FREE ESSAY ON JESUS LIFE

JESUS LIFE

INTRODUCTION
Both historians and people connected to the subject by religious beliefs have been trying
for ages to find out more about the life of Jesus. Did he really exist? Is it true what
has been written in the Bible? Was he really able to cure people just by a simple touch?
Was he the true "Son of God"? All those questions would remain open without a confirmed
and certain answer. If he was a real person that lived and walked on the very same earth
we do it is amazing how influential could a single person's life be. The only information
we can find about him is stored in the Bible. There are no other sufficient sources that
the human kind can use. His life is described in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and
John but still the stories differ in many facts and they even resemble a lot of the other
stories told in the wholly book. In this paper I will analyze whether a Gospel could be
called a true historical source, by citing the Bible I would explain what exactly could
be learned about Jesus from the book and will also talk about how reliable a source the
Bible is, and last but not least how and why did he die.
I
A Gospel is the writing of an Apostle. Most Christians believe in those writings without
even doubting whether it actually happened this way or not. From a historical point of
view some of the facts could be used as a source but sometimes when applying simple
logic, one could easily reject some of them. It is up to the historians to separate the
two. As it is known all the Gospels were written a considerable amount of the time after
Jesus' supposed death. Mark's Gospel was written first, Matthew's and Luke's were about
twenty years later and the latest Gospel, the one written by John was written between the
year ninety and a hundred. It is believed that the work of both Luke and Mark were based
on the writings of Matthew. Although they used the same source of information they still
differ in many facts and ways. For example, lets take a quote from Matthew's Gospel which
reads: "How blessed are the poor in spirit" (pg.1152, 5:3). Luke on the other hand
supposedly cites the same speech but there it says: "How blessed are you who are poor"
(pg.1214, 6:20). Although the words are similar the whole idea is completely different in
two versions. The first one implies that people who lack in intelligence are blessed and
happier and the second one says that people who have humble origins and possess no
material assets are better off. 
Another proof of discrepancy is that in Matthew's Gospel on pg. 1152 he describes how
Jesus went up to the mountain to meet with people and Luke's version on pg.1214,
describes the very same event, by stating that Jesus came down to the people. Whether it
was up or down does not make a significant difference for us but it brings the idea that
if such different words like "up" and "down" were mixed, may be more important events and
details are confused too. "The Sermon on the Mountain" in Matthew's Gospel starts on page
1152 and ends on 1157, which makes it five pages long, and it takes only page and a half
in Luke's Gospel on pg.1214. It is believed that this event did not actually take place
but is a compilation of couple of Jesus' speeches through a long period of time. Those
speeches, collected by the Apostles as a written proof of what happened, are believed to
be compiled in one single speech. Although Matthew and Luke's Gospels differ in many ways
the one that differs the most from the rest is John's, may be because it was written the
last. Historians assume that John has not read the other Gospels and that he used other
sources for his writing (Mr. Trumbach). They wonder why such a striking difference exists
between the Gospels. An important fact to consider is that although historians use
Matthew and Luke's Gospels as more reliable sources of historical information still none
of the Apostles actually eye witnessed Jesus' life. It is believed that most of them are
based on the other writings, done by people who actually lived in his lifetime and
directly knew him or witnessed important events of his life. Those authors, though,
remain unknown. 
II
During Jesus' lifetime people believed that he was a profit from God, they believed in
his healing abilities or in other words that he could cure a sick person just by touching
his forehead. On pg.1157 - the book of Matthew, a wonder is described- Jesus heals two
blind men by simple touch. Some of these incredible abilities were ascribed to other
biblical characters too, but some were uniquely typical for Jesus himself. There is
another example in Mark's Gospel- "He took aside to be by themselves, away from the
crowd, put his fingers into the man's ears and touched his tongue with spittle. And his
ears were opened, and at once the impediment of his tongue was loosened and he spoke
clearly" (Mark, pg.1192, 7:33). It is explained that he was able to do this because it
was believed that the spirit of God entered him and helped him get out the evil spirits
that supposedly caused the illness. "He (Jesus) at once came up from the water, and
suddenly the heavens opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and
coming down from heaven" (Matthew, pg.1151, 3:16). Another miracle describes in the
Gospels is that Jesus could bring people back from the dead. This is clearly defined on
pg.1189, 5:29. There was a dead little girl whom he brought back from the dead, he shook
the child and said: "Talitha kum!" which means, "Little girl, I tell you to get up", and
the child got up and walked. Although other prophets preformed those miracles too as
stated in the Bible why was it him that made people wander? Why was it him that was
believed to be the Son of God and the Holy prophet: "Christ, the son of the living God"
(Matthew, pp.1166, 16:13). The Christians today and the Jews in Jesus' time interpret
this sentence in different ways. At that ancient time "Christ" meant king, or someone who
had the sacred oil poured over his head. This could be viewed from the passage on
(pg.1238, 23:3) when Jesus was brought before Pilate and was accused of claming to be the
"Christ", which meant the king. "Son of God", on the other hand, did not necessarily
meant literally the Son of God. Many people were called that way. They even believed that
all the Israelis are God's children as Yahweh ones called them: "Israel is my first-born
son" (Exodus, 4:22). The only known way that Jesus called himself was "Son of man"
(Matthew, pg.1166, 16:13), which in this time was considered to be the modest and polite
way of introducing oneself.
Some people, though, did not believe him. For example, even members of his family
thought, "he is out of his mind" (Mark, pg.1186, 3:21). Someone, on the other hand, were
afraid of him and they said he made a pact with the devil: "the man drives out devils
only through Beelzebul, the chief of devils" (Matthew, pg.1161, 12:24). Jesus replied to
those by asking: "And if it is through Beelzebul that I drive devils out, through whom do
your own experts drive them out?" (Matthew, pg.1161, 12:27). This cite proves that Jesus
himself believed or at least did not deny his powers and the powers of the other
prophets.
III
As stated above Jesus was trailed for claiming to be the king of the people. Once when he
was in Jerusalem, preaching his faith and performing his healings he got arrested and
sentenced to death by crucifixion. This is how it is said it happen in the Bible. When
Jesus went into the Temple, he drove out all the people who were buying and selling
things and "upset the tables of the money-changers and the seats of the dove-sellers"
(Matthew, pg.1171, 21:12). He was angry with them because they did not use the temple for
its primal purpose but instead were corrupting it with unclean bargains. 
That is when the people started wondering why is Jesus doing such things and asked him
"What authority have you for acting like this?" (Matthew, pg.1173, 21:23). When he did
not answer them, the priests got angry and turned against him since they thought that he
had no real right to exercise power and to speak the words of God. When Jesus was
speaking to the disciples after a prayer, "a number of man appeared, and at the head of
them the man called Judas who went up to Jesus and kissed him" (Luke, pg 1238, 22:47). He
was the only one among the guards who could actually identify him. Since he was one of
his students, by kissing him he pointed him out to the rest so they could know who he is
and arrest him. Jesus was accused before Pilate by the priests: "They began their
accusation by saying, "We found this man inciting our people to revolt, opposing payment
of the tribute to Caesar, and claiming to be Christ, a king" (Luke, pg.1238, 23:2). "The
chief priests and the elders, have persuaded the crowed to demand the release of Barabbas
and the execution of Jesus" (Matthew, pg.1180, 27:20). From this cite it is seen that
they considered Jesus to be more dangerous than Barabbass who as stated above was a thief
and a murderer. He (Barabbas) had been thrown into prison because of a riot in the city
and murder" (Luke, pg.1238, 23:19). Although the Pilate clearly told the Jews that he had
no case against Jesus, they shouted, "Crucify him! Crucify him!" (Luke, pg.1239, 23:21)
and "Pilate then gave his verdict: their demand was to be granted" (Luke, pg.1239,
23:24). And then Jesus was lead to his crucifixion, where "they crucified him and the two
criminals, one on his right, the other on his left" (Luke, pg.1239, 23:33). "Above his
head was placed the charge against him; it read: 'This is Jesus, the King of the Jews'"
(Matthew, pg.1181, 27:37). 
CONCLUSION
Why is it in Genesis that Adam was made then Eve? Were they adults when they were create?
If a man can conceive and perform evil, and man is made in the image of God does that
mean God is partially evil also. Questions that lack answers. The truth is that no one
really knows the truth. What is truth anyway? Is it reality or one's perception of
reality? Truth is a black cavernous room with no door and no windows. Just when you find
the door, open it and step through the threshold you find you've just stepped into
another Obsidian cavern with no door and no windows. When man finally thinks he has
discovered the mystery of the Bible, another obstacle is thrown in his path to corrupt
his theories. To find the truth one must search not on pages of parchment and centuries
of aged ink, but deep within oneself to the inner secret called faith.