profits someone to gain the whole world and lose their life (psyche), and states that whoever wishes to save it will lose it, and whoever loses it for his sake and the gospel's will save it (Mk 8:35–37). In Matthew he urges not fearing those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul (Mt 10:28), and assures that even the hairs of one's head are numbered (Mt 10:30). The self thus appears as a unique life, known by God, not reducible to the body, found in self-giving rather than self-assertion. Christian tradition later developed, with Greek categories, the doctrine of the created, immortal soul.
Compare this question with other teachersWhy do we suffer?
He gives no theory of pain: he heals it, shares it and announces its end
Separation from GodInferred from their doctrine
The Synoptic Gospels do not attribute to Jesus a systematic explanation of suffering, and in one passage he expressly rejects the most common explanation of his time. Told of some Galileans killed by Pilate and of eighteen people crushed by the tower of Siloam, he asks whether they were more guilty than others and answers no, though he adds a call to repentance (Lk 13:1–5). In other scenes, however, he links healing to the forgiveness of sins (Mk 2:1–12). His response to pain is above all practical: he heals the sick, eats with the excluded, declares the poor and those who weep blessed (Lk 6:20–21) and announces a Kingdom that reverses their lot. In Gethsemane he asks that the cup pass and accepts it (Mk 14:36). The theology of redemptive suffering comes later.
Compare this question with other teachersWhat happens after death?
God is not God of the dead but of the living: the dead will rise
Eternal life and resurrectionStated explicitly
According to the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus shares with the Pharisees the Jewish hope in the resurrection of the dead. When the Sadducees, who denied it, put to him the case of the woman married in turn to seven brothers, he answers that those who rise will be like angels and that God is not God of the dead but of the living. His parables announce a final judgement with two destinies — eternal life or punishment — decided by one's conduct towards the least, and that of the rich man and Lazarus describes an immediate fate after death. In Luke he promises the crucified wrongdoer to be with him that very day in paradise. The Gospel of John, later and more theological in composition, puts on his lips that he himself is the resurrection and the life. His followers' faith in his own resurrection is the centre of the later tradition.
Compare this question with other teachersHow is liberation or salvation attained?
Repent and receive the Kingdom of God, which comes as gift and demands deeds
Through grace and loveInferred from their doctrine
According to the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus's central proclamation is that the Kingdom of God has come near and that one must repent and believe (Mark 1:15). Entry into the Kingdom is presented as a gift: to the question of who can be saved, he answers that for humans it is impossible, but not for God (Mark 10:27), and the Kingdom belongs to those who receive it like children. At the same time, the same texts demand a concrete response: doing the Father's will, renouncing binding wealth, forgiving, and in the judgement scene of Matthew 25 the criterion is works of mercy towards the least. Grace and conduct thus appear intertwined, without the doctrinal systematisation that came later.
Compare this question with other teachersIs a teacher necessary?
Follow him, the one Teacher; among disciples, all are brothers
IndispensableStated explicitly
According to the gospels, Jesus acted as an itinerant teacher who called people to follow him (Mark 1:17) and formed a group of disciples. Personal following is the centre of his proposal: knowing a doctrine is not enough, one must go after him. At the same time, in Matthew 23:8-10 he forbids his disciples to be called rabbi, father or teacher, because they have only one Teacher and are all brothers. John's gospel takes the centrality of his figure further by presenting him as the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6). The position is therefore that of an indispensable and unique teacher, who at the same time relativises any human authority among those who follow him.
Compare this question with other teachersIs the world real?
The Father cares for lilies and birds; the world is His work
A good and real creationStated explicitly
In the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus speaks of the natural world as a creation God cares for: the Father feeds the birds of the air and clothes the lilies of the field (Matthew 6:26-30), makes his sun rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust (Matthew 5:45). His parables draw on seeds, harvests, nets and yeast, with no trace of the material world being illusory or evil in itself. The danger lies not in creation but in attachment to wealth and anxious worry. John's gospel uses «world» in another sense, often as the human order that rejects God, though it also states that God so loved the world that He gave His Son.
Compare this question with other teachersWhat is love?
Loving God and neighbour sums up the Law; the enemy too
Love of God and neighbourStated explicitly
According to Mark's Gospel, when asked about the first commandment Jesus joins two texts of the Torah: to love God with all one's heart (Deuteronomy 6:5) and one's neighbour as oneself (Leviticus 19:18), and declares that there is no greater commandment. Luke illustrates who one's neighbour is with the parable of the Samaritan, which turns the despised foreigner into a model of active compassion. The most radical feature of the Synoptics is love of enemies: in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus asks his hearers to love those who persecute them and pray for them, so as to be children of the Father, who makes the sun rise on the evil and the good. John's Gospel, composed later, formulates a new commandment — love one another as I have loved you — and defines the greatest proof of love as laying down one's life for one's friends.
Compare this question with other teachersAre we free, or is everything determined?
A call to conversion that presupposes freedom, under a providence that cares for everything
Real free willInferred from their doctrine
The gospels contain no doctrine of free will, but their very form presupposes it. According to Mark, Jesus' preaching begins with a call: the time is fulfilled, repent and believe in the good news (Mk 1:15). That demand for change, the parables of decision and the judgement according to what each did with the hungry and the stranger (Mt 25:31-46) only make sense if the person can respond or refuse. Alongside this, the synoptics transmit a radical trust in providence: not a sparrow falls to the ground without the Father knowing, and even the hairs of the head are counted (Mt 10:29-31). Jesus does not reconcile the two in theory; he lives them as filial trust and responsibility at once.
Compare this question with other teachersWhy meditate or pray?
Praying in secret to the Father, calling him Abba, with a child's trust
Friendship with GodStated explicitly
The gospels show Jesus withdrawing to pray alone, at dawn or by night (Mk 1:35; Lk 6:12), and attribute to him a teaching on prayer centred on the filial relationship. In the Sermon on the Mount he asks for prayer in secret, without heaping up words, because the Father knows what we need, and teaches the Lord's Prayer (Mt 6:5-13). In Gethsemane he calls him *Abba*, an Aramaic term of family intimacy (Mk 14:36). The Gospel of John, later and more theological in composition, has him tell the disciples that he no longer calls them servants but friends (Jn 15:15). Prayer is neither technique nor rite, but personal trust in a Father who listens, joined to conformity with his will.
Compare this question with other teachersCan reason know the ultimate?
He argues from Scripture, yet what is revealed is hidden from the wise
Scripture and reasoningInferred from their doctrine
The gospels show Jesus debating with scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees using the tools of the Jewish exegesis of his time. Facing the Sadducees, who deny the resurrection, he reproaches them for knowing neither the Scriptures nor the power of God and argues from the burning-bush passage: God is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and is not God of the dead but of the living (Mk 12:24-27). Luke presents him explaining to the disciples at Emmaus what the Scriptures said about him (Lk 24:27). But the synoptic tradition also attributes to him a thanksgiving because the Father has hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to little ones (Mt 11:25-27). Reason interprets Scripture; knowledge of the Father is a gift.
Compare this question with other teachersWithdraw from the world or transform it?
Retreats for prayer and a mission among the sick, the poor and sinners
Engage with the worldInferred from their doctrine
According to the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus did not found a separate community like that of Qumran nor live as a hermit, although he withdrew to deserted places to pray. His mission unfolds in the villages, synagogues, houses and roads of Galilee, among the sick, the poor, tax collectors and sinners, with whom he shares table fellowship, which earns him criticism. He sends his disciples to heal and proclaim the kingdom, and in the parable of the last judgement he makes care for the hungry, the stranger, the sick and the prisoner the decisive criterion. At the same time, he refuses to turn his message into a political programme: asked about the tribute, he answers that one should give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's. The kingdom he proclaims transforms human relations here, but is not identified with any power of this world.
Compare this question with other teachers
Affinities & tensions
Affinities and tensions
Calculated question by question from their positions. The reason for each agreement or clash, on click.
Thinks most like
Theophan the Recluse
They agree on: What is the Absolute? Does God exist? · Who am I? Is there a true self? · Why do we suffer?
Ignatius Brianchaninov
They agree on: What is the Absolute? Does God exist? · Who am I? Is there a true self? · Why do we suffer?
Francis of Assisi
They agree on: What is the Absolute? Does God exist? · Who am I? Is there a true self? · Why do we suffer?
Teresa of Ávila
They agree on: What is the Absolute? Does God exist? · Who am I? Is there a true self? · Why do we suffer?
Thinks most unlike
Patañjali
They clash on: What is the Absolute? Does God exist? · Who am I? Is there a true self? · What happens after death?
Pema Chödrön
They clash on: What is the Absolute? Does God exist? · Who am I? Is there a true self? · What happens after death?
Nāgārjuna
They clash on: What is the Absolute? Does God exist? · Who am I? Is there a true self? · What happens after death?
Yajnavalkya
They clash on: Who am I? Is there a true self? · What happens after death? · Is the world real?
They agree on
Jesus of Nazareth · The 14th Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso)
Loving the enemy too: the Tibetan monk reads the Sermon on the Mount
Why: The relationship is documented: at the 1994 John Main Seminar in London the Dalai Lama commented on Gospel passages, among them the Sermon on the Mount, and his remarks were published as The Good Heart. He acknowledged the ethical affinity and pointed out frankly the underlying difference. In the Gospels love of the enemy is grounded in imitation of a Father who loves all; in Tibetan Buddhism, in the equality of all beings before the wish for happiness and in interdependence, without a creator God. They agree on the practice and its demands, not on the ultimate reason that sustains it, and neither seeks to erase that distance.
They agree on
Jesus of Nazareth · Thich Nhat Hanh
The Holy Spirit as the energy of mindfulness: a Zen monk before the living Christ
Why: The relationship is documented in one sense: Thich Nhat Hanh read and commented on the Gospels, was in dialogue with Thomas Merton and Martin Luther King, and in 1995 published Living Buddha, Living Christ to show convergences. His reading draws on Paul Tillich's theology, which speaks of God as the ground of being. The affinity, however, is asymmetrical: the Gospels present a personal God, the Father who sees, listens and forgives, and Thich Nhat Hanh translates that language into the Buddhist ultimate dimension, in which there is no creator. Many Christian and Buddhist theologians consider that the translation blurs real differences. It is a bridge built from one bank.
They agree on
Jesus of Nazareth · Paramahansa Yogananda
Christ consciousness: a yogi comments on the Gospels
Why: The relationship is documented in one direction: Yogananda read and commented on the Gospels and presented Jesus as a realised master. His reading, however, is yogic and Vedantic: he distinguishes the historical Jesus from a universal Christ consciousness, reads some passages in terms of reincarnation and meditative technique, and conceives God as having a formless ground besides a personal face. None of this appears in the Synoptics, which present a first-century Jew who presupposes the God of Israel and announces his Kingdom, and Christian theology rejects reincarnation. They agree on the way of praying, not on the doctrine surrounding it.
They agree on
Jesus of Nazareth · Confucius
The golden rule in two languages, and the exact point where they part
Why: There was no contact between them; the convergence comes from a widespread moral intuition, reciprocity, found in very diverse traditions. The divergence before the enemy is explained by each one's framework. Confucius thinks of a society ordered by graded relationships, beginning with the family, where love has measure and justice requires that each act receive its due. Jesus speaks from the imminence of the Kingdom of God and from the imitation of a Father who loves all without distinction, which breaks every measure. One seeks the harmony of the city; the other announces a justice that overflows it.
They clash onFundamental disagreement
Jesus of Nazareth · Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha
Abba versus the arrow: a Father who listens and a question that leads nowhere
Why: The contradiction is real, but it should be framed carefully. Jesus is a first-century Jew who does not argue for God's existence but radicalises it as a filial relationship; the Buddha teaches in an India full of speculation about the creator and the atman, and deliberately sets those questions aside because they do not lead to the end of suffering. They do not, then, answer exactly the same question: one announces whom to turn to; the other, how to extinguish the cause of pain. Both reach us, moreover, through texts of faith fixed decades or centuries later. The difference over a personal God, however, is not apparent: the Buddhist tradition has always maintained it.
Anecdotes and stories
Anecdotes and stories
Hagiographic accountc. 28 (tradicional)
The temptations in the wilderness
Origin of the story: Mark 1:12–13; Matthew 4:1–11 and Luke 4:1–13, which differ in the order of the last two temptations and derive from the Q source. It is a theological narrative built on texts from Deuteronomy (6–8); historians do not regard it as verifiable.
Source: Robinson, James M., Hoffmann, Paul y Kloppenborg, John S. (eds.). The Critical Edition of Q. Fortress Press / Peeters, Mineápolis y Lovaina, 2000. ISBN 9780800631499.
Oral traditionc. 28–30
"He is beside himself": Jesus's family
Origin of the story: Mark 3:20–21 and 3:31–35; parallels in Matthew 12:46–50, Luke 8:19–21 and Thomas 99. The omission of Mark 3:21 by the later evangelists is cited as an example of the "criterion of embarrassment": an awkward memory unlikely to have been invented.
Source: Meier, John P. A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus. 5 vols. Doubleday / Yale University Press, Nueva York y New Haven, 1991–2016 (trad. esp.: Un judío marginal, Verbo Divino).
Oral traditionc. 29–30
"Who do you say that I am?"
Origin of the story: Mark 8:27–33; Matthew 16:13–23 (with the promise to Peter, 16:17–19, only in Matthew); Luke 9:18–22. Historians debate whether the scene preserves a memory or is a composition on messianic identity; the passion predictions are generally regarded as written after the event.
Source: Meier, John P. A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus. 5 vols. Doubleday / Yale University Press, Nueva York y New Haven, 1991–2016 (trad. esp.: Un judío marginal, Verbo Divino).
Oral traditionc. 30
The money-changers' tables
Origin of the story: Mark 11:15–18; Matthew 21:12–13; Luke 19:45–46; John 2:13–22. It is one of the episodes E. P. Sanders regards as historically most secure and the probable cause of the arrest; its meaning (protest against commerce, symbolic announcement of the Temple's destruction) is debated.
Source: Sanders, E. P. The Historical Figure of Jesus. Allen Lane / Penguin, Londres, 1993 (trad. esp.: La figura histórica de Jesús, Verbo Divino, 2000).
Disputedc. 30 (tradicional)
The woman taken in adultery
Origin of the story: John 7:53–8:11. It is missing from papyri P66 and P75 and the codices Sinaiticus and Vaticanus; some manuscripts place it after John 21:25 or after Luke 21:38. Papias seems to have known a similar story. It is probably an ancient tradition that circulated independently and was incorporated into the fourth gospel in the fourth to fifth centuries.
Source: Metzger, Bruce M. A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament. 2.ª ed. Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft / United Bible Societies, Stuttgart, 1994.
Hagiographic accountc. 30 (tradicional); relato del s. III–IV
The letter to King Abgar
Origin of the story: Eusebius of Caesarea, Ecclesiastical History 1.13, who claims to have translated the letters from Syriac from the archives of Edessa; expanded version in the Syriac Doctrine of Addai (c. 400). The decree attributed to Pope Gelasius (6th century) declared them apocryphal. No historian regards them as authentic.
Source: Eusebio de Cesarea. Historia eclesiástica 3.39 (testimonio de Papías sobre Marcos y Mateo) y 6.12 (Serapión de Antioquía sobre el Evangelio de Pedro), c. 325. Trad. esp. Argimiro Velasco Delgado, BAC, Madrid.
Teachings
Teachings
The notions that structure their thought, explained in context.
The kingdom of Godreino-de-dios
A concept of Second Temple Judaism (Daniel, psalms, synagogue prayers) that Jesus makes the core of his message.
Source: Ehrman, Bart D. Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium. Oxford University Press, Nueva York, 1999.
Abba: God as fatherabba
The basis of Christian prayer and of the later Trinitarian theology of sonship.
Source: Meier, John P. A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus. 5 vols. Doubleday / Yale University Press, Nueva York y New Haven, 1991–2016 (trad. esp.: Un judío marginal, Verbo Divino).
Love of enemiesamor-a-los-enemigos
Ethical core of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5–7) and the Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6), deriving from the Q source.
Source: Robinson, James M., Hoffmann, Paul y Kloppenborg, John S. (eds.). The Critical Edition of Q. Fortress Press / Peeters, Mineápolis y Lovaina, 2000. ISBN 9780800631499.
The parablesparabolas
A Jewish wisdom genre reworked as proclamation of the kingdom; the Gospel of Thomas preserves independent versions of several of them.
Source: Funk, Robert W., Hoover, Roy W. y The Jesus Seminar. The Five Gospels: The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus. Macmillan, Nueva York, 1993.
The Son of Manhijo-del-hombre
A Christological title of Jewish apocalyptic origin, practically abandoned after the gospels.
Source: Theissen, Gerd y Merz, Annette. Der historische Jesus: Ein Lehrbuch. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Gotinga, 1996 (trad. esp.: El Jesús histórico, Sígueme, Salamanca, 1999).
Messiah and Christmesias
A concept of Second Temple Judaism that became the central title of Christian faith.
Source: Fredriksen, Paula. Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews: A Jewish Life and the Emergence of Christianity. Alfred A. Knopf, Nueva York, 1999.
Retreats
Retreats and centres
Places and gatherings linked to their teaching. We put you in touch with the organisers.
Taizé, Borgoña · Francia
Taizé Community
Communauté de Taizé
Taizé is an ecumenical monastic community founded by Brother Roger in a small Burgundy village, where brothers from different Christian confessions live together. Every week it welcomes thousands of young people, as well as adults and families, to share common prayer three times a day, with its simple, repetitive chants, reflection on biblical texts in small groups and community life. Far from proselytism, its approach centres on the Gospel and on what the community calls a pilgrimage of trust on earth, which also continues in European youth meetings held in different cities.
Jerusalén, Belén, Nazaret, Cafarnaún y otros santuarios · Israel y Palestina
The Holy Land with the Franciscan Custody
Custodia de Tierra Santa (Custodia Terrae Sanctae)
Since the fourteenth century, the Franciscans of the Custody of the Holy Land have looked after many of the places linked to the life of Jesus of Nazareth: the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem, the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth and Capernaum by the Sea of Galilee. Its website brings together information on pilgrimage, visiting each shrine and services for pilgrims, such as the office that coordinates group celebrations and a Christian information centre in Jerusalem. It is the historical reference for visiting the settings of the Gospels, whatever one's confession.
Manresa, Barcelona · España
Cova de Sant Ignasi: Spiritual Exercises in Manresa
Centre d'Espiritualitat Cova de Sant Ignasi (Compañía de Jesús)
In a cave above the Cardoner river at Manresa, Ignatius of Loyola spent long months in prayer in 1522 and 1523 and there conceived his Spiritual Exercises, a method of contemplation centred on the life of Jesus that is still practised worldwide. The site is now a Jesuit spirituality centre offering silent prayer retreats, courses of the Exercises and visits, and it is the goal of the Ignatian Way that sets out from Loyola. It is one of the most established paths in the Christian tradition for contemplating the Gospels in retreat, open to people of any background.
Videos
Videos
Recordings, interviews and documentaries. Videos play from YouTube; they are not hosted here.
13. The Historical Jesus
Lecture· EN· 2009· 52 min
YaleCoursesOfficial channel
6. The Gospel of Mark
Lecture· EN· 2009· 45 min
YaleCoursesOfficial channel
8. The Gospel of Thomas
Lecture· EN· 2009· 50 min
YaleCoursesOfficial channel
Jesus and the Historian
Lecture· EN· 2015· 82 min
Bart D. EhrmanOfficial channel
Elaine Pagels - What do "secret gospels" suggest about Jesus and his teaching?
Lecture· EN· 2019· 81 min
Kaufman Interfaith InstituteOfficial channel
Conferencia Antonio Piñero: 1-La discusión moderna sobre la existencia de Jesús de Nazaret
Lecture· ES· 2024· 64 min
Zamora Inquieta (ZINQ)Official channel
Conferencia Antonio Piñero: 2-El trágico final de Jesús. ¿Quién mató a Jesús y por qué?
Lecture· ES· 2024· 79 min
Zamora Inquieta (ZINQ)Official channel
Los esenios, la comunidad de Qumrán y las sectas en el judaísmo | Adolfo Roitman
Lecture· ES· 2015· 53 min
Fundación Juan MarchOfficial channel
Auf der Suche nach dem historischen Jesus
Lecture· DE· 2015· 86 min
WorthausOfficial channel
New Fieldwork at Hinton St Mary, Dorset: The Mosaic in Context
Lecture· EN· 2023· 64 min
Royal Archaeological InstituteOfficial channel
PBS Frontline From Jesus to Christ The First Christians Part I
Documentary· EN· 1998· 111 min
Flippant
Gallery
Gallery
Images with verified licences. Each keeps its authorship and attribution.
Manuscripts
Manuscripts
Manuscript witnesses and ancient texts, with their custodian and conditions of access.
GRC · Uncial griega · s. II (el primer editor lo fechó en 100–150; dataciones posteriores llegan hasta c. 200)
Papiro Rylands 457 (P52)
- Surviving witness
- Fragmento de códice de papiro de 8,9 × 6,0 cm
- Custodian
- John Rylands Library, Universidad de Mánchester · P. Ryl. Gr. 457
- Digitisation
- www.digitalcollections.manchester.ac.uk/view/MS-…
GRC · Uncial griega · s. IV (mediados)
Codex Sinaiticus
- Surviving witness
- Códice de pergamino; unos 400 folios conservados de los aproximadamente 730 originales
- Custodian
- British Library (la mayor parte); partes en Leipzig, San Petersburgo y el Sinaí · British Library, Add MS 43725
- Digitisation
- codexsinaiticus.org/en/…
COP · Copto (sahídico) · c. 350 (copia)
Códice II de Nag Hammadi
- Surviving witness
- Códice de papiro encuadernado en cuero
- Custodian
- Museo Copto, El Cairo · NHC II
COP · Copto (sahídico) · s. V (copia)
Papyrus Berolinensis 8502 (Códice de Berlín)
- Surviving witness
- Códice de papiro; faltan las páginas 1–6 y 11–14 del Evangelio de María
- Custodian
- Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung, Berlín · P. Berol. 8502
Connections
Connections
Influences, discipleships and affinities. Documented relations are distinguished from similarities identified by analysis.
Influenced by
Juan el Bautista
Jesus was baptised by John and probably belonged to his circle before beginning his own preaching; Josephus documents John independently (Antiquities 18.116–119).
Documented relation
Influenced
Pablo de Tarso
Paul did not know Jesus in life, but his letters (c. 50–58) are the first Christian documents and shaped the interpretation of his death and resurrection.
Documented relation
Influenced
Francis made the literal imitation of Jesus's poor life according to the gospels the rule of his order; his biographers narrate the stigmata as identification with the Crucified.
Documented relation
Influenced
In the Masnavi, Jesus (Isa) frequently appears as a figure of the spirit and of the power to heal, following the Qur'anic and Sufi tradition.
Documented relation
Ideas akin to
Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha
Since the nineteenth century their teachings on renunciation, compassion and love of enemies have been compared; there is no documented historical link between them.
Similarity identified by analysis
Linked from other profiles
- Socrates · Ideas akin to
- John of the Cross · Influenced by
- Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha · Ideas akin to
- Francis of Assisi · Influenced by
- Simone Weil · Influenced by
- Catherine of Siena · Influenced by
- Leo Tolstoy · Influenced by
- Osho · Influenced by
- Meher Baba · Ideas akin to
- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin · Influenced by
- Diogenes of Sinope · Ideas akin to
- Julian of Norwich · Influenced by
- Rudolf Steiner · Influenced by
- Martin Buber · Ideas akin to
- Ramakrishna · Influenced by
- Kahlil Gibran · Influenced by
- Meister Eckhart · Influenced by
- Rabia al-Adawiyya · Ideas akin to
- Paramahansa Yogananda · Influenced by
- Sri Yukteswar · Influenced by
- Al-Hallaj · Ideas akin to
- Augustine of Hippo · Influenced by
- Confucius · Ideas akin to
- Fyodor Dostoevsky · Influenced by
- Alice A. Bailey · Influenced by
Sources
Sources
Bibliography and catalogues consulted for this profile.
- Wikidata, entidad Q302 «Jesus / Jesús de Nazaret» (346 enlaces entre wikis; P31: figura religiosa y personaje bíblico, no Q5). Registra como nacimiento -7, -5 y -2, y como muerte el 7 de abril de 30 y el 3 de abril de 33; lugares de nacimiento Belén (Q5776) y Nazaret; nombre nativo ישו.
- Nestle, Eberhard y Erwin; Aland, Barbara y Kurt, et al. (eds.). Novum Testamentum Graece, 28.ª ed. Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, 2012; y Holmes, Michael W. (ed.). The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition. Society of Biblical Literature / Logos, 2010 (texto griego citado, CC BY 4.0).
- Meier, John P. A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus. 5 vols. Doubleday / Yale University Press, Nueva York y New Haven, 1991–2016 (trad. esp.: Un judío marginal, Verbo Divino).
- Sanders, E. P. The Historical Figure of Jesus. Allen Lane / Penguin, Londres, 1993 (trad. esp.: La figura histórica de Jesús, Verbo Divino, 2000).
- Theissen, Gerd y Merz, Annette. Der historische Jesus: Ein Lehrbuch. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Gotinga, 1996 (trad. esp.: El Jesús histórico, Sígueme, Salamanca, 1999).
- Ehrman, Bart D. Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium. Oxford University Press, Nueva York, 1999.
- Flavio Josefo, Antigüedades judías 18.63–64 (Testimonium Flavianum) y 20.200, c. 93–94; Tácito, Anales 15.44, c. 116. Ediciones de la Loeb Classical Library (Harvard University Press).
- Robinson, James M., Hoffmann, Paul y Kloppenborg, John S. (eds.). The Critical Edition of Q. Fortress Press / Peeters, Mineápolis y Lovaina, 2000. ISBN 9780800631499.
- Meyer, Marvin (ed.). The Nag Hammadi Scriptures: The International Edition. HarperOne, Nueva York, 2007. ISBN 9780060523787.
- Ehrman, Bart D. y Pleše, Zlatko. The Apocryphal Gospels: Texts and Translations. Oxford University Press, Nueva York, 2011. ISBN 9780199732104.
- Santos Otero, Aurelio de (ed.). Los Evangelios apócrifos. Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, Madrid, 1956 (ed. bilingüe; reed. 2009, ISBN 9788422014096).
- Piñero, Antonio, Montserrat Torrents, José y García Bazán, Francisco (eds.). Textos gnósticos. Biblioteca de Nag Hammadi. 3 vols. Trotta, Madrid, 1997–2000 (vol. II: Evangelios, hechos, cartas).
- Kasser, Rodolphe, Meyer, Marvin y Wurst, Gregor (eds.). The Gospel of Judas from Codex Tchacos. National Geographic, Washington, 2006. ISBN 9781426200427.
- King, Karen L. The Gospel of Mary of Magdala: Jesus and the First Woman Apostle. Polebridge Press, Santa Rosa, 2003. ISBN 9780944344583.
- The Holy Bible, King James Version (1611). Project Gutenberg, n.º 10 (y n.º 8040–8043 para los cuatro evangelios). Dominio público.
- James, M. R. (trad.). The Apocryphal New Testament. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1924.
- Funk, Robert W., Hoover, Roy W. y The Jesus Seminar. The Five Gospels: The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus. Macmillan, Nueva York, 1993.
- Dunn, James D. G. Jesus Remembered (Christianity in the Making, vol. 1). Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2003.
- Inscripción de Poncio Pilato hallada en Cesarea Marítima (1961). L'Année épigraphique 1963, 104. Museo de Israel, Jerusalén.
- Fredriksen, Paula. Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews: A Jewish Life and the Emergence of Christianity. Alfred A. Knopf, Nueva York, 1999.
- Metzger, Bruce M. A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament. 2.ª ed. Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft / United Bible Societies, Stuttgart, 1994.
- Franklin, Benjamin. Poor Richard's Almanack, Filadelfia, 1736 («God helps them that help themselves»); antecedente en Algernon Sidney, Discourses Concerning Government, 1698.
- Eusebio de Cesarea. Historia eclesiástica 3.39 (testimonio de Papías sobre Marcos y Mateo) y 6.12 (Serapión de Antioquía sobre el Evangelio de Pedro), c. 325. Trad. esp. Argimiro Velasco Delgado, BAC, Madrid.
- Universidad de Mánchester, John Rylands Research Institute and Library. Papiro Rylands P52 (P. Ryl. Gr. 457), fragmento del Evangelio de Juan (18:31–33, 37–38), 8,9 × 6,0 cm; Manchester Digital Collections.
- Robinson, James M. (ed.). The Nag Hammadi Library in English. 3.ª ed. HarperCollins, San Francisco, 1988 (relato del hallazgo de 1945 en la introducción).
- British Library. «Codex Sinaiticus», ficha de la colección (Add MS 43725) y Codex Sinaiticus Project.
- Tomás de Celano. Vita prima sancti Francisci (c. 1228–1229). Trad. esp. en San Francisco de Asís: Escritos, biografías, documentos de la época, ed. J. A. Guerra, BAC, Madrid.
- Rumi, Jalal al-Din. The Mathnawí of Jalálu'ddín Rúmí. Ed. y trad. R. A. Nicholson, 8 vols., E. J. W. Gibb Memorial / Luzac, Londres, 1925–1940.
- Pelikan, Jaroslav. The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine. Vol. 1: The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (100–600). Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971 (formación de la cristología y de la doctrina trinitaria hasta Nicea y Calcedonia).
- El Corán, azoras 3:45–59, 4:157–158, 5:116–117 y 19:16–36 (Jesús/ʿĪsā, hijo de María). Trad. inglesa de Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran. Nueva York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1930.
- Smith, Morton. Clement of Alexandria and a Secret Gospel of Mark. Cambridge (Mass.): Harvard University Press, 1973.
- Horner, George (trad.). Pistis Sophia. Introducción de Francis Legge. Londres: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1924. Project Gutenberg, n.º 76266.
- Bell, H. Idris y Skeat, T. C. Fragments of an Unknown Gospel and Other Early Christian Papyri. Londres: British Museum, 1935 (editio princeps del Papiro Egerton 2).
- Wikisource (en). «The Apocryphal New Testament (1924)», transcripción de M. R. James, The Apocryphal New Testament, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1924, con una página por texto.
- Wikisource: «Biblia Reina-Valera 1909» (es, una subpágina por capítulo) y «Bible (American Standard)» (en, American Standard Version, 1901).
- Rights holder
- Textos antiguos en dominio público; cada traducción y edición crítica pertenece a su traductor o editorial
Pending confirmation
What this profile has not yet been able to settle. We would rather say so than fill it in.
- Fechas: nacimiento c. 6–4 a. C. (se ha adoptado 5 a. C., aproximado) y muerte en 30 (o 33) d. C.; Wikidata registra -7, -5, -2 y los días 7 de abril de 30 y 3 de abril de 33. La elección del 30 sigue la opinión mayoritaria, no un dato cierto.
- Wikidata clasifica a Q302 como figura religiosa y personaje bíblico, no como ser humano (P31=Q5); se ha usado igualmente como identificador.
- Custodio actual del Códice Tchacos (Evangelio de Judas): según lo publicado, debía entregarse al Museo Copto de El Cairo; no se ha podido confirmar su paradero ni signatura, por lo que no se ha incluido en «manuscripts».
- El sitio del Museo Copto de El Cairo no respondía el 2026-10-23; no se ha podido comprobar si existe digitalización pública del Códice II de Nag Hammadi.
- No se ha localizado en Open Library un ISBN verificable para la Lutherbibel ni para la Bible de Jérusalem (Cerf); faltan ediciones alemana, italiana, rusa, árabe e hindi con ISBN de los evangelios.
- Evangelio de Pedro y Evangelio de la infancia de Tomás: falta una edición española con ISBN distinta de la antología de Santos Otero.
- Programas de afiliación: ninguno verificado (Trotta, BAC, Desclée, Oxford University Press no publican uno accesible). Lista vacía.
- El documental de Frontline «From Jesus to Christ» solo se ha encontrado en subidas de terceros; buscar una versión oficial de PBS insertable.
- Sala de lectura, evangelios canónicos en español: se registra la Reina-Valera 1909 (Wikisource, una subpágina por capítulo). La traducción de Félix Torres Amat (m. 1847; ed. de 1836) también está en Wikisource como página única por evangelio, con sus notas, en https://es.wikisource.org/wiki/La_Sagrada_Biblia_(XIII)/Mateo (y /Marcos, /Lucas, /Juan; capítulos «CAPÍTULO II…», split «inline»); no se registra porque la sala admite un solo texto por obra e idioma.
- Sala de lectura en inglés: se registra la King James Version (Wikisource, edición de Oxford de 1772). La American Standard Version (1901) se descartó porque no se ha podido documentar la fecha de muerte del último revisor superviviente, que la guarda de derechos exige.
- Evangelio de Tomás: no existe traducción libre en EE. UU., la UE y España del texto copto completo (hallado en 1945); solo se registran en inglés los fragmentos griegos de Oxirrinco en la traducción de M. R. James (1924). La versión española de Wikisource es anónima y moderna y no se registra.
- Apócrifos en español: las páginas de Wikisource del Evangelio de Pedro, del Pseudo-Mateo y del Evangelio árabe de la infancia no identifican traductor ni edición de origen; se registran con caution:true hasta identificarlo (posiblemente Edmundo González-Blanco, 1934, que no sería libre en EE. UU. hasta 2030).
- Sin texto libre para la sala de lectura: Evangelio de María, de Felipe, de Judas, fuente Q y textos de Nag Hammadi (traducciones posteriores a 1945); también los fragmentos judeocristianos (Hebreos, Ebionitas, Nazarenos, Egipcios), que James 1924 reúne en una sola página compartida que el importador no puede separar.
Researched on 2026-10-23