Where did Jesus Christ live? A Brief History of the Earthly Life of Jesus Christ

IN western church There is a legend about the image of St. Veronica, who gave the Savior going to Calvary a towel so that He could wipe His face. The imprint of His face remained on the towel, which later found its way to the West.

IN Orthodox Church It is customary to depict the Savior on icons and frescoes. These images do not attempt to convey Him exactly. appearance. Rather, they are reminders, symbols that raise our thoughts to the One who is depicted on them. Looking at images of the Savior, we remember His life, His love and compassion, His miracles and teachings; we remember that He, as omnipresent, is with us, sees our difficulties and helps us. This sets us up to pray to Him: “Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on us!”

The face of the Savior and His entire body were also imprinted on the so-called “Shroud of Turin,” a long cloth in which, according to legend, the body of the Savior taken from the cross was wrapped. The image on the shroud was only seen relatively recently with the help of photography, special filters and a computer. Reproductions of the face of the Savior, made from the Shroud of Turin, have a striking resemblance to some ancient Byzantine icons (sometimes coinciding at 45 or 60 points, which, according to experts, cannot be accidental). Studying the Shroud of Turin, experts came to the conclusion that it showed a man about 30 years old, 5 feet, 11 inches tall (181 cm - significantly taller than his contemporaries), with a slender and strong build.

Teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ taught that He has one essence with God the Father: “I and the Father are one,” that He is both “descended from heaven” and “existent in heaven,” i.e. – He simultaneously dwells on earth as a man and in heaven as the Son of God, being God-man (; ). Therefore, “all must honor the Son as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him” (). He also confessed the truth of His Divine nature before His suffering on the Cross, for which He was condemned to death by the Sanhedrin. This is how the members of the Sanhedrin declared this to Pilate: “We have a law, and according to our law He must die, because He made Himself the Son of God” ().

Having turned away from God, people got lost in their religious concepts about the Creator, about their immortal nature, about the purpose of life, about what is good and what is bad. The Lord reveals to man essential basics faith and life, gives direction to his thoughts and aspirations. Citing the Savior’s instructions, the Apostles write that “Jesus Christ walked through all the cities and villages, teaching in the synagogues and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom,” - the good news of the coming of the Kingdom of God among people (). Often the Lord began His teachings with the words: “The Kingdom of God is like...” From this it should be concluded that, according to the thought of Jesus Christ, people are called to be saved not individually, but together, as one spiritual family, using the grace-filled means with which He has endowed the Church . These means can be defined in two words: Grace and Truth. (Grace is an invisible force supplied by the Holy Spirit, which enlightens a person’s mind, directs his will to good, strengthens his spiritual strength, brings him inner world and pure joy and sanctifies his entire being).

By attracting people to His Kingdom, the Lord calls them to a righteous lifestyle, saying: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near” (). To repent means to condemn every sinful act, change your way of thinking and decide, with God’s help, to begin a new way of life based on love for God and your neighbors.

However, to begin a righteous life, desire alone is not enough, but God’s help is also necessary, which is given to the believer in baptism of grace. In baptism, a person is forgiven of all sins, he is born into a spiritual way of life and becomes a citizen of the Kingdom of God. The Lord said this about baptism: “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (). Later sending the apostles to preach worldwide, he commanded them: “Go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, and whoever does not believe will be condemned” (). The words “all that I have commanded you” emphasize the integrity of the Savior’s teaching, in which everything is important and necessary for salvation.

About Christian life

In the nine Beatitudes (ch.), he outlined the path of spiritual renewal. This path consists of humility, repentance, meekness, striving for a virtuous life, acts of mercy, purity of heart, peacemaking and confession. With the words - “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven” - Christ calls a person to humility - recognition of his sinfulness and spiritual weakness. Humility serves as the beginning or foundation for the correction of a person. From humility comes repentance - grief over one’s shortcomings; but “Blessed are those who cry, because they will be comforted” will receive forgiveness and peace of conscience. Having found peace in the soul, a person himself becomes peace-loving, meek: “Blessed are the meek, because they will inherit the earth,” they will receive what predatory and aggressive people take away from them. by repentance, a person begins to yearn for virtue and righteousness: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied,” i.e., with God’s help, they will achieve it, having experienced the great mercy of God, a person begins to feel compassion for other people. : “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.” The merciful is cleansed from sinful attachment to material objects and into it, as in clean water calm lake, the Divine light penetrates: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” This light gives a person the necessary wisdom for the spiritual guidance of other people, for reconciling them with themselves, with their neighbors and with God: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.” The sinful world cannot tolerate true righteousness; it rebels with hatred against its bearers. But there is no need to mourn: “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”

Saving the soul should be a person's main concern. The path of spiritual renewal can be difficult, therefore: “Enter through the narrow gate; For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many go there. Because narrow is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life, and few find it” (). A Christian must accept inevitable sorrows without grumbling, as his everyday cross: “Whoever wants to follow Me, deny himself, take up his cross and follow Me” (). In essence, “The Kingdom of Heaven is taken by force, and those who use force take it away” (). For admonition and strengthening, it is necessary to call upon God for help: “Watch and pray, so as not to fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak... In your patience save your souls” (; ).

Coming into the world for His own reason endless love to us, the Son of God taught His followers to put love at the basis of life, saying: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. The second is similar to it: love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” “This is My commandment, that you love one another” (; ). to one's neighbors is revealed through acts of mercy: “I want mercy, not sacrifice!” (Matt. 9:13; ).

Speaking about the cross, about sorrows and about the narrow way, Christ encourages us with the promise of His help: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart; for My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (). Like the Beatitudes, so the entire teaching of the Savior is imbued with faith in the victory of good and the spirit of joy: “Rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven.” “Behold, I am with you to the end of the age” - and promises that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but will inherit eternal life (; ).

On the nature of the Kingdom of God

To clarify His teaching about the Kingdom of God, He used life examples and parables. In one of the parables, He likened the Kingdom of God to a sheepfold, in which obedient sheep live safely, guarded and led by the good Shepherd - Christ: “I am the good Shepherd, and I know Mine, and Mine know Me... The good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep ... I have other sheep which are not of this fold, and these I must bring, and they will hear My voice, and there will be one flock and one Shepherd... I give to them (the sheep) eternal life, and they will never perish , and no one will snatch them out of My hand... Therefore the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life (for the sheep) in order to take it again. No one takes it away from Me, but I myself give it. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again” (chap.

This likening of the Kingdom of God to a sheep yard emphasizes the unity of the Church: many sheep live in one fenced yard, have one faith and one way of life. All have one Shepherd - Christ. He prayed to His Father for the unity of believers before His suffering on the cross, saying: “May they all be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, so may they also be one in us” (). The connecting principle in the Kingdom of God is the love of the Shepherd for the sheep and the love of the sheep for the Shepherd. Love for Christ is expressed in obedience to Him, in the desire to live according to His will: “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” The mutual love of believers is an important sign of His Kingdom: “Therefore everyone will know that you are My disciples if you have love for one another” ().

Grace and truth are two treasures that the Lord gave to the Church as its main properties, constituting, as it were, its very essence (). The Lord promised the apostles that the Holy Spirit would preserve His true and intact teaching in the Church until the end of the world: “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, and may he abide with you forever, the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot accept... He will instruct you to all truth" (). In the same way, we believe that the gracious gifts of the Holy Spirit, to this day and until the end of the world, will act in the Church, reviving her children and quenching their spiritual thirst: “Whoever drinks the water that I will give him will not thirst forever. But the water that I will give him will become in him a source of water flowing into eternal life” ().

Just as earthly kingdoms need laws, rulers and various institutions, without which no state can exist, so the Lord Jesus Christ is endowed by the Lord Jesus Christ with everything necessary for the salvation of believers - the Gospel teaching, grace-filled sacraments and spiritual mentors - the shepherds of the Church. He said this to His disciples: “As the Father sent Me, so I send you. And having said this, he blew and said to them: receive the Holy Spirit" (). The Lord entrusted the pastors of the Church with the responsibility of teaching believers, clearing their consciences, and reviving their souls. Shepherds must follow the supreme Shepherd in His love for the sheep. Sheep must honor their shepherds, follow their instructions, as Christ said: “He who listens to you listens to Me, and he who rejects you rejects Me” ().

A person does not become righteous instantly. In the parable of the tares, Christ explained that, just as in a sown field weeds grow among the wheat, so among the righteous children of the Church there are its unworthy members. Some people sin out of ignorance, inexperience and weakness of their spiritual strength, but they repent of their sins and try to improve; others remain stagnant in sins for a long time, neglecting the long-suffering of God. The main sower of temptations and all evil among people is. Speaking about the tares in His Kingdom, the Lord calls on everyone to fight temptations and pray: “Forgive us our debts, just as we forgive (forgive) our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Knowing the spiritual weakness and fickleness of believers, the Lord invested the Apostles with the power to forgive sins: “Whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; on whomever you leave it, they will remain” (). Forgiveness of sins presupposes that the sinner sincerely regrets his bad deed and wishes to correct himself.

But evil will not be tolerated forever in the Kingdom of Christ: “Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. But the slave does not stay in the house forever. The Son abides forever. So, if the Son frees you, then you will be truly free” (). Christ commanded that people who persist in their sins or who do not submit to the teachings of the Church be excluded from the environment of a grace-filled society, saying: “If he does not listen to the Church, then let him be to you as a pagan and a publican” ().

In the Kingdom of God, the real unity of believers with God and with each other takes place. The connecting principle in the Church is the Theanthropic nature of Christ, to which believers partake in the sacrament of Holy Communion. In Communion, the divine life of the God-man mysteriously descends into the believers, as it is said: “We (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) will come to him and make our abode in him;” This is how the Kingdom of God enters man (;). emphasized the need for communion with the following words: “Unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you will not have life in you. He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day" (). Without unity with Christ, a person, like a broken branch, withers spiritually and is unable to do good deeds: “Just as a branch cannot bear fruit of its own accord unless it is in the vine, so neither can you unless you are in Me. I am the Vine and you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit. For without Me you can do nothing” (). Having taught His disciples the need to have unity with Himself, the Lord Maundy Thursday, on the eve of His suffering on the cross, he established the sacrament of Communion itself (see above), commanding them in conclusion: “Do this (sacrament) in My remembrance” ().

Conclusion

So, the whole life and teaching of the Savior were aimed at laying new spiritual principles in human life: pure faith, living love for God and neighbors, the desire for moral improvement and holiness. On these principles we should build our religious worldview and our lives.

The history of Christianity has shown that not all people and not all nations were able to rise to the high spiritual principles of the Gospel. The establishment of Christianity in the world took place at times thorny path. Sometimes the Gospel was accepted by people only superficially, without seeking to correct their hearts; sometimes it was completely rejected and even persecuted. Despite this, all the high humane principles of freedom, equality and fraternity that characterize modern democratic states are actually borrowed from the Gospel. Any attempts to replace the Gospel principles with others sometimes lead to catastrophic consequences. To be convinced of this, it is enough to look at the modern consequences of materialism and atheism. Thus, modern Christians, having such a rich historical experience before their eyes, must clearly understand that only in the teachings of the Savior will they find the right guidance for solving their family and social problems.

Building our lives on the commandments of Christ, we console ourselves with the thought that the Kingdom of God will certainly triumph, and the promised peace, justice, joy and immortal life will come on the renewed Earth. We pray to the Lord to make us worthy to inherit His Kingdom!

The Prophet Isaiah describes the feat of voluntary self-abasement of the Messiah in this way: “There is neither form nor greatness in Him. And we saw Him, and there was no appearance in Him that would attract us to Him. He was despised and belittled before men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with illness. And we turned our faces away from Him. He was despised and thought of as nothing. But He took upon Himself our infirmities and bore our illnesses. And we thought that He was defeated, punished and humiliated by God. But He was wounded for our sins and tormented for our iniquities. The punishment of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we were healed. We have all gone astray, like sheep, each of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord laid the sins of us all on Him. He was tortured, but He suffered voluntarily and did not open His mouth. He was taken from bondage and judgment. But who will explain His generation? (ch.).

With these final words, the prophet addresses the conscience of those who will reject their Savior, and seems to say to them: you turn away with contempt from the mocked and suffering Jesus, but understand that it is because of you, sinners, that He suffers so greatly. Look closely at His spiritual beauty, and then perhaps you will be able to understand that He came to you from the heavenly world.

But voluntarily humiliating Himself for the sake of our salvation, the Lord, nevertheless, gradually revealed the secret of His unity with God the Father to those who were able to rise above the crude ideas of the crowd. So, for example, He said to the Jews: “I and the Father are one... He who has seen Me has seen the Father... The Father abides in Me and I in the Father... All that is Mine is Thine (the Father) and Thine is Mine... We ( Father and Son) we will come and make an abode with him” (). These and other similar expressions clearly indicate His Divine nature.

Let us remember, finally, that the very condemnation of Christ to the cross was caused by His official recognition of His Divinity. When the high priest Caiaphas asked Christ under oath: “Tell us, are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?” Christ answered: “You said,” using the established form of an affirmative answer (; ; ).

Now we should understand another very important question related to this: where could Caiaphas, many Jews and even demons (!) get the idea that the Messiah would be the Son of God? There is only one answer: from the Old Testament Holy Scripture. It was this that prepared the ground for this faith. Indeed, even King David, who lived a thousand years before the birth of Christ, in three psalms calls the Messiah God (Psalms 2, 44 and 109). The prophet Isaiah, who lived 700 years BC, revealed this truth even more clearly. Predicting the miracle of the incarnation of the Son of God, Isaiah wrote: “Behold, a virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son, and they will call His name Emmanuel,” which means: “God is with us.” And a little further the prophet reveals even more definitely the Properties of the Son who was to be born: “And they will call His name: Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father” (). Such names cannot be applied to anyone other than God. The prophet Micah also wrote about the eternity of the Child who was about to be born (see:).

The prophet Jeremiah, who lived about two hundred years after Isaiah, calls the Messiah “Lord” (Jer. 23 and 33:16), meaning the Lord who sent him to preach; and Jeremiah’s disciple, the prophet Baruch, wrote the following wonderful words about the Messiah: “This is our God, and no one else can compare with Him. He found all the ways of wisdom and gave it to His servant Jacob and His beloved Israel. After that He appeared on earth and spoke among people” () – i.e. God Himself will come to earth and live among people!

That is why the more sensitive of the Jews, having such specific instructions in the Holy Scriptures, could without hesitation recognize in Christ the true Son of God (see the brochure “The Old Testament about the Messiah” about this). It is remarkable that even before the Nativity of Christ, righteous Elizabeth met the Virgin Mary, who was expecting the Child, with the following solemn greeting: “Blessed are You among women and blessed is the Fruit of Your womb! And where does it come from for me that the Mother of my Lord came to me” (). It is clear that righteous Elizabeth could not have another Lord other than the One whom she served from childhood. As ap explains. Luke, Elizabeth said this not on her own, but by inspiration from the Holy Spirit.

Having firmly grasped faith in the Divinity of Christ, the apostles planted this faith in Him among all nations. Evangelist John begins his Gospel with the revelation of the Divine nature of Jesus Christ:

"In the beginning was the Word

And the Word was with God

And the Word was God...

Everything came into being through Him,

And without Him nothing began to be that began to be...

And the Word became flesh

and settled among us,

full of grace and truth...

And we have seen His glory,

Glory as the only begotten from the Father,

No one has ever seen God;

The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father,

He revealed (God)"

Calling the Son of God the Word, more than other names, reveals the secret of the internal relationship between the First and Second Persons of the Holy Trinity - God the Father and God the Son. Indeed, thought and word are different from each other in that thought resides in the mind, and word is the expression of thought. However, they are inseparable. Neither a thought exists without a word, nor a word without a thought. Thought is, as it were, a hidden word within, and the word is the expression of thought. A thought, embodied in a word, conveys the content of the thought to the listeners. In this regard, thought, being an independent principle, is, as it were, the father of the word, and the word is, as it were, the son of thought. Before thought it is impossible, but it does not come from somewhere outside, but only from thought and remains inseparable from thought. Likewise, the Father, the greatest and all-encompassing Thought, produced from His bosom the Son-Word, His first Interpreter and Messenger (according to St. Dionysius of Alexandria).

The apostles spoke with all clarity about the Divinity of Christ: “We know that the Son of God came and gave us light and reason, so that we might know the true God and may we abide in His true Son Jesus Christ” (). From the Israelites was born “Christ according to the flesh, who is God above all” (). “We await the blessed hope and the appearance of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ” (). “If the Jews had known [the wisdom of God], they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (). “In Him (Christ) dwells all the fullness of the Divinity bodily” (). “Unquestioningly - the great mystery of piety: appeared in the flesh" (). The Apostle Paul thoroughly proves that the Son of God is not a creation, but the Creator, that he is immeasurably higher than all the creatures He created. Angels are only ministering spirits.

It must be remembered that calling the Lord Jesus Christ God - Theos - in itself speaks of the fullness of the Divinity. “God,” from a logical, philosophical point of view, cannot be “second degree,” “lower category,” limited. The properties of the Divine nature are not subject to conditionality or reduction. If “God,” then wholly, not partially.

Only thanks to the unity of Persons in God is it possible to combine in one sentence the names of the Son and the Holy Spirit along with the name of the Father, for example: “Go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (). “May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (). “Three bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one” (). Here the Apostle John emphasizes that the Three are one - one Being.

Note: It is necessary to clearly distinguish between the concept of “person” and the concept of “entity.” The word “face” (hypostasis, person) denotes personality, “I,” self-consciousness. Old cells of our body die off, new ones replace them, and consciousness relates everything in our life to our “I.” The word “essence” speaks of nature, nature, physis. In God, there is one essence and three Persons. Therefore, for example, the Son and God the Father can talk with each other, make a joint decision, one speaks, the other answers. Each Person of the Trinity has His own personal properties, by which He differs from the other Person. But all the Persons of the Trinity have one Divine nature. The Son has the same divine properties as the Father and the Holy Spirit. The doctrine of the Trinity reveals to people the inner, mysterious life in God, which is actually inaccessible to our understanding, but at the same time necessary for correct faith in Christ.

Jesus Christ has one Face (hypostasis) - the Face of the Son of God, but two essences - Divine and human. In His Divine essence He is equal to the Father - eternal, omnipotent, omnipresent, etc.; according to the human nature he perceived, He is similar to us in everything: He grew, developed, suffered, rejoiced, hesitated in decisions, etc. Christ's humanity includes soul and body. The difference is that His human nature is completely free from sinful corruption. Since one and the same Christ is at the same time God and at the same time man, the Holy Scripture speaks of Him both as God and as a man. Even more than that, sometimes human properties are attributed to Christ as God (), and sometimes Divine properties are attributed to Him as a person. There is no contradiction here, because we are talking about one Person.

Taking into account the clear teaching of the Holy Scriptures about the Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, the fathers of the First Ecumenical Council, in order to stop all interpretations of the word Son of God and belittlement of His Divine dignity, decreed that Christians should believe:

"In one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God,

The only begotten, begotten of the Father before all ages.

Light from Light, true God from

True God, begotten, not made,

consubstantial with the Father (one essence with God the Father),

By whom all things were created."

The Arians especially vehemently objected to the word consubstantial, because it could not be interpreted in any other way than in the Orthodox sense, namely, what is recognized as the true God, equal in everything to God the Father. For the same reason, the Fathers of the Council insisted that this word be included in the Creed.

To sum up what has been said, it must be said that faith in the Divinity of Christ cannot be implanted in human hearts either by quotes or formulas. This requires personal faith, personal willpower. As it was two thousand years ago, so it will be until the end of the world: for many Christ will remain “a stumbling block and a stone of temptation... so that the thoughts of their hearts may be revealed” (; ). God was pleased by his attitude towards Christ to reveal the hidden direction of the will of every person. And what He hid from the intelligent and wise, He revealed to babies ().

Therefore, this article does not set out to “prove” that Christ is God. It is impossible to prove this, like many other truths of faith. The purpose of this article is to help a Christian understand his faith in the Savior and give him the necessary arguments to defend his faith from heretics.

So, who, God or Man? – He is a God-Man. Our faith must be based on this truth.

The main essence of the Christian faith is this. When Adam and Eve, our first parents, who lived in paradise, and had everything according to the will and love of God, sinned, going against the will of God, at the instigation of the tempting serpent, they lost their immortality and were cast out by God from paradise. Since then, their descendants have been forced to live and die. Because God loves us, He sent His only begotten Son, who became incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary (the most worthy one, chosen by God for this great purpose), and was born as a man, while retaining his divine essence.

The purpose of this incarnation was to save people from original sin, defeat death, and enable people again (like Adam and Eve) to gain immortality. At the same time, people who live according to God’s commandments will be able, after death, to enter the Kingdom of God created by Jesus Christ, and live there with him forever in prosperity and joy. People who were given such an opportunity, but did not take advantage of it, did not behave with dignity, did not follow the commandments, will be deprived of such an opportunity, and will forever be in hell, far from the Lord. They will forever regret their earthly life, during which they could have done everything for their eternal life in paradise, but neglected this opportunity.

For many millennia (this is for human life, but for eternity it is just a moment), God prepared humanity for this event, sending prophets to earth who told people about the coming of the Savior of the world.

How it all happened

Having chosen the most pure Virgin Mary, an orphan from the royal family of David, under the care of her elderly distant relative Joseph of Nazareth, for the birth of the Savior, the Lord sent the Archangel Michael to inform the girl that she had been chosen for such a great purpose. Mary was excited, but immediately meekly informed the Archangel of her consent. Mary was a very religious girl, devoted to the Lord with all her soul, and she worthily accepted into her womb the child born of the Holy Spirit. She was given in marriage to Joseph, to whom an Angel in a dream revealed the meaning and essence of Mary’s pregnancy, and Joseph was made guardian of Mary, her virginity, and the baby born from her until the time determined by the Lord.

Jesus grew up like an ordinary baby until he reached the age of 30. However, He showed His Divine essence already at the age of 12. When His Mother was looking for Him and found Him in the temple, where He was sitting with learned men and talking, and they were amazed at His intelligence and amazed at His answers, His mother reproached Him for worrying about where He had gone. to this the boy replied:

Why did you look for me, or did you not know what I should do in what belongs to My Father?

At the age of thirty, Jesus came to the Jordan River and was baptized there by Prophet John, thereby sanctifying the waters of the river. During the baptism, the heavens opened and a loud voice was heard from there: “Behold my beloved Son, in him I am well pleased,” then the heavens opened and John saw the Spirit of God descending from heaven on Jesus in the form of a dove. So God showed people that Jesus is the Son of God, and he is the Savior awaited by the people.

Before public service

Before embarking on his mission, Jesus Christ, being both God and man, went into the desert. There he spent 40 days in fasting and prayer, during which Satan tried in every possible way to tempt Him, and after that He set off to realize his goal.
The Lord began his ministry in Galilee, where he chose 12 of his disciples, the apostles, who were to accept His teaching, and after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and His ascension into heaven, continue to bring the teaching to people, so that they would accept the Christian faith and follow His word and example, and were able to receive eternal life in the Kingdom of God. During Jesus' ministry, many miracles were shown (such as turning water into wine, raising the dead, healing lepers, the blind, lame and dumb, the Transfiguration before His disciples when they heard a voice from heaven confirming that He was the Son of God and to them one must obey Him.

The purpose of the Savior's coming

Jesus Christ had to accept death on the cross in order to be resurrected three days later and ascend into heaven, thereby defeating death and giving us immortal life, which happened three years after the start of the public ministry of Jesus Christ. He laid the foundation for our immortality and resurrection from the dead. Upon His second coming into the world, this will happen, and each person will answer to the Lord about his life at the Last Judgment, after which his place will be determined - either in heaven for a pious life and following the commandments of the Lord, or in hell for an unworthy life.

A film based on the Gospel of John, shot by a British director, telling about the life and teachings of Christ from His baptism to the appearance of the apostles.

Discussion: 4 comments

Having found myself here by chance and having seen what topic is being discussed, I can’t help but mention another one interesting book, in which, it seems to me, the historical existence of Jesus is proven - the book “The Party of Jesus” (available on Ozone and liters).

Answer

In the traditional, even orthodox family of the wealthy and noble Joseph, who was not a carpenter, but, as they would say today, an architect, a boy was born who could have been considered illegitimate, but this did not happen. And the boy left such a significant mark on history, practically turning a new page in it.

The consequences of his every word and deed remind him of him after a thousand years. He brought into the world an idea that united millions and stood the test of thousands of years.

The names that He gave to his disciples became the names of millions, the commandments that He left became the basic moral law. Faith in Him has given and continues to give strength to many, many. Two truths, seemingly completely inappropriate at that cruel time, illuminated the lives of many generations of people.

The main thing he did during his lifetime was to tell people two things.

THERE IS SOMEONE WHO LOVES EVERYONE AND KNOWS AND EMPATHATES EVERYONE.

THE ONLY TRUE VALUE IN LIFE IS LOVE AND IT IS STRONGER THAN DEATH.

But it's not just that Jesus taught it. That's how he lived and died. The life and death of Jesus are described in four books of the Bible, opening New Testament– The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The Authenticity of the Gospels, translated from Greek as “Good News”, or modern language « Good news", tested by hundreds of thousands of researchers who lived long before us and by our contemporaries. They are the main sources of information about Christ. The authority of the books has been confirmed by many generations of ancestors; these are reliable, but not the only sources of information about Jesus. There is also an oral Tradition, the authenticity of which cannot be verified, but it does not contradict the Gospels. There is also a lot of apocryphal (authorship or authenticity of which has not been established) literature, but in it it is difficult to separate the author’s fiction from the true facts.

Jesus' mother, Mary, was from a priestly family, in which she was raised in the spirit of piety and religiosity. As a child, she, like many girls from noble families, was brought to the Hebrew Temple of Jerusalem, where she lived and performed work on the temple. This service continued until the novices came of age, after which they were married off. Mary, while in Jerusalem, made a vow (promise to God) of celibacy and virginity, devoting herself entirely to prayers and serving God.

Although this decision did not entirely correspond to ancient Jewish standards of life. Like all novices at the temple, Maria, upon reaching adulthood, was obliged to start a family. But, by virtue of her vow, she did not enter into a marriage union, but became an eternal bride.

In Palestine, the wedding ceremony consisted of two phases - betrothal and wedding. When engaged, a young man and a girl exchanged rings, thereby becoming bride and groom, but not husband and wife. Very often a boy and a girl got engaged, back in early childhood, at the initiative of the parents of both parties. This was necessary in dynastic marriages, in the case where the parents wanted to keep the property and social status and for a number of other reasons.

Among the Jews, betrothal was practiced in order to preserve the land plot belonging to a family from one clan. Mary became engaged to Joseph, an elderly man at that time. Moreover, they were relatives.

Both Mary and Joseph came from the royal family of David, from different branches of it. Joseph was only Mary's betrothed, or groom, and she, remaining a bride all her life, kept the vow of virginity and service to God, which she made in her youth. According to Jewish laws, the betrothed could not marry for as long as they wanted and be bound by bonds of mutual obligations, so that no one could woo someone else’s bride, and the groom was obliged to remain faithful. Only the next stage of the marriage relationship, the wedding, made the bride and groom husband and wife.

Thus, in modern times such a relationship could be called a fictitious engagement. That is, being Joseph's bride, Mary could not marry and follow her desire to serve God. And Joseph, a worthy man and relative, knowing and respecting the vow of his bride Mary, was her groom all his life. Joseph and Mary did not enter into the second stage of marriage - wedding. Mary lived in Joseph's house as his bride, which was quite normal and socially acceptable in Israel at that time.

The birth of the first child took place under extraordinary circumstances. While in a state of prayer, Mary saw Archangel Gabriel appearing before her in human form, who told her that she would have a child, and she would not break this vow. The Archangel asked Mary to name the baby Jesus, saying that he would save the entire Jewish people. And Maria felt pregnant, without the participation of a man.

This fact has been subject to doubt and ridicule, however, the achievements of modern medicine have shown that it is possible. Genetic information, embedded in a woman’s egg, can change under the influence of internal factors, which in itself is sufficient for the appearance of an embryo. True, this happens extremely rarely, but it is possible.

Some time later, Joseph heard in a dream the voice of God, Yahweh, who informed him about Mary’s pregnancy and ordered him not to divorce her, but to recognize the child and give him the name Jesus. According to the laws of Palestine at that time, a bride who did not comply with the rules of betrothal was severely punished, her child was declared illegitimate and deprived of all rights, and the betrothal was dissolved.

Joseph believed. Mary and Joseph hid their pregnancy. Just at this time, a population census was taking place in the Roman Empire to more accurately collect taxes. The census also took place in Palestine. Every Jew, regardless of place of residence, had to register at the place of his ancestral land plot. And since Joseph and Mary were from the line of David, they went to Bethlehem, a city belonging to royal family. The journey took some time. Joseph and Mary stopped for the night on the outskirts of Bethlehem, in one of the caves where cattle were driven for the night.

Jesus was born there. The circumstances of the birth were unusual. Angels appeared to the shepherds who were near the cave and told them that the One Whom everyone was waiting for had been born. The shepherds went to worship the baby as the great king, the savior of the Jews.

It must be assumed that Mary and Joseph lived for some time in Bethlehem, perhaps this was required by the census, or maybe for some other reason. Knowing the ancient prophecy about the birth of a king, wise men from the East (astronomer sages) arrived in Palestine, their path indicated by a comet moving across the sky. They turned to Herod, the ruler of Judea, with a request to worship the royal child. Herod did not have direct rights to the throne, so he sought popularity among the people and restored the ancient Jewish temple. He carefully destroyed all pretenders to the throne and their relatives. This man's thirst for power was so great that he did not spare his family members, sending them to execution at the slightest suspicion. Having learned from the magi about the birth of a king in Judea, Herod became very worried.

The Magi went to Bethlehem to find the baby and give Him royal honors. They brought Christ gold, incense and myrrh (incense), which were presented only to the king, as a symbol of his royal dignity. The moment the Magi worshiped the baby Jesus in Bethlehem is depicted in the mosaic that decorated the floor of the cave where the Christian temple was built. The 7th century Persian invasion of Palestine, which destroyed Christian churches, did not touch the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. The mosaic depicting the Magi in ancient Persian clothes amazed the conquerors so much that the church was not touched. An ancient mosaic still adorns the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, being the oldest in Palestine.

The prophecy of the Magi frightened the king so much that Herod ordered the soldiers to exterminate all the babies of Bethlehem, from two years old and younger, it must be assumed that Mary and Joseph lived in the city for about that long, or rather less than that.

But it was impossible to take further risks, and, following visions and advice from above, Mary and Joseph fled to Egypt. The family stayed in the land of the pharaohs, then a Roman province, for several years, until Herod died.

After his death, Mary and Joseph came to the small town of Nazareth. Jesus spent his childhood and youth there, about whom little is known. One day Jesus, as a twelve-year-old child, went with his parents to the Holy City. Lost in the crowd, He accosted the talking elders, teachers of the Jewish people. When his mother and father found Him, they saw the boy surrounded by learned men listening to him attentively.

Until the age of thirty, Jesus lived at home with his parents, and after this age he went out to preach. Why did Jesus not do anything or teach anything until he was thirty? The thing is that, according to Jewish laws, a young man reached adulthood at thirty years old and only from that moment had the right to read and publicly interpret the Torah (the Pentateuch of Moses). Until the age of thirty, he did not have the right to publicly discuss religious topics and have followers and students.

A great deal has been said and written about the personality of Jesus Christ. Information about His life, teaching, death and resurrection is sometimes very contradictory. Some modern authors wrote about Him as an ordinary person, and some even doubted His existence. Denial of the personality of Jesus Christ was the state ideology of the USSR throughout the existence of the Union.

The idea of ​​Jesus as simply a man, a philosopher and a healer runs like a red thread through all Soviet literature. A particularly clever move was to attract the talented and religiously educated Mikhail Bulgakov to this goal. But the Master simply told the reader the story of how he was forced to do this. It was clear to the reasonable ones. Actually, there are much more facts confirming His life than those denying this circumstance. Could His Church and teachings have existed if He had been a mythical person? Unlikely. Christ existed just as Buddha, Mohammed and Moses existed.

Things that belonged to Jesus have also been preserved - this is the famous Shroud of Turin, the authenticity of which no one doubts, the tip of the spear with which Jesus was pierced on the cross (it is located in Georgia), part of the robe (underwear) located in Russia, the crossbar in Jerusalem, where Christ was crucified.

In Jerusalem there is a tomb where He was buried and from where He rose again. Once a year, on Easter, the Heavenly Fire appears in the tomb of Christ. By the way, this fact is rarely discussed - it is too obvious.

Greek Orthodox Patriarch goes down into the tomb with bunches of candles in his hands, prays and, suddenly, the candles light up by themselves. The Patriarch is checked the day before by government officials for the presence of flammable substances, so the possibility of falsification is excluded. This phenomenon has been repeated year after year for almost two thousand years.

The event of the birth of Christ was so significant and beyond doubt that it was used as the basis for European chronology. More than two thousand years have passed since the appearance of Jesus, but the whole world remembers this event.

Who was Jesus from birth to death? Every person sooner or later asks himself this question. And the answer to it is at the same time very simple and complex. He was and is the God-man. A simple word, a simple concept that raises a lot of questions for the uninitiated into this mystery. There have been many deified people in the history of mankind - these are pharaohs, and Roman emperors of the pre-Christian era, and Alexander the Great, as he was revered in Asia, and other great personalities of antiquity.

How was the divine-human essence of Jesus manifested? In life and death, and also in what follows after death. After death and burial, Jesus was resurrected, something that no one before Him could do. This happened on the third day after death. Much has been said about this, however, it is worth repeating the known facts. After execution on the cross, Christ died, like all people. He was buried in a tomb carved into the rock.

At that time, the Jews had a custom of burying their dead in artificially carved caves, in which they placed the body wrapped in a special blanket. According to Eastern tradition, the body was anointed with precious oils and incense, wrapped and placed in a cave. The entrance was securely closed with a large stone, which one person was unable to move. Christ was buried according to these traditions.

The disciples expected his resurrection, and those who executed him, the initiators of the execution - the Jewish high priest, the Pharisees and the scribes (guardians of the safety of Sacred texts), assigned special guards to guard the cave. The stone that blocked the entrance to the cave fell, the warriors saw the light and fled in horror. This was seen by many soldiers and some random witnesses (a certain doctor is known to have observed the event and left notes about it).

Jewish leaders and elders paid the soldiers money to keep them silent about what happened. The soldiers were asked to say that they fell asleep, and at that time the disciples stole the body. This rumor was spread among the Jews and many believed it.

According to legend, on the same day the inhabitants of Jerusalem saw the dead ancient saints who, having been resurrected, walked through the streets of the city. These events shook the whole of Palestine. Many Jews realized that the deceased was no ordinary person.

After his resurrection, for forty days, Jesus appeared to many of his disciples, followers and ordinary people. More than two thousand people saw him at once. He talked, He was touched, He moved and ate food, like all living people, to prove that He was not a ghost or a vision. After this time, Christ ascended to heaven, blessing those present with his right hand. There were too many witnesses to this incident to claim a mass hallucination.

Christ left people the Spirit of truth, the Comforter, who is now active in the world. Therefore, all decisions of Church Councils begin with the words: “It has pleased the Holy Spirit and us...”, thereby confirming the presence among us of the Third Hypostasis of the Divine. The fact of Jesus' resurrection gave birth to Christianity.

The first miracle that Jesus performed, calling himself Christ (the Anointed One), was turning water into wine. Jesus and His mother. Mary was invited to a wedding in the village of Cana of Galilee, where He changed water into wine by the power of the Divine. Soon listeners and disciples began to gather around Jesus, who went with Him from city to city and listened to his sermons. Accompanied by twelve disciples, Christ walked through Judea and the surrounding area. Everywhere they brought the sick to Him, and He healed them with the touch of His hands.

News about Jesus spread throughout Palestine, many wanted to listen to what the Teacher said and see His face.

The Gospel says that Jesus Christ had brothers and sisters. Based on this, some interpreters have concluded that Joseph and Mary had more children. This is not true, it’s just that Jews at that time did not have a division in the family into siblings, cousins, second cousins, and so on. They were all called brothers and sisters, regardless of the degree of relationship. Therefore, the words of the Gospel about the brothers and sisters of Jesus do not mean relatives, but second cousins. According to Holy Tradition, one of the twelve apostles, Jacob Zbedee, was Christ's second cousin.

The disciples and followers of Jesus believed that He was the Messiah promised to Israel. People were waiting for Him to manifest royal power and hoped that an anti-Roman war was about to begin, from which the Jews would emerge victorious, and the whole world would fall at their feet. The apostles believed that after Christ reigned, they would receive court titles and become confidants of the new king.

The people followed Jesus everywhere, waiting only for the word to proclaim Him king. Several times they wanted to crown Christ (anoint him as king) against his wishes. Anointing was performed only on kings and prophets and meant their special position, chosenness among others. This was a special rite, during which precious fragrant oil was poured onto the head of the initiate, which symbolized the special favor and love of the Divine for this person.

The king thus enthroned acted and governed the people in the name of God Yahweh, he had power by virtue of the transfer of it directly through anointing. The prophet also received the prophetic gift through this ritual. The anointed prophet spoke on behalf of God, and the anointing itself was performed by another prophet. Any supernatural actions performed by the prophet were perceived as the result of anointing. They said about a person who performed miracles: “he is the Anointed One.” However, the manifestation of the prophetic gift was not mechanical, depending on the rite of anointing. Often, prophets received their gift from God himself, and people, seeing the manifestation in them of the prophetic gift and the ability to perform miracles, said “he is God’s Anointed One.” Christ was precisely the Anointed One of God, since what he performed surpassed all the miracles of the prophets who lived before.

He raised the son of a widow from Nain from the dead, revived his friend Lazarus, who had already been buried for several days, and from whom the smell of a corpse had already begun to emanate, and healed the blind and lame from birth. All this, and much more, indicated to the people that Yehoshua of Nazareth was the Anointed One (Christ in Greek). The word “Christ” was neither a surname nor a nickname, it was a middle name, a name that could only be worn by the God-man, the Messiah. The Jews incorrectly imagined the Messiah, the One who was to come to them, but until His death they believed that this was Christ, the Anointed One of God.

Performing the miracle of feeding five thousand people with five loaves and two fish, Christ pronounced the Beatitudes, which complemented the Ten Commandments of Moses. With His preaching He made such an impression on the people that they were ready to proclaim Him king of Judea, against their will.

So that general enthusiasm would not capture the disciples, Jesus sent them on a boat to the opposite shore of Lake Galilee. In the evening, a storm began, and the boat began to be overwhelmed by waves. Christ walked to the disciples on the water and reached them at the moment when the boat was overtaken by a storm. He ordered the excitement to subside and then the wind died down and the waves subsided. Seeing what had come, the disciples realized that God was in front of them.

By this, Christ made it clear to the apostles that He was the bearer of the divine nature, but not as the Jews expected Him. This happens - people wait and believe in salvation, but when it comes in a simple, close and understandable form, they do not believe that they are worthy of it.

Christ repeatedly convinced his disciples and followers that he was the Messiah, but not the one the Jews expected Him to be. He is the Son of God, but not named, as the prophets spoke about themselves, but a real Son, flesh of the flesh of God (if such a comparison is appropriate). It was extremely difficult for a devout Jew to comprehend this fact. In their view, the Divine had nothing in common with the world, and God could not become a man. And, although this was predicted many times by the ancient prophets, the Jews did not believe that Yehoshua, who lived with them, was the formidable Yahweh.

The Gospel of Matthew begins with the genealogy of Jesus, which was expressed in the words: “Jesus, as everyone thought, was the son of Joseph...”. In order to dispel these and similar thoughts, Christ performed miracles that were inaccessible to the prophets, even Moses. When He and his disciples were on Mount Tabor, sacred to the Jews, He was transformed - Christ’s clothes became white, and his face radiated light. This was inaccessible to anyone, and the disciples were confused; before them was God in human form.

During the beginning of Christ's public activity, John the Baptist preached in Palestine. According to ancient prophecies, He preceded the Savior. John baptized in the name of the coming Messiah. When Jesus came to him with a request for baptism, John refused with fear, recognizing Him as the Anointed of God, and wanted to be baptized by Him himself.

Baptism took place in the waters of the Jordan River, during which the heavens opened and the Spirit of God descended on Christ in the form of a white dove. At the same time, a voice came from heaven: “This is My beloved Son, listen to Him.” This shocked everyone present. Who is the One whom John himself worships, the greatest, according to the Jews, the prophet of the Jewish people. He could not be anyone other than God Yahweh.

The religious situation in Palestine in the 1st century was in an extremely confused state. The ancient Jewish faith of God Yahweh was divided into two opposing sects - the Pharisees, zealots of the letter of the Law, and the Sadducees, a fashionable religious movement among the top of Jewish society that denied one of the traditional doctrines of Judaism - the resurrection of the dead.

In the religious environment of Palestine, there was an institution of scribes, special people, whose entire activity was to preserve ancient texts in the original state of the Torah and the Writings of the Prophets. The copying of the scrolls of sacred books was done manually. It was a long and painstaking process.

Copying the scroll of the Pentateuch of Moses took years. After this, the new scroll was compared with the old one. This was done by a special commission of competent people. There were special methods for checking text. It was calculated how many certain letters each book contained, so it was possible to count all the letters in a new scroll and compare the number with the standard. The letter center of each book was determined; a certain letter must appear in the middle of the text; if another letter was encountered, the new scroll was destroyed. The scribes knew how many letters were in each line of text and in each word. The text was checked simultaneously by up to seventy people.

In addition to the literal correspondence of the new text to the old, the scribes also passed on to each other the rules for reading words and expressions. The Hebrew alphabet had only twenty-two consonants and no vowels at all. Only consonants were written, and the vowels between them were memorized.

Without knowing the correct reading of the word, one could read it in any way, substituting any vowels at will. This is the main idea of ​​those who study Kabbalah - those who study these texts without inspiration and enlightenment, that is, scientific or divine intuition, will understand little in them - the meaning will remain hidden, and the knowledge will remain dead.

Jews memorized texts and passed them on to each other. In ancient times, a lot of information was transmitted orally, but only exceptional things were written down. Scribes who devoted their whole lives to rewriting the Holy Books treated their contents exclusively literally, denying the imagery, emotionality and sometimes meaning of the books Old Testament. The scribes attached a special mystical meaning to each letter, the inviolability of the texts was preserved by the Jews, and the meaning of the contents became dim and lost.

By the time Jesus preached, most Jews did not know the true content of the Pentateuch of Moses and the Prophets; they were content with the comments of the Pharisees and scribes, who had unquestioned authority in religious matters. Sometimes a minor error in the interpretation of a text grew over the centuries into ordinary stupidity. The scribes and Pharisees believed that on Saturday, the day when God finished the creation of the world and rested from work, people were also not allowed to do anything, taking the words of Scripture literally. On this day, the Jew could only pray. He could not produce new things or undertake any business, he could not move beyond a certain distance, which was firmly known.

Christ opposed the literal perception of dogma. Thus, while on the Sabbath in the synagogue (the house of worship of the Jews), Jesus healed a man whose arm was paralyzed. The Pharisees began to murmur and be indignant at such actions because they were committed on the Sabbath.

Christ compared the Pharisees to freshly whitened tombs, which are beautiful on the outside, but inside contain dust and decay. He told the Pharisees that they were people who strained out a mosquito and did not notice a camel, criticized the scribes who trembled over trifles, unimportant things, while the main thing passed their attention.

But, as you can see, the very existence of sacred knowledge, not accessible to everyone, and human nature cannot help but create idols. Christ sought through his actions, words and miracles to lead people to the original, correct faith in God.

Jesus pointed out to the people prophecies that were being fulfilled in many ways. Constantly being with people, He gave up everything in life in their name. Christ did not extend his actions exclusively to Jews; he healed, instructed and benefited people of all nations, of different social and social status. He renounced the royal throne, family, property, pride and pride. Was with everyone and for everyone, setting a personal example and in a high way life ideal of fulfilling the Commandments of God Yahweh. When visiting the Jerusalem Temple, he fulfilled all the requirements of the Law, accepted customs and norms of behavior.

Christ called to worship God not formally, in observance of rituals, but in the heart, in the spirit. He argued that God is more pleased with prayer from people rather than sacrifice. Every word of Jesus' sermons called people to love each other. With his whole life, with every movement, He radiated love and mercy, did not refuse anyone and did not avoid anyone. Christ was love itself. And this was incomprehensible to God - after all, He is omnipotent, and could have everything he wanted and not be persecuted!

This manner of behavior of Jesus caused bewilderment among the priests. Instead of becoming a king, Christ traveled with vagabonds and beggars, without having a corner of his own. He performed miracles possible only to God, without fulfilling the Pharisees' instructions. How did He dare, thought the scribes, to forgive sins, to heal on the Sabbath, to disperse the merchants in the temple?

With this, the Lord exposed their errors, took away their authority and respect of the people, and deprived them of popularity. All the theories and fabrications of the theology of the scribes collapsed from the simple arguments of Jesus. The Sadducees and Pharisees felt that a little more and all people would follow Him.

And most importantly, having learned about the resurrection of Lazarus, who died and stayed in the tomb for four days, the Pharisees realized that before them was the true God-Man, Christ, the God of Yahweh, incarnate in man. It would seem that their expectations had come true; they saw and heard God, whose words they were entrusted to keep. Numerous prophecies about Christ were fulfilled, supernatural events took place, surpassing the laws of nature, but the Pharisees and scribes stubbornly did not notice them, and, finally, having seen them, they were perhaps afraid.

It was probably difficult for the priests to understand the renunciation of blessings that service in the temple or the throne of the king promised. Some considered Christ a dangerous madman, others considered him an adventurer, and still others were afraid of His wrath. These third ones realized that their service was a mistake, and did not expect mercy from the strict Yahweh. They never understood that His essence is love.

They did not need Christ, they did not want to see the God-Man. He abolished their existence, they became unnecessary. The thirst for power they possessed turned out to be stronger than faith. Being in the temple every day they got used to the presence of God and no longer felt love for Him; everything was overshadowed by the thirst for money and power. Realizing that Jesus Christ was the Messiah for whom they were waiting, the scribes came to the idea of ​​killing Christ.

Three years later, after the beginning of his public ministry, Christ, like all Jews, traveled to Jerusalem for the holiday of Passover. Not wanting to draw attention to himself, Jesus rode a donkey, choosing the mode of transportation of the common people. However, the news of his arrival spread like lightning and everyone wanted to see him. The people, deciding that Jesus had come to the city to be crowned on the throne of Judea, greeted Him as a king, covering the path with palm branches. The whole city was in motion.

The people did not understand that the Kingdom of Christ is a spiritual, invisible Kingdom, this is a society of people, lovers of God, not a powerful country. The words of the prophecy that all the nations of the Earth would submit to Christ were taken literally, although this was said in a figurative sense. It was about faith in Christ, that all people and nations could be members of His Kingdom, and that Christianity would spread everywhere. The Word of God will be heard everywhere, which is what happened later.

After the magnificent meeting, Jesus withdrew from the people, eager for confirmation of their chosenness of God. The Jews expected power over the whole world, victory over Rome, but instead they heard words about death and the faithful fulfillment of the Commandments of God. The only solution to this situation was the death of Christ.

The death of Jesus did not occur out of ignorance, but with full understanding of what was happening. This was an attempted Deicide.

Having entered Jerusalem, Christ was already condemned to death. Those who were threatened by the coming of Jesus with exposure tried to justify the murder, but did not find not only the reason, but also the reason for committing the crime. To all the tricky questions, He gave such answers that the questioners did not have the fortitude to ask subsequent ones.

The high priest sent soldiers several times to seize Jesus, but they returned without fulfilling the order, which was unprecedented for that time. To the question: “Why didn’t you bring Him?”, they answered: “Never has a man spoken like He.” A solution was found when one of Christ’s disciples, Judas Iscariot, keeper of the treasury of the apostles, decided to sell his Teacher.

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In the history of mankind there are many outstanding personalities whose actions caused events on a global scale. Some of them are Julius Caesar, Napoleon, Joseph Stalin, Jesus Christ... Last name and remains a subject of heated debate today. Some consider him an impostor, others - an outstanding personality, and some see in him a person of divine nature or even God himself. So, what kind of person was this? And did it even exist as a real thing? historical figure?

First, let's look at how the story of Jesus Christ is interpreted in the Bible itself, since it main source where you can find out about it necessary information. So, he is a direct descendant of King David, once the monarch of Israel. The tyrant of Judea, Herod, having learned from certain reliable sources about the birth of a man who, according to ancient prophecy, destined to become the king of Israel, in order to preserve his power and the power of his descendants, decides to kill Jesus. To do this, he gives the order to kill all newborns in the town where Christ was supposed to be born. But his parents learn about the impending disaster and flee the country. They return to their homeland after the death of Herod. Growing up, Jesus masters his father's craft, becomes a good carpenter, and earns his living from this. He grew up very capable, quickly absorbed knowledge, was interested in the religion of his people, and already at the age of 12, during his family’s visit to Jerusalem, he held discussions with representatives of the clergy.

The life of Jesus Christ became very eventful from the moment he was baptized by a popular preacher. From that moment his missionary and educational activities began. He finds his first twelve students, who become his main followers, and transfers part of his abilities to them. Performs many miracles, heals the seriously ill and even resurrects the dead. He preaches a new creed, and the number of his followers is growing rapidly. Realizing that his activities are a threat to their authority, the religious leaders conspire against him. A protege in Judea, which was then part of Pontius Pilate, tries to justify this man, but the Jewish clergy puts strong pressure on him. Then, succumbing to blackmail and wanting to prevent a possible rebellion, he agrees to the execution of the Messiah. Jesus, exhausted by torture, is crucified on a cross (or, according to some other sources, on an ordinary pillar without a crossbar). His body lay in the tomb for three days and then disappeared. According to the Bible, the life of Jesus Christ was given to atone for human sins. After his death, he appeared to his disciples several times.

So, we have very briefly looked at the life of Jesus Christ based on biblical sources. Now it is worth mentioning possible evidence of the reality of the existence of the Messiah, indirect and direct. The oldest papyrus fragment with text from dates back to approximately 125-150. ad. “Qumran scrolls” with evangelical text were also found. This archaeological find already dispels speculation about the late writing of the New Testament. The method of execution of Christ is historically reliable, as confirmed by the finds of the remains of those executed. who was forced to consent to the murder of the Redeemer, is not a mythical character, but a real person. His name remains on the wall of a Roman theater discovered during excavations in Caesarea. He was called a prefect (and not a procurator, like his successors) - it is this position that is mentioned in the Gospels of the Apostles. In Josephus's Antiquities of the Jews there is a passage in which Christ is described as " a wise man, leading a virtuous lifestyle,” and also partially confirms what was written in the Gospel. Elsewhere in the same work there is a description of the execution of James, a relative of Jesus. In addition, the works of authoritative Roman scientists - Suetonius, Pliny and Tacitus - also mention this man, along with a description of the activities of his first followers and the persecution directed against them by the Roman emperors.

So, the biography of Jesus Christ is partially confirmed in some historical sources. His teaching is based on submission to God and love for people. To this day, many tens of millions of people look to the life of Jesus Christ as their role model.

BIOGRAPHY OF CHRIST.
FORGERY IN THE NAME OF DECEPTION

Today it is no longer a secret to anyone that the idol of the Christian religion, Jesus Christ, was a real historical figure. Many different studies have been written on this topic, but few people have paid attention to the fact that the canonical biography of Christ is almost identical to the canonical biography of Krishna, the great Hindu prophet.

Krishna lived in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. in India. His mother's hometown was considered to be Madura, apparently located somewhere in the upper reaches of the Ganges. Devaki was the sister of the Madura ruler Kansa. Once Devaki was present at a magical ceremony in which the priests were supposed to predict the birth of an heir to Kanza's wife, Queen Nizumba. Out of naivety, Devaki approached the ritual fire and the priest predicted that she would give birth to the “lord of the world”; this turn of events did not suit Queen Nizumba in any way and she forced her husband to kill her sister. The plot became known to the head of the royal guard, who felt sincere, human sympathy for the innocent, pure maiden who could become innocent victim treacherous queen, and he arranges the secret escape of Devaki.
By chance, having escaped untimely death, Devaki hides from his brother’s pursuit in the mountain forests. By chance she came across a lonely monastery of ascetic priests, where their senior priest Vishishta gave her shelter among the nuns. Hermits occasionally appeared in the vicinity of the monastery. Mostly these were pious elders, spending their lives wandering from one monastery to another, but sometimes young pilgrims appeared among them, seeking wisdom from the enlightened saints. These young people did not remain unnoticed by the eyes of young Devaki. A reclusive life, youth, occasional visions of young men, all this created a special state of Devaki’s psyche, in which sometimes dreams and daydreams were intertwined into one single whole.
Once in one of these states, “she heard heavenly music, like an ocean of harps and divine voices. Suddenly the sky opened up, revealing abysses of light. Thousands of shining beings looked at her and, in the flash of a lightning ray, the Sun of suns, Mahadeva himself, appeared before her in human form. And then, feeling that the world Spirit had penetrated into her, she lost consciousness and, in the oblivion of everything earthly, surrendering to boundless delight, she conceived a divine baby.”
Seven months later, Vishishta predicted the birth of the Savior of the world, but warned her that her brother was still looking for her to destroy her, so she needed to go to the shepherds living at the foot of Mount Meru in the Himalayas, and there give birth to a son, whom she should name Krishna. Having come to the shepherds, Devaki settled in the house of their patriarch Nanda, where she gave birth to a son.
(According to this version, Krishna was born prematurely in the eighth month of pregnancy.)
When Kansa learned that Devaki was hiding among the hermits, he began to pursue them. To stop the persecution of his comrades, the magician Vishishtu, a hundred-year-old, blind, white-bearded old man, himself appeared to the king and reported that Devaki and her son were alive, and the time would come when he would take revenge on the treacherous queen for the forced exile of his mother.
When Krishna was fifteen years old, his mother died. Having a hard time experiencing the loss of his only loved one, Krishna wandered in the forest for several weeks. From hunger, grief and suffering, he fell into a semi-fainting state and one day he saw a tall old man in the white clothes of a hermit standing near him under the cedar trees, brightly illuminated by the morning dawn. He looked at least a hundred years old. After a long silence, the old man informed Krishna that he was the son of Mahadev, and that he and him formed a single whole in Him, Krishna’s destiny was to defeat the terrible Serpent, having said this, the old man quietly disappeared while Krishna was in a state of amazement.
(If this episode correctly reflects the events, then Krishna’s father was most likely the magician and sorcerer Vishishta, whose spell on people and nature was almost limitless.)
When, after a long wandering, Krishna returned to the village of shepherds, he radiated a warlike spirit of struggle. Gathering their playmates, armed with bows and swords, they set off to fight the forest animals, all this time Krishna was looking for a meeting with the terrible Serpent. And one day such a meeting took place on the steps of a long-abandoned temple. The cobra was simply fantastic in size, more than five meters in length, but Krishna, not afraid of its hypnotic gaze, entered into single combat and won. But the victory did not bring him peace and he returned to his native village, shocked.
Here, unexpectedly for himself, he discovered the extraordinary attractiveness of his singing for young women who came to him, overcoming their shame and embarrassment, they all wanted to merge with him in a single impulse of unspoken feelings. Waking up from his dreams, Krishna began to tell his grateful listeners everything that he had seen somewhere beyond this world.
(The ability to bring women to erotic ecstasy with incendiary speech was once used by Hitler, an ardent admirer of the Hindu religion.)
Soon Krishna leaves the shepherds and becomes the charioteer of his uncle King Madura. Having learned about the connection of his birth with the wizard Vishishtu, Krishna goes to his hut in the depths of the forests, where he finds the old man on his deathbed. In the arms of Krishna, the old man gives up the ghost, having accepted death at the hands of the treacherous Kansa, and the staff of Vishishta, a symbol, passes to Krishna supreme power, given to him by the elders of the hermits. There were seven knots on the staff.
(Seven knots are the sacred memory of the Aryans about their abandoned homeland in Semirechye.)
After accepting supreme power, Krishna retires to Mount Meru and descends from it only after seven years, after which he begins to preach his teachings, sitting under the trees, to everyone who wanted to listen to him. In these spontaneous sermons, Krishna knew how to instill fear, reverence, awe, and awareness of his insignificance in comparison with what and how he said. Many recognized his superiority and succumbed to the hypnotic charm of his speeches.
(At this time, Krishna must have been 27-30 years old. Such a hypnotic effect on listeners was characteristic of many political leaders our time. Among them are Lenin, Hitler, Mussolini.)
A few years later, after having gathered around him a circle of disciples and fanatical followers, he descended to the banks of the Jamuna and the Ganges to teach the people in their homes, cities and huts. His sermons are richly illustrated with parables:
- One fisherman, being very poor, nevertheless once helped a child dying of hunger. In gratitude for the kindness, he told him that the catch that night would be rich. And indeed, the nets barely held the caught fish.
From now on, Krishna feels his divine greatness and rumor exalts him more and more:
- One woman led a dissolute life, but having believed in the teachings of Krishna, she deeply repented. “From now on she is saved, because she believed in me.”
- The soldiers of King Madura came to arrest Krishna, but after hearing his sermons they gave him their weapons.
- The first people of Madura, sent instead of soldiers, were converted by Krishna, who convinced them to abandon the vices of greed and unrighteousness and bring good to people.
The religious ecstasy he spreads among the people, among the warriors and the upper class, eventually leads him again to his uncle’s palace, where the people transfer full power over the deposed ruler to Krishna, whom he sends into exile for repentance, and he himself appoints his disciple Arjuna as the ruler of Madura.
In his declining years, Krishna felt the approach of death. Accompanied by spirit women, he travels to a desert region at the foot of the Himalayas. After a long journey, they came across a hermit monastery, the cells of which were carved into the mountain rocks. Here they were found by the soldiers of Kanza, who in his exile dreamed of killing his holy enemy. Having tied Krishna to a tree, the soldiers began to shoot arrows at him.
Krishna's body was burned by his disciples. At the funeral pyre, it seemed to people that their Teacher was rising from the flames in a bright robe.

After 1,500 years, another historical figure appears in Palestine, who was destined to leave an indelible mark on the history of mankind. Home pages biographies of Christ are interpreted differently by Jewish and Christian sources. But judging by the fact that Jewish sources largely coincide with the early Christian attitude towards the matter of Christ, they deserve more trust. Therefore, we will begin the biography of Christ with the Jewish version.

Christ's mother Mary came from a poor Jewish family. Maria was not distinguished by piety and chastity and, being a spinner, led a fairly free lifestyle, the result of which was pregnancy from a Roman soldier named Pandira. According to the religious and social law of Judaism, the birth of a child before marriage was considered a serious crime and was severely punished, including the death penalty, if the father of the child turned out to be a Roman legionnaire. Therefore, Mary’s position at this time was extremely dangerous. Her parents made every effort to somehow hide their daughter’s grave sin from the slander of rumors. For a not very large reward, since the family was not rich, they manage to marry Mary to the barren (possibly impotent) carpenter Joseph.

(Mary herself testifies to this in the Gospel of Luke. Being married to Joseph, she says: “How will this (conception) happen when I don’t know my husband?”)

The completely spineless Joseph falls under the “heel” of a lively and carnally insatiable wife, who bore her barren husband, in addition to the first-born Jesus, four more sons: James, Josius, Simon, Judas, and at least two daughters.
A similar version is confirmed in the canonical Gospels, where the Mother of Christ appears as a commoner who does not enjoy any respect from her “divine” son. Sometimes even in his words there is hatred towards his family:
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, and wife and children, and brothers and sisters, and even his own life, then he cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26)
The Gospel of Matthew describes next case. Christ preached in one house. The family, concerned about his constant wanderings, comes to this house, where he reads a sermon to those gathered, but neither his mother nor his brothers are allowed into the house. They ask to tell Jesus that his mother and brothers are waiting at the entrance, to which he replies:
Who are my mother and my brothers? - and looking around at those sitting around, he says, “Here are my mother and my brothers; for whoever does the will of God is my brother, sister, and mother.
The Gospel of John says that once in Cana of Galilee, the mother of Jesus was invited to a wedding as an attendant. Taking this opportunity to demonstrate my magical abilities, Jesus also turns up at the wedding as a guest. Mary, whose duty was to pour wine for the guests, at the end of the feast tells Jesus that the hosts no longer have wine. To which the “divine” son replies:
What does this have to do with you and me, woman? My time has not yet come.
Then Mary tells the servants that whatever he says, you will do.
These examples do not need any comments.
In the canonical biography of Christ, the story of Mary is described completely differently, and the later authors turn to this topic, the more fabulous her life becomes. Therefore, we will begin our presentation with the earliest version given in the Gospel of Luke.

The priest Zechariah lived in the city of Judah with his wife Elizabeth. For a long time they did not have children, which was condemned by popular rumor and public morality. Suddenly, after many years of infertility, Elizabeth becomes pregnant. When Elizabeth was six months pregnant, Mary came to her and heard about her miraculous conception. Maria already more than a year was married to Joseph, but could not get pregnant. After staying with Elizabeth for about three months, Maria returned home while pregnant. Having learned about this, Joseph wanted to drive out his dissolute wife, but a “prophetic dream” stopped him from doing so.

(In this version, attention is drawn to the coincidence with the Jewish interpretation of Joseph’s infertility and Mary’s presence outside the home at the time of conception.)

In the canonical biography of Christ, Mary looks much more decent, but less explainable from the point of view of her oblivion on the part of the early Christians.
Mary came from a great family of kings, priests, leaders, and judges. Her parents Joachim and Anna were from the family of King David. After a long period of infertility, they are visited by an angel and Anna becomes pregnant. On September 8, the long-awaited daughter Maria is born. At the age of three, Mary was sent to be raised in the Jerusalem Temple, where Archbishop Zechariah was the high priest. Maria spent eleven years within the walls of the monastery. During this time, her parents died. According to the law of Moses, virgins dedicated to God, could stay at the Jerusalem Temple only until they were 14 years old. At this time, Mary gives dinner to remain a Virgin forever. But by the time she leaves the monastery, Maria finds herself pregnant. In order to maintain generally accepted decency, Zechariah chooses the childless carpenter Joseph as Mary’s husband, who meekly accepts his fate.
At the time when Mary was pregnant with her “divine” son, King Herod in Judea, by order of the Roman Caesar Augustus, conducted a population census. In this regard, every resident of Judea was ordered to appear in the area where his ancestors were born. Joseph and Mary travel to Bethlehem, Joseph's hometown. Maria was at this time last month pregnancy. Due to the huge crowd of people in a small town, Joseph and Mary find shelter not far from the city among the local shepherds. It is in their cave that Mary gives birth to the future “savior of humanity.” The prophet-advisers of King Herod at this time informed him that a baby had appeared in Bethlehem who would eventually remove him from the throne, so he gave the order to destroy all children under the age of two in Bethlehem and its environs. But Jesus and Mary manage to escape to Egypt. When Herod learns that Jesus managed to escape his wrath, he forces Zechariah to be brought to him so that he would reveal where the “holy” family is hiding, but since he remains silent, he orders him to be killed. After the death of King Herod, the “holy” family returns to Judea.
Until the age of thirty, Jesus lived with his family, helping his father with his carpentry. Suddenly he is attacked by an irresistible thirst for preaching and he goes from house to house and talks about his visions and divine revelations. His family perceives this unexpected behavior as madness. When Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the waters of Jerusalem, he retired to the desert for 40 days in order to better understand his destiny.
Returning from the desert, Jesus began preaching his teachings and confirming his missionary destiny with even greater energy. From this moment on, his whole life is filled with a continuous series of miracles and revelations.
One day he met a Canaanite woman begging him for the healing of her daughter, but Jesus did not pay any attention to her, since she was not a Jew, telling her that his grace did not extend to dogs. Then the woman exclaimed: “Lord! but dogs also eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” To which Jesus replied: “Oh, woman! Great is your faith; may it be done to you as you wish.”
Another time, while on the shore of Lake Gennesaret, Jesus preached from a boat to fishermen who had returned from fishing without fish. At the end of the sermon, he invited the fishermen to go fishing again. Imagine their amazement when their nets were filled with fish.
His popularity grew hour by hour, since he knew how to tell the crowd what they wanted to hear from him:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for above is the Kingdom of God.
Blessed are those who are hungry now, for they will be satisfied.
Blessed are those who weep now, for you will laugh.
Blessed are you when people hate you and when they excommunicate you, and
They will revile and carry your name as dishonorable because of the Son of Man.
On the contrary, woe to you rich! For you have already received your consolation.
Woe to you who are now satiated! For you will hunger.
Woe to you who laugh now! For you will hunger and mourn.”
The extraordinary popularity of Christ and his accusatory sermons caused great discontent among the Jewish nobility, who decided to kill Him and announced a search for him. But despite the fact that he was wanted, Jesus makes a triumphal entry into Jerusalem. In front of a huge crowd of people, amid enthusiastic cries, Jesus rode through the streets of Jerusalem on a donkey, exactly reproducing the Jewish legend about the coming of the Messiah. With such a crowd of people, the Pharisees were afraid to seize Christ, who at that time was at the height of his glory, saying about himself: “The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” After the Easter holidays, the popular excitement subsided and when Jesus left Jerusalem, he was seized by guards, carrying out the order to detain him. After a religious trial, Jesus is handed over to the Roman authorities to decide his fate as an instigator of popular unrest. Pilate, the Roman governor, did not want to understand the theological tricks between the Jewish priests and Jesus, so he decided to leave his fate to the will of the people. According to custom, on Easter days, the Roman authorities, at the request of the people's assembly, declared an amnesty for one criminal held in their custody. Pilate brought Jesus and Barabbas, who was detained for robbery, to the people's court. The people chose Barabbas. This is how the fate of Jesus Christ was decided. Having put on him the crown of thorns of the “king of the Jews”, he was crucified on the cross according to Roman tradition. After his burial, he appeared to his resurrected disciples, after which he disappeared forever.

An analysis of the biographies of Krishna and Christ shows many similarities.
According to canonical biographies, the mothers of both come from families of royal blood.
Both were conceived by the Holy Spirit.
At birth, both were persecuted by the ruling kings, and both were born among shepherds.
In both cases, the priests associated with their birth paid for it with their lives.
Both consider themselves the saviors of the world and expose vices.
Many parables coincide almost down to the details: successful fishing, a believing woman, etc.
Both, having achieved the moment of their greatness, enter the capital of their state amid popular rejoicing.
Both die a martyr's death at the hands of soldiers.
Both are resurrected for a moment in the eyes of their students.
In addition to the listed coincidences, in their biographies there are many more small details, both in the biographical chronicle and in the religious teaching itself, which accurately determine the source of Christian plagiarism.
Considering how distorted the biography of Christ’s mother is and the fact that his relatives considered him insane, and his veneration among the people is too exaggerated, since the people chose to save the life of the robber rather than the prophet, literally a few days after his “triumphant” entry into Jerusalem, and the massive growth of Christian communities began not immediately after the execution of Christ, but almost 100 years later and not where he preached, but in Rome, among Jewish soldiers, it can be assumed that people who established the doctrine of Christianity in the public consciousness as a model for of the canonical biography of their idol, they were forced to take not him true life, which in no way corresponded to the “divinely inspired image”, but the biography of Krishna, widely known at that time in enlightened circles, reinterpreted it under the conditions of Palestine during the period of Roman rule.
The picture of Christian plagiarism will not be complete unless it is said that the entire episode of the biography of Christ associated with his stay in the desert is almost verbatim copied from the biography of Zarathustra, the great prophet of the Persians, on whose teachings the official religion of Persia, Zoroastrianism, was formed 1000 years before the birth of Christ.

The canonical biography of Christ is completely silent about his life before the start of his preaching activities. From Jewish sources it is known that at about 14 years old he hired himself as a day laborer for Egyptian merchants and lived in Egypt until he was thirty, where he learned the skills of Egyptian magic.
A careful reading of the canonical texts of the New Testament leaves no shadow of doubt that Jesus Christ was completely uneducated, a fanatical “possessed” in the style of the modern leaders Lenin, Hitler, Mussolini, who, imagining himself as a Mission, persuaded the dark common people to the Bolshevik slogan “Take and Divide” .

The tragedy of the Russian nation is that centuries of consumption of the poison of Christianity led it to complete moral apathy regarding its national pride, which has been lying like a doormat under the dirty feet of a rootless Jew for a millennium.

I call on those who cherish the holy roots of our fatherland, raise your voice so that the Slavs can hear the words of the Novgorod Magi addressed to them:

In the dust you crawl like worms before a false god.
You sold the Holy Russian Land for false promises.