Christmas - is an
annual commemoration of the birth
of Jesus Christ.
Birth of Jesus-
Jesus, a Galilean Jew, is a social reformer, who was born on 7-2 BC and died on April 3rd -33 AD, as a messenger (Messiah) or Son of God, in Judea a southern mountain part of Israel. His parents mentioned as Joseph and Marry.
Following his betrothal to Mary, Joseph was troubled in Mathew 1:19-20 because Mary was pregnant, but in the first of Josephs three dreams, an angel assures him not be afraid to take Mary as his wife, because her child was conceived by the Holy Spirit.In Mathew 1: 1-12 , the "Wise men” "Magi”, bring gifts to the young Jesus as the King of the Jews. King Herod hears of Jesus' birth, but before the Massacre of the Innocents, Joseph is warned by angels in his dream and the family flees to Egypt, after which they return and settle in Nazareth.
This kind of dreams we earlier heard from Hindu God Krishna’s Birth time.Magi represent a priest from Magianism or Zoroastrianism. Zoroaster is a Rishi and founder of Zoroastrianism. Zoroaster initiated Monotheism and transformation of the native feudal- barbaric people in to a matured society. Zoroaster’s followers reached from Rome to China.
So we can assume that Jesus tried to reform the illiterate, barbaric tribes of Israel.
Until Newton’s time ( 1600 AD ) everything related to Jesus was irregular and not co-ordinates.
His mother tongue was Semitic Aramaic.
Profession –
The Bible identifies Jesus as a tekton, a Greek word , meaning builder or artisan, traditionally translated as carpenter. Considering this profession, it is plausible that Jesus had been employed to build and repair fishing vessels, thus having many opportunities to interact with and befriend such fishermen.
His legacy has not left any evidence. The first century works of historian Flavius Josephus refer to at least twenty different people with the name Jesus. It is very interesting to note that a Historian’s (Flavius Josephus) work is available even today, but no historical evidence for His birth and his life!
The followers have to depend on his disciple’s words and canonical collections!In new testament Luke says- the angel Gabriel tells Marry to name her child "Jesus", and Mathew says- an angel tells Joseph to name the child "Jesus“, The statement in Matthew 1:21 "you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins" associates salvific attributes to the name Jesus in Christian theology.
The lost years of Jesus
This concerns t he time span between Jesus’s
childhood and the beginning of his
ministry as recorded in the New
Testaments. Following accounts of Jesus' young life, there is an
eighteen years gap in the life of Christ (from age 12 to 30) in the gospels.
Nicolas Notovitch (1858-)was a Russian aristocrat, Cossack officer, spy[ and journalist known for his contention that during the years of Jesus Christ’s life missing from the Bible. He followed travelling merchants abroad into India and the Hemis Monastery in Ladakh, India, where he studied Buddhism.
Nicolas Notovitch (1858-)was a Russian aristocrat, Cossack officer, spy[ and journalist known for his contention that during the years of Jesus Christ’s life missing from the Bible. He followed travelling merchants abroad into India and the Hemis Monastery in Ladakh, India, where he studied Buddhism.
However, regardless of the scholarly disagreements on the Reconstruction of portraits of the historical Jesus, almost all modern scholars consider the “baptism of Jesus” and his "crucifixion" to be two historically certain facts about him. James Dunn states that these "two facts in the life of Jesus command almost universal assent" and "rank so high on the 'almost impossible to doubt or deny' scale of historical facts" that they are often the starting points for the study of the historical JesusBeyond these two key events, scholars attribute levels of certainty to other episodes, e.g. E.P. Sander and Craig go further and state that there are two other incidents in the life of Jesus can be historical, one that Jesus "Called disciples", the other that he caused a "controversy at the temple"
This extended view assumes that there are 8 elements about Jesus and his followers that can be viewed as historical facts, 4 episodes in the life of Jesus and 4 facts about him and his followers, namely-
a. Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. He called disciples. He had a controversy at the Temple. Jesus was crucified by the Romans near Jerusalem.
b. Jesus was a Galilean. His activities were confined to Galilee and Judea. After his death his disciples continued. Some of his disciples were persecuted.
Baptism, a Hindu ritual? Ancient Hindu tradition of Holy water bath and Agni Sudhi is being tried here! Indian Christians using the word “Jnanasnanam”.
John the Baptist preached a "Baptism with water", not of forgiveness but of penance or repentance for the remission of sins ( Lawlessness) and declared himself a forerunner to one who would baptize 'with the Holy Spirit and with fire' . In so doing he was preparing the way for Jesus. Jesus came to the Jordan River where he was baptized by John. In the baptismal scene, after Jesus emerges from the water, the sky opens and a voice from Heaven states: "This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased". The Holy Spirit then descends upon Jesus "like a dove" or "in a bodily form, as a dove" in Matthew 3:13-17 ("as a dove"), Mark 1:9-11("like a dove"), Luke 3:21-23("in a bodily form, as a dove"). In John 1:29-33 rather than a direct narrative, the Baptist bears witness to the episode. This is one of two cases in the gospels where a voice from Heaven calls Jesus "Son", the other being in the Transfiguration of Jesus episode.
Controversy at the Temple- Jesus and his disciples travel to Jerusalem for Passover, where he expels the money changers from the Temple (Jewish Temple), accusing them of turning the Temple into a den of thieves through their commercial activities. John- Jesus refers to the Temple as “my Father’s house” thus in some views making a claim to being the Son of God, though it is common in the Abrahamic religions to refer to God as God the father.
The second Temple was an important Jewish Holly Temple which stood on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem during the Second Temple period, between 516 BCE and 70 CE. It replaced the First Temple which was destroyed in 586 BCE, when the Jewish nation was exiled to Babylon. Jewish eschatology includes a belief that the Second Temple will in turn be replaced by a future Third Temple.
Birth of Palestine and Syria.Judea province was the scene of unrest at its founding during the Census of Quirinius and several wars were fought in its history, known as the Jewish-Roman Wars.The Temple was destroyed in 70’s as part of the Great Jewish Revolt, esulting in the institution of the Fiscus Judaicus, and after Bar Kokhba's revolt (132–135 CE), the Roman Emperor Hadran changed the name of the province to Syria Palestine and Jerusalem to Aelia Capitolina, which certain scholars conclude was done in an attempt to remove the relationship of the Jewish people to the region.
The crucifixion of Jesus is an event that occurred during the 1st century AD, Jesus, who Christians believe is the Son of God as well as the Messiah, was arrested, tied, and sentenced by Pontius Pilate to be scourged, and finally executed on a cross.The last week in Jerusalem is the conclusion of the journey which Jesus had started in Galilee through Perea and Judea.Just before the account of the final entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, the Gospel of John includes the Raising of Lazarus episode, which builds the tension between Jesus and the authorities. At the beginning of the week as Jesus enters Jerusalem, he is greeted by the cheering crowds, adding to that tension.During the week of his "final ministry in Jerusalem", Jesus visits the Temple, and has a conflict with the money changers about their use of the Temple for commercial purposes. This is followed by a debate with the priests and the elder in whom his authority is questioned. One of his disciples, Juda Iscariot, decides to betray Jesus for thirty pieces of silverTowards the end of the week, Jesus has the last Supper with his disciples, during which he institutes the Eucharist, and prepares them for his departure in the Farewell Disclosure. After the supper, Jesus is betrayed with a kiss while he is in agony in the garden, and is arrested. After his arrest, Jesus is abandoned by most of his disciples, and Peter denies him three times, as Jesus had predicted during the Last Supper.Jesus is first questions by the Senhedrin, and is then tried by pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea. During these trials Jesus says very little, and is mostly silent. After the scouging of Jesus and his mocking as the King of the Jews Pilate orders the crucifixion
Jesus opposed seven Sins or lawlessness, such as:-
1. They taught about God but did not love God — they did not enter the Kingdom of heaven themselves, nor did they let others enter.
2. They preached God but converted people to dead religion, thus making those Convert twice as much sons of hell as they themselves were.
3. They taught that an oath sworn by the temple or altar was not binding, but that if sworn by the gold ornamentation of the temple, or by a sacrificial gift on the altar, it was binding. The gold and gifts, however, were not sacred in themselves as the temple and altar were, but derived a measure of lesser sacredness by being connected to the temple or altar. The teachers and Pharisees worshipped at the temple and offered sacrifices at the altar because they knew that the temple and altar were sacred. How then could they deny oath-binding value to what was truly sacred and accord it to objects of trivial and derived sacredness?
4. They taught the law but did not practice some of the most important parts of the law — justice, mercy, faithfulness to God. They obeyed the minutiae of the law such as tethering spices but not the real meat of the law.
5. They presented an appearance of being 'clean' (self-restrained, not involved in carnal matters), yet they were dirty inside: they seethed with hidden worldly desires, carnality. They were full of greed and self-indulgence.
6. They exhibited themselves as righteous on account of being scrupulous keepers of the law, but were in fact not righteous: their mask of righteousness hid a secret inner world of ungodly thoughts and feelings. They were full of wickedness. They were like whitewashed tombs, beautiful on the outside, but full of dead men bones.
7. They professed a high regard for the dead prophets of old, and claimed that they would never have persecuted and murdered prophets, when in fact they were cut from the same cloth as the persecutors and murderers: they too had murderous blood in their veins
Romans are interested in wealth and strength of their economy. They have no interest in religions and faith. But the ground fact of that time Israel and nearby areas are a battle ground of many faith and other sins (Lawlessness) the entry of Monotheistic idea from East and influence of the Judaism and Zoroaster made people like John the Baptist and Jesus. Their Ministry and Sanhedrin are the evidence for His eastern influence in Jesus’ History.
